France; Canal Boat Trip, Day 4 - Cours-les-Barres to Herry

8 May

From the journal:

“We awoke this morning to a world that was wet, wet, wet – and very windy. After eating breakfast in the warm and snuggy salon on our boat, we noticed that another Crown Blue vessel which had spent the night tied up at Cours-les-Barres was about to depart. Oh my, oh my! Like our boat, I think it was only a couple onboard that vessel, and I’m pretty sure they were German. The “skipper” managed to reverse into the starboard side of our vessel twice, and then crashed very heavily into both banks, around again, crunch into the jetty. They were then heading for our vessel again, and I noticed the lady on board had the mooring spike ready to push against our boat. I shouted at her not to do that. Unbelievable! We watched, stunned, as they did a couple more 360 degree turns, him getting more and more angry and her getting more and more voluble.  Phew, were we glad when they eventually headed off in the opposite direction to where we would be going. We really couldn’t even say if that is where they wanted to go; we sort of feel that in the end he just powered ahead, irrespective of what way the bow was pointing. Imagine meeting people like that in a lock; very scary prospect.

Lovely Cours-les-Barres

After securing the boat, we rugged up, grabbed our brolly and went for a nice long walk through this lovely little village. We were just blown away – it is so charming, so beautiful, and so much what we had wanted to see in rural France. Perfect! 

Found a great little patisserie/boulangerie and bought some wonderful cakes – Paris Brest (oh, to die for, honestly). We have to give a big thanks to the travel guides we read before coming to France because they all pointed out the importance of manners, and the need to greet people when you enter a shop.

We were always careful to offer a “Bonjour Madam” or “Bonjour Monsieur, Dames” to all present as we entered a shop, always careful to say hello to people before actually saying what we needed or asking for directions. It pays off: you are then always greeted with a smile, great helpfulness, and, on leaving, a “Bon journée”, which of course sounds so much more genuine that the horrible “Have a nice day”.

Yay, a non-Gothic church.

We took a few photographs so we will have some pictures to remind us of this town, which also has a wonderful, warm feeling to it, unlike Nevers. Wish we had more time here.

Heading off, we noticed our friend, the heron, was with us again. Every day as we set off, he joins us, doing his job of flying ahead, stopping for a while for us to catch up, and then heading off up the canal again. I don’t know if this happens with all cruisers, but it’s just fabulous each morning to look around and see him there, as if he has spent the night waiting for us.

We will be back one day, Cours-les-Barres

Passed some great scenery along the canal, including a couple of really blow-you-away chateaux, particularly the Chateau de St Léger, just outside St Léger-le-Petit. Stunning.

We didn’t manage to take photos on today’s run as the weather was positively diabolical – cold, windy and oh so wet. We still wanted to sit up on top, though, in the outside driving position, and – confession time – I spent half the day with a black garbage bag tied onto my head as a rain bonnet.  I was really wishing I had one of those old bonnets, honestly – or perhaps a shower cap. Actually, that’s probably a good idea for future trips.

A quite funny little incident happened at the lock at ecluse 28, Argenvières. The lock-keeper had been really helpful and extremely nice at this and the previous lock which he looked after, and so we offered him one of our little Aussie souvenirs, a boomerang fridge magnet. It was the soft, magnetised rubber sort, not a metal thing with a magnet on the rear. Well, he turned it over and over in his hands, not knowing quite what it was. He then thought he had figured it out, and, thinking he had discovered its purpose, held it against his shirt sleeve, assuming it was some sort of badge/patch to be sown there. I had to hand him the bow line, go inside the vessel and demonstrate its use by sticking the magnet onto the boat’s fridge. I had been saying “Pour le frigo”, but either I had the wording wrong or my accent made it totally incomprehensible. He then seemed really pleased with the gift, but I couldn’t help feeling that he didn’t know what a boomerang was. Note to self: stick with kangaroos and koalas.

Our travel guide, Monsieur Heron

We had planned to stop for the night at La Chapelle Montlinard, but that place was awful beyond belief. A few boats were tied up there, but right next to the mooring area was a huge, neglected old factory, complete with broken windows and all covered with graffiti. Yuk!  Needless to say, we ploughed on. It was a real shame as we had hoped to visit La-Charité-sur-Loire ( how could you not want to visit a place with such a lyrical name?).

 And so we came to Herry, a delightful looking village, where we gratefully tied up and were able to get below, into the warmth, out of the awful weather. A welcoming hot shower, fresh, dry clothes, a couple of hot coffees, and we felt wonderful again.

