Barging in Europe

We are back home in Australia.

The three months went so quickly.

We transited the complete Burgundy Canal (the top of which is the highest canal in France), most of the Yonne Riiver and about 40% of the Nivernais Canal. Total distance barged was about 510Km.

Due to the high cost of Internet in France, we saved the last couple of weeks of BLOG until our return to Australia. So, if you have been following our travels, we have just added heaps of text and photos covering the last several weeks.

Best Regards,

Penny and Dave

Thursday July 8^th

Departure

And so the sad final day on the Canals arrived. We moved back to Auxerre the day before so that we could pick up our hired car to drive to Champagne to meet our daughter Bernadette and husband Stephen to celebrate Bernadette's 30^th birthday on July 4^th. We farewelled Alison and Peter who are looking after Anja during the summer and preparing her to spend winter in Migennes.

Patricia, our trusty? navigation tool, had her own fixed ideas about our route to Champagne which did not entirely correspond with Penny's plans, so there was some dissension on the trip to Champagne. Despite that we finally arrived at Reims and met up with Bernadette and Steve who had arrived from Paris after a great holiday in Spain. We had booked a house in Pouilly, a little village about 15kms outside Reims. This village had been destroyed during World War 1 and then rebuilt. Our home for the next few days was very comfortable with two good sized bedrooms and comfortable living areas, with the bonus of a garden and barbeque. On the next morning we woke to find there was no water but a quick call to the proprietor soon righted that. Apparently a switch needed to be flicked or a tap turned, but meanwhile we collected lots of water from the tap outside the Church just in case.

Bernadette's birthday was spent as she liked, visiting Epernay, the centre of the Champagne region; having lunch (and champagne) at a Cave in the town of Ay where there was a Fair in progress; tasting champagne and visiting the Abbey Church where Dom Perignon, the father of champagne is buried in the village of Hautvillers, and finally having dinner at a relaxing restaurant which luckily was open on Sunday night. A sobering note was a visit to a War Cemetery which we passed on our way home, with thousands of graves of Allied and German soldiers who had been killed in that spot in the Second Battle of the Marne, July 1918. We cannot get over the gravity of the loss of so many young men. Every town in France has its long list. No doubt the same is true of Germany, of Turkey and Britain as it is of Australia and New Zealand.

We finished up our trip to Champagne with a final day of wine tasting and a birthday barbeque, then a chance to spend time in Reims itself to explore the beautiful Cathedral where numerous kings of France were crowned. The TGV trip from Reims to the Airport, 150 kms, took half an hour but the shuttle bus wait and trip to the airport hotel, chosen for its proximity to the airport, took an hour and a half. Still, it was a comfortable hotel and convenient the next day: we must have done two thirds of the shuttle loop getting there. We had an uneventful, even trending to good, trip home on Singapore Airlines, with a short transit stop in Singapore, and were met at the airport by William before being picked up by our pre- arranged hire car. Our house sitter had left the house in good order and there was even milk, bread and orange juice for breakfast. It was good to be arriving home at 9pm with no reason not to go to bed and try to catch up on the sleep we didn't have en route. We are already planning for our 2011 trip to France!

Footnote: there are 200,000,000 bottles of Champagne in the cellars of the town of Epernay which is the centre of Champagne. We did dent the supplies a very small amount during our stay!

This was one of the streets on the Fete de Henri IV in Ay. All the Caves (bottle shops) were open with fine food, champers and music.

Dom Perignon invented Champagne. This statue is at the Moet et Chandon Head Office. We visited the Dom's tomb in Hauteviller.

Thursday July 1^st

Nivernais Canal

Alison and Peter duly arrived on the same train they were due to have caught yesterday. After they settled we set off up the Nivernais Canal, which starts at Auxerre. The Nivernais is partly constructed canal, partly canalisation of the Yonne River. Construction began in the 1780s but was not finished until about 1843. The immediate intention was to provide a way to get logs to Paris from the forests of the Morvan. These logs were floated down the river as rafts. Other goods were transported by barge. In time the canal fell into disrepair but since the 1960s has been refurbished and is very popular with recreational barges and cruising boats. The canal sections are quite narrow, like the Burgundy Canal. The tow paths are being upgraded to produce a bicycle route to rival that of the Burgundy Canals. The locks are small and all have straight sides though the bollards are set well back from the side of the canal, so getting a rope over them was a challenge. By now we had four people on board so usually one of us hopped off onto the lock to help with the ropes and with the lock gates.

