Nevers

We have stayed in the port of Nevers for 8 nights now and we are moving on today. It was intentional to stay for this long, as we were committed to going to our friends combined 40th wedding anniversary and 40th birthday in Lindry near Auxerre. We wanted to leave the boat somewhere safe when we hired a car to do this visit and stayed overnight. So we set about exploring the town first. The weather has been appalling with perhaps the wettest weather for the past week that we have ever had in the summer in France. It has not only been wet but cold too, resulting in our lighting the woodburner...!!!

 Our moorings in the port at Nevers

We thought our boat was untidy....??!!

I think going down this water slide would result in an unhappy ending...!!

The streets are quaint but full of necessary one way systems.

The Palais de Justice

Inside Nevers Cathedral.

The cathedral is a magnificent building but was severely damaged by bombs in the Second World War which resulted in its losing all the stained glass windows. They have been replaced but by very modern ones, which although the colours are right the shapes are very wrong.

12th Century frescoes on the ceiling

Beautiful 17th Century sculpture in the crypt.

I just loved this spiral staircase.

Ancient clock and very impressive pulpit.

A fantastic building showing 'La Belle Epoque'

Another quaint street, but no cars...Obviously!!

These buildings originally ran along the side of the canal which has now disappeared and been replaced by a very busy dual carriageway.

I find my favourite Napoleon everywhere I look!

Part of the town's ramparts.

We had heard that you could see the body of St Bernadette in her coffin, so the next day we rubbed our sore feet and set off again to find her. Apparently she was a poor girl who was raised in Lourdes where she witnessed seeing the Virgin Mary no less than 18 times! She was made a saint after they dug up her body (not sure why) to find that she had not decomposed at all. She now lies in a glass coffin inside her own chapel, apparently her face and hands were covered in a thin film of wax but no preserving has been undertaken. She's been like this for about 90 years and still shows no sign of decomposing.... (This is a photo of a postcard as it is forbidden to use cameras inside the chapel)

The shrine built to St Bernadette in the grounds of the huge space devoted to her.

We've had so much rain that the  river is now flowing with great force, when we arrived it was a mere trickle.

On our way to hire the car (another marathon walk, it takes 20 minutes to cross over the Loire and get to the entrance of the town and the industrial centre is the other side of this town..) we saw this car being decorated ready for the owner's wedding later in the day!

having successfully obtained the car on Sunday we set off with some trepidation in our ugly little french car ( a Fiat Panda Hi-back). The journey wasnt too bad but it took us two hours to drive to the party. Sadly the weather was not kind and despite there being beautiful ample grounds we had to stay inside their marquee as the rain oured all day.

We had delicious food and of course copious wine!

We met Marie-Noelle's new daughter in law who will make her a granny again in december.

After the main courses were finished Barbara (left) and Marie-Noelle (right) put on some funny sketches. Of course it was all in french but I managed to understand some of it!

In between the sketches John entertained everyone with some songs whilst the actors got changed.

John sent the youngsters dancing.....

Marie-Noelle told a lovely childrens story about 'who did this poo on my head?' a french story which is similar to the duck story in UK who asks 'Are you my Mummy?'

The children loved it and sat mesmerised!

Salome (Barbara's daughter) did a little sketch too and was not at all embarrased.

The people who the party was all about Marie- Noelle (left), Barbara (centre) and Samuel (right)

We waved goodbye at 7pm after 6 hours of french my brain was frazzled, and I drove us to Auxerre where we stayed the night with our good friends Maggie and Nigel on their boat 'Gesina'. The good people of Auxerre celebrated by putting on a huge firework display for us right by the boat (it was their 14th July celebrations)! The next day we waved goodbye at 11am and drove back to Nevers. Patrice disgraced himself by getting out the night before leaving John and Nigel scrabbling around in the dirt trying to catch him....

 Yesterday we returned the car and then we went to a vide grenier passing by this magnificent war memorial.

