Wednesday 20th October 2010 Melay to Roanne. 25 kms 3 locks

Beautiful Burgundy tiles.
Briennon church tower.

7.5°C Warmer overnight, but pouring with rain when Mike got up at 7.30 a.m. The météo had promised a sunny day with white fluffy clouds that didn’t occur until we had tied up again. We set off at 8.35 a.m. with the brolly up. The rain had turned from a downpour to showers while Mike was gathering up the electricity cable and getting the boat ready. I lifted the bed and found our winter boots out as I didn’t want cold wet feet. Spotted cattle egrets among the cows in the meadows bordering the Loire and later a pair of buzzards. Around 9.45 a.m. I ‘phoned the keeper, Daniel (Lizanne gave Mike his number and name), at Briennon to tell him we’d be there in an hour. The port at Briennon was almost chock a block with moored boats. Lock 3, Briennon (2.96m) was empty with both gates open even though I’d said we were narrow and he could open one gate for us. He took my rope and put it on a bollard for me then filled the lock slowly on one gate paddle. We left the top at 11.00 a.m. with 4.4 kms to the next lock. The same keeper worked the next lock, 2 Cornillon (3.04m) and this time he had only opened one gate, the left, but once in the chamber the wind effect blew us across to the right. We left the top just after twelve and wished our keeper a bon hiver – a good winter - and we’d see him again in spring. 

Old crane at Briennon moorings.

8.3 kms to the last lock. At the next bridge there was a weir taking water from the pound to below the lock which had water jets keeping the debris, leaves etc from going over the edge. I went in the cabin and made lunch, a sandwich for me and cassoulet for him; I ate mine while his was heating up then I steered while he ate his lunch in the cabin. While I was preparing lunch he called me to see nine white storks soaring up on thermals to gain height. We’d not seen any storks in this part of France until a couple of days earlier when we saw a pair. Unusual for them to be here this late in the year. As the canal went into the town we passed high fences with barbed wire around the Arsenal and shortly after more high fences, this time around a modern prison building with two high sentry boxes at opposing corners of the walls. The first sign of the town centre proper was a road running alongside on the right bank with industrial units beyond. 

Aqueduct carrying a stream over the canal. Roanne.

The lock up into the basin, 1 Roanne (0.60m) was ready with one gate open, on the left, and Fred the lock keeper worked the lock for us lifting the boat less than half a metre up into the basin. Noted the flood marker of 1866 half a metre up the wall of the lock house. It was 2.00 p.m. when we left the lock. Past  the Capitanerie on the left and lots of new built boats (British replica DBs for the most part) on the right on the side nearest the town. Elizabeth II, a very smart klipper moored on the left, gave a hoot as we passed and we waved to the crew. Half way along the basin on the left there was a gap that we dropped into in front of G. V. John and Lizanne came out to take a rope and say hello. We organised our mooring lines and Mike set the TV up. Sorted out the electric with our new neighbours and we plugged in. Mike had to move the boat a bit further up the quay as Lizanne had said that the Capitan (Hervé) would object to the mooring pins we’d had put in to keep the boat against the wall. Checked the Internet. Whoopee! 3G! The sun was out between clouds so there was quite a contingent of promenaders along the quay. The Winter starts here!

Tuesday 19th October 2010 Melay. Day off

0.8°C That’s cold! Pouring with rain when the alarm woke Mike. We were going to move up to Roanne but not in the wet! The camper was leaving as we drank our tea and coffee. Mike decided that if and when the rain stopped he would move the car up to Roanne (dodging the police barricades as it was another “protest” Tuesday) and come back on the moped. He left at 11.45 a.m. taking his waterproof/windproof trousers plus his thick jacket and gloves. Fortunately he didn’t get entangled with any protesters but he did have trouble finding his way into Roanne and into the basin from the eastern side of the town. He had a chat with John and Lizanne who told him that the space in front of them would be vacant until the end of the month when its usual winter moorer returns. 

Monday 18th October 2010 Melay. Day off

Grey and cold, but only a few spots of rain. We went by car to find the Carrefour hypermarket in Mably on the outskirts of Roanne. Lucy GPS found it easily for us and we went through lots of small farming villages in the heart of Charollais cattle country. Had a look round for things we had been considering buying, like a new TV aerial (44€!) - I liked the omni-directional one; then collected the groceries, including two jars of Mike’s favourite ginger jam (used to be called marmalade!). Back for a late lunch. A large campervan, French with local 42 plates, had parked opposite the boat about 50m away by the trees. After lunch the guy from the camper came across to tell Mike that there was an electricity supply. We’d missed it! And it was a whopping 32 Amps for each of two, two-pin, sockets. We reeled out the long cable, which astounded Mike as it almost reached the supply point, but we had to add another cable anyway  with the right connector. The chap from the camper said it was a good supply and he was running his heating as it was going to be a cold night. Connected up one of our small panel heaters to heat the bedroom so that made it quite cosy without lighting the central heating. 

Sunday 17th October 2010 Avrilly to Melay. 13 kms 4 locks

Bottom end gates on shaft lock 7 Bourg-le-Comte.

4.5°C getting colder again. Rain overnight, cold – still only 5°C and overcast but no rain when we set off at 9.30 a.m. 3 kms to the first lock. A British registered Recla, painted maroon and grey, was moored by the first bridge below lock 7, Bourg-le-Comte (7.13m). No signs of life at the lock so Mike gave a couple of hoots and a young (20-something) lady lock keeper appeared and opened both gates on the shaft lock. I put a short rope from the side dolly on the front deck around a rung in the ladder and Mike had a series of hooks in a recessed groove to put the stern rope on, neither of which were absolutely necessary as the keeper lifted the right hand ground paddle first which kept the boat glued to the right hand wall. Our keeper had never seen a narrowboat before and she was amazed when we said we were OK to leave the chamber through one lock gate. 3.8 kms to a flight of three locks. I made a cuppa to try and keep out the chill. The camera started playing up, wouldn’t switch on, then when it did it wanted the date and time setting, which it normally only does when the battery has been changed. 

In the 7.13m deep chamber of Bourg-le-Comte

No boats were moored at Bourg-le-Comte village, but a man leaned out of a house window and asked Mike in English how he was! By the third bridge below the next lock we spied DEFRA tape around a hole where a stream ran under the canal in a culvert – please don’t let that collapse while we’re moored in Roanne! (There had been several bank collapses over the past few years that had caused boats to be marooned there.) Another young lady in her twenties worked the next lock, 6 Chambilly (2.46m), which had both gates open. She put a rope on a bollard for me then opened the wrong paddle first, it was not fast filling so we could cope and Mike kept the boat alongside the lock wall with a little burst of forward gear now and again. 

Gate opening/closing gear Bourg-le-Comte

She drove the 500m up the towpath to lock 5 Montgrailloux (3.20m) in her car. This time there were no ground paddles, only gates, and she wound halves, starting with the right (correct for us) side. She only did the two locks, she told us her colleague would work the deep one. Another 500m and we were at lock 4 Artaix (6m) where a young man, also in his early twenties, worked it for us. Again we put ropes fore and aft on the ladder by the bows and hooks at the stern. The boat rose slowly without any problems, glued to the right hand wall by the flow from the ground paddles. It was 11.55 a.m. when we left the lock; again, the lad was amazed that we could get out through one gate. Just timed right and he was off to his lunch, so we wished him merci et bon appetit.