Soft jazz on the iPod, a bowl of yummy potato and cheese soup accompanied by toasted baguette spread with lovely oozy camembert, fine chocolate, and a bottle of wine, and we were in heaven.”

See you tomorrow.

France: Canal Boat Trip, Day 3 - Nevers to Cours-les-Barre

7 May

From the travel journal:

“The day started beautifully with a delightful Welshman speaking to us as we walked through the carpark towards the steps, ready to walk into town to do our shopping. He and his wife, Hazel, are retired and now spend nine or so months of the year living on their charming boat, and the other three months back in Wales. They just cruise around all over the European waterways, but Nevers is their “home base”. We asked him for directions to the nearest store, but he said that he and his wife had noticed my bad limp and so he offered to drive us to a good sized supermarket so that we could do a big shop. This was an absolute God-send as my ankle was really painful. It was just lovely to find such unexpected kindness; it really restores your faith in humanity.

I really wish I’d caught his name, but it was one of those situations where you know you have been told but don’t like to ask again. Anyway, he – lovely man – drove us to a large supermarket where we were able to really stock up, including buying a couple of thick jumpers. The weather had been so warm, verging on hot, in Paris that we assumed it would be like that down here in Burgundy and not brought enough warm gear with us.

Heading back to the main canal.

When we got back from the shops we realised that we didn’t really have time to explore the city, and I wasn’t really in a position to do so, and so we filled up the water tanks, thanked those kind boating neighbours, and set off. We couldn’t really hang around, because tomorrow is the 8^th of May, which of course is a holiday in France to celebrate the end of WW2, and even the harbourmaster – a very helpful chap – at Nevers couldn’t tell us whether or not the locks would be operating, so we couldn’t take the risk of being stuck somewhere and not getting to the end of our cruise on time. It’s a shame really, because this place seems so interesting, and the port facilities here are really excellent. Ah, we’ll be back another time, I’m sure.

Lovely canal-side houses

Because we had set off so late, and because there was a really slow, rather long boat in front of us, we didn’t make it through the second automatic lock out of Nevers before the lunchtime closure, and so we tied up to a little jetty and enjoyed the warm sunshine and a delicious, simple lunch – our favourite, Paris ham, cheese, tomatoes, baguette, and of course wine.

Wonderful scenery.

After leaving the Nevers area we came in due course to the absolutely amazing Pont-Canal du Guetin, a “canal bridge”, or pont, high up over the Allier River. 

Approaching the Pont-Canal du Guetin

This pont-canal is not only really beautiful – classic, elegant design – but quite an amazing experience, sailing slowly along that ribbon of water and looking down over the side of the pont to the river far, far below. The pont-canal leads to an incredible, and quite challenging double lock, which drops you, in two stages, under the main road of this incredibly pretty village of Guetin.

And across we go. Fantastic!

As with so many locks, locals and passers-by stop to watch the boat go through the lock. It sort of makes you try that little bit harder to get the ropes secured properly and to actually look as if you know what you’re doing. It’s really fantastic, though, being on a boat going through a lock and having an interested audience smiling and waving at you from a bridge or a canalside. It’s a great chance to call out a friendly “Bonjour”, and to hear back “Bon voyage” as you depart the lock – really a lovely aspect of a canal trip.

We then had one rather small lock to pass through on the way to our destination, Cours-les-Barres. Going through this lock, which of course would seem small anyway after the huge drop of the double one we had passed through, provided a great little bit of entertainment as there was another vessel there, crewed by two elderly couples, one French and one Italian. They had, I think, had quite a bit more vino than us to drink and were very merry. We called to each other, chatting in our variety of languages and accents, hand-signalling when communication was difficult. When they realised that we were all the way from Australia, they started kangaroo hopping around the back deck – the ladies immaculately groomed and sporting enough jewellery to sink a smaller boat, the men looking a bit dapper, all doing Skippy impersonations. 

By the tie-up point at Cours-les-Barres

After passing more stunning scenery, and catching glimpses of chateaux on hillsides, we pulled up to the quay at the absolutely picture book pretty village of Cours-les-Barres for the night.  

What a beautiful spot - invites a walk.

Once the boat was secured, we were off and wandering. What a lovely place, and what a perfect spot to spend the evening.”

Catch you later.

France: Canal Boat Trip, Day 2 - Canal Lateral a la Loire to Nevers

6 May

Straight from our travel journal:

“We awoke to a freezing cold morning on the beautiful Canal Lateral a la Loire. The fields were all misty, and everything looked beautiful, like a washed out watercolour of a million shades of green. 

