Tuesday 7th September 2010 Cercy-la-Tour. Day off.

Heavy rain in the night, followed by persistent rain all day. We decided to find the neighbours and ask if they were interested or not in winter moorings at Champvert if we looked into the possibilities, plus we wanted to go and see our insurance broker in Nevers to pay the moped insurance and while we were there we thought we might as well look at what they’d done to the Bassin de la Jonction. First we went via La Poste in Cercy – closed due to strike action (functionaries (civil servants) were protesting about the government’s plans to raise their retirement age from sixty to sixty-two) so Mike posted two birthday cards and we drove into Decize. Charley was still moored by the VNF office. Mike asked if they were interested in mooring at Champvert. No. They’d had long discussions about it and decided they were going to moor in Nevers. We said we were going to Nevers and would have a look. In the meantime they were carrying on up to Gannay then Beaulon, both ports which have all facilities for free. We drove into Nevers along the village road to the west of the canal and Lucy took us directly to the insurance office. Pulled onto the drive at 11.35 a.m. and went in to pay for the moped insurance. I wrote out a cheque and the office lady did the paperwork. Monsieur came out of his office to shake hands and have a brief chat. We asked if we bought a new vehicle could he insure it by phone – yes, no problems. Back through the city to the canal basin. The rain was still pouring down. They had restricted the access to the port by means of a tubular metal barrier so nothing wider or higher than a car could now drive down the road to the basin and the swimming pool. We parked and went for a look round. They had built up a new edge to the old quay to which several pontoons with finger moorings had been added – all for six to ten metre long boats (and seemed to be full of “dead” boats). There were gaps along the edge between the pontoons but most were taken and it’s most likely that more boats were due to arrive for the winter. The scale of charges was expensive. Like the neighbours we would have to pay 125€ per month plus electricity at 15c/unit (that was not too bad, EDF charged us 14c/ unit last winter) plus 2€ per 500 litres of water and tourist tax of 20c per person per day. We weren’t sure if the prices included tax or not. No one was there at the Capitanerie until 1.00 pm. Mike checked the satellite direction, it was back up the canal so other than being moored on a pontoon end we wouldn’t get any TV due to the overhanging willow trees. We drove home via Sauvigny-les-Bois on the D18 then D26, lovely roads through the forested Côtes du Nivernais. A French fat narrowboat, Coulir, had joined us on the pontoon and the ex-Nicholls hireboat was still moored at the top end plus a Dutch campervan was parked by the toilet block cum tourist office. Lunch. Decided we’d take a trip by car next day to Roanne and check out the moorings there, maybe the rain will have slowed down a little. Mike wanted to send Paul a text but we hadn’t got his phone number. By lock closing time the pontoon was full with a Locaboat moored stern to the end of the pontoon behind us.