Redundant lock house - they replaced two locks
with one deep one. Bourg-le-Comte

On to the long pound 18.2 kms to the next lock but we weren’t going all the way today. It was 1.15 p.m. when we tied up on an empty quay at Melay. Mike went off on the moped to collect the car from Avrilly. I made myself some lunch and had only just eaten it when he returned. We put the bike on the front deck and he had his lunch. DB-nb Sulaskar went past heading downhill just after lunch. Put some more fibreglass on the parabola to make it solid as one inside panel was still free of the others. The Internet was still on GPRS low speed. John P had sent an email to say there was a Port Party on Thursday so he would tell Pascal that we would be there unless he heard to the contrary. Looks like we’ll be going to a party!

Saturday 16th October 2010 Avrilly. Day off.

Rain, as predicted by our weather station. Had a lie in. Three boats passed, going uphill in the rain, before lunch. After lunch Mike put more glassfibre and resin on the parabola. He lit the Refleks, (which behaved), once it was burning fully across the pan he switched it off before the cabin temperature soared as the outside temperature had crept up to double figures (the day before it managed only 8°C max outside). A large yellow cruiser that we’d seen several times before went past heading uphill, followed by a fat narrowboat. 

Friday 15th October 2010 Molinet – Avrilly. 18.2 kms 3 locks

Lock 10 Bretons. Canal de Roanne a Digoin

Foggy, visibility not too bad when we set off at 9.30 a.m. but cold and damp. Turned right at the junction on to the Roanne à Digoin canal and arrived at the first lock 10, Bretons (2.85m) at ten. The lock light was on green and a VNF man with a VNF car was there. Noted that there were weirs on this canal (unusual for French canals where they either weir surplus water over the lock gates or leave feed paddles at both ends open) These take surplus water from the pound above and empty it just below the lock on the right hand side -  a sign said beware – remous (whirpools, ie swirly water). We went in the chamber slightly sideways and I yanked the blue cord, the gates started to close and the keeper appeared. He offered to take a rope but didn’t insist when I said we were OK at the back of the chamber without one, thanks. The lock filled, very, very slowly.

VNF van with worse bodywork than our ZX!

I took a photo of a VNF tipper van which had holes in its cills parked by the workshop. It took fifteen minutes to work the lock. Once the gates started to open our keeper was on his way in his car up to the next. The lock lights remained on red and green for quite a time and we wondered if there was downhill traffic due, but then they went to red and the gates closed behind us just as we turned the bend and the lock went out of sight. 1.3 kms to lock 9 Beugnet (3.00m). This time the keeper was waiting by the controls and pulled the blue cord for us as soon as we were in the lock. I asked if all the locks were now automatic and he said no, only the first three, then it’s back to windlasses! On the road near the tail end of the lock there was a van with a tar heater on a trailer. The flames died out on the heater and a great puff of white vapour enveloped the trailer, then with a great loud BOOM! that made us jump the thing relit itself. The lock gates opened and we set off, 1.1 kms to lock 8, Chassenard (6.0m) the first of the deep chambers. 

Lock 8 Chassenard - first of the deep ( 6m) chambers.

A couple in a car held up a small child to see the boat as we went into the chamber. Slowly the boat rose in the chamber so I went inside and made a cuppa. Waved bye-bye to the child as we motored out of the lock on to the 15.7 kms pound. Mike had told the keeper we would stop somewhere on the pound and not move on Saturday as rain was forecast but would be at the next lock on Sunday morning as long as it wasn’t still raining. The long pound was quiet – a sign by the junction had said “Roanne canal – the tranquil canal” and they weren’t wrong. We saw no traffic (none the previous two days at Molinet either) and only a couple of fishermen. Probably the weather was putting people off, it was very chilly. Out came my gloves and fur hat, my boots (and Mike’s) were still in summer storage under the bed - I’ll find then out later. 

Inside the deep chamber of Chassenard

We shut the stern doors and the pigeon box and then opened the inner engine room doors so we’d at least get the heat round our feet and legs as we sat on the stern. I made us a cup of soup. A coypu swam across the canal in front of the boat and wandered slowly up the bank and along the path, totally unconcerned about the boat. Later we saw a pair of buzzards, loads of cormorants and jays and a beautiful pair of kingfishers. Near Bonnand we passed the site of one of the breaches that occurred a few years back where the canal was on an embankment close by the Loire. The side opposite the river had been steel piled for a couple of hundred metres (on our right) where the bank had collapsed. After the embankment the canal went along the base of a low hill on the right bank with occasional views through the trees on the left across the wide flood plain of the Loire. 

Mooring at Avrilly. Derelict mill beyond trees.

We didn’t remember the mooring at Avrilly next to an old abandoned mill, which was not surprising as we hadn’t been on the canal since 1996 and never stayed there. It was just after 2.00 p.m. when we tied up. After lunch I gave Mike a hand to unload the moped down the big plank and he went to collect the car from Molinet. I checked the Internet – only GPRS, 56 kbps – slow. Mike was back around 5.30 p.m. with a loaf he’d picked up in Molinet’s depot de pain as he’d seen no boulangerie at all. He put the bike on the front deck rather than on the roof. Mike cleaned the Reflek’s filter (not much in it) and then cleaned out the burning pan. It wouldn’t burn properly so he turned it off and said he would have a good fiddle with it next day. (The central heating is always stubborn after its summer rest!) 

Thursday 14th October 2010 Molinet. Day off

2.6°C even colder overnight! A chilly day with fog that lasted until the afternoon and a cold wind. Coal fire still going, will need to put the central heating on if it continues to be so cold. On with the chores. Mike went into Digoin for petrol for the gennie. Police were keeping traffic out of the town centre so there must still be protests going on about the Government plans regarding the retirement age and pensions. Ran the engine and Markon to do more washing and ironing. Mike rang the Citröen dealer in Paray; the part had arrived – were they going to phone us? They said they would and didn’t, typical! After lunch Mike went to top the car’s tank up plus get a container of diesel for the boat and collect the new part for the ZX from Paray. 

Mike (in mechanic mode) with new part for the ZX.
Amazing what has to be done to keep an 18 yr old car on the road!

He decided to get the job done while it was dry and it went pretty well as he was finished before five. We went for a ride in the ZX to test it out and book the first lock on the Roanne canal for ten the following day. Surprised to see the lock was now automatic – but the lights were switched off. We had just taken down the two phone numbers on the door of the small workshop alongside the lock when a VNF man in a van arrived. OK for ten tomorrow? Yes. Hope the weather is a bit better! Back to the boat. On the French news the strikers were still blockading the oil refineries, a popular target for the unions in any dispute with the Government as secondary picketing is allowed here. The evening was getting colder so Mike lit the central heating for the first time this Autumn, but turned it off before we went to bed as it wasn’t burning correctly and the temperature hadn’t slid down as far as the night before. 

Wednesday 13th October 2010 Molinet. Day off

3.4°C overnight Really glad of the coal fire! Warm sunny day after thick fog first thing. Mike used his Dutch “dremmel” for the first time (must have bought it five years earlier) to cut the wires with a minute cutting disc on our cheese cloche 3G antenna while it was on the cardboard former, severing it into four sections so they could be overlapped and moulded into a parabola, then he put fibreglass matting and resin over the joins to seal it all together. No ‘phone call from the car dealer’s so Mike ‘phoned them. The part hadn’t arrived, but they have another delivery at 3.30 p.m. Mike went into Molinet to post a birthday card. 

