HIGH RIVERS AND FAST FLOWS

We're stuck in Auxerre for a bit longer than anticipated as the river is closed for navigation in both directions. We're in the middlle of the worst floods here for 60 years! It's rained and rained for days, the river is running very fast and has risen by about half a metre. It's a good thing we're in a boat, and just go up with it, rather than in a house. 

The local paper. This garage looks a bit damp! Is there a car in it?

Huge logs/trees keep passing us and the ducks just can't make any headway upstream. They end up going backwards and eventually give up and fly instead! 

The river next to the lock, 100 yards from us. I think we'll stay put for a while!

The unfortunate people in the boat behind us have given up and gone home. They hired the boat on Sunday for a week, did a days cruising, arrived here yesterday just before the river closed and all 8 of them sat in their salon, crowded, getting bored, cold and dejected for a day. This morning they hired a minibus and went back to collect their cars which were left about 15 miles away. Don't think it was their best ever holiday. What a shame!! It could have been so different if the sun had been shining or the river hadn't been closed. Even the expensive hotel boats aren't going anywhere.

AUXERRE -CATHEDRALS AND CAKES

Came to Auxerre as an interesting place to be sans Margaret whilst she had a quick UK trip. Known to be 'pretty' and it is. Big cathedral, huge abbey and many, many churches. Must have been a religious lot. The crypt in the abbey was started in the fourth century and with its more recent ninth century frescos is stunning. The town is a maze of small streets to be explored. Soraya's mooring is great close to restaurants, bars and shops. Not to mention the tourist attractions.

Our mooring right in the centre of the city, below Abbaye de Saint Germain.

Auxerre is a lovely town for just wandering around, bimbling, the jumble of architectural styles, the maze of streets and tiny squares/open spaces.

One of the many streets with medieval timber frame houses.

There are lots of places to stop for coffee, beer and patisserie. Shame!

Patisseries au Eric Roy.

Well I thought we hadn't had cake porn for a while. I can assure you the purple bomb with cassis is sublime.

We have a slight problem at the moment, the not too good weather, yes the rain, has very seriously increased the river height and flow. VNF have now closed the river/locks so it's stay put. For us that's fine. Tough for the people hiring boats they can't go anywhere for the week. Well, there is always a trip back to the patisserie, or the pub? Tough choice, could be both.

CHÂTEAU DE TANLAY

Yes another château and it's still in private hands. It could do with a bit (lot) of money spending on it. All the same fascinating. The brochure states that '..... each generation has contributed to the castle's interiors, maintenance and enrichment'. This may have been the case in the past, we felt the château is now kept for the very occasional party, wedding or family gathering.

Margaret at the entrance. Like the pyramids, just for architectural effect.

Most of the rooms we were not allowed to photograph as they are still 'used' by the family.

Part of the château, plus the obligatory moat. Not a duck house in sight.

La Grande Galerie en trompe-l'oeil, by King's court artist Remy Vuibert in 1648.

Remarkable, including pigeons flying around, not sure they are a good idea.

Fresco in the 'Tour de la Ligue', one of the towers.

The fascinating fact about the fresco is that the room was a meeting place for Protestant allies in the religious wars and the people depicted in the fresco are the most significant politicians of the period illustrated as gods and goddesses. Not sure if we would get away with depicting our leaders naked in a semi public space. Mind you I don't think I would want to see them as naked figures from classical history.

I could mention the Grand Canal leading to the monumental Nymphaeum........

HUILERIE

We came across this huilerie (oil manufacturers) in a very nondescript town of Brienon-sur-Armançon on the Canal de Bourgogne. Whilst the town was ordinary the Huilerie was literally unique, apparently the only one of it's type and age in France. Actually called 'Huilerie artisanale Suguenot-Schultz'. Originally when started in 1809 it was basically equipped . This was gradually improved and in 1886 it got the state of the art machinery at the time, which is still in place and working. Well as they say if it works don't fix it. This stuff works and works. It was in the same family until 2003, 6 generations, when it had a short period 'en silence' due to illness. It was then acquired by the current owner who has carried on the tradition.

The sign that drew us in.

The main mill, where 'le mulage' takes place.

Manufactured in 1886 weighing in at 4.5 tonnes of marble, 2.6m diameter, it's quite a sight. The mill crushes the walnuts, hazelnuts, rape, sunflower seeds, linseeds ...... before moving onto the presses to extract the oil.