A cold morning.

The Cirrus was lovely and warm thanks to its great heating system, and we soon had the kettle on for coffee, and some cereal and toast happening before setting off on this crystal morning.  We arrived at our first lock just after 9.00, full of anticipation and excitement. 

Our first non-automatic lock.

There we were, absolutely freezing, and were rugged up with coats, hats, gloves, scarves, and – what – here comes the lock keeper in nothing but polo shirt, shorts and sandals. He was an absolutely delightful fellow, and even though he was dressed coldly, his smile was the biggest, warmest, most welcoming you could wish for on that morning.  This guy looked after three locks, and I found it a pleasure to get off the boat and help him with the workings, turning the whatevers and trying to chat away in my limited French.  

Love these locks - so exciting.

We had taken with us a few Australian souvenirs, things like key rings, fridge magnets, pens, but this man was so lovely, and such a great start to our boating holiday that I actually wished I had something a bit nicer to give him other than a small token of our thanks for his assistance. 



Mind you, at one of the locks I didn’t actually get back on the vessel before the water level dropped down and so I had to walk along and board once the boat had passed through the lock. The lock keeper told me that that was no problem, there were some stairs I could go down to a little landing and so I’d be able to get back on the boat there. My ankle injuries make me not the most stable of persons, and I’m not particularly good with things like ladders and stairs at the best of times. So, there I am, watching the boat pull in towards the bank, and I’m looking with absolute horror at these stairs I’m supposed to descend. I’m sure they were 5000 years old. They were old, they were stone, they were rough, they were very narrow, they were extremely steep – and there was no handrail. Apparently my trusty skipper was watching, thinking I would never dare to even attempt them but that I would instead decide to walk along the towpath until I found a more convenient spot. Somehow in some dark corner of my mind, however, lurked a bit of courage and so, fearing at every step a major catastrophe, I nevertheless made it down. Wow, the adrenalin rush was amazing. I am still so proud of myself. 

Are you looking at me?

The next two locks were looked after by a different chap. By the time we reached the second lock it was lunchtime – have to remember that all the locks close smack bang on time for lunch, whether there is a boat in the lock or not – and so we tied up at a mooring point just near the lock and enjoyed our lunch on the front deck, looking over the lovely countryside and breathing in that amazing clear, clean air. The lock house and gardens were absolutely charming to look at, and the scene was made even more idyllic by the antics of some rather cute goats in the lock keeper’s yard. 

Stunning scenery along the way.

After clearing this lock, we cruised on to Nevers, branching off the main canal and passing through two automatic locks. At the second one, unfortunately, I jumped off the boat a bit too enthusiastically. The boat was higher up in the lock than I realised, and so it was a big jump. Guess what ankle I landed on? Ah, THE FOOT! Agony, the sort that goes through your body and you feel you will never move again. There were people around, and another boat in the lock, so I had to put on a brave face until I could get back on board to swallow a few Panadeine Forte and get a compression bandage happening. 

Love this shot - it graces our loungeroom wall.

Getting into Nevers is just beautiful, stunning scenery, and then a straight road of water lined with stunning trees, and along the towpath people strolling, kids cycling, dogs running. Fantastic!  

After securing the boat, we walked into town, looking to buy some bread and wine, but discovered everything was closed. We found a little café open just over the bridge leading into the centre of town, and so we were able to sit and enjoy our surroundings while sipping a great espresso or two. I did ask a couple of people whether there was an epicerie or alimentation nearby, but they all said that, no, everything was shut. So, heading back to the marina we stopped at the caravan park, where a super helpful staff member was able to oblige us with wine at least. 

The "road" into Nevers.

This town is really impressive, very medieval in appearance, and with some great historical titbits. I believe it also produces some fantastic pottery. Definitely worth having a better look around tomorrow when hopefully my foot will allow a few hours walking, but that just wasn’t possible today – just getting into town and back again was about as much as I could manage. 

And so to settle in for a quiet night tied up at this great little marina.”

Catch you tomorrow when we head off a little village that just captivated us totally.

France: Canal Boating Day 1

5 May

After breakfast we had a final walk around, popping in to a chemist to pick up some hay fever medication – yep, all those lovely falling white flowers with their lovely falling pollen were having an effect - and a new umbrella before a walk-through of the Tuileries. We left our large suitcase in storage at the hotel, taking only a couple of carry-on size bags, and then checked out of the hotel, grabbed a taxi and zoomed off to the Gare de Lyon to catch our train to take us south, to Burgundy, for the next stage of our holiday. 