Tuesday 12th October 2010 Molinet. Day off

Sunny and warm. Glad of the coal fire overnight. Mike sent a text to the neighbours asking if they still wanted a new controller for their solar panels and asked if they were coming to Poland with us in 2012. The reply came back, yes to the first and probably not to the second. Jeff from Montchanin had rung to say there was space at his place, Nick said he’d already paid to moor in Nevers and we could have the place if we weren’t already fixed up. Mike told him we were going to Roanne. Next he phoned Majorie (in Belgium) to tell her there would be two narrowboats on the trolley as Snail would like to do some painting too. Then he texted the Snails to say we were OK for dry docking next year. Olly phoned him back, they were stuck at Charleville-Mézièrs waiting for a stoppage to finish on the Meuse lock. After lunch we went shopping at Leclerc in Paray. Drove the fast route on the N79 except there was a set of traffic lights just as it becomes dual carriageway for one way traffic as there was some work being done on a bridge. The queue of lorries coming the opposite way was something we’d not seen since border queues from Poland to East Germany. Then when we arrived in Paray there were gendarmes everywhere on the turnoff into the centre of town – the direction we needed for the centre commercial – and no one was permitted into town. Back round the island and a long a road running parallel to the N79, then crossed it and came back parallel to the N79 on the town side and found the Leclerc. Nice new modern store and their prices were not too bad. Traffic was well snarled up when we left the hyper. Found an agricultural suppliers and Mike got a new spark plug for our Honda gennie, 5,02€. Still no access permitted by the gendarmes out of town on to the N79 or off the N70 into town and we found out why when a group of men at an island handed Mike a leaflet – it was a day of protest by various unions about the French Government’s plans to raise the retirement age. (Now we known why the overnight parts delivery wouldn’t arrive until Wednesday due to postal workers having a day off to wave flags) We had to go back towards the centre of town, crossed the canal and turned right to take the old road through the centre of Digoin back to the boat. Home around 5.30 p.m. Mike did emails. He’d had one from John to say they were at Melay and would be in Roanne at the beginning of next week. Paul had also sent an email to say he was back in the UK after leaving Liberty in St-Jean-de-Losne next to some Brits who live on their boat and will keep an eye on it for him. He said he’d had fun modifying his loo and had a mishap with his gennie which sounded expensive, maybe a broken piston ring according to Ron! Mike thought not, broken piston rings are generally quiet, it’s more likely his starter motor. 

Monday 11th October 2010 Pierrefitte to Molinet. 11.2 kms 2 locks.

This is a narrowboat - really!

Another example of bad English

Grey and overcast until late afternoon. Mike went for bread to the UGA superette and the miserable woman in the shop, who was washing down the counter with a bowl of dirty water, pointed to a “Health and Hygiene” notice on the bread basket informing customers that they must not handle the bread as he had just helped himself and put a loaf in our bread bag. He had to respond with “Is the notice there for only you to handle the bread?” He didn’t want her to touch the bread with hands that had been in that filthy water. He told her that he hadn’t seen the notice. We set off at 9.20 a.m. DB Maya from Jersey was moored to the towpath at the edge of the village. A young man in a van was at lock, 3 Odde (2.66m) which was empty with one gate open so I got off and went up the steps with my locking rope to drop down to Mike. On the lock side there were adverts for both grocery stores in Pierrefitte so I took a photo to show what bad English UGA had written. The lad said he would be working the next lock for us. 3.2 kms to lock 2 Talenne (2.51m). Again it was ready with one gate open. This time I stepped off on a wooden landing below the lock and went up with my rope. Our lock keeper asked where we were stopping. Told him Molinet and we’d be there a couple of days if the quay was empty, if not we’d go on above the three locks on the Roanne canal to Croix Rouge.

Just enough room for us on the quay at Molinet

5kms to the quay so I made a cuppa. Pleasant cruising, nothing else moving but us. No one on the quay so we winded to have the side doors on the outside. Sulaskar went past 35 minutes after we tied up. Lunch. Mike said the quay was ideal to do work he wanted to do on the car so I put the laptop on to find the nearest Citröen car parts dealer (we got blue! 3G!) and found it was at Paray. I gave Mike a hand to get the bike off the roof. He went to collect the car and I cleaned the rubber tyre marks off the roof then potted up some new plants. I hadn’t quite finished when Mike returned. Helped put the moped on the roof and finished potting up the shrubs and bulbs. Mike wanted to find a Citröen dealer to get the part to repair the car so we went to Paray-le-Monial. Took a turn too early off the N79 and went through the middle of the town. The dealer’s was by Intermarché. Mike ordered the part and had to pay 190€ for it and 10€ +TVA for the search to find it! Should be here on Wednesday. Back via the N79 (we should have taken our new map with us as we dropped off the fast road not far from Molinet – we could have gone that way!) and back home. An empty péniche called An-Ju went past heading uphill. Mike lit the coal fire as the evening was getting chilly.

Sunday 10th October 2010 Pierrefitte. Day off

Grey, overcast with a few sunny spells. Mike was up early to watch the F1 from Japan. I got up just before it finished. Vettel won. Started the engine to run the Markon and I did some washing. Nothing moving much for days then one up and two down loaded péniches passed in the pound around 12.45 p.m. and a French cruiser gave up following the downhill ones and paused in front of us. The two that came down were, Reginald from Antwerp followed by Heide.E from Rotterdam, then Mazzel went uphill. The lock keeper came to ask when we were moving, well timed as we were ready for moving on, so Mike booked the lock for 9.30 a.m. the following day. The cruiser set off again just after 1.30 p.m. Later a DB-styled narrowboat called Sulaskar came past and moored in front on the sloping edge of the basin. When Mike went out later the skipper off the DBnb paused for a few words en route to the bottle bank. They’d only just this year brought their boat over and were going up the canal a bit before heading back to Nevers for winter.

Saturday 9th October 2010 Pierrefitte. Day off

Warm and sunny. Mike was disappointed to find they’d taken the Japanese qualis off which were supposed to be on ITV from 6.00 a.m. UK time. Now moved to 1.50 a.m. British (because of torrential rain). He said he’d get up and watch it (he didn’t!). On with the jobs. Mike went to get some bread from the UGA superette in the village and then put his cardboard former together to make a base for moulding the wire-mesh cheese cloche into a parabola. Quiet, just a couple of Dutch cruisers went uphill after lunch. 

Friday 8th October 2010 Pierrefitte. Day off

Warm and sunny after a hazy start. Mike checked on the Internet for Citröen dealers and sent one an email (in French) to ask the price of a lower suspension unit as he’d changed his mind and said he would fit a new one (an item that needed changing during the next two years according to the Control Technique). After lunch we went out in the car to get some coal. Mike had found a yard selling “combustibles” at Coulanges, the next village up the canal, in Yellow Pages and we called there and bought a sack of boulettes for 16,60€ but they had no other coal. Carried on into Digoin and went to the Bricomarché. They had anthracite, but like the previous Bricomarché, they only had the small stuff, 20/30 (mm), so Mike bought a bag as there was no alternative. I bought a selection of six miniature shrubs for 5,95€ which will look nice in the roof planter. Back around five p.m. My blog reader had sent me an email with more about constructing antennas for WiFi and signal boosting dongles, with links to websites. I passed it to Mike as it was too technical for me and he found it very interesting. (Thanks again, C! We're working on it) Still just us on the quay (plus a few fishermen in the afternoon).