The presses with the current owner.

The oils are then filtered, heat treated (wood fired of course), or whatever is required for a particular oil before bottling. I think the only charge since the 1800's is a credit card machine. The oil is lovely and the place fascinating. A working museum, that was never set up to be a museum.

GNOMON

No, I didn't know what it meant either..... It's a meridian line or the part of a sundial that casts a shadow. It was traced on the floor inside the Hôtel Dieu in Tonnerre. When the rays of the sun come through a tiny hole in the wall, it is noon in Tonnerre.

Hole the sun shines through

Part of the Gnomon in the Hôtel Dieu

The sun shines in a beam onto the floor and illuminates the time, day and month. The area and length was much larger for the winter months as the sun is much lower. This was constructed in the 18th century by a Benedictine monk. Unfortunately the day we were there it was cloudy so we had to use our imagination!!

LAVOIRS

Lavoirs come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. We've seen some really impressive ones recently near the Canal de Bourgogne. Doing the daily washing  was obviously a great social occasion.

La Fosse Dionne at Tonnerre

This is fed by an underground spring and has been recently restored.

The 18th century oval Lavoir at Brienon. 

This one had wood fires installed inside it in the 19th century. That must have made the washing a much more pleasurable task!!

The long Lavoir in Migennes 

A smaller, more intimate, Lavoir in Brienon

ASPERGE DE BOIS

Asperge de bois is wild asparagus, Ornithogalum pyrenacium or to those who come from Bath, 'Bath Asparagus'. It is also called Star of Bethlehem. It is not closely related to the normal asparagus Asparagus officinalis. Wild asparagus is normally hard to find and very rare to buy. Cruising into a lock on the Bourgogne canal I saw a sign saying 'À vendre - Asperge de bois, Champagne .....' As the saying goes, it would be rude not to. Whilst Soraya was going down in the lock money changed hands and goods transferred.

Asperge de bois.

The lock keeper arrived with a great bundle of asparagus, enough for a few meals. It was yummy. Not as overtly tasty as normal asparagus but very good.

LE CHÂTEAU d'ANCY LE FRANC

We are running through 'La Route des Ducs de Bourgogne' and there are some amazing châteaux. We recently moored at Ancy-Le-France as there was a château we had heard of that apparently had incredible interiors. As they say in the flyer for the château 'Le Palais de la Reaissance Italienne en Bourgogne'. I would say incroyable!

The interior courtyard. Liked the raked gravel, all in different directions.

The château was built in 1542. It's real claim to fame, I feel, is the flamboyant interiors. Every room is totally different. The château has been recently bought, 1999, by a French/Parisian property company who has and still is spending huge amounts of money restoring the place. Not quite sure why.

A corridor.

A dining room.

A private, one person chapel, off the private chapel for the château.

This is potentially slightly confusing as the decoration is based on 'scull and cross bones'. Not what I would feel is appropriate for a private chapel. Perhaps I could be enlightened as to scull and cross bones with water drops decorations for a chapel.

Sitting room.

Yes lots of gold. I assume the conversation went. 'I want lots of gold'. 'Is that enough gold?' 'No I want some more'. To be fair the suite, 3 rooms, were done for a visit by the King. Unfortunately the King's PA double-booked the diary and he never came!

These are a very small selection of the interiors. One of the most stunning châteaux we have been to.

RELIGIOUS STUFF

I'm not into this stuff, as you probably know, but there are some good bits. Recently in Tonnerre we went to the Hôtel Dieu. A 10th century institution looking after the ill and poor. Lots of stuff, however, there is an amazing sculpture of The Entombment of Christ. Not my core subject but the sculpture was good, very, very good. One of the oldest and well preserved representations of this genre,1454 Burgundy art.

Part only of 'La mise au tombeau'.

So when you've finished with the serious stuff there is always the new board game. Those Internet and video games will never have the longevity of 'Récréation Spirituelle'.

Récréation Spirituelle.

Was it ever a best seller? Did it end up sending you to hell if you committed a mortal or even a venial sin?

NEW DESSERT

My new favourite friend a unique 'potentially' dessert in Tonnerre.

A dessert made from amongst other things Chaource, a local cheese, one of my favourite cheeses.

