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| Carcassonne revisited |
Yikes – this is turning into
a monthly blog – sorry……. I can’t
believe that our four months in Auxerre is speedily drawing to a close and I
still can’t speak/understand French like a native. This week we’re in the throes of varnishing,
sanding, painting, getting Quaintrelle looking ship-shape for setting off in a
few weeks’ time. We’ve had some lovely
warm days, equivalent of a hot summer day in Scotland, which has been ideal for
stripping back the wood and getting some more coats of varnish on. We’ve ended up being out and about quite a
bit the last few weeks so it’s nice to be back on board and catch up with a few
things – like the blog!!
So, we were on a road
trip….. Mike had been caught speeding on
one of our last days in the UK last November and had sent back his licence to
get some points on it so the car was hired by me to do the long drive down to
Carcassonne, with a stop overnight in Toulouse to (yet again!) see Teenage
Fanclub. They were very good, and it was
a great venue in Toulouse, we managed to get two or three rows from the very
front and Norman only looked slightly perturbed when I shouted, “That was
beautiful,” after one number, followed by, “You made Mike cry!”….. We had a
leisurely breakfast the next morning before heading off for the last hour and a
half drive to Carcassonne. It was nice
to be in familiar territory with the sun shining brightly and the thermometer
showing a healthy 18 degrees centigrade.
We reached Pam and Charles in
time for lunch accompanied by a couple of glasses of celebratory fizz and some
vin blanc. We had a good catch up, then
headed back to our hotel to check in, have a nap and get ready to come back for
dinner. We left the car parked at Pam
and Charles’ and took the bus across town to our hotel which was near the
medieval cite and just up the road from the house we stayed in last
winter. In the evening we walked back
across town and had a lovely evening on Xenia.
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| Sunset over Le Pont Vieux |
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| Dinner awaits on board Xenia |
We indulged in a very long
lie the next morning, then wandered into town and back over to Xenia in time
for lunch – again! We decided to have
dinner on board again that evening, but Mike offered to cook, so on our way
back to the hotel for a nap (again!) we picked up some ingredients for a
courgette and goats cheese risotto. We
thought about having a swim at the hotel but opted for a bath and a nap
instead, before getting ready to cross town to Xenia for 7pm. The next day we had a big breakfast at the
hotel and caught the bus across town to say goodbye and pick up the car. I would again drive the 7 hour journey back
to Auxerre, which sounds horrendous but the roads in France are so much better
than in the UK and generally on the toll sections you hardly see any other
traffic. It was a smooth journey back
until the last hour and a half, when as well as getting dark and travelling on
a smaller road, it started to rain heavily. Although their roads are better maintained
than those in the UK, there are no cats eyes and much of the paint marking the
edge has faded (if it was ever there in the first place), so it was quite
exhausting trying to make sure I stayed on the road at times. However, we were back in one piece, but
realised we had gone over our limited mileage on the hire car (250km per day is
all your allowed or you have to pay extra).
We worked out if we extended by one day, but just left the car sitting
for a day, we’d have a few extra kms to use on the Saturday, rather than paying
a fine for doing too many miles if we returned it on the Friday, as
arranged. This was sorted out with a
short phone call, so the car spent the day in the port car park on the Friday
while we recovered from the previous day’s drive.
On Saturday with 65kms in our
‘bank’ we headed off to Vezelay, 31kms away.
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| Vezelay is a Unesco World Heritage Site and is beautiful - here is the impressive Cathedral |
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| Beautiful light, airy interior |
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| View from the Batiments |
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| Entrance to Vezelay |
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| On the way back to Auxerre we stopped off to recce the Canal du Nivernais - can't wait to get going!! |
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| The chateau overlooking Mailly-le-Chateau (Tim and Pru stopped off here on their Nivernais cruise!) |
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| The River Yonne runs alongside the Canal du Nivernais at this point |
We returned the car at 5pm
and paid our extra 14euros for the extra day.
It had been nice to be on the move, even though by car, but it’s always
a slight relief to hand it back in one piece!
This left us Sunday to pack
for our next trips; Mike was heading to York on Monday for his long-awaited MRI
scan on his knees, returning Tuesday, and as I was missing my mummy, I decided
to head to Fife for a mummy-cuddle on Monday, coming back on Thursday. My visit, as it transpired, meant I could
deal with some issues with the flat we let in Edinburgh. Having had a new boiler fitted in October, it
wasn’t working properly and I was advised the pipes and radiators also needed
replaced. This had been done the
previous week, but only whilst doing the work did they then tell me I’d need to
arrange to have the laminate flooring throughout the kitchen replaced as it was
unable to be relaid……. So, on landing at
Edinburgh Monday morning, I headed to Leith to clean the flat and look at what
needed done. For the first time on one
of my returns I was spotted, in M&S getting Mike some hankies. My friend Joan appeared, pointed and said
accusingly, “You’re not in France!”. I
was so chuffed to see her and we spent a lovely 10 minutes catching up. I got to my mum’s for my cuddle in time for
tea and on Tuesday managed to arrange a joiner to meet me at the flat to sort
out getting a new floor. This done, I
enjoyed vegging out on my last day with my darling mum before flying back to
Paris on Thursday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Mike had been
scanned and was back at the boat pining for me.