We easily found our seat on the train, only to discover some Frenchman sitting comfortably ensconced in one of them, happily reading his paper and sipping a coffee. We checked our ticket numbers and told him that he was sitting in one of our seats. He just smiled, apologised, and moved down the carriage to his allocated spot – he had obviously simply decided that our seats were better ones and had hoped that they were unoccupied. We stored our luggage overhead and settled down into the super-comfortable seats. Right then and there we fell in love with rail travel in France.  

Why would you stress out on the autoroutes when you can sit back, read a paper or book, have a meal, a drink, access to clean toilets, and watch the stunning countryside roll past? Lunching on baguettes and a bottle of wine in our seats, we gave up on reading our books and just relished the views of chateaux, forests of a green we had never seen before, and charming, picture book villages. 

Oh, and one thing I have to share with you: on the train there was a special little area, about half a carriage in length, I would estimate, which was set aside as a play area for kiddies. The walls below window height were all thickly padded, and there were toys on the floor. It was just lovely to see this, and to see children happily spending the journey in there, having fun as kids should. 

Something else which also really impressed us on the train was the stress on respecting the comfort of your fellow travellers, and this means: if you want to talk on your mobile, leave the main carriage and stand in the between-carriage spaces to hold your conversation, or if you must stay in your seat you have to keep your conversation really low. Oh, and no blaring music either. Wow, impressive! 

We had to change trains at Nevers – a famous city, and the one where Julius Caesar apparently had his war chest stolen. What?? Wow, stories and history at every turn aren’t there. The railway station is not the most salubrious of places, but by this stage we were so excited that it could have been a tin shed and we wouldn’t have cared. 

The trip from Nevers to the town of Decize, where we were to start our canal trip, was a short one, and so we were soon there. We were met at the station by Florent, from Crown Blue, now under the umbrella of LeBoat, and driven to the spotless, well-maintained marina. Completing the paperwork with Elys, a member of admin staff at Crown Blue, was completed quickly and easily, and we were then shown our boat, the Cirrus.  It was love at first sight for us.  While my man spent time learning the ins and outs of the vessel, all the necessary technical “stuff” and how to operate her, I happily unpacked our bags and then checked out the excellent fit-out, opening kitchen cupboards, discovering the clever layout in which not an inch of space was wasted.



Our boat



This was our first trip to France, and our first boating holiday, and we had left all the arrangements to the fantastic staff at the French Travel Connection in Sydney. Susan, who was the consultant we dealt with, had herself done a few of these boating trips in France and so she was able to advise us from first-hand experience. She recommended this particular cruise as being scenic, having lots of little villages to pop into along the way, and with a perfectly manageable amount of locks for a crew of just two people. Susan also gave us details of shops and restaurants along the route, and various other little tips that you only get from someone who has actually been there. For future trips we made all the arrangements ourselves, booking everything direct, but for the first time traveller – cruiser particularly – I think it’s fantastic to have such experienced and helpful staff to rely upon.

Now, back to the boat. David, the engineer who was providing the pre-cruise instructions then got my husband to start up the vessel, go for a little cruise, practise a bit of manoeuvring, and then pull up back at the jetty and  moor the vessel by the necessary method before handing over the keys and all the paperwork and wishing us a bon voyage.

We had been advised that there was a large supermarket almost opposite the marina, and so we took advantage of its proximity and did a fairly big shop, stocking up on cheese, wonderful Paris ham, breads, terrines, butters, etc, and of course quite a bit of wine. We actually thought we’d done a really big shop, but of course it turned out that we really had not bought nearly enough. 


Isn't this gorgeous.



Many people spend their first night on the vessel at the marina, setting out on their cruise first thing the next morning, but we were too impatient to do this, so as soon as I had put away the shopping and got the kettle on to boil, we set off. To exit the port area and turn north towards our final destination, Chatillon-sur-Loire, we had to pass through our first lock. This was an automatic lock, and it opened automatically as we approached, which was great. Into the boat our lock went, the gates closed behind us, the water level dropped, the gates in front of us opened, and we sailed out, out onto the canal, its green banks lined with stunning trees that dropped their blooms all over the water. A heron rose from the rushes along the side of the canal, flew over the Cirrus and headed straight forward in front of the boat, as if to say “Follow me; I know the way”.

It was already quite late in the afternoon, and the sky was darkening rapidly, and so we pulled up to the bank and secured the vessel by way of mooring spikes pushed into the earth. We went for a walk along the tow path, feeling happy enough to burst that we had now actually began this wonderful trip.

Our mooring site.

