28.06.11

Still in Dijon, the weather has been fantastic and we've enjoyed the sights here! We are just marking time but we know that we are returning to the UK on 1st July for 8 days for a very sad event so that's why not many posts from us.

Beautiful Dijon sunset..........

21.06.11

We have spent the last 3 nights here and must say that it is a really nice spot, impossible to think that we are in such a large city as the surroundings here are lovely.... and free!! We have moored in the free part (no electricity or water, but we can get water from the other side and we have our generator) and it is great.

 Last night we played Boules with a team from a swiss ship!! Talk about competitive, but although they won they did not thrash us and we had quite a respectable score!
Having spent so much time in the canal from Pouilly with barely any wildlife the ducks, geese and swans are wonderful here, all proudly displaying their babies and teaching them how to beg!!!!!!

Baby swans

   Baby mandarin ducks....

Baby moorhens...only a mother could love these.....

There is a static barge 'Pub' here and we went for a quick drink saturday night, it is a lovely spot and they invited us to stay for the evening music free of charge but we declined.

18.06.11

Well, we are finally in Dijon.
We left Vandanesse after one night, it was a lovely spot but we had no electricity or water as there was a hotel barge there and our leads couldnt reach!!

Vandenesse-en-Auxois

The next night we spent at Pont d'Ouche, we had heard from several people about what a lovely spot it is but Im afraid we didnt think much of it! However there was a dog there who had lost the use of his back legs and got around with a trolley instead, he very much enjoyed the doggy treats I have on board!!

We left Pont d'Ouche on the 10th and went to Gissey sur Ouche, a very sleepy little village but we really fell in love with it and stayed for 4 nights!! We got talking to a french couple who invited us to a chateau for a concert over the weekend..... we went, a very strange affair but this very well known french pianist  ( Francois Rene Duchable ) played not only to us in the room set up for it but also on a keyboard on bicycle wheels for the benefit of the ducks!!!!

We then made our way to Fleurey-sur-Ouche which was another lovely little village but we got delayed on the way there by a hotel barge which had priority in the lock and held us up for nearly an hour!

We didnt want to argue with that.......  lets hope they enjoy their $50,000 a week..........
The next night we moored at Velars sur Ouche but didnt like it, so we moved on mooring just past Lock 47 'Crucifix', but it was very noisy from the motorway and the canal very full of weed.....
We were woken the next morning by the lockeeper who wanted us to lock through with a german boat to conserve water, we did as he asked but got very fed up with their ordering us around all the time....

When we finally arrived at Plombier-les-Dijon we decided to stay there rather than carry on to Dijon with them.....

We stayed there for 2 nights during which we had very bad news so today we moved on to pastures new, Plombieres is very run down, a bit 'grey' generally so we are now on the quay at Dijon where it looks much nicer and more going on.



08.06.11 TUNNEL TRIP!!

We have just moored at Vandenesse after having completed our trip through the tunnel followed by 8 locks in quick succession!!! The tunnel at Pouilly-en Auxios was built between 1825 - 1832 and is exactly 3.348 Km 87cms!! The tunnel was exciting and took us 70 minutes to get through and having taken all the photos through the tunnel I realised on our exit that I had not put in a memory card..... I havent downloaded from the camera before but fortunately I managed it so here are a few pictures of our trip.

 Here we go.......

Tiny dot in the middle is the exit.....

Oh, I'm so artistic......!!!!

Daylight at last, wouldnt have made a good Count of Monte Christo....!!!!

Powerful Pierre escorts us out (don't know why!)

Long cut out of the tunnel

There were no people evident on this Hotel barge??? Maybe it's called the Marie-Celeste...... Hahaha!!

We are moored behind a hotel barge, only costs $3,000 for 4 days and 3 nights on board..... Ah well, must go and cook tea now.

08.06.11

Today we are going through the Pouilly tunnel, but first a quick catch up on the last week or so. We travelled towards Veneray-les-Laumes with a 'bumper boat' (holiday hire-boat!) full of drunken swiss men who were not in control of their boat, at one stage they were lodged across the canal.....

However we arrived safely at Veneray and stayed two nights there. We had lovely moorings (which were free again including electricity and water!) and set off for the staircase of locks on 3rd June.

