Bourgogne - Pouilly en Auxois to St Jean de Losne

May 11

We dropped the wheelhouse on leaving Pouilly (the first time as a need) to go through the 3.3 km Pouilly tunnel, it was well lit and straight so it proved to be an unnecessary precaution but better safe than sorry.

Angie needing a stepladder to see

Pouilly Cutting

The end in sight

Then it was downhill - lock after lock.  At Vandenesse we got led astray by Odin (Neil and Jan) and Carrie-Ann (Jim and Wendy) so the trip up to the chateau at Chateauneuf was painful.

Please hurry up!

Chateauneuf

Canal de Bougogne

At Pont de Ouche we saw our biggest carp to date - Angie helped weigh it (26 kg) but didn't have a camera - note don't dangle feet in the canal especially as the catfish are even bigger!  Madame Byrony fed us frites - farewell waistline.  The next ecluse had solved the boat storage problem.

At Gissey we 'green banked' with Phoenix a 10 month old Sagar barge - serious envy.  Roger and Margaret followed is into Dijon and led us astray again - yet to meet a teetotal bargee.  The eclusiers were a bit grumpy and snail paced - perhaps the after effects of the earlier regional strike.  We also had our first really bad thunderstorm - which was not appreciated by our guard dog.

Kes protecting us from the thunder

We enjoyed the stay in Dijon - nothing like a cool museum on a hot day.

Dijon Port

Dijon - Place Royale (aka Place de Liberation)

St Michel

We also got mugged by the resident swans and cygnets

Then it was the end of the Canal de Bourgogne and back to our old haunts at St Jean de Losne . A visit to a chandlery to get a new French courtesy flag (the old one was inviting arrest given its decrepit state) and a quick stock up on chocolate biscuits and other essentials in the supermarket.  Steven Sagar on Alicia was on the waterfront but wasn't offering discounts on new builds.

Tomorrow it is on to the River Saone then all points south - which will be a major change after the very quiet canals so far this season.

Bourgogne - Lezinnes to Pouilly en Auxois

May 2011 - Canal du Bourgogne

The beautiful weather continues and we are dawdling along at a few hours a day to recharge batteries, though the new solar panels are doing well.  At Ancy Le Franc another glorious chateau relatively undamaged by La Revolution.

Ancy Le Franc

We shared the mooring with the hotel boat (Horizon2) which runs from Tanlay to Venarey les Laumes. Very friendly but no offers of a glass of Premier Cru - I am sure the passengers drink a better class of wine than our usual vin rouge.

Most of the moorings have free electricity/water - an excellent idea - but it is going to be a shock paying Canal du Midi prices in the Autumn. We now have a confirmed winter mooring at Carcassonne and we are being joined by Colin and Linda on 'Linda' whom we originally overwintered with at Kortrijk - they are missing Kes and we are hoping they will 'dogsit' for our daughter's wedding in December.

The Bougogne is very attractive and even quieter than the Nivernais. Our social life consists of chatting up cyclists and the eclusiers - no boats on the move other than a couple of hire boats - Nicols and LeBoat must be doing badly.

At Buffon we visited the Grande Forge (18thC iron forge) - a pleasant change from chateaux visits.  A huge blast furnace with water wheel driven iron hammers etc.  Peter stayed up late to follow the election results.

Buffon

The 38m hotel boat caught up with us here - why is it always on a tight corner with a bridge?

Venarey les Laumes was the end of the hotel boats and also a Nicols hire base - so we squandered 12€ and stayed for 3 nights (rugby weekend, Chinese GP).  Angela slaved over the cleaning and cooking.

As can be seen above - we both now have Kindles which saves a fortune on book postage (and I get to read The Times in bed in the morning).  The weather continued fine - on the Monday we did 29 manual locks in 10 km on the hottest day of the year so far which got us to Marigny Le Cahouet.  Instead of staying 2 nights there to recover, we were asked to move on the next day by the eclusiers as they were short of staff (there is an eclusier strike rumbling in the background but it doesn't involve all of the eclusiers).  Then it was a gradual trundle on, in our first grey overcast weather, towards the top of the canal at Pouilly en Auxois.

The Pouilly bassin has a large supermarket nearby, so it was a case of a major shop and a jerrican refuelling as we don't anticipate anything much except Boulangeries between here and Dijon. Luckily the veg and herb garden are doing well so we can temporarily become vegan at a push.  From Pouilly it is straight into a long cutting then a 3.3 km tunnel under the town - being cautious we are going to drop the wheelhouse as there are no walkways in the tunnel and a good roof curve so any deviation from a centre line could be expensive.

Pouilly cutting

Bourgogne - Migennes to Lezinnes

May 11

Our first night on the Canal de Bourgogne (Burgundy) was at Migennes - a run down railway town a bit like Didcot before it got gentrified. But from there it got gradually more attractive as we pottered from village to village. Lots of attractive chateaux which tend to blur en passant.

We have never travelled so slowly but the eclusiers work at their pace rather than ours and anyway we don't want to get to the Saone/Rhone till June.  Spring is here and the suckling cows make us a little homesick for the NZ farm.

It is difficult to find new topics to photograph other than churches on hills or sunrises

St Florentin

Working in the mist - I am the blob on the right.

The Tonnerre mooring wasn't very exciting, but the 13th century Hospital was a magnificent building and the Fosse Dionne (a natural spring converted into the largest public washing place we have seen so far) were definitely worth the visit.

Then it was getting near to May Day (one of the two days the canal system is closed) so we squeezed into a mooring at Tanlay next to a hotel barge for three nights.  Large and small chateaux and good facilities.

Small Chateau at Tanlay

Chateau de Tanlay

Tanlay port

With lots of spare time and glorious weather we even managed to do some of the first wheelhouse varnishing of the year (a bit like painting the Forth bridge).

Then it was off to Lezinnes - again sharing the mooring with the hotel boat.  They charge US$6000+ per person for a week - so I am pondering letting the rear cabin for 'adventure holidays' - at that kind of money we would even upgrade the wine a bit and Angie could do a bit of washing and cooking rather than idling in the sun - now where did I put my 'Captains' hat.

The idle rich