Not sure of its name, it was amazing. OK the bad news if you have Charource you have to have it with Champagne. It's the old terroir story.

A CLOSE CALL, SAVED BY A FRIENDLY ÉCLUSIER

Luckily we had been warned by an American bargee that the road bridge at Écluse de Tonnerre was low. He was right. The lowest bridge we have as yet encountered. We exited the lock 'very' slowly under the road bridge and our height tell tale at the bow was immediately bent. All stop! 'No problem' said the éclusier 'I will lower the pound, I will return'. He jumped on his scooter and vanished down the canal.

Margaret seeing if we are touching.

He returned a short while later and the water very slowly started to lower. We waited. When we thought we had dropped enough we edged forward Margaret shouting instructions, slowly, slowly, stop, stop!

Checking the clearance above the gang plank and Blue Board.

Finally we emerged. Phew that was close!

HAS ART MOVED ON? YOU DECIDE.

This is an interesting column finial from Abbaye de Fontenay founded in 1118. Great detail and personality.

What is she/he saying?

From the sublime to the ridiculous, a bizarre almost 'Black and White Minstral' artistic interpretation of a person.

A bollard in an écluse in the midst of the Canal de Bourgogne.

And a current exhibition of steel sculptures in the grounds of Château d'Ancy le Franc.

I feel he is quite relaxed.

Exactly as I feel after a bottle or two of Chablis, our local wine. I know which sculptural pieces I prefer.

REPAIR DAY

Things always happen at once and last Saturday was the day when both the scooter and my bike were out of action. Scoots sprung a fuel leak as we were driving along and I had punctures on my bike in both tyres! So we had to set to and repair them.

Geoff, head in Scoots finding the fuel leak

Margaret taking her bike apart

The outcome was that Scoots had a split pipe which Geoff replaced. I had a faulty valve on the front tyre, new inner tube, and two punctures on the back tyre!! A while later, all fixed and put back together.......then later that evening, back tyre flat again! We need a bicycle repair man!! Where are you?? Very frustrating after all that work.

WILDILFE, WELL HARDLY

Recently moored in Montbard, there are better French towns but we did manage a Friday night pizza, A traveller in a van down the quayside had these 2 very cute chickens. They were out all day on the canal bank doing what chickens do and returned to a tiny hutch in the evening.

Margaret the intrepid wildlife expert. Yes the three of them are all happy.

Only the next day it was cows, in this case Charolais variety. Very much the local cow in restaurants or the boucherie.

Margaret with her new friend. Yes he was asleep.

OUR DAILY ITINERANT COMPANIONS - VNF

We've mentioned éclusiers many times and they are all employed by VNF (Voies Navigables de France). On some canals or rivers the locks are permanently manned, such as the Grande Gabarit, commercial canals. Others we have a zapper, others have a pole dangling over the canal that you have to twist as you go by. Here on the Canal de Bourgogne we have lock keepers that drive ahead, normally on scooters and set the locks for our entry.

Zapper. Deliberately very chunky, hard to loose.

The éclusiers come in 1's, 2's, 3's or clutches to set the locks. They are generally great and good fun. There is the odd...... say no more.

These two were great, lovely characters.

The scooter transport, with a car visitor. Perhaps a 'très compliqué'

We sometimes have enthusiastic helpers! All good.

CHAINS OR ÉCHELLES AND BOUE

We are entering a section of intense locks formed into 3 chains or échelles (ladders). Échelle de Marigny 16 locks, Échelle de Chassey 6 locks and Échelle de Pouillenay 18 locks. 40 locks in total. These are in addition to the locks either side that are not included in the ladders. It will in theory take 3 days to complete! 

Page from our navigation guide showing the locks.

We got the feeling something was not 100% on the canal as we tried to arrange to leave a delightful mooring Pont Royal for the next day. The departure time was always 'plus'. We decided to check prior to casting off the next day with a local lock house. Calls were made and it became evident that there was a delay. We were told an éclusier would come and see us. He arrived and stated it was '....très compliqué'. OK it was agreed we will go tomorrow. We left as agreed and all good until we were waiting for the lock to be prepared in a short bief (pound, the stretch of water between locks). When ready to move forward into the lock I realised we had been beached (grounded). This got worse and Soraya was at an angle! We got ashore and after conversations with the éclusier it was agreed to reflood the bief as it was about 400mm lower than it's normal level. This took a long time! An hour later after a lot of revving and bowthrustering we eventually got off. This is the worst grounding we have ever had. So into the next lock. Things got worse. Lots of conversations and after the lock emptied and the gates opened we could see the problem. The next bief was 1+ metres lower than it should be. We draw 1.2m and the water level in the canals are normally maintained at 2.1m. Do the maths, if you remove a metre we are in the boue (mud).

