GEESE

One of the joys of a life afloat is the rich variety of wildlife. Recently a couple of Bar-headed geese (Anser indicus) arrived. Apparently they are from the Far East and have taken up residence in parts of Europe. Very attractive approximately the same size as Canada Geese.

Bar-headed geese next to Soraya.

We also have a few Common Pochard (diving ducks) along with the normal Mallards, Coutts etc. Personally I don't think the Pochards are too common at all. 

CLUB NIGHT

It's Friday night so it must be club night. A quick trip to 'Barbarians', a meal at 'Le Piano qui Fume'. Followed by music and dancing on Soraya. All your favourites are available with a new enhanced experience of 'disco lights'.

Relaxing after an epic dance routine.

THOUGHT

I think it's a great title for a town square. Is it where you go for a deep thought, a discussion, a debate or even an argument or perhaps just to deliberate. Speaker's Corner?

Main town square in Saint-Jean-de-Losne.

It may be that 'délibération' means something in French that I am unaware of.

BROCHET AU BEURRE BLANC

Normal Saturday morning in Les Halles marché Dijon looking for interesting food. Very unusually one of the fish stalls had a few large brochet (pike) almost a metre long. It had to be bought. So it's 'Brochet au Beurre Blanc' for dinner. Watch out for the bones apparently.

Brochet in Les Halles

Beurre Blanc is the classic sauce for pike in France. Refer to the blog post 'Les Pêchers 19/12/2014 for a recipe. So it's a court-bouillon to cook the fish with the beurre blanc sauce, so simple. Or as a friend of ours says '....how hard can it be!'

MOUSTACHES - THE WAY AHEAD?

As you are well aware moustaches are the new black. I even sport one myself, in case you have not noticed. In Dijon even the péniches are getting in on the act.

Péniche 'Cancale'

To get a curl like that on a moustache you need a lot of wax, as my wax states on the tin 'The gentleman's stiffener'. Perhaps péniches use stern gland grease?

CONTEMPORARY ART AND TOILETS

It can be difficult to judge when you're in a gallery or a cafe toilet at times. Looking at the installation on the walls of the toilet at Bareuzai cafe it is a much more interesting installation than the 'art piece' at FRAC (Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain) in Dijon.

Bareuzai. Well at least you won't run out.

And why don't they have toilet seats?

Modern 'art' installation at FRAC.

Yes the '4  13  and 14' are the installation. There were a few other random numbers elsewhere in the two rooms.

CULTURE AND COFFEE

You know how it is when you spend time looking around historical buildings and artefacts. It does not matter how interesting they are, after a while it's time for a coffee. At Musée de la Vie Bourguignonne in Dijon located in the cloisters of the Bernadine Monastery, which displays a collection of rural and urban ethnography from the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century. This was definitely the case. Well it would be after that title! There were very good bits together with the obligatory collection of brown and dusty bits.

The sign for the kitchen section of the museum.

Mustard pots, well it is Dijon.

One of the attractions of the museum was the 'street' of shops with original interiors, fittings and produce from the 1800's and early 1900's.

Pristine collection of wooden toys.

A good coffee at our latest favourite coffee shop, Le Comptoir de Colonies.

Don't mention the price of tea! compared to coffee. It did come with cake.

THE PÉNICHE GARDENER

You will have heard of or perhaps seen 'The Constant Gardener' well, on the French canals we have The Péniche Gardener. You can't stop an avid gardener even when there is no obvious garden. The winters treat is fresh 'Champignons Blond ou Crème', Chestnut mushrooms. A remarkably good crop from such a small container. Once harvested they will be placed in the cellar (Soraya has a wine cellar) and they produce a second and third flush, hopefully.

The latest crop. Chestnut Mushrooms.

During the warmer months we have a constant supply of fresh herbs.

The herb gardener.

All looking good, not sure where the orchard is going to be, unless we go for bonsai.

BARGE REFIT

A recent friend of ours has bought and is completely refitting a very upmarket hotel barge, Hemingway. Basically it's take out all the interior, walls, floors, ceilings, pipes, wires, fittings and start again all on a tight timescale in time for the 2016 navigation season. Bookings have been confirmed it's just a matter of well everything!!

The container arrived from America via Le Havre, just needs unloading.

Container backed up as close as possible to the barge. Don't drop anything down the gap. A helping hand was required so 5 of us passing boxes, furniture, beds etc from the container into the barge salon. Job done in an hour, extra time incurs additional haulage costs. The trouble is the salon is now 'full' prior to redistribution around the barge after the refit.

MARCHÉ AND MEALS

Continuing our culinary quests in the heart of gastronomy in France we always go to the Marché on Saturday morning. As well as many delights, and a few oddities, we came across this great gold medal winning cheese.

Jura Flore Comté, Bio. Excellent.

Out in the evening for a bite, tried the very popular Grill'Laure. All the food cooked on a wood fired grill and a separate wood fired pizza oven. 

The grill and a hot chef.

You certainly would not gain weight working in front of that fire every night. The heat was intense. The food superb, quite rustic with a great wood fired taste. For those of you interested they were cooking on Beech.