On Friday we did one lot of
laundry from one trip whilst getting our ski gear together ready for our
departure to La Tania on Saturday. Our
friends Fran and Sally were coming with us and were driving from Yorkshire to
Auxerre on the Friday, so as we packed, they were heading towards us. They checked in to the Ibis hotel next to the
Port for the night and joined us for a late dinner and couple of glasses of
wine, then it was time for bed and an early (for us) start on Saturday. We all had breakfast on board and were off on
the road just before 10am. We had all
checked google maps and were shown a four and a half hour journey from Auxerre
to La Tania, so we reckoned that worse-case scenario, with lots of ski traffic,
we’d maybe take six hours and hoped to be there by 4/4.30pm.
We finally reached La Tania
at 7.30pm after over 9 hours on the road, the last of which was agonizing for
us all. Our average speed was 30kms per
hour for the day. A combination of heavy
rain, two accidents, a couple of breakdowns and then the anticipated ski
traffic made the journey almost unbearable, but Fran did a sterling job at the
wheel and got us all there safely – if a little numb in the rear……… We were dropped off at our luxurious catered
chalet while Fran and Sally headed to their self-catering apartment above the
supermarket. Mike’s dreams were
shattered immediately. Not only were our
12 chalet-mates for the week not the Swedish Female Under 21s Netball Team, but
our hosts were Australian retirees in their sixties and seventies – oh how I
laughed…… But seriously, we got really
lucky again with our chalet-mates, they were a great bunch, even if we were the
second youngest…… We thoroughly enjoyed their company and had many, many laughs
over dinner. Speaking of which, it pays
to have hosts who have been cooking for many years – the food was simply the
best we’ve ever had in a catered chalet, truly delicious, well cooked and
presented. On the hosts’ night off, a similarly delicious affair was provided
for us at Chez Fran et Sal’s with some fizz to start followed by a local white
– very nice, but no late night as we were all shattered!
The weather was a mixed bag
through the week, bringing a large dump of soft snow over Monday and Tuesday,
which I had never skied in before and really struggled, then it went slightly
icy, then it got really warm and sunny and by Friday afternoon the huge dump
was disappearing again! We enjoyed our
week though, it was great skiing with Fran and Sally and we loved being back in
the Three Valleys at La Tania as it was nice to know our way around the slopes
there and around Courcheval. All too
soon we were having our last soak in the hot tub, our final canapes and fizz
and it was back into the car for the ride home.
Thankfully this time we did not meet with the same blockages on the
roads as we did on the way and we were back in Auxerre within 5 hours. Fran and Sally and Mike went for a quick walk
around the town and to pick up some kebabs for lunch, then while we got on with
the laundry, Fran and Sally continued their journey back home to Yorkshire –
another 10 hours to go!
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| Conditions on the last day were great and I finally got my camera out..... |
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| Watching the ants come down the slope waiting on Fran and Mike to come off a black (Sally and I having done the blue...) |
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| No, it's not perspective. It's the biggest glass of Hoegarden we've ever seen! Enjoying the sun at the Bouc Blanc restaurant at the top of the La Tania bubble. |
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| 24 hours earlier the other side of the valley had been covered in snow. By Friday Spring Green was the in-thing. |
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| Getting slushy in La Tania. I mean underfoot, not me and Mike.... ;) |
Needless to say we had a lie
in on Sunday, then bacon butties for breakfast before doing the rest of the
laundry and starting on boat work. It
was Mike’s birthday, but he didn’t want to go out, wanted to stay in in his
slippers with his pipe and cook a roast – rock and roll!! We did treat ourselves to some cakes from
Maison Roy, but I must apologize that they were eaten before I remembered to
photograph them – sorry.
We’ve played a few more games
of petanque or boules with Chris and Liz and we have now been joined by Steve
and Pay-chon (apologies for most likely getting the spelling of this name
incorrect!) on their boat Kokoro. The
Port has been quite a hive of activity this week with more people returning to
start getting their boats organised for the season and the port staff have been
shuffling boats around and doing maintenance here and there. Our current project is sourcing heating oil
for our domestic tank. In the UK we just
fill up with red diesel which is easily available along the canals, but in
France, red diesel is extremely strictly regulated as it must not be used for
propulsion. Regulations have made it
very difficult for the vendors so they’re reluctant to come and fill up boats,
however, we think Lesley has found someone who will come and fill our tank for
us. We can run our heating off kerosene
(paraffin) as well, which we think we can get in the supermarket, but our French
isn’t that good and we’re scared we put the wrong thing in the tank and break
our stove…….
Tomorrow, I will be applying
another coat of varnish to the exterior wood on the shutters, boat poles and
plank while Mike touches up the paintwork.
Then we’ll start on the insides…………..
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| Some more pretty streets discovered in Auxerre, along with their rather delicious prune liquer - can only be good for you! |