Thursday 7th October 2010 Pierrefitte. Day off

The beach - lake alongside the canal at Pierrefitte.

Warm and sunny all day. Did a few chores in the morning then after lunch we went for a ride out in the car through the Parc Règional du Livradois-Forez. Into Saligny-sur-Roudon where there is a magnificent country château surrounded by a moat with lots of towers and turrets, then cross country to Vaumas where we followed the valley of the river Besbre south into Lapalisse. West a short way on the N7 following loads of lorries, then southwest towards Vichy and swinging southeast at Cusset on the D995, following the valley of a fast flowing stream called the Sichon through Ferrières-sur-Sichon up to the pass at 824m at Beaulouis, then descending the valley of a tiny brook called the Aix to St-Just-en-Chevalet. Southwest again to Noirétable and northwest to Chabreloche then back through the national park via Palladuc where there were lots of little houses along the hilly road for quite some distance before the forest was uninhabited again on the way back north to Ferrières-sur-Sichon. Carried on northwards to Le-Mayet-de-Montagne and to Lapalisse and back to Pierrefitte via Saligny-sur-Roudon. Back on the boat around 5.30 p.m.

Wednesday 6th October 2010 Pierrefitte. Day off

Sunny and warm. We went shopping at Leclerc in Digoin as the nearest Carrefour was 50kms away at Moulins. Mike had a new pair of casual leather shoes for 19€ and slippers for 4,50€. The rest of the grocery was a bit more expensive than C4 plus their veg was dearer and rubbish. Looking forward to shopping at C4 in Roanne or a decent C4 Market. Spotted DBs Goede and Isabella moored side by side on the short quay at Molinet just before Digoin. Back home for lunchtime. Nice crusty cobs. Mike decided to turn the hinges over on the wooden boards he uses to protect the solar panels. Once turned over, the hinge pins now caught on the glass where the nuts did before, so he took them off altogether. 

Tuesday 5th October 2010 Pierrefitte. Day off

Mooring at Pierrefitte, canal lateral a la Loire.

Heavy rain through the night woke us several times so we didn’t sleep well, consequently we were still snoring when there was a knock on the cabin at 10.30 a.m. so Mike stuck his head out the side doors to say au’voir to John and Lizanne and Anna and Nigel who were off to moor two locks up by the junction at Digoin. John insisted he would cycle back to collect the car later. I got on with the chores and Mike went down into the engine room to check what bearings he had in store. Turned out all of them had been part used so he wouldn’t change them until he gets new ones from the UK. He put out samples to take back with us of the two types he needed to get. After lunch he went for a nap and I put my laptop on. Had an email from a blog reader (thanks, again!) with very interesting info about WiFi. I did a bit more on Ancestry and accidentally discovered the first person in my tree to leave a will, so I purposefully set about checking wills in my immediate family. Unfortunately the most recent records were in 1941, but my great granddad’s will was there (for an iron moulder he left a staggering £930 in 1924 to his widow and two of his sons) as was his widow’s (she left £210 to my granddad and his brother) Just us on the quay overnight. Brilliant stars with an absolutely clear sky, you could count the stars in the Pleiades! 

Monday 4th October 2010 Pierrefitte. Day off

Pouring with rain. Mike went a walk into Pierrefitte in the rain to post the logs and picked up some bread (no pain, so he had two expensive baguettes). He set the Markon up for me to do some washing and ironing. After lunch the rain stopped. Later we watched the first of a new series called The Titanic Mission, this week about reconstructing one of the ship’s anchors, originally made at Hingley’s at Netherton (now sadly demolished and the site occupied by a factory estate) but a copy made at Forgemasters in Sheffield. They also re-enacted transporting the anchor on a cart towed by twenty shire horses to the middle of Netherton where it now rests as a monument. Must remember to have a look at that when we’re back in the UK

Sunday 3rd October 2010 Diou to Pierrefitte. 6.18 kms 2 locks

Mooring at Diou

Warm and sunny with a good breeze blowing. Clear blue sky first thing clouding over as the day progressed. Mike went to the boulangerie for a loaf (expensive 1,15€) before we set off at 10.15 a.m. The hireboat that had been in front of us on the quay overnight had left before nine heading uphill. It was quiet and peaceful on the 4kms to the first lock, the only people about were Sunday morning dog walkers. As we went through the bridge on the turn to the final straight below lock 5 Putay (2.50m) we could see a Canalous moored below the lock and a Locaboat was fast catching up. Mike decided the Loca wasn’t coming past to shut us out of the lock so he increased speed. (We’ve had it happen before where a boat will force past immediately before a lock and then there isn’t enough space left for us, ignorant or what? Damned car drivers!) The keeper, a man in his fifties, opened the gates and the Canalous went in, timed just right for us to follow in behind him. The Loca looked as if it was going to try to get in the chamber too. I went up the steps with a rope to drop down to Mike. The lock keeper thought I was off the Loca and said he couldn’t get three in the lock. 

Disused bottom end ground paddle (tambour) at lock 5 Putay,
canal lateral a la Loire

I pointed out that I had a rope to drop down to our boat and the penny dropped. The same keeper did the next lock. As we left he said he would let the Loca through the lock (it was doing pirouettes below) and then come up to let us through lock 4 Theil (2.50m) which he did. The skipper off the Canalous wound a top end gate open on lock 5 and I did the same on lock 4. I told the keeper we would be at lock 3 at 1.00 p.m. as we were heading for Coulanges. We arrived at Pierrefitte and spotted Goede in the layby so we had a quick change of plan and moored behind our old friends. John and Lizanne came out to take ropes and invited us on board for a drink. John volunteered to drive Mike down to Diou to get our car. Meanwhile I had a look at Lizanne’s new bedroom as John had done some renovation and the bed was now in the middle of the cabin with headboard against the wheelhouse bulkhead and lots of storage underneath in drawers. Very, very nice. She said he’d taken a lot of persuasion to demolish his previous handiwork! The men returned and we all sat out on the back cabin roof in the sunshine and had a glass of wine or two. Some friends of theirs from Roanne arrived when the locks reopened after lunch so we all gave a hand to get them moored in front of Goede and we bid them bon appetit as the skipper, Nigel, had been slaving over a hot wok all morning (he said) to make them all a curry. Mike set the TV up and finished putting all the stuff away that we use when cruising. Later the French weather forecast said rain tomorrow and then OK for the next two, but our weather station said rain for three days – it will be interesting to see which proves right! 

Saturday 2nd October 2010 Diou. Day off

Sunset at Diou

A milder night - glad we didn’t bank the fire up! Warm and sunny again. Klipper Torsk left before nine and had left us some British newspapers on our back deck, which was nice of them. We went by car to Bourbon-Lancy looking for coal supplies at the Bricomarché, they only had anthracite 20/30 (very small stuff) and bags of logs. They also had nothing else from our list of things to get from a brico - like a new brown rubber backed mat (too expensive), carpet tiles (got none), butterfly valves (got none), parcel tape (too expensive) and their power tools cost a small fortune – over 100€ for a delta sander. We had a look in Intermarché for veg that we didn’t get the day before and came out appalled at their prices, we have really been spoilt by shopping at Carrefour - it would be worth a long distance drive to Moulins if we needed to stock up but we’re starting to run stocks down now as it will be only about a month now before we go back to the UK. Back on the boat at 11.30 a.m. there was a LeBoat moored in front of us and another joined during lunchtime. 

