Over half way
Well, it's been a busy week. In Pouilly, we caught up on cleaning, washing and some general barge maintenance chores as well as cycling to see various sites. The town was bustling on the weekend with the first stage of the Tour de Cote d'Or ( a lead up to the Tour de France) plus a Fete du Canal which was right where we were moored.
We had covered 90Km and 77 locks getting to Pouilly, which is at the top of a mountain (well, a small one). Mont Bourgogne. Because the standard setup for a lock is with the lock empty, these locks had been fairly quick.
Now, on the other side of Pouilly, we have covered 63 locks in 5 days and descended all the way. So, nearly every lock has had to be changed from empty to full and then back again as we descend. This is a much slower process. On top of that, most of the locks have been “Staircase locks” packed tightly together. One day, we did 20 locks and only travelled 6Km! This is because the terrain for those sections of canal was relatively steep.
We are over half way along the Bourgogne Canal and have covered 140 locks.
Fortunately, we are through the staircases and as of today, had more reasonable distances of 1-2Km between locks. We arrived in the picturesque town of Montbard which has the famous Fontenay Abbey (which we have already visited). We are spending almost two days here to replenish ourselves and our supplies. David has been sick for a few days (Penny had the virus for one day) and now Penny has the worst hay-fever she has ever had.
The weather has been very variable with cold days of 9-18 but now it is glorious again with 15-28.
We have done LOTS of cycling this week. Some of it up some rather steep hills as historic sites are often on the tops of hills. Yesterday we went up to 408metres- a tough ride but nicer coming down! That's two steep rides in two days.
In particular, we saw the ancient cities of Flavigny and then Alesia yesterday. Alesia was the scene of the epic battle between Julius Caesar and Vercingetorix in 52BC. It is also the place that Saint Reine came from (866) and was martyred. We saw the Church with her relics. We also saw the excavations of the Gallic City that was besieged (100BC to 52BC) as well as the Roman ruins which are quite amazing. They even had central heating (would have needed it on that hill). We think that the comic book hero Asterix (beloved of the French) arose from this epic battle. There were almost 300,000 Gallic soldiers involved and a large number of Romans.
There are churches everywhere, commonly from the 13th to 14th centuries. Oldest so far was one from 1030 at St Thibault. It is rather amazing to stand in a structure that is close to 1,000 years old.
We have picked out just a random sampling of the hundreds of photos and these follow this entry.
Best Regards,
Dave and Penny
