April 2014

4th April. Lovely lunch at “Labbayott” Farm, home of Jane and Robert, for Roberts Mum’s big eight-oh birthday. Wonderful food, good company and a lovely setting in the countryside next to the Canal de Bourgogne. The venue was the new flat built into the roof of the great old barn. Through the open window you can see down into the lower level with the blacksmith shoeing one of the horses. 7th April. Today Jacquie, Bob, Steph and I went to the town of Louhans to see the market. It is an interesting town accessible by boat on a dead-end off the Soanne. One sector of the market had animals and fowl that were available to buy as even pets or candidates for the pot! colourful birds through to huge rabbits from Flanders and a demonic looking young kid! If you look up you see the diversity of the architecture. Other stalls sold cheese, sausage, honey,meat, vegetables and the biggest attraction of the area, Bresse poultry, both cooked as a take-away item and raw. Furniture, clothing, curtains, clocks and baskets! On the edges of town the handsome houses are an indication of the wealth of the town. We had parked by the cemetery and walked into town both of which featured interesting pollarded trees. On the way we went through a town where the church had a twisted spire (no doubt to go with the twisted…..well never mind!) ****************************************************************************** 16th April. Time to tell you about the exciting developments that have been keeping me busy and away from the web page over the last few weeks. Social and educational activities abound in St Jean de Losne during the winter and range from Patchwork to Greeting Card making, Tia Chi to Country Walks and First Aid to Franglaise. The last of these was my choice and consisted of a two-hour session every Monday afternoon in the nearby village of St Auban where French and English people would meet to converse in each other’s languages and learn from the experience. Most of these activities slow down or stop for the Summer as the English-speaking boating community leaves the port and heads off cruising. However the French speakers expressed the desire to carry on so I picked up that baton and am now running the Summer Franglaise. I feel confident that others will be able to take over from me when my own boat is eventually in the water and ready to cruise. So that has been one of the additional strings to my bow that has consumed some time. However the bigger new challenge has been being appointed to the pilot committee of VillCo. This is an association that has been set up to try to regenerate the town centre, add a new dimension to the town’s offerings, attract more all year round tourism and stimulate business. A tall order! The aim is to establish St Jean and its adjoining communes of Losne and St Usage as a centre for collectors. As a start we have gained entry to all the boarded up shops, cleaned up their windows, installed various tableau of collections in them and fed in direct lighting on timers to be paid for by the municipality. I have been personally responsible, with the help of some local French women for five of these windows (pictures to follow). Other businesses in town have been encouraged, and for the most part agreed, to put displays of collections in their own windows or inside their premises. We will probably be lifting the covers on them this week in preparation for the grand opening on the weekend of the 26th/27th which will include the inauguration of the new Mayor (who is on our committee) , a parade through the streets of old military vehicle (Upon one of which I understand I will be required to travel!!!) a buffet for invited guests and an open day at the Port. I am really enjoying being creative, integrating into the community, being able to contribute something at a civic level and improving my French. One really feels like a citizen of this community in a way that I never felt was possible in today’s South Africa. So, apologies for the lack to photographic commentary despite a lively BBQ with the boaters last weekend to celebrate the arrival of summer and a meeting of the Franglais group at the cafe by the river in Parcey last Monday. Both of which were photo worthy but I was to occupied to take any. I promise to do better in future. 18th Good Friday. An interesting thing about today was that shops, banks and offices seemed to be open as usual which is unusual for the French who take long lunch hours and rarely open on Sundays. Maybe it is the secular nature of the country following the revolution and the strong separation of Church and State. Peter (above) and Glen (on the left) came with me to dress one on the windows on the Quai. We were also working with three of the French women from the town, Marie, Olivia and Caroline. 19th. This morning Danielle and I took the wraps off the windows that we have ddressed. In addition to the old Marin lights and various signs in one of the windows and a display of old farm implements in the other there is an old-fashioned riverside laundry or “Lavoir”, a display of old flat irons, an old school room, old fashion magazines and a display of Calvados bottles, cassarole dishes, bottle openers and nut crackers and a window full of little model pigs! The photos taken through the windows are not great but they do give an idea. 21st Easter Monday. This afternoon Steph and I drove to the pretty village of Aisery, about 12klm away, to explore the “Vide Grenerie” or “empty your attic” a.k.a cross between a flea market and an antique market. It was a pleasant afternoon and we were both very restrained, limiting our purchases to a few DVD’s.

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***************************************************************************23rd April. After a bit of work on shop windows with Peter and 3 loads of laundry I treated myself to a lovely and reasonably leasurly 20K cycle ride along the river where it really did look as if summer had arrived.

In the evening there was a gathering of boaters at the Brazerie du Port for drinks. The photo shows Jacquie, Steph and Jana.

24th. Shorter ride today to explore a nearby village of Esbarres pronounced eebar! 12k round trip.

25th. VillCo got a good write-up in the regional paper today with a front page photo of the Lavoir shop.

26th. To-day was supposed to be Henry and Steph’s last day before they head north towards Bruges where they intend to winter so I had them round for super together with Bob & Jacquie after which we played Rummycub. However they are still in town as of today (Sunday).

27th. took a walk around town in the morning to see how it is looking and view the number of shops displaying the VillCo logo. All is looking good. Spent an hour or so helping out Sienna in the museum shop. Made three sales!

In the afternoon I took a ride down to the canoe club as I had read in the Friday paper that Dragon Boating was going to take place at their open day. I found a team of women cancer survivers who were about to take to the water. I told them about my participation in the 1997 World Championships as a member of the South African team and was promptly invited them to join them, so we paddled down the river together!

27th. The big day has arrived at last. After meeting at the town Hall we did a walk-about to view all the collections that were on display and it was good to see that the towns folk had come on board and many of the shops had put in displays of their own collections. There were owls in the PMU Bar and frogs in “Natalie’s”. At some point we had to stop for the “group photo”!

There was a parade of old military vehicles and the town band accompanied by veterans with banners. The band was game but hopelessly out of tune on occasions. But it was a good morning and the rain held off.

Meanwhile down at the Gare d’eau the bunting was up under a threatening sky and boast sales were being transacted. I went in search of “Tara” to wish Bob & Jac good luck with the sale of their boat but it was nowhere to be seen, then Nicolas told me it had already been sold. BRAVO! although I will miss them when they return to Aus.

Later I went to Jane and Robert’s farm with Helen & Steve for tea and an interesting rice cake made by Robert. However the highlight was the camping “kettle” that was used to boil the water!

28th. Early start this morning as part of a three car convoy heading for Decize on the Loire and the canal Nivernais to view the last wooden barge to be built in France. Although it was only built in 1951 so is relatively speaking quite a young boat, not many of them survive. The ownership is passing from the local waterway trust to Aqua which is the association that includes the museum in St Jean de Losne. The visit today was to see what needed to be done in order to move the boat to St Jean, about a six day trip. Once she is there it is envisaged that she will earn her keep as a venue for conferences, weddings, parties etc which will generate the money needed to keep her afloat and preserve this little piece of boating history. It was a nice drive through hillier country and vineyards.