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!