jeudi 25 novembre 2010

Thursday 25.11.10.

Last week we saw a whole load of common cranes flying off in wonderful 'V' formations as you can roughly see in the above photo.  The locals said it was going to snow! Yesterday we checked the forecast on the computer and I'm afraid that the BBC could learn from them because they forecast snow for today... Its now 11.50am and it has been snowing for about an hour and although it isnt entirely settling it IS laying on the ground!! So, exactly one month before Christmas we have snow!  Yesterday we tried to install the central heating timer (thank you czech rebublic - yet another thing that didnt work) and John got so fed up with it, he smashed it!! Well we got another one from the DIY shop and between my french knowledge (really taxed me this time), the dictionary and John's electrical know-how we have today got it working!! HOORAY!! Our boat is very snug now so it can snow all it likes!!!!
The Puddle Stone is nestling in her snowy waters!!!

The trouble with 2 day old bread is it is impossible to cut............... Hahaha!!

lundi 22 novembre 2010

Monday 22.11.10.

Yesterday was a reasonably sunny day so we got out the electric bikes and started exploring.  It has been a while since we used them, so we stuck to the towpath. It was good seeing where we had come from on the boat, but after a little way it became a reclamation yard so we had to abandon that! We went back and continued on past the boat and found a flat cycle path which had been an old railway track! England could do with doing this, it was delightful and took us all through wooded sidings and over all the roads! We could see for miles and realised for the first time that Auxerre really is quite big. All the french were out 'promenading' and unlike the British they all wished us 'Bonjour' as we cycled past. Its going to be strange when we return to UK and start talking to everyone.  Once the sun went in though, we were reminded that it is the end of November and we became really cold. We couldnt feel our fingers when we returned to our cosy boat but were very glad of the woodburner which had merrily filled our home with warmth!!   Today we checked the local weather forecast on line and we are to have snow tomorrow night and all this week! We will see how warm we are then....

lundi 15 novembre 2010

Monday 15.11.10

Forgot to say but last saturday was a bright sunny warm day and we were working hard on cleaningthe boat. We became aware of lots of 'tooting' car horns along the other side of the river.  The sounds came closer and parked in the road near us. Out got a bride, lots of arabic music, and many people all taking photos.  After a while one of the party asked us (in french of course, so it was the usual:-  'Liz, someone wants to talk to us!') if they could take a photo of the couple in our wheelhouse.. It was duly taken with them pretending to drive , and then they moved on to take photos at the next boat! (It was unoccupied, a massive 30metre boat owned by a great chap from Denmark). They then asked us to be included in a photo with the happy couple, so we are in someone's memories of their wedding day! We couldnt find our cameras but I managed to get this one before they moved off..... May all their troubles in the future be 'little ones'....


dimanche 14 novembre 2010

Sunday 14.11.10

Sorry about the huge gap in communications but our furniture arrived on 1st November and we finally unpacked the last box yesterday... in time to host 7 guests for supper!! 
The boat had looked like someone had burgled an antiques/ secondhand shop up until yesterday, here are a few shots of what it was like...




We worked really hard though and yesterday, heres some photos of how it looks now:-



It has been hard work but as we waved our guests off last night (all the way back to their respective boats ) we both remarked on what a transformation our home has undergone!!
We are still best buddies with the local duck and swan gang who now arrive at the boat at midday ready for their free lunch....

Today its raining hard again (no wonder there are so many ducks..!!) and we feel a bit lost as there are no more boxes to undo.....