Lazing around at Lezinnes!

 

We left Flogny and continued on to Tonnere. A bit of a miserable journey as it rained and we could see from the canal that the river Armancon was in full flood.

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These poor cattle were stuck up in the corner of their field surrounded by floodwater. We saw the Gendarmes and farmers trying to rescue them, it was very reminiscent of two years ago when we were in exactly the same place when the floods came!

 

This was one of the trucks there to rescue the cattle.

 

This heron wasn't at all phased by our presence, they usually fly away when we get close to them!

We went past this beautiful chateau, but by the time I located the camera we were almost past it!

 

John was amused by this concrete pair of jeans and bra we found at one of the locks....

 

 

 

The 2 above photos were taken at Tonnere where the river was very angry and had flooded the town blocking our way to the shops.You can see that the water was nearly at the top of the arches of the bridge.

 

At Tonnere we were visited by our good friends from Auxerre, Marie-Noelle, Samuel and their grandchildren and daughter in law. We had a lovely day with Raclette and chocolate cake for lunch. We had promised a trip in the barge but because of the water levels it was not allowed.

John and Samuel on the fitness apparatus by the port (next door to the childrens playground there are several machines for adults to use, great fun and we pretended we were getting fit....)

 

Left to right:- Melvil, Salome, John, Me, Samuel and Marie-Noelle.

 

The magnificent Lavoir at Tonnere.

A duck nest right by the childrens playground....hope they survive!

 

 

On the 10th May our other French friends came from Auxerre to see us, this time the sun was shining and the water levels were lower, so we took a bargeful up to Tanlay....

 

My lovely friend Johanna who cried when they went home because John won't be in Auxerre this winter......

 

Maxime pretending that he is the Captain!

 

I was rather perturbed at first glance as I thought that the chap on the right was naked.....he did have trunks on but they were miniscule and pink so not easily viewable......

 

A bit early for Father Christmas but this is obviously where he hangs out in the summer months!!

 

We stayed at Tanlay for a week, they provide us with free water and electricity and there is a fab pizza restaurant at the Quaiside. We ate there 3 times....not so good for our diets but very delicious! Patrice always keeps us company there, he is lazing by the tree in this picture.

 

 

 The last time we were in the UK we got this "Doggyhut"trailer for Patrice so he can come with us when we go for cycle rides. It taxed John greatly in putting it together but eventually it was accomplished.

 

Patrice has a feather pillow inside covered by a faux fur mat, he really enjoyed his view of the countryside from his new trailer. As you can see it arrived with a broken left back reflector..made in china I guess but thankfully not OF china...... We cycled up into the surrounding area and found this 12th century monastery, with no sign of any occupancy now and it was surrounded by gates and barbed wire.

 

We wondered who had chiselled this cross into the stone, guess this is medieval "tagging"!

Patrice settled down here, he loved the plant he's lying in and kept rubbing his face into it!

Beautiful fields of yellow rape, we had the whole area to ourselves, it was so peaceful.

 

Last Sunday a lady asked if she could sketch our boat and about an hour later she showed us this:-

 

We marvelled at her talent but she could not give it to us as it was inside a leather bound sketch pad but she let us take a photo of it.

 

 

This was our moorings at Tanlay. moored behind us is a hotel barge "C'est La Vie" where rich americans pay $7,000 each for six nights aboard....

 

We went to a Vide Grenier at Ancy le Libre but didn't buy anything for once!

 

They were cleaning the side of the hotel boat as it went through the bridge...a kind of quick Boat Wash?!

 

We are now at Lezinnes, but are setting off again tomorrow. We are really hanging around as we have to go back to the UK at the end of May for a couple of weeks as John's Dad is having an operation so we don't want to go too far before that. we leave you with this proud Mummy duck and her 7 babies who she is teaching to beg for bread!

 



We're singing in the rain....!!

We left Gurgy after our massive boot fair experience on the Monday and made our way towards Migennes. We were in the company of a bumper boat who was behaving rather erratically so we opted to moor in forest land just before Ecluse No9 'La Graviere'. we stayed there two nights and only moved on as a youth convention was starting up and we thought it might get rather noisy!! We safely moored at Migennes Port, with only one other boat on the Quai.

 

The deep lock between the Yonne and The Burgundy Canal

 

It was so hot the camels have arrived!

 

We moved on after two nights in Migennes having visited their excellent market first, it was very dusty and rather smelly at times due to the Sewage farm...... We next moored at Brienon, opposite the Port de Plaisance there as they wanted 15 euros a night  without any electric or water, that was extra! We had lovely moorings there and stayed a few nights, visiting a motocross championship on the sunday which looked very dangerous!

 

 The Lavoir at Brienon is well worth a visit, it is sunk down from the road and is beautifully maintained.

 

The impressive entrance to the Lavoir

 

Our moorings at Brienon.

 

 

Two young dutch fishermen camped behind us in the pouring rain and caught this monster Carp weighing 19.3Kg!

 

 

We left there and moved on to St Florentin but although we had judged it fairly well, it did rain quite a bit. This is John opening the gates with some difficulty...it appears the French don't have WD40.....

A pretty little lock cottage on the Bourgoyne.

 

We moved on again on the 30th April and moored at Flogny-la-Chapelle. This Quai is now derelict. We had got water here before but as you can see it's all switched off and in a terrible state. We really needed water but we managed to spend the Bank Holiday weekend here, its been a torrential downpour the entire time. Today, we set off again, as the sun is shining even if not too brightly!!!

 

I suppose it stopped other boats mooring here too!!

 

 

A beautiful spiders web on the outside of our window, just like rows of sparkly pearls!

Goodbye Auxerre!....Hmmm perhaps not!

I must apologise for not writing our blog last year, it was due to several reasons but the main one was that the computer died on us. The replacement was found to be faulty and I got rather fed up with it all but I promise that this year we will be posting our progress.  Several people have complained that we hadn't been doing it, but as I know we have followers (even if some are just being nosey) I will endeavour not to let you all down!  Two of our friends have finished their boating days so we are especially writing this for them so that they, too, can make the journey south with us even if it is from their armchairs...... You know who you are, this year is for you all!    It is going to be a big year for us as we are finally going to go south, down the mighty Rhone to the Meditteranean Sea. We will spend next winter in Narbonne, the first time we have ever been anywhere else than Auxerre since we started our crazy lifestyle of living on a barge!

 

A shot of Tjidstrom for you Phil and Julie!

 

Our empty space

The boats still moored in Auxerre

The Capitainerie and Vaux for you Jenny and Roger.

!6th April:- we have spent the day cleaning, me the inside and John the outside, ready for us to set off to pastures new tomorrow.  We were all set to go, and indeed had untied ourselves when we realised that we had no power..... a quick scramble gave us a turn on a moored boat and we gradually managed to pull alongside "Wanderlust" who were going to make this first part of the journey with us.  Jean-Philippe climbed aboard and pronounced our morse cable broken.  This was duly replaced but by then Wanderlust had gone and it was already 17.30hrs so we decided to stay put for the night. When we awoke the following morning the heavens had opened and looked set for the day so we delayed again.

At last on 18th April all was well and we set off in glorious sunshine. An uneventful journey followed seamlessly and we moored at Gurgy. We were just going to stay the night, but we heard that there was a Vide -Grenier here the next day so we stayed for two nights.

Today, 20th April we left Gurgy after lunch and now we are moored in the wild just before Ecluse No 9 'La Graviere'. We had waited 15 minutes for this to open but apparently this lock is being automised, so passage through is limited. No problems we will have a night here and Patrice is just loving the greenery. Its a wonderful sunny place to watch the sun go to bed!