The countryside around the canal is quite varied, with pastures and dense woodland dominating the banks, together with very spectacular limestone rocks and cliffs and more distant hills which provide a backdrop. There are frequent weirs and waterfalls as the Canal meets and separates from the River. The towns are smaller and not quite so old as those we had visited before. The attraction of the canal is predominantly in the beautiful countryside and the river itself. All of the canal traffic is recreational and most barges are hired from one of several hire boat companies along this stretch. Even so it was not too busy and we rarely shared a lock with another barge. We met one hotel barge and just squeezed past on a narrow section of the canal.

We were amazed how, once the warm weather arrived, it just got hotter and hotter, with one sunny day following another. Some nights cooled down but others simply stayed hot. With the light still holding until 10pm and the sun rising about 5, there are not too many hours without sunshine. The hottest day reached 37 degrees. We were very grateful to be able to whip out our Weber barbeque each night, set up our table and chairs on shore and sit under the trees until it cooled down a bit. We explored the wonders of Petanque (Peter was a Master) and Alison introduced us to a card game called "Frustration" which lived up to its title.

With four on the barge and our two bicycles, two of us were able to drive the barge while the other two rode on ahead to assist with the locks, do some site-seeing and generally get a different perspective on the countryside. This was very pleasant.

University holidays coincide with this peak tourist season so many of the locks were manned by students, the majority from Dijon University. We enjoyed chatting with them. Many spoke English but we tried to conduct the conversations in our slowly improving French. Unlike the Burgundy Canal, each lock was manned by a different lock-keeper though as far as we could tell none actually lived in the lock cottage. Instead the VNF had constructed a small office for them to occupy, though at some there did not seem much in the way of shade (perhaps the hut was too hot) and with the weather sunny and hot we came across several bad cases of sunburn. This was especially true of the young women who were wearing backless strapped tops. I'm not sure that the message of "Slip Slop and Slap" has reached Burgundy! We did come across one topless lock keeper with long hair; I noticed the men of our party very alert and particularly ready to get out to help with the lock gates, but then quite deflated as it turned out just to be a long- haired guy.

Our prize for the prettiest lock goes to "La Place". The most relaxing stop was near the town of Lucy sur Yonne where the canal mooring gave us a perfect view of a stretch of the river below and the town park beyond. It was here that we saw a muskrat (I think) with a large rat in its mouth criss-crossing the canal for 400 metres at least. It was also here that a Western Australian man who was on a chartered barge nearby caught a large pike in the River, using a lure.

We had become used to the predictability of progress along the canals so were were really thrown when we rounded a bend to find a blue metal bridge spanning the canal in front of us, far too low for us to pass under. There was no lock (or bridge) keeper in sight and in fact nothing on our canal guide to lead us to expect such an impediment. We waited a while then David walked up and found that the bridge could be raised on a cantilever system, using a wheel. As there was no- one else to do it, he started to wind the bridge up, quite a task as it was very heavy. He became aware of a sign to say that only VNF staff (ie staff of the canal system) could operate it- but then was relieved to see an added note that "users of the canal" were also allowed to do so. We squeezed through the opening- only just wide enough for us to pass through- and went on our way.

On our return we were a bit more confident about opening the bridge ourselves, but became aware of a different side to this strange system when we heard a voice from the side of the canal : "where has the road gone?" An Australian couple had been driving towards the bridge when they became aware that it was up in the air at right angles to the road and on the far side. They said there was no sign warning of this possibility so I think they were quite relived to find that it would soon be back at ground level and that they had been attentive enough to notice the rather large gap in the road.

The final stop for us on the Nivernais was Clamecy, a typical town of the area with 15^th to 18^th century buildings and cobbled streets in the old town. It was the centre of the logging trade because the rafts were formed here. One really poignant memory from Clamecy will stay with us. As usual the town had a War Memorial listing the saddeningly huge number of men from the town killed in the First World War, but in Clamecy the tablets were spread haphazardly around the base . Then we found the explanation: this memorial had been desecrated by the Nazis when they took the town early in World War 11. A photo showed a soldier in uniform standing saluting triumphantly at the top of the memorial with the town burning behind him.

We turned around at Clamecy because further on there are low bridges which may have been too low for us. For once in our lives we thought that discretion was the better part of valour. Perhaps the experience of squeezing through the Pouilly tunnel was one the captain did not want to repeat. We reached Auxerre in good time to fill up with diesel and then continue to Moneteau along the Yonne River to give Alison and Peter experience of the large locks of the Yonne. We tied up outside a Restaurant looking forward to dinner there, but were told that the proprietor had decided to close for the night because there were not enough bookings. We were glad that we could get out our trusty barbeque and settle the barbeque table and chairs on shore to have our own home- cooked delicious barbecued dinner.

....but someone has to do it!

When it is just the two of us and there is one lock keeper (the norm), one of us gets out and assists with opening and closing the main gates as well as the sluice gates.