Side of canal, the top of the dark mark is the normal water level.

We negotiated and said we would not move until the next lock was ready for entry about a third of a kilometre away. Hand signals were given and off we set in the boue. At almost full revs we were making little progress, literally ploughing through the mud at about a kilometre an hour. It was a long 3-400 metres. We arrived at the lock and I got the bow in. Soraya then seemed happy to go sideways. No. Foot hard down and we entered the lock with full revs, sucking out of the mud. If we release from the mud too quickly we will be entering the lock at 'grande vitesse'. Yes just a small amount of stress. Lots of conversation later, the bief must have developed a substantial leak. And the 'très compliqué' was probably whether we should go through or not. Personally I think they will have to close the canal and sort out the leak.

The good news is the rest of the biefs seem normal, we will certainly have honed our lock skills to perfection after this flight. Did I mention the other locks.......

LOCKS

Locks, locks and more locks!! We have been through 54 locks in the last 7 days of navigating. They're very straight forward as everything is done for you. We have our own éclusier (lock keeper) who scoots/drives along to the next lock and prepares it all and then does the whole procedure for us. Sometimes we have two or even three éclusiers to ourselves as there are no other boats around. You can help if you want (see below) but the éclusiers don't expect it.

Some of us work hard at it......

Others are more relaxed.

The difficult part is getting into the locks as we don't have much spare room on either side and the lock walls can be very unforgiving. The other thing we have to do is tie up so we don't get pushed around when the water is let in, it can be extremely fast. 

Lassoing the bollard in a lock

My lassoing skills have improved greatly. The bollard is actually further away than it looks. All I need now is a horse and a cowboy hat!!

All the locks have names, this one's my favourite, especially for the girls!!

My favourite lock name!!

SAÔNE TO SEINE BASINS - VOÛTE (POUILLY TUNNEL)

We've been navigating in the Sôane/Rhône basin for almost a year. However, the other day we crossed the watershed into the Seine basin on our way to Auxerre, Paris and many other places. This crossing involved the Voûte or Pouilly Tunnel. It's quite a piece of engineering 3330m long and very low, completed in 1832. It has quite a reputation in French canal circles. Not many people 'do' the Voûte, in fact we heard that on average there are only 2 boats passing through the tunnel a day in the navigation season. Prior to undertaking the tunnel we had to strip down Soraya, the first time since leaving the Thames, as we were too tall. Off with the wheel house, the blue board/wind generator, crane, flag etc. We were then given instructions, sign a liability form, a departure time, a permit du passage and a VHF radio by the canal staff.

Soraya ready for the off, all stripped down.

Entering the tunnel is quite spooky, it's so long and only partially lit. The width is barely wider than Soraya and the height as can be seen from the photographs not much higher even in a stripped down state.

Yes it was very tight.

The good news is, it's straight so you can see the end, although it took us 1 hour 15 minutes to complete. It seems a lot longer than an hour and a quarter when navigating 80 tons of steel with only a few centimetres spare on either side. We also had to wear life jackets, a requirement.

Geoff focusing on the 'light at the end of the tunnel'.

At either ends of the tunnel there are a kilometre length of 'cut' which is almost as difficult to negotiate, as it is the same width as the tunnel plus it bends.

The canal cut out of the tunnel.

Looks more like a drainage ditch than canal but this is the link between Paris and the Saône and hence the wine region of the Bourgogne. Originally the barges were pulled by hand through the tunnel by 6 men. This took ~10 hours for the transit. Steam driven tug boats were then used in 1867 but the fumes from the coal fired boats caused deaths by asphyxiation. An electric tug was later introduced in 1893 which was successful until its retirement. Now it's over to yourself. A great experience.

The electric tug in its preserved state next to the canal in a shelter supported by cardboard tubes.