We left Cours-les-Barres after the weekend and moved on down the canal. We were going to stay at Marigny-les-Aubigny but it was really depressing, looking more like a boat graveyard so we moved on to Beffes where there were reportedly new moorings.. These had apparently been constructed for the bumper boats with finger pontoons so we moored "greenbank" style alongside a lovely ornamental park. We had some bad thunder storms that night but got on our way again the next day and ended up at La Chapelle-Montlinard, mooring quite close to a silo. We just managed to moor before the heavens opened and we had a torrential thunderstorm!!! We decided to stay a few days as the facilities were good and apparently free and we wanted to stock up with food from the supermarkets in La Charite, a nearby town.
We thought that this Butchers shop was really charming, but they didn't stock sausages for the BBQ!
The town had a huge brocante and market on the wekend after our arrival so we stayed at La Chapelle in order to attend both. The weather alternated between downpours and really hot days so I managed to get all the washing done before we moved on again.
We moved on as soon as we had a reasonable morning and moored at Champalay where John went for a walk with Patrice and returned excitedly to the boat saying he'd found a Pub!
This was the "Pub" at Champalay, but we were the only customers! We sat outside and had a bottled beer which was at least cold!
Patrice was disappointed that they didn't do "Mouse flavoured crisps" but sat up to the table with us!! The owner asked us if she could borrow him as they were troubled by mice, suddenly we didn't mind that they only served bottled beer.....!!
Some of the locks are really pretty.
This was meant to be of Sancerre at the top of the hill, but by the time I found the camera we had gone past it.....
Our peaceful mooring at Boulleret, the closest we could get to Cosne Cours-sur-Loire.
We spent a night at Boulleret so we could go into the town as I had found that they had a Phildar wool shop there, and I wanted to post a parcel of loom band bracelets to my grandaughters which I had made for them. The cycle trip into town was really horrid and rather dangerous, and a long way from the canal. We topped up with ice cream and moved on during the evening and ended up at Lere who kindly supplied us with free water and electricity! We moored in front of a Dutch boat who had been really rude to us at Cours-les-Barres and despite staying last weekend there, we didn't see anyone from that boat, could they have been hiding from us..??!!
The church is kept locked at Lere but we managed to get on an escorted tour which took us into the crypt first. It is said that St Martin's body was kept here before he was buried at Orleans cathedral.
The interior was beautiful with magnificent stained glass windows.
We both agreed we would love to live in this house! There was a free concert last saturday night, which we went to. It was well attended with an excellent turnout, here is John buying our beer!
The concert was delivered by this duo, but we decided that he was performing with his Mum! She really was too mature to be doing raunchy songs (with actions!), but most of them were sung in English. The equipment broke at 22.30hrs so we returned to the boat, having had a very interesting time! We continued on our way last Monday and stopped at Belleville, a town which is famous for its nuclear power station which allowed visits!
Our moorings, the nuclear power station can be seen in the background.
We cycled there (that's John on his bike) and spent an interesting time in their visitors centre, but no photos were allowed.
We were a little disconcerted to see the Gendarmes behind us back at the mooring but they were just on a "jolly" with their families.
Tuesday was supposed to be market day, but disappointingly nobody turned up so we set off after lunch and moored for the night "greenbank" style just before Chatillon-sur-Loire. Yesterday we set off to complete our trip on the Canal Lateral a Loire and joined up with the Canal de Briare passing over the impressive aqueduct.
There were alot of people walking over the aquaduct and it made us feel as though we were animals in the zoo as everyone stopped and stared at us, taking photos etc.. They could not have seen many boats passing this way for a while! The weather was not kind to us though and it just poured down. We were pulled out of our moorings by a tripper boat so we decided to move on even though it was raining hard. After a couple more locks we arrived at Ouzouer-sur-Trezee where we found the port was full but just managed to squinge onto the grass verge before the port.
Our moorings at Ouzouer-sur-Trezee
Our view from the boat here.
Patrice was glad to get off the boat and celebrated his freedom by catching a poor unsuspecting mouse! So that is where we are tonight, once more the town is providing free facilities, but there is very little here for us to pay them back.