Friday 1st October 2010 Diou. Day off

After a chilly night blue skies with white clouds, mainly sunny and warm. Nb Kells had gone when we got up. Had a lazy morning. Lunch. Mike lifted the solar panel to get the most charge out of it before we went into Dompierre to Atac to get a few groceries. Surprisingly the small version of Auchan seemed much dearer than Carrefour. Back home to find we had a klipper (DB) called Torsk moored on the quay in front of us. Mike spoke to the lady on board, she said they had been on the Doubs and were going to Nevers for winter. Mike lit the coal fire.

Thursday 30th September 2010 Beaulon to Diou. 12.3 kms 3 locks.

Grey and overcast, rain showers from mid morning until mid afternoon. We prepared to set off around nine. The blue widebeam called Renaissance was in the lock, 8 Beaulon (2.40m), at nine, we were too wide to lock together. Mike chatted with the American skipper off Rival while he refilled our water tank, he said he’d booked to go at nine but he’d got visitors on board and wasn’t in a rush, so he’d leave at ten. We set off at nine thirty just as hotel boat Hirondelle (French for swallow. Our second boat was called L'Hirondelle, a wooden Dawncraft cruiser that we restored and owned from 1971 to 1973) went steaming into the empty lock. (Hotel boats with passengers have priority at locks) I walked up to the lock with my locking rope to drop down to Mike. The Dutch skipper on Vertigo said my missus is up at the lock could you ask her to come back? She was helping with the lock so I took over and gave the keeper, a tall dark haired young man, a hand with the gates. When she got back to DB Vertigo they moved off the grass bank on to the quay where we’d been moored. Three American ladies got off the hotel boat Hirondelle and set off along the towpath on bikes, one had a bike with a chain that kept slipping so the young deckhand was on and off the DB to fix it for her before they left the chamber. Just after the hotel boat left the lock a Canalous Recla hireboat set off, it had been moored just above the lock. That’s it, we’re in for a slow trip! The keeper said he had to go on with the hotel boat and there was a Canalous hire boat coming down, so he ran up the non-towpath side to where another VNF man was mowing the grass to get him to come and help work the lock. The lad drove off in a VNF van and I helped the mower man to work the lock for the hire boat. The lad returned as our lock was half full. It was 10.00 a.m. as we left the top on the 4.9 kms pound. Made a cuppa. It started to rain so out came the big green brolly. As we turned the bend on to the long straight that lead up to lock 7, Bessais (2.50m), we could see Hirondelle had just entered the lock and the hire boat was hovering below having caught up with the DB. When the keeper emptied the lock we followed the Recla into the chamber. I stepped off under the tail bridge and went up the steps to drop a rope down for Mike and closed the gate behind us while the keeper closed the other. We followed the Canalous 3.6 kms to Besbre lock 6 (3.20m). Another Canalous, a Tarpon, was also waiting for the lock by the entrance to the Dompierre branch, so Mike put our boat under the bridge and I went up to give the keeper a hand work the two hireboats through and then turn the lock round. He went off to his lunch as Rival arrived and moored below the lock. I said we could probably lock together. Lunch. The keeper was back and Rival was in the lock already before one. The keeper came to find us just as I was getting off with my rope. He said the little DB was 15m long so we were OK to lock together, they’d gone right up the front of the lock chamber. The keeper filled the lock slowly. The Americans said they were going as far as Diou, spend an hour or so there before heading back down the canal as the wanted to be at Gannay for the weekend (where they were leaving the boat for the winter) then having a few days in Paris before going back to the boat to do some jobs before winter. We said we’d see them later. We stooged along the 3 kms to the mooring in Diou, looking for walnuts and not finding any. The Canalous Recla was on the mooring taking on water (and washing the boat down with drinking water) and Rival was moored at the top end of the quay. We moored at the downhill end and chatted with the crew off Rival. The hireboat left and we moved up on to the quay. I gave Mike a hand to get the bike off the roof down a plank. A couple of cruisers went past heading uphill. Rival set off back down the canal, gave us their card www.rivalsfrance.com and we wished them bon route. They hadn’t long gone when narrowboat Kells arrived, having come up from Gannay in one go. I had a brief few words with the lady skipper as I helped her tie up. She said she was tired after single handed boating all day so she went for a nap. I got on with the chores. Mike was soon back with the car. A large Belgian replica DB called LM went past heading uphill. Heaved the bike back on board. I checked to see if we’d reached 3G land yet. Nope, but we’d got a reasonable signal on 2G. 

Wednesday 29th September 2010 Beaulon. Day off.

Grey, overcast but dry. Mike insisted I did the setting up in the engine room to run the Markon. I suppose he was right, there could be a time when, for whatever reason, that he couldn’t do it and if the Markon was wanted I would have to connect it up. Loads to remember connecting up the drive plates and lots of fiddly stuff, too. It ME took ages. Most of the campers had gone except one grey Dutch motor home that had been here when we arrived. Mike spoke to the guy on a large French cruiser moored right behind us to tell him we would be running our engine to power our generator as the electricity supply was probably only 6 Amps. He told Mike he was off to Marseilles-les-Aubigny for the winter but had stayed in Roanne and knew the Mayor who lived on a boat in the basin and was an ex-motorcycle cop. Très genial, he said. After the washing machine finished heating Mike put the boat back on mains and when the washing finished and I’d hung it up to dry we went out in the car for a ride round the hilly country south of the Morvan. Through Bourbon-Lancy to Grury, Issy-l’Évêque and into Toulon-sur-Arroux, southwest on the D994 through Gueugnon and back to Beaulon via Neuvy-Grandchamp and Bourbon-Lancy, pausing at Le Fourneau to admire a vast machine that made ice from the early 1900s. Back on the boat at 8.30 p.m. A blue widebeam narrowboat called Renaissance had moored next to the American’s little DB Rival (two boats behind us) and both crews were still sitting out on Rival’s back deck chatting in the dark. 

Tuesday 28th September 2010 Beaulon. Day off.

Milder. Grey, overcast with light showers, but less of them than the day before. A cyclist had pitched his tent overnight among the campervans. We went to Dompierre for the car’s biannual MoT (Control Technique) at 11.00 a.m. A different young man was on duty and did the tests. There was a list of things that needed attention, but none that would fail it, most of which we knew about like a stone chip in one of the front lights, corrosion underneath (he said the patching Mike had done was OK, in fact very good, and the rest had nowhere near as much rust – thank goodness!) and dents in the side doors – but the new items were corrosion in the joint in the exhaust pipe (that will need replacing soon) and a bit of play in the rubber mounting on the lower suspension arm (that will remain as it’s too expensive, it will only affect the tracking slightly). Paid 76€ and went back home, calling via the Marché U for a loaf. Two Australian cruisers moored behind us but only stayed over lunchtime. Campervans left and were replaced by others. Mike had started cutting out cardboard templates to make the shape for a parabolic dish for amplifying Internet signals but needed more cardboard – have to buy more Magnums! Had a look online for exhaust systems for the ZX and guess what? The British firms were offering them at less than half the price of the French ones!

Monday 27th September 2010 Beaulon. Day off.