Sitting on the front deck, we dined on delicious ham and pate, cheeses and tomatoes that tasted the way tomatoes used to taste years ago before we started gassing them and turning them into flavourless red globes. We sipped wine and chatted softly – any volume would have jarred with these beautiful surroundings.  As the evening wore on the sky got blacker, and blacker, and blacker. I had never known such darkness; it was complete. Add to that the silence, amazing silence. It was almost as if we had been picked up and placed in a black box somewhere, isolated from all life on earth.

Getting darker

Did I say silence? All was shattered by the loudest thunder I had ever heard; it sounded as if very heavens were being ripped apart. And just so the ripper knew exactly where to tear, blinding lightening lit everything up with light so bright it almost hurt your eyes. Oh, and of course it rained – no, that’s wrong, it pelted down. So, here we are, night one on the canal boat, and we are smack bang in the middle of a storm of Hollywood blockbuster proportions. It was amazing!



What a place to spend the night - wow.



Catch you later.

France, Day 7: Petit Palais, Paris Illuminations

4 May

Reading through my journal for today is fantastic. As I read, I am reliving every delight I felt at the time, and so I have decided to once again simply quote from that journal. 

Today being our last full day in Paris before heading south to do our canal boat trip, after breakfast we strolled along rue de l’Opera to have another glimpse of the fabulous Garnier Opera House, and then around past the Madeleine – lovely, classical building.

The Madeleine

 Looked again at Maxim’s with that “should we or shouldn’t we”, but decided that it’s probably not us. Perhaps her little sister, Minim’s, which is right next door, is more to our style.

A long lovely stroll through around The Tuileries and then down to the river left us perfectly positioned to take a right and walk along to the Petit Palais and Grande Palais, magnificent buildings constructed – as so much of Paris was – for an exhibition, the 1900 Paris Exhibition.

Some else strolling with us.

The Grande Palais is now used for specific events, such as touring exhibitions, while the Petit Palais is a permanent gallery open to the public. This is not the Louvre, but it is absolutely sensational, with ceilings that take your breath away and a truly spectacular art collection.

Petit Palais

Stunning entrance.

Okay, I’ll ‘fess up: I prefer it to the Louvre. Its creamy walls and colourful ceilings, without all that opulence, make it the loveliest place to visit.

One painting in the Petit Palais which really caught my attention and claimed me for quite some time is a rather large work of “The Good Samaritan”. It is truly beautiful, and I think will prove to be unforgettable. It’s such a different depiction to the sanitised pictures we have in our Sunday School lessons, but I imagine so much closer to reality.

It’s easy to pass hours in this delightful place, and then to enjoy a long, leisurely (what else!) lunch in the café and restful gardens. Even though there were a few people around, this is obviously not somewhere that most tourists to Paris all rush off to see and so it’s an excellent respite from the crowds of the Louvre, the d’Orsay and such places.

My busted ankle was really giving me trouble today, and so after leaving the Petit Palais we caught a Batobus for a nice long circuit of the river – a great way to rest the ankle while still gazing on Paris.

Verandah of the Grande Palais

Grande Palais
(not nearly as pretty as the Petit Palais, is it)

In the evening we dined at our favourite Café de Carrousel. No, it’s not the food; it’s definitely the location. Sitting at an outdoor table across the road from the Louvre and with Joan of Arc triumphantly sitting astride her horse is pretty hard to beat.

After dinner we joined a Cityrama Paris Illuminations coach tour.

The Conciergerie

The city is truly spectacular at night, as we knew, but it was great to see it from the different perspective of seats high up in a tourist coach – well recommended, actually. The Eiffel, need I say, is incredible. Although it’s lit up beautifully anyway, it has an amazing flashing light display which goes for 10 minutes every hour, and the coach tour was perfectly timed to coincide with that. Notre Dame is also pretty impressive at night – I think the darkness suits such buildings.

Notre Dame

So too is the incredibly ornate and imposing Hotel de Ville (town hall), which looks big enough to house the whole European Parliament.

Hotel de Ville
(Paris Town Hall)

The Montmartre/Pigalle area at night definitely looks a bit seedy, and I think everybody on the coach was surprised at how small the Moulin Rouge looked. That famous red windmill is in reality only half the size it looks in movies.

I really enjoyed our coach tour and think it’s a great way to spend a couple of hours, even if you have seen most places on foot during the daylight hours.

Sleepy people now. I phoned Crown Blue today just to confirm all is well for our canal trip, and so tomorrow we’ll leave Paris for Decize and the next exciting phase of this holiday.

See you then.