Our moorings at Veneray

 The views along this part of the canal were fantastic, so beautiful and calm and it seemed we were the only people on the canal!!

 I suppose this horse grazing loose beside the canal was in case our wonderful Czech boat decided to break down again!!!

 These locks have a 'blow hole' to the right of the entrance as you enter, but not sure what it is for?

 We stayed at Buffon the next night, in perfect isolation! Until a hotel barge joined us next day so we moved on.....

 Mummy duck and her little ones.....

 Strange shaped bollards here..... wont say what they remind us of???!!!

 When we finally got to Pouilly there was a canal fete in full swing, and yes it is a goat being taken for a walk on a lead....!!! We had just done 55 locks in 3 days and were really tired and thought we were seeing things.....

 We met up with old friends and met new ones during our stay in Pouilly, sunday deteriorated into a very boozy evening I'm afraid!!!!!

 This gave me the eejie-beejies, really eerie isnt he? But a puppet playing a barrel organ was quite something to see......

The old tug boat which used to take you through the tunnel with a 'tram-like' overhead electric cable!!

 Toitoin and Robinson were really pleased with their lollypops!

 Fishing for 'green shrimps'.... We thought it was gold actually.....

 Some lock cottages are beautiful, although an awful lot are derelict now...

 Views from the top of the world!!

 A cowboy helped us lock through.....

 The 'cut' through from Pont Royal which went on for a Km, taught us to drive straight in preparation for the tunnel....

 Looking back at the 'cut'

 More views from the top of the world.

Another Mummy duck with her babies!!

Now it nearly 13.00hrs and we have booked our slot through the tunnel, we said goodbye to our new friends on Tara, where we had coffee and cakes and once more set off into the unknown to continue our adventure..........!!!!???

31.05.11

We stayed at Raviere for 3 nights. It was a lovely sleepy village and the weather was fantastically hot! I did all my washing and it dried on our roof in less than 2 hours...even the bathsheets!!
We met the 2 Terrys' who are in their widebeam 'Renaissance' and spent a couple of lovely evenings with them! We learnt the intracacies of Boules from them, and although we had been playing quite a lot we didnt know the proper rules until we met them!

My fantastic picture skills.... If you look sideways you will see a heron who we scared into flying off....the computer says 'No' to my moving it round here!!

The butchers shop in Ravieres with the most fantastic painted mirrors outside the shop, and the ceiling inside (I didn't get a photo of that though!!)
We left Ravieres yesterday and aimed for 'Cry' but there was no room there so we headed for Rougemont, where we couldn't find the moorings, so we carried on to 'Buffon' and stayed there in tranquility for the night.
Today we left Buffon in the pouring rain (our first for a long time so I suppose we shouldn't grumble!!) and travelled quite a long way to 'Montbard'. A large town, not particularly attractive but it did have good sized supermarkets so we stocked the cupboards up and hastily left the town moorings as we didnt want to pay the 15 + euros that they wanted for a night there!!!
We intended going through the next lock 'Nogent No 63' but having got into the lock and tied up we waited and waited but nobody appeared.... Eventually a man peered over the lock edge at us and said there was nobody there!!! We asked for a phone number to contact the canal people and eventually got through to them....There was no-one to do the lock tonight so John had to reverse out of the lock and we are now moored at the entrance until tomorrow when they promise someone will turn up to do it for us!!!

The photo is when we were stuck in the lock tonight!!!! But we are moored safely now!!

27.05.11

We left Tanlay and travelled to Lezinnes where we moored beside some ancient lime kilns which enterprising people had made into their allottments!!  We had to wait for 40 minutes inside the lock at Lezinnes as the lockeeper had disappeared off to do 2 other locks!!........
We moored the next night  at Ancy-le-franc and stayed there for 2 nights until this morning. John did an oil change on the engine and gearbox and fixed the hydraulics. We made a couple of forages into the countryside by bike and replaced John's watch in the market (it is still working!!).We left Ancy-Le-Franc and went to Ravieres where we had the place to ourselves!! Had a couple of scarey things as we came close to some of the huge Hotel Barges that travel in this stretch of water, one of them my namesake!!

My namesake!! even spelt it properly!!!