Chilly. Rain most of the day. The boat in front (Verwisseling) left at nine, they were off to Joe Parfitt’s for him to fit a car power steering system to assist the rudder movement (Mike wanted to know how he was going to do that) as their tjalk was still tiller steered which, being ex-narrowboaters, they really liked but she was finding it heavy work. Mike moved our boat up to the end of the quay while I got ready to go out. We went to Dompierre and booked the control technique for the ZX for 11.00 a.m. the following day. Called in the Marché U in the town centre for a loaf (most of the village boulangeries were closed as it’s Monday) then headed home. A French cruiser that had arrived the day before (and still had Jenny across its bows although it had a French name along its sides) was still there and the Serge Gainsbourg lookalike skipper was stood at the door. We asked him if the square aerial he had on the roof was for WiFi. No, he replied, TNT (Terrestrial Numerique Television, ie digital TV) and it’s not very good. We said we found TNT reception wasn’t very good at most places along the canal, maybe it’ll be better when they do the switchover to digital TV in October/November? Or maybe we’ll have no French TV at all?!! Or even worse, a lot of French people will have no TV at all. Made a cuppa then helped Mike to make electrical modifications on one of our two panel heaters. 

Sunday 26th September 2010 Beaulon. Day off.

Sunny spells with rain forecast for later. Chilly so we kept the coal fire running all day too. We went to Garnat to take the tin of solid resin back for a refund. No problem and we got the 12€ back. Called at the boulangerie in Beaulon for a loaf then back to the boat. The couple on Chocolat were chatting with the folks from the British campervan, so I asked if the knew how many Amps we had on the electricity supply. They didn’t know but said they thought about 6 Amps although they could run their washer which they said was a small one. As the box is locked and we can’t get at the breakers we had no idea and didn’t want to risk cutting the electricity off on a Sunday. A Dutch couple arrived to chat, their 28m DB was on the mooring at Diou. The people on Chocolat were off to Gannay then back to Vermenton. They said that this was their last season and they were going to sell their boat as they had had health scares (both in their seventies, she was recovering from a slipped disc) and decided they were going back to the UK. They said they’d had six good years and wished they’d started earlier as there was so much more they wanted to see. I gave Mike a hand to move the boat up on to the quay. After lunch Mike put the Internet on to have the stats page running while the F1 race was on. On the BBC News they said Ed Miliband had been elected the new leader of the Labour Party. 1.30 p.m. the night race Singapore F1 GP started. 

Saturday 25th September 2010 Gannay to Beaulon. 14.5 kms 3 locks.

Moorings at Gannay

Grey and overcast, light showers in the morning and heavy ones in the afternoon. Mike took a walk down to the lock and told the keeper we were setting off. We left at 9.30 a.m. and spoke to the lady on Kells as we left. The work on her 220v wiring had been started and she said she hoped to set off for Montceau next week. We said we’d probably meet again. Spotted some mushrooms growing on the non-towpath side, pity we’d just bought some – no room in the ‘fridge! Twenty minutes after setting off (about halfway to the first lock) the timeshare boat Bon Viveur II, a Burgundy cruiser, was fast catching us up. Mike had spoken to the crew earlier and they were asking how long he thought it would take then to get to Digoin, Chalon and Maçon. They overtook us and we followed them to lock 11 Gailloux (3.50m). One of the two women on the boat had stepped off below the lock and offered to take our rope in the deep lock. 

Bank protection work near Garnat

We tied on the left hand side of the chamber because the cruiser had tied that side, but the keeper, a young man in his twenties, wound the paddles up on the right hand side. Fortunately only part paddles so the lock filled slowly and we stayed on the left hand side. Mike chatted with the crew, they told him they had to be in Maçon by Friday. We calculated that it would take us 83 hours cruising and lock keepers’ hours allow only nine hours per day, therefore they will have to go beyond the official speed limit of 8kph and keep going, possibly making up time once they get on the river. One of the women said they’d done thirty locks in one day the week before – Mike said that’s OK if they’re close together! Told them not to wait for us at the next, that’s if the keeper doesn’t insist they wait. 4kms to the next. 

Unusual gate winding gear. Clos du May. lock 9

The cruiser soon disappeared out of sight. An old Dawncraft-looking cruiser was moored by the lengthsman’s cottage and a cut down péniche called Angola was moored by the road bridge. The boat we’d locked with was just leaving the top of lock 10 Rosière (2.40m) when we arrived but the top end gates remained open. We passed a moored DB called La Blanche Hermite (with an untidy looking stovepipe sticking out of one of the back cabin windows) moored on the lock stumps. Threw a rope around a tree and Mike walked up to the lock to find out what was going on. The keeper was another young man in his twenties. He said there was a boat coming down, be about five minutes. Mike could see at least a kilometre up the canal and there was no sign of a boat so he said more like twenty minutes! Yes, twenty minutes, he agreed. Mike came back on the boat. It had started to rain. Half an hour later a Locaboat arrived and came down the lock. Left on our own we could have turned the lock around, refilled it and have been well clear before the Locaboat arrived. I walked up with the rope to drop down to Mike in the lock. The wind had started to blow and was whipping leaves off the trees, making it feel very chilly. I wound a top end gate open for the keeper as there was another downhill boat about to arrive. As we left I told him we’d be at the next lock at one o’clock. It was 11.45 a.m. and it was 5.7 kms to the next lock. We passed a Belgian cruiser on the first bend above the lock. Slowly up the pound to arrive as the keeper finished his lunch break. In Garnat there were two boats moored, a small cruiser on the pontoon and a tiny yacht opposite the Lighthouse, both looked permanent “dead” boats and the house looked shuttered and not permanently lived in now. 

Lock 9 Clos du May, ready to leave.

No sign of life at lock 9, Clos du May (2.50m), at 1.10 p.m. so we slung a rope around a bollard and Mike took a walk up to the lock. A girl aged about 16 and a lad of ten were sitting in a car on the lockside and got out when Mike turned up. He asked if the girl was the lock keeper, yes, so he asked if we could come up the lock - hadn’t the last keeper ‘phoned ahead? She looked perplexed. They went to open the paddles at the bottom end until Mike pointed out that the top end paddles were still open. Mike came back to the boat and I walked up with the rope again. The girl asked if we were going up the next lock. No staying at Beaulon. The lad was very shy. I asked the girl if he was her brother, she said yes and I said I thought he was very shy, he blushed. Another Brit-flagged Burgundy boat, called Vital, went past heading downhill. We arrived at Beaulon at 1.45 p.m. and the crews of two British boats, a tjalk and a Burgundy boat called Chocolat, came out to lend a hand with ropes. We were on the bottom. Gave Mike a hand to put quant poles out as it started to rain again. There were three campervans (two Dutch and one British) also plugged into the electricity supply. We plugged in too and set up the TV. Mike watched snooker then the qualis for the Singapore F1 night race. I hoped the Internet might be a bit better than at Gannay. It was, but still only EDGE (2G) on 236kbps.  At least it was a solid signal and didn’t keep dropping out. Glad Mike lit the coal fire as the temperature dipped down again.

Friday 24th September 2010 Gannay. Day off

Rain in the night and most of the morning. Sunny spells and showers in the afternoon. We went shopping at Carrefour Market in Decize. Quiet as it was lunchtime and most of the tourists have now gone home (except for the odd Dutch car and a lone British camper on C4’s car park) Back before it rained and stowed the groceries on board. A chap off a boat (ex-Connoisseur cruiser called Melody) on Entente Marine’s moorings stopped to chat, he told us he used to build narrowboats on the Thames and had a long association with the Kennet & Avon canal. Rain brought the talking to an end. 

