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| Les Sept Ecluses taking us up to the summit of the Canal du Centre |
We were in no rush to leave
Chagny the next morning, following a good drug/wine induced sleep and with Mike’s
foot already starting to go down – thank goodness, as it had looked like it was
about to burst!
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| Oooooooowwwwwwwwwwccccccchhhhhhhh..................... :( |
We’d told the lock-keeper the
previous day we’d leave at 10am, and it was a couple of hours cruise to the first
lock of the day, however, when the hotel boat passed us heading in the same
direction at 9.30am, there was no point in heading off before 11am. The hotel boats are large and deep and travel
very, very slowly so being stuck behind one is not much fun. When we did finally head off the day was
warming up nicely and it was a cruise through some fantastic autumn scenery.
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| Lock keepers come in all shapes and sizes..... |
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| "Excuse' moi madame, there ees a small fee for using zee lock......" |
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| "Ah, zey have a veree good looking bird on thees boat...." |
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| "Oui monsieur, zat is correct - une slice per bateau..." |
Yet again we struggled a bit
in the deep locks and when I again suggested to the lock keeper that I thought
we were too low for the sensors, he agreed that this was possible. We finally caught up the hotel boat and as
she headed up the lock ahead of us, we pulled over, did a bit of painting and
had some lunch, which gave the hotel boat time to get up the remaining locks
and us a clear run up to St Leger. We
moored up and Mike went for a quick Ninebot to see if the restaurant was open tonight. We’d had lunch at the Au P’tit Kir in April
and it was excellent so we were keen to have dinner that evening. Meanwhile, the English lady who lives in a
house on the canal side came out for a chat, and I enjoyed her company and that
of her gorgeous cats for almost an hour.
They used to have a boat but had to sell up due to ill-health, and now
she and her husband are looking for a place in the UK to return to.
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| Beautiful patchwork of vines passing through Santenay |
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| The pilot on Hirondelle has to duck to pass under the bridge! |
Au P’tit Kir was indeed open that evening, so we headed along for dinner and again had a fantastic meal accompanied by very good, reasonably-priced wine. The owner is English but has been living in France since 2005, so finds that she now thinks in French and has to think to go back to English sometimes – how I long for that!! As we went to settle our bill, she very kindly gave us our aperitif and coffee on the house, as it was a returning visit for us.
A cool start on Saturday
morning allowed us to enjoy our bacon butties and coffee before setting off for
the day’s leisurely cruise with today’s target being St Julian sur Dheune. Beautiful scenery and autumnal sunshine was
accompanied by the awful deep locks, and as we were rescued yet again as the
lock wouldn’t operate once we were in it, I explained again to the lock keeper
that I thought we were too low. So at
the last lock of the day, he watched as we came in the lock under the sensor,
as I stood on the roof with a brush in my hand, which I swept under the sensor
as I passed. As we rose up, being thrown
around as usual, the lock keeper confirmed that the sensor didn’t pick up that
we had passed, until I held the brush up, and that had worked apparently, but
it was just a bit quick ie. the brush was a bit short. So the practice worked but we’d need
something a bit bigger that stayed under the sensor for longer.
Once moored up at St Julian
sur Dheune we had a good few shots on the Ninebot and I went so fast at one
point that it bleeped at me and slowed me down!
We then set the kermits
(folding chairs) up on the corner of the basin and sat in the sun to listen to
York City lose (again!) on the radio. We
couldn’t get a signal sitting on the boat, but found if we went round the
corner we did and it was a lovely sunny spot.
There was another hotel boat moored, Finesse, and it turned out to be
the crew’s night off, so we joined them later for drinks and it was quite a
messy evening with us getting back to the boat at 2am! They were a great crowd, from Wales, Preston,
Glasgow originally and had been working on the boats for some years, and this
was the final week of the season coming up before they would head off and do
something else for the winter – or just relax and enjoy living off the amazing
tips they make on the boat!
The next morning the surface
of the canal was as foggy as our heads so there was no rush to get away. We had only a short journey but quite a few
locks including the Seven Ecluses flight up to Montchanin. Half of the locks were deep ones……
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| The crew of Finesse start the clean-up for the next guests arriving as we sail off into the mist... |
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| It worked!!! The brolly was big enough to register us entering the lock and we operated it with no problem :) |
At the second lock, a boat
was already in, but the lock-keeper waved at us to come in as well. This was good as it meant we were right at
the back, but also that the other boat would trigger the sensor, so we wouldn’t
need the brolly again!!
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| The mist soon cleared and it was so much easier going up with the cruiser in front. |
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| Not quite sure how that got there! |
We pulled in at Montchanin
for the night and after doing some more painting, enjoyed the sun while reading
on the front deck and making some travel plans for the winter months. We were joined by another couple of boats and
later in the afternoon the lock keeper came to ask if what time we’d be leaving
tomorrow. “Ten thirty”, Mike replied. “Ten o’clock.” Nodded the lock-keeper in
agreement. “Ten THIRTY.” I replied. “Ten o’clock.” He confirmed and left bidding
us a good evening.
