France 2012 The Canal De Bourgogne

Getting to Auxerre was time consuming but fairly easy.  Russel was at the railway station to meet me. He had arrived in the morning and had spent some time cleaning the boat so I wouldn’t be too shocked at its condition.

When he arrived and climbed the boat he was frightened by a duck that had laid her eggs in my herb container that I had left full of soil ready for this year. He moved the container to the front of the boat where it stayed for a few days until I decided that I needed to clean the boat.  We then took her and her eggs off the boat. She wasn’t very happy with us.  The eggs had started to hatch.  That night she had one little duck following her. However the next morning she had none again. Some other animal must have eaten the ducklings. The rest of the ducklings didn’t make it out of the shell alive. I felt sorry for Mum. She ended up with no bubbies!!!

We spent a day exploring Auxerre. Below are a few photos.

The Yonne River had been closed for three weeks. I felt sorry for the people who had come over for a holiday and had spent it in Auxerre waiting for the ecluse to open.  France had too much rain so all the ecluses had been closed until the river quietened down.

We spent some time in getting the boat ready and on Friday the 11^th May we sailed away from Auxerre.  We were forced in changing our planned route via Briare and we are now sailing down the Bourgogne Canal.

Our first stop was Larache Migennes   which is on the corner of the Yonne and the Canal Bourgogne. We are getting use to moving slowly as we have ecluses (Lochs) nearly every few kilometres. The town are small and not a lot to see at the moment.

We have Lynley travelling with us until Tuesday when she leaves to start her next tour.

Opening of the ecluse

Lynley at on of the ecluse

We have to have our canopy down as the bridges are too low.

Russel helping the ecluse keeper. You have to push the handle to open the ecluse gates.

we are alsmost up to the top.

Our first major stop was at a town called Tonnerre. This is where Lynley left us after a few days.

We spent some time touring the little city. The most interesting site we saw was the Fosse Dionne. It was a spring that has a permanent flow so 1758 the major built a wash house around the spring. It has a depth of 28meters.

                                                  me in front of the spring

The wash house is built around the spring

We had been having problems with the batteries not charging when we are on the move, so Russel managed to find someone to look at the situation.  The problem was he didn’t speak English and it was hard. He replaced the alternator at the cost of 470 euro. We were forced to stay three nights in Tonnerre because of this. We left with no change. We had wasted our money.

We decided to continue on until we arrived at Montbard where Russel did some investigation and found it was a fuse in the relay – cost us 8 euro. It is now fixed.

The French canals are certainly different to what we have been use to. The ecluses that we have been through are all manual and takes about 20 minutes a lock. Yesterday (in the rain) we drove 28 klm and 16 ecluses. We arrived in Montard absolutely had it.  We have been travelling with a Japanese couple since Tonnerre.  They speak a little English and we have been helping each other. It is nice to travel with people.

The Japanese Couple. He attaches his boat by himself onto one bollard

Russel at one of the ecluses. Some of them have been looked after.

This one was an artist home. He sold cheeses and wines. we bought a bottle of Chablis.

Typical view of the canal. The Japanese boat is following.

Today we rode 12 klms to see the Fontenay Abbey.  It was built in 1118 and is one of the oldest Cistercian abbeys. It has been restored after being a paper factory for a number of years.  It was a great ride and well worth it.

The Abbey

                                    Russel in front of the Abbey

Since leaving Montard the weather has turned very bad. We are living in winter clothing, raincoats and anything else we can find to keep warm and dry.

 Russel at Marigny le Cahouet just before the storm

When we arrived in Marigny le Cahouet we were struck by an electric storm. Since then we have been travelling with three boats. One South African couple with their fourteen old daughter and 7 month puppy and of course the Japanese couple.

                                                  The South African’s going into the lock

They are at the top

The South African’s go in first and take the brunt force of the lock water; we second  tied to two bollards and the Japanese couple at the back. He has to climb the ladder each time and hold his boat with his ropes. He has no bollard to attach to. He is protected from the turbulence by the front two boats, but he has to move his boat around so the lock doors can close. He is usually inches away from the back doors.  I believe we have the best position.

                                              showing our position in the lock

  Holding his boat one rope attached to the front and back.