Thursday 23rd September 2010 Gannay. Day off

Sunny start, clouding over mid afternoon with rain due. Mike carried on filling and sanding the section in the underside of the XZ. Our delta sander started to seize up so he took it apart and oiled a (sealed) bearing. It worked OK but we added a new one to the list of items to get from the UK. After lunch Mike sanded down the last lot of filler and then gave it a coat of thick black tar paint (sound-proofing and water-proofing stuff - NOT boat paint I might add). Finished at last!

Wednesday 22nd September 2010 Gannay. Day off

Hooray overnight temperature back into double figures! Clear blue sky, sunny, and getting warmer. I gave Mike a hand to get the car on the ramps (front two wheels, pulling with the chain lift rather than try to drive it up, much to the amusement of a French couple on the cruiser moored opposite it) and he removed loads more thin bits of rusty metal, making the section a whole lot smaller before starting to rebuild and fibreglass it. Lunch. Mike found the new can of resin he bought the day before was rock hard and unusable - while the car was up on the ramps he had no way of taking it back. Applying matting and resin upside down is not easy and he was not happy with “bodging” as he always likes to try to do a good neat job of anything. Body filling is not his forte. 

Tuesday 21st September 2010 Gannay. Day off

Still chilly overnight. Clouds arrived, sunny spells. Narrowboat Albert carried on uphill as did the cruiser Ozy 2 which had moored in front of us overnight. Mike sanded the cills down on the ZX and then gave it a coat of white paint. He was concerned that there was a chassis cross member that had almost totally rusted away under the driver’s side floor pan that he couldn’t fix. We’d have to find a garage and see if it could be repaired with a welded in section so it would pass the Control Technique (MoT). I did some washing (Mike ran the Markon for the water heating as the 5A electric wouldn’t run it). After lunch we went out in the car to find a garage where they might do some welding and repair the chassis on the ZX. A small workshop in Gannay was our first stop. A young guy came out to have a look under the car, then an older bloke, the latter said it couldn’t be done, sorry. Don’t know if he meant he couldn’t do it because upside down welding was beyond him or it was not possible to fix it by welding. We went on into Dompierre, hoping to find another garage and a repair specialist. We came across a Securitest Centre (MoT) and asked the young man in charge to have a look. Shell-shocked when he said the car wouldn’t fail the control test because of the corroded section, all it needed was patching up as it wasn’t a critical load bearing item. Great. We said we’d book it in later next week for him to do the test after Mike had patched it up. On the way home Mike called in a Proxi Market and bought more resin, thick fibreglass matting and a splatter guard for a frying pan to cut up and use as a former. Back home feeling much better. A large DB went down the lock, aptly named Exocet, judging from the way the canal water was bouncing around he had been going like a rocket! Spoke to the lady off nb Kells and told her about Nationwide adding charges for foreign transactions, she didn’t think it applied to FlexAccounts. Mike found her the leaflet, she said she’d go home and top herself – hey, it’s only money! Another DB arrived, Maria Helena, and moored in front of us. It left again just before five heading downhill through the lock to be replaced immediately by a small French cruiser. 

Monday 20th September 2010 Gannay. Day off.

Cold night. Still clear blue skies. Sunny and warm. All the overnight boats had gone before ten. Mike went to La Poste to get the post from Glyn sent on the 10th and called in the Proxi mini market for some bread, then he started work on the car cills. Filling and sanding. I had a search online to find a bank that doesn’t charge for foreign transactions as Nationwide are going to start charging 2% on FlexAccount transactions starting in November plus £1 (on top of the 2%) for each cash withdrawal when using their debit card. Didn’t find any. Found an Observer article, dated August, about rip off bank charges for foreign transactions which said banks charge between three and five percent, which is outrageous. Have to do some careful planning for withdrawing cash and keep fingers crossed it doesn’t apply to credit card transactions. The Internet was rubbish, dropping out every half hour or so. 

Sunday 19th September 2010 Decize to Gannay-sur-Loire. 16 kms 4 locks

Gantry and pull cord for auto locks to Decize & Loire
(off to the left)

3.0°C cold night, glad of the coal fire overnight! Clear blue skies, sunshine all day, chilly at first warming up to mid twenties later. A hireboat came up the automatic lock and turned right heading down the canal, we set off just afterwards at 9.20 a.m. heading uphill. A couple of kilometres to the first lock 15 Saulx (2.57m) and the canal was steaming as the sun warmed the air over the water making miniature upside down tornados spinning into the air. The lock was full and the keeper, a lady in her forties with short dark hair, started emptying it as we arrived. In through one gate and she took a rope for us, then refilled the lock. Ten minutes and we were on the 6 kms pound. A middle aged bloke had La Mothe lock 14 (2.45m) ready with one gate open, so we were in and up in about ten minutes again. 2.7 kms to the next. Lock 13 L’Huilerie (3.50m) was ready for us. The keeper, a young man with dark hair, took my rope on the end of a boat shaft hook as it was a deep lock.

Moorings by VNF yard at Decize

Noted that he had a home made extension bar to operate the gate capstan, now that’s a good idea for a heavy set of gates! His black and white collie dog looked a lot like Bill’s Fanny (see www.billybubbles.demon.co.uk) only sturdier; she was a fussy dog and kept going back and forth along the lockside between Mike and me for a fuss.  We wandered slowly along the 5.7 kms long pound to time our arrival at the next lock after the keeper’s lunch break. It was five minutes after one when we arrived at lock 12 Les Vanneaux (3.20m) and the young man had both gates open. He took a rope and put the loop round a bollard for me, closed the bottom end gates then started to open a paddle on the wrong side until Mike hooted and we both shouted open the other side first please! He asked if we were continuing and I said no, staying at Gannay for a few days, we’d tell him when we were carrying on. He said it would be his colleague not him and asked if we were doing a u-turn and going back down the canal. 

Burnt out house near L'Huilerie lock 13

Wonder why he asked that? No, carrying on uphill. There was one Loca in the middle of the quay, plugged into the electric and an ex-Connoisseur called Melody at the edge of the port on the grassy bank, plus a Dutch couple in a campervan had their sun loungers out on the grass, watching us as we moored. Mike winded and reversed so we were across the corner of the basin behind the Loca. We put a tyre out to stop the bows catching and wondered what would be the easiest way to get the bike off across the gap. No need to have wondered, within five minutes the hireboat had packed up and carried on uphill, trying to take the rotten wooden fendering with them as the rope that was attached to it had tangled with one of their hanging sausage fenders. We helped extricate it and pulled the remains of the old wood on to the quayside, then we bow hauled our boat back along the straight quay to the fence that separated the port from the pay moorings at Entente Marine. 

Derelict old house near L'Huilerie lock 13

As we finished tying up a lady walking with the aid of a cane came over for a chat. She was off narrowboat Kells, which was moored outside a Dutch barge at Entente Marine, and had seen us arrive. She’d been on the dry dock with another narrowboat at St Thibault. We said we’d seen the boats, four of them, on the dock about a month ago. She said she was waiting for the boatyard to do some work for her. Mike read the notice at the end of the moorings with their prices – 50€ an hour for work done on boats, 8€/metre per month for winter moorings plus 30c/unit for electric and 2€/m2 for water. She said she had come over from the UK in 2003 and was going back to Montceau-les-Mines for a second winter as it’s handy for the town. Connected up to the 5A supply, set up the TV then made a late lunch. Another Loca went down the lock, followed a shortly after by a small cruiser. After lunch I gave Mike a hand to unload the moped off the roof and at three o’clock he rode back to Decize to collect the car. Two cars had parked on the opposite bank and fishermen were setting up their gear. A Loca arrived and moored in front leaving almost a boat sized gap between our bows and their stern. A large Locaboat full of Germans from Frankfurt (and their three large yappy black Schnauzer dogs) came to ask us if there was a restaurant nearby or somewhere they could buy food? On Sunday, in France? Luckily the snack bar, La Vacanciére, was open. A British yacht moored behind us on the pay moorings and a downhill Loca moored in front. 