Some of the Ecluses (Locks) are exquisitely decorated. Here (La Place) is one example. They have the complete set of Disneyland characters around the lock.

We had an excellent view of the Canal and surrounding couintryside after climbing this modest cliff and then walking along the top

Most of the statues on the canal are of Saints to protect the barge men. However, this one which is on a junction between the Nivernais and the Yonne is presumably for a different reason.

Thursday 24^th June

The past week has been spent on the Yonne River. It has been interesting to experience the differences between this large river with its enormous locks, some with sloping sides; and the Burgundy Canal, much narrower with locks which are quite predictable in their size and shape. We also need to become used to dealing with enormous commercial barges. Their drivers are very skilful so as long as we keep alert, all will be well. At Villeneuve, two such barges spent the night at the lock waiting for it to open in the morning. We were very happy to delay our departure until they had passed along that section of the river.

We have enjoyed visiting a variety of beautiful towns along the Yonne River. First was Villeneuve, with its well- preserved mediaeval gates and towers. The previous moats have been transformed to become parks which ring the town. Next stop was Sens where we were very impressed by the Cathedral which at one time was the centre of Catholicism in France. We admired stained glass windows up to 800 years old and architecture which gave the enormous Church a sense of light, in its time was very innovative. The Treasury and Museum attached to the Cathedral had items dating from palaeolithic times found locally, a Gallo- Roman mosaic found in the cellars and more recent artefacts, treasure and art works. At Sens we also visited the pretty public gardens and the market.

Auxerre, the capital of the Yonne, was our next stop. Auxerre sits on a hill above the River Yonne and its spectacular skyline is interesting both by day and night. The view is dominated by the Abbey Church of St Germain which was originally established in the 5^th Century. Much of the Abbey is now in use as a museum and there is a crypt where St Germain is buried. We took time to explore the city, with its well- preserved half timbered houses and interesting remnants of the original town which date back to Gallo- Roman times. There is an amazing vineyard very close to the centre of town which has been there for centuries, still producing wine. and which, perhaps because of its isolation, escaped the 19^th century phylloxera plague.

Today friends Peter and Alison were due to arrive from Paris to spend time on the barge with us, and then to use it for a couple of months before returning it to Migennes for winter. We had an early call to say that they were unable to come until tomorrow because of a train strike. They found a hotel near the station in Paris while we decided what to do with our spare day. Our first thought was to go back up the Yonne to the town of Moneteau which had looked quite attractive- but no, the lock was closed until the next day because the lock-keeper was on strike (though he was still mowing the grass, so it was a limited strike). We returned to our mooring on the river bank and had a quiet afternoon until we became aware of thousands of people marching along the river front, with placards, drums, loudspeakers and balloons: a march (we think Laurent would describe it as a "manifestation") protesting for worker's rights.

The weather throughout June has been quite cool (10 to 15 degrees C) and rather overcast, and the first day of summer, June 21^st, was just the same- starting at 10 degrees and warming to 15 in the middle of the day. From June 22^nd however summer moved in with each day warmer than the last. Amazing for us from higher latitudes was that on June 21^st, the longest day, it was still light enough to read a book outside at 10.30pm. Penny can't say what time it was light in the morning, as she likes to sleep until a decent hour, but David is always up early to ride to the nearest Boulangerie for a fresh baguette for breakfast.

...another word for a demonstration. In this town of 40,000, several thousand people went on strike against government policies. Their protest march was peaceful, long (over 1Km) and quite noisy (music, speeches, trumpets, drums....)

We found out about it when we went to the lock, wanting to get through. The Lock-keeper was on strike (actually mowing the grass near the lock) and let us know. No problem, we just went back where we had been on the river. Some of the trains were also on strike and La Poste closed ("..fermee exceptionnel")

It would be very unpleasant to tie your barge to a tree and go away for a few days only to return and find it sunk like this. Note the boom around it to curtail the leaking fuel and oil.

A remarkable14th (approx) Century house with a carving of the Jesse Tree on the side.

Here are dozens of relics from Saints who died between about 200AD and 1200AD. From the Cathedral Treasury

Sens used to be a very important place. Sens attacked and conquered Rome in about 400BC. They have a large Cathedral to match that status. A beautiful place with an excellent Treasury as well an a really good government museum with thousands of artifacts from pre-Gallic times to a few hundred years ago.

The night time view from our barge at Villaneuve sur Yonne

One of the disadvantages of travelling on the Rivers is when meeting large double barges such as this. Together, they are about 100metres long. The aft barge is pushing the other one and they move fast. Turning circle is huge.

Mum and her five very small babies visited us each morning at Jo's shipyard on the Yonne River. If the wind was strong, one of the young ones would ride on her back. Dad also visited a couple of times but not on this morning.