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.