Saturday 18th September 2010 Decize. Day off.

Warm and sunny with white fluffy clouds. Up before nine. First we went to Intermarché to get a gas bottle and took it back to the boat. A VNF man appeared and asked when we were leaving, told him next day around 9.30 a.m. heading uphill. The Burgundy cruiser Isabella had come up the locks and its crew were just off to the Intermarché on foot. We drove across town to Carrefour Market to get restocked with groceries. Called in at Point Affairs to see if they had any fleece material blankets to use as seat covers as we bought the last lot from them. They had none, only expensive ones made of imitation fur. Back through town, which was very busy as they had a two day flea market on along the river. A large cruiser arrived and moored behind us on the quay. Mike lit the coal fire for the second night in a row and kept it going overnight. Heard the sound of fireworks in the town, hidden by buildings Mike reckoned it was down by the river in the park.

Friday 17th September 2010 Cercy-la-Tour to Decize. 17.8 kms 6 locks

Chateau tower near Cercy

Hazy cloud first thing then banks of white cloud and sunshine but much cooler. Mike went up to say au’voir et merci to the lady keeper at Cercy. Gave her one of my cards with the blog site on it so she could have a look at our photos of the Nivernais. The ex-Rive-de-France hireboat that had been moored in front of us for the last three days went up the lock at nine. Madame ‘phoned Roche for us and we winded with the gentle flow of the little river Aron and set off downhill at 9.15 a.m. For the first time since spring we wore our fleeces as it was quite nippy. Through the open floodlock back on to the canal, 7.7 kms to lock 32 Roche (3.07m). I went inside to make a cuppa just as the first boat of only two we saw moving all day on the Nivernais and the Loire (until we stopped on the Latéral) a LeBoat hung back at a bridge to let Mike through first. Unusual for a hireboat! Our lock keeper came up the towpath on his scooter to find us. (They’re not used to our speed of boating, hireboats and most private boats travel in excess of 10 kph) An American couple on bikes had stopped to ask us the usual questions – how did you get THAT here? 

Ecluse de Roche, extended from 30m to 38m late 19c

The keeper had turned his scooter around and gone back to the lock to open one gate for us. He was quiet and didn’t speak much. Mike wound a bottom end paddle for him and got back on board. I took a photo of the extension of the lock. The keeper closed the gate behind us and refilled the lock before riding the 3.3 kms down to Champvert. Lock 33 (2.27m) was ready for us and two blokes were nattering on the lockside, a fisherman on a scooter and an older guy on a bike, the latter helped open the other bottom end gate for the keeper as there was a hireboat coming towards the lock as we left it. It was 11.35 a.m. Guy came out of his house as we passed. We said au’voir and told him we were sorry couldn’t stay again this winter. The keeper who was in charge of the last two locks called to us as we went under the railway bridge by the rubber works to say he was off to lunch (11.50 a.m.) and would see us at 1.00 o’clock. 

Ecluse de Champvert

OK, we’re in no great hurry. He said the lock, Vauzelles 34 (2.40m), was full so the boat could sit in the chamber while we had lunch, which is what we did. It was getting warmer so the fleeces came off. While I made lunch Mike took the echo sounder’s transducer out of its tube to check to see if we had another growth of mussels on it – we hadn’t – must just be the mucky bottom that wasn’t sending signals back that was causing the thing not to work. (It worked OK later as we crossed the Loire) The keeper was back at one. He showed us he had a puffed up eye from a wasp sting the day before. He’d been riding his scooter between the two locks and a wasp had gone between the peak of his crash helmet and down his glasses then stung him. Nasty things. We noticed today he was driving his car! Down Vauzelles then past all the moored boats at St Leger des Vignes. Three British boats were moored together, Frank’s Belle Etoile and two cruisers, followed by a bunch of three tjalks, one of which was for sale. Aster ( the last surviving example of the wooden péniches that worked the Nivernais) was still sitting in the dry dock, but now floating. 

Last winter's mooring place at Champvert

I told the keeper it was a shame to see it sitting there and he said there was a chance someone might buy it. It belonged to the Department of Niévre and they used to operate it as a trip boat. We saw it the first time we crossed the Nivernais on the summit at Bray with passengers on board and the skipper heaving on the long ropes that operated its bow rudder. Down on to the Loire, nothing moving and no boats moored either. Slowly we chugged upriver with a gentle 2 kph flow against us. The bottom lock of the two automatics leading up on to the Latèral, Decize N°16ter, was full. I pulled on the hanging string to set the locking sequence going. Slowly it emptied and the gates opened. I lifted the blue rod to set the lock mechanism going again and Mike threaded the centre rope through a vertical bar in the lock wall. I held the rope while the lock filled, the paddles opening in three stages. Several gongoozlers stood on the bridge over the tail end of the lock watching. I fished a rosette of a water chestnut plant out of the canal and put it in some water on the roof, there are lots of them growing just in that one pound. We trundled on up the canal past the LeBoat base where they had eleven boats not out on hire and two British boats moored on one of their pontoons, narrowboat Albert and a Burgundy cruisers boat called Isabella. I pulled the string again and St Maurice lock 16bis emptied. A VNF man was on the lockside by the control rods. I was expecting there to be another slider bar but there wasn’t so 

Spring called La Baudienne at Champvert

I handed him my centre rope and he went further forward with it until Mike shouted can we have that further back? He was on the ‘phone so there was a bit of a delay while we sorted the rope out and another VNF guy took it and dropped the loop on a bollard while Mike reversed back to the bottom end gates. The keeper lifted the rod and left. Again the lock filled in stages and I held the centre rope while the lock filled. We left the lock, now back on the Latèral à la Loire where we turned right to moor on the quay by the VNF water tap. There were three boats well spaced out along it so we winded and moored by the piling nearest the hanging string for the lock, leaving plenty of space for hireboats to crashland behind us to take on water and in front of us to get to the string to operate the lock to go down to the hirebase or on to the Loire. Before we finished tying up the hireboat at the far end (by the car parking area) loaded up with groceries that they’d just bought from Intermarché and set off. We said we wouldn’t bother moving to the far end as although it would be closer to the car for shopping the following morning it was nearer a busy road bridge. A hireboat that had paused while we were winding went on downhill, but returned a few minutes later and the crew asked the usual questions (in English, this time where were we from) as they passed us and went to twing the string (must be due back at the hirebase tomorrow). I set the satellite dish up and forgot about setting up French TV although I had put the aerial on its mast. St Antonious, a converted péniche, went past just after four and didn’t slack off for the moored boats. Mike returned at 4.30 p.m. and I gave him a hand to put the bike back on the roof then we tried tuning in French TV – rubbish for TF1 on analogue and no digital TNT either. More and more hireboats turned up to go down to the hirebase