The ancient workings left by the canal which used to be here. Our moorings are behind this on what was canal! However time to move on now, no more news to tell you!

Leaving the Nivernais, joining the Lateral a Loire, and arriving at Nevers

We had a lovely green mooring, at a place called Champvert where we  werent going to stop but we had a spectacular hail and thunderstorm from which we had to take cover.

My Saturday night treats from John didn't help the dieting but the Black Forest nougat was absolutely delicious and I managed to make it do two nights.

A very proud Mother and Babies, who hoped we had some bread for them but were sadly disappointed.

We waited on this aquaduct for an hour, for the lockeeper to arrive, despite having told them when we would arrive!!

These two pictures show another storm approaching....!!

 We only travelled a short distance from Champvert as there was a mooring right alongside a huge hypermarket, and we were in dire need of provisions and fuel! After two nights there we moved on, out of the Nivernais Canal and onto the Loire at Decize where we encountered our first 'rope' lock of this year. You have to pull the rope to activate the lock!

It was quite a deep lock, and for some bizarre reason the top of the lock gates were missing!

The new port at Decize, costing 12 euros a night plus fees for water and electricity.. needless to state we moved on!

Despite the frequent storms, there is a water shortage and we had to wait 2 hours until another boat joined us in order to join the Canal Lateral a Loire. This is a very pretty and green canal so far but the water level is low in places.

A pretty aquaduct over the Loire river

This lock had carefully sculptured the bushes to make the name of the lock!

We moored here at Fleury-sur-Loire for 3 nights, the charges were reasonable and we had a delicious dinner at the Quai side restaurant.

 We had a couple of nights at a 'wild mooring' before yesterday making our way to Nevers where we plan to spend about a week. We were greeted by another rope lock at the entrance to a small branch of canal which leads to Nevers.

Our sighting of a city, Nevers, the first one since we left Auxerre in April!

 So we are moored in the harbour, there is more inclement weather forecast but with museums etc to visit, and shops to shop in, we don't mind at all!

Cercy-la-Tour

We left Chatillon-en-Bazois last Monday 23rd June. We were going to leave earlier but John decided to remodel his face on Saturday night so we stayed a bit longer whilst he recovered. our moorings there were such that we had to use our gangplank to access the land, and we had not realised that it had become warped by all the hot weather recently. John stepped onto it, not quite centrally, and it rocked and tipped him into the canal. Unfortunately he fell onto the chrome railings around the back of the boat and a chrome hook went through his lip. He also gashed his chin badly. I didn't hear him fall but I did hear his call for help... He looked like Bride of Dracula with his white shirt rapidly turning red! I steri-stripped it and put on a dressing but it was replaced several times and eventually it stopped bleeding after a few hours. He flatly refused to go to the hospital... Still it is healing now but he can't eat much, its doing his diet the world of good!!

We passed through some really pretty locks where the cottage owners had made a real effort to make their little spot of France very pleasing to the eye.

Our lock keeper was travelling with us as did the locks and we were surprised to see her stop by the tow path wildly gesticulating up into the sky... After a few moments we saw what she was pointing at, some storks had made their nest at the top of a dead tree and were in residence, Mum, Dad and two babies! A very unusual sight!

We arrived at Cercy-la-Tour, where the pontoon provided us with free water and electricity for a 3 night stay and we were pleased to see old friends Jim and Katie there who helped us tie up.

 The town is dominated by an enormous Madonna, built at the top of the hill overlooking the town. It was quite a steep climb but we were amply rewarded by the panoramic views from the top.

As we all know from bitter experience the French men wee everywhere regardless of who can see them, so we were very amused to see these outdoor facilities which John just had to try....!!

 The church sat in a huge empty square, which also had a lovely water fountain, but there was little evidence of the people of the town.

Our friends Katie and Jim.

Aerial view of Cercy-la -Tour.

We left on the 29th June after our 3 nights and moved on to new pastures, but the long hot spell seems to have ended as we've had quite a few rain and thunder storms.