The next morning we were just
sitting down to our breakfast at 10.01 when the lock-keeper appeared. “You are leaving at 10?”. “We’ll be ready to leave in 20 minutes if
that’s possible?” I replied. He grunted,
said, “OK”. And went off. Either he’s really efficient and works to a
tight schedule which has no flexibility or he has OCD…….. Eitherway, he was polite, did what he needed
to do but wasn’t in the mood to chat with us.
We didn’t care, we were elated because………WE WERE GOING DOWN!!! Oh, the joy, the ease, the smooth, easy speed
of descending the locks and we seemed to be done with deep ones! It was a lovely day’s cruise and the lockie
headed off at 11.50 leaving us to do the last couple ourselves. In no time at all we had pulled onto the
pontoon outside the large, new L’Eclerc at Montceau les Mines and did two trips
to the petrol station for diesel, we were at the lowest we’d been for a while
on fuel. We then took our time doing the
shopping as it’s a lovely supermarket, and really, a visit to a big supermarket
is like a day out for us – so full of things to look at and not buy.
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| Autumn colours galore |
We then headed along to the
lock that would take us to the port at Montceau where we would spend the night,
slightly nervous as to whether there would be space for us as when we’d arrived
in April we had got the second to last space, just managing to squeeze onto the
end of a pontoon.
We needn’t have worried. It was like a ghost port, to the point that I
thought it must have closed down. There
were four boats, two that looked lived on and were perhaps there for winter,
and two that were a bit rickety and closed up but the rest was empty, including
one whole pontoon finger that had signs on it saying it was closed as it was
dangerous. So we moored up, and Mike
went up to the Capitainerie, still enjoying his newly restored ability to walk
without pain, where the chap was on the phone and said come back later. Well, at least it was open for business! We duly returned and paid our 3euros 40
mooring fees (no electric or water included) and settled down for the night.
Another hot and sunny day
followed as we left Montceau under its three bridges and headed for the port of
Genelard, where we had first met NB Puzzler with Sally and Andy on board back
in April. It was an easy cruise with each
of us single-handing down the locks when the other was busy doing something and
not meeting any other boats – it was sooooo quiet!
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| The middle bridge, with the footbridge behind in the distance, next to Mike's left shoulder. |
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| Waiting for the last bridge to open |
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| An old tile factory on the way to Genelard |
We stopped at Genelard for
water, and then continued on to the next village of Palinges. We’d stopped at Genelard the last time we
were here, so decided that we should stop somewhere different, and as we approached
Palinges, we saw Out of the Blue moored up, who we’d last seen at Saint Dizier
on the Champagne Bourgogne. We caught up
with Yvonne and Roger on board and then as I settled down to get another coat
of paint on the front locker, Mike went for a look at the village and came back
with some cakes from the patisserie – yum!
We then relaxed with our books until the sun disappeared and the
temperature dropped and we headed inside and put the fire on.
Another lovely day awaited us
and as Out of the Blue cast off at 10am, we decided to give the boat a quick
wash before our departure time of 10.30am heading towards Paray le Monial for
the night.
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| The last lock into Paray le Monial, with the lovely park alongside |
We moored up on the free
moorings beyond the port as we didn’t need electricity or water and after doing
some more painting, took the Ninebot out to play. We are now adept at starting, stopping and going
in a straight line, but we’ve not had much opportunity to practice our
turning. Mike has even got quite good at
shuffling his feet into a better position once on the move, but I’ve yet to
reach that level. After that, with the
realisation that my muffin-top was making an unwelcome return and I need to be
ready for my bikini in a few weeks’ time, I decided to try a run. Since January, each time I’ve run I’ve had
some knee pain about 7 or 8 minutes into the run, even with supports on. Having rested it for a few months, I thought
it might be okay , but the problem was still there, so I hadn’t run for a few
months. I headed off and all was well,
until 7 minutes in. I continued for
another minute, then stopped and walked a minute, ran a minute until I got back
to the boat. Even doing this though,
during the minute run, the pain was kicking in after 45 seconds – most annoying,
as I was enjoying the run!
Back at the boat I got my
weight out and did some squats, lunges, leg lifts, arm lifts, some tummy
exercises and finished off with the plank and 10 minutes of stretching. When I started running back in 2014 I had
been doing two kettlercise classes a week, so my legs were strong, and I think
over the years of not doing the weights, my muscles have weakened and hence the
knee pain now when I run. So I’ve
decided if I can build the muscle up around the knee again, it should be
okay! We shall see……..
After a quick shower, Yvonne
and Roger popped round for a pre-dinner drink.
They are also heading to Roanne for winter but are not looking forward
to being moored in the one place for five months, so are going as slowly as
possible to eke out their time of freedom until the last minute.
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| Paray by night |
So we left them at Paray the
next day and having seen a couple of boats pass us, assumed that the locks were
open and that the local lock-keeper was not taking part in the national strike
day. It was slightly overcast, but
actually warmer than the previous few days, although not as sunny, and as we
cruised along we were rained on by colourful leaves falling – very autumnal – I
loved it.
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| Lots of leaves! |
At Digoin we walked out to
the pont du canal (aqueduct) over the River Loire – very impressive, and then
headed into town for some messages. Back
at the port we paid our dues for one night and settled in for the evening. The next day would take us onto new
waterways, as we would make the turning off the Canal du Centre on to the Canal
de Digoin au Roanne for our last few days cruising of the season.