Yesterday we did 28 locks in 10 kilometres. We started at 9 and arrived in Veneray about 5pm. We had 1 hour for lunch. It rained the whole day. We were totally exhausted. The ropes became heavier and heavier as the rain came down. I got to the stage where I couldn’t throw them they were so heavy. We were lucky to have a couple of great lock keepers who travelled with us the whole day and helped us with the ropes.  We all tipped them at the end of the day.

                                                 A typical view along the canal

At Pouilly en Auxois we reached the summit. We now entered 3.33 klm unlit tunnel and start our descent. Up until then they have all been uplocks, now its down locks all the way to St Jean de Losne.

We all said our goodbyes with drinks lasting until 10 o'clock. The Japanese boat left the next morning. we have stayed a day to wash and dry everything out. we have now cleaned our boat and it looks great until the next rain day. Today we had a glorious day. It reached 30 in the boat.

We decided to pull everything down so that we have no height issues. I sat on the front of the boat with a spotlight. I held this light in one position for about 40 minutes.

The tunnel was an experience which we enjoyed but was glad when it was over.

                                      
                                             Arcturus at Vandenesse

                                         The entrance to the Tunnel

                                       Russel Driving into the Tunnel. It was compulsary to wear our life jackets.
We had to show them to the lock keeper and he checked our lighting before we were given a VHF radio to go through the tunnel.

Since then we have decided not to hurry. We stayed in places for a couple of days each and moved only in the mornings.  We stayed at Escommes, Vandenesse and now are in Pontd’ouche where we will leave the boat for two weeks. We caught the bus into Dijon and hired a car and for the last few days we have been roaming the hills of France enjoying lots of lunches. It has been very pleasant.

Our trip up to Châteauneuf was exciting but I really don’t know how we managed to push the bikes all the way up thinking it would be a great trip down. It was too steep and we had to walk down too.

Me trying to ride up the hill

Chateauneuf

Since the tunnel we are now in down ecluses and they are so much easier and quicker.

                                                     Coming into a down ecluse

Our view from the boat in Vandenesse

Arcturus tied up in Vandenesse

We sailed down to PontD’Ouche the next day where an English lady “Brinony” runs a little marina. We have left our boat there until we return after two weeks in a camper car for only 3 euros a day.

We hired a car and did some exploring in the Cote D’Or wine region for a few days before we picked up our camper car from Lyon.

We arrived back in Pont D’Ouche and back onto our boat with the Melia’s. We still had the car so we were able to travel away from the canal to visit further a field.

The first day we returned to Vandensse and Pouilly To shoe Bruno and Steph the tunnel and we lunched at Chateauneuf. It was certainly easier to drive than the bike ride we had to get there.

                                                  A Street in Chateauneuf

That night Steph and Russel drove the car to La Bussiere sur Ouche and rode the bikes back. It was Steph’s first big ride for years and she handled the 6klm easily.

The next day we went exploring a few towns and had a look over a chateau.

                               

                                                      We went on a tour over this Chateau

It was decided not to transport the car to the next stop but for Bruno and Steph to go and see some of the Cote D’Or while Russel and I sailed the boat to Moulin Banet where we were able to get some power for the night. This was the only powered site available until Dijon. That afternoon we returned the car to Dijon and the rest of the time we slowly sailed to Dijon where the Melia’s left the boat and headed to Rome.

                                                  Steph and Bruno enjoying the quiet canals

                                   We had an Italian on board - this was breakfast - very yummy

We went into an ecluse with this weed catcher. It is certainly needed in this canal.

The plant growth in the canals plus the grass clippings made us check our filters every night.

I hope this weed catcher does some good.

We spent a few days in Dijon exploring. It was a great place. We went on a gastronomy tour and visited the Maille shop where the Dijon mustards are made. Dijon and one stage took out a lot of there mustard crops and have been buying over 60% of their mustard seeds from Canada.

Some of the old houses in Dijon

                                                a fountain in Dijon

We took two days to go from Dijon to St Jean de Losne which was the last port of the Canal Bourgogne.

Russel took this from our boat. It rained misty rain all day then gave us this gorgeous rainbow. We woke the next morning to a very very hot muggy day. we can't work this weather out.

                       

                                          Prime position in St Jean De Losne



We have now completed the Canal de Bourgogne

We did 242 kilometres and 189 ecluses both ups and downs.

  

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