September 2014

1st September. Market day in St Florentin and this months banner photo is for Di. The towns remarkable cake shop!!!

3rd September. Moved on today to Tonnerre, a long day. 25k, 11 locks and six and a half hours. Once I was moored up I cycled back the way I had come to the village of Cheney to look at the lavoir on the banks of the canal. It was disappointing with no water running through it. Passed by the Château of Cheney which now houses a sheltered employment centre. It was very imposing from the outside. The Lavoir in Dannemoine was better preserved but locked, which is a shame. Back at the port the light was nice and there was a nice view of Tonnerre church.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4th Sept. Wnet in to Tonnerre. The Lavoir which is fed by an artesian well was very interesting. The Church, after having climbed the humungus hill on which it was perched, was closed! There was a good view of the rooftops though. The Hotel Dieu, or old hospital run by nuns for the poor, requirred a payment to go in and I had been told that it did not compare with the one at Beaune so I didn’t bother. However the herb and fruit garden outside the building was quite lovely. I was underwhelmed by the town generally and will move on tomorrow, The mooring is also expensive.

 

 

5th Sept. Cruised with Will Orwell in tandem today. I had met him with Di towards the beginning of the trip and he caught me up in Tonnerre last evening. We shared the locks and it worked well. At Tanlay I had to moor abreast of another boat because a big hotel boat was taking up most of the space on the quai. This is a neusance as it inhibits movement and I couldn’t get my bike off.  Walked into the village and round the grounds of the rather lovely Tanlay castle.

From there I walked back to the village of Commissey which had looked rather nice in passing. There was an interesting Lavoir with a long drop loo added onto the down stream end! The little old church was charming, simple and blessedly cool, it had been a hot walk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the first example of boxed family pews that I have seen in France.

6th Sept. Moved the boat onto the quai side this morning as one of the other boats left. This meant that I could get my bike off and go for a longer explore. There were two sites I wanted to see, the Abbaye de Quincy and the Chateau de Maulnes. As the Chateau was the furthest away I decided to go there first. After about a 10k climb I had the Chateau in view about 2k away and still higher than my current vantage point. The top was obscured by scaffolding and white plastic. The road in front of me started on a steep decline which could only mean an even steeper climb out of the valley to reach the castle! I took a photo from where I was and decided to go no further even though this is the sole example of a pentagonal castle in France!  I cruised back down the sucessive hills and headed for the Abbay. This site proved equally disappointing as what remained was not very inspiring from the outside and there was a charge of Euro 9 to enter.

 

However the 35k round trip was not a waste of time. On my way out I stopped at the village of Cruzy-le-Châtel to eat my sandwidge and was lured into a side road below the rather impressive ramparts by a sign for a Lavoir. It has to go down as one of the most interesting I have yet seen. Firstly there were two distinct parts, one much older than the other which was completed in 1756. Secondly it was fed by a spring that was carried to the basin via an underground stone faced passageway and thirdly it was the breading place of an uncommon speices of bat!

  

Back in Tanlay I looked for the Lavoir that I had missed the previous day and that was alongside the moat facing the castle walls.

 

7th Sept Cruised from Tanlay to Ancy-le-Franc today and cycled into town to look at the castle. It is another big renaissance building, imposing and impersonal.  However I was sorry that I had not been aware of the concert which was being held there this afternoon as that might have been worthwhile. Instead I contented myself with views from the exterior, somewhat incongurously, framed by palms.

 

The square with view of the church and the town lavoir, again with loo alcove and underground passage to bring the water in, were interesting.

 

From Ancy I cycled through to Chassignelles to look for the old (12th/13th century) church of John the Baptist with its important murals. The building with its stone shingled roof and its setting in the middle of the wheat fields, was charming and, predictably, closed!

The village had many lovely old stone built buildings and an air of wealth and wellbeing about it that has been missing in so many that I have passed through. Down by the canal was a charming little, well loved, lavoir.

 Back at the port, two more boats have pulled in for the night.

8th Sept. A relatively short cruise through to Raviéres today as I wanted to have time to cycle to a few local places of interest. There really is a change in the towns and villages I am now passing through. One of the reasons is the quarrying activity and the stone cutting and polishing industries in the area. I passed extensive quarry sites along the canal and a few stone related industries. Again most of the construction is on stone and as well as being very attractive it has an air or solidity and permanence. Outside a C17 lavoir that has unfortunately become a municipal storage room, there was a picnic area with massive granite table tops!

  

 

 

 

 

The main objective for the day was the Buffon Forge. This large forge complex was founded in 1768 by George-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, a contemporary and friend of Thomas Jefferson & Benjamin Franklin. He was also a member of the Académie Française and The Royal Society of London. The forge was by no means his only achievement, he was a renowned naturalist and director of The King’s Gardens in Paris for nearly 50 years. The Forge is in a lovely setting next to the canal and with the waters of the River Armençon turning its wheels.

 

 

 

 

 I resisted the temptation to do the 2.5k up hill ride to the ruins of the Chateau Rochefort but was lured to the C12 crypt of the church at Cry.

    

I took a detour into Nuits, the village on the other side of the canal where there is another Rennaisence Chateau. I was not tempted to do the tour and found an old entrance gate to the village of a much earlier period flanked by to obelisk much more interesting.

 

10th Sept Both Montbard and Venarey are fair size busy towns with an air of reasonable wealth but in essence not particularly attractive. However the moorings in both places are good and seem to be free. The great thing about Vanarey is that it is from here that you easily access the lovely Chateau De Bussy-Rabutin and the Gallo-Roman site and interpretiv e centre. This has led me to decide to stay here for two nights as I cycled up to the castle this afternoon and will go the the dig tomorrow.

Fairy tale! and the interiors were very, well what can I say? French!

 

 

 

 

 

There was a rather interesting dove cote in the grounds and a fruit storage room near the kitchens that had shelves with individual holes to hold a single fruit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The gardens were a delight and the surrounding countryside a rural idyll of rolling hills and pretty villages. All in all a lovely visit.

11th Sept. Went to the Alisia museum today and then cycled up the hill to the archeological site. What a hill! The site is thought to be the site of the major battle between the Romans under Julius Ceasar and the disparate tribes of Gaul that had been bought together under Vercingétorix in 52BC. There is an archive with a wealth of artifacts found on the site but these are not available for the public to view at the moment. A few items were on temporary display in the museum whose main function is to tell the story of the battle, which it does very well. The site on the hill top was a bit disappointing as there was not much remaining other than the foundations. The museum building is an interesting thing in its own right with a treed terrace on the roof.

 

 

It would take a really good imagination

to turn this arrangement of stones                        

into something like the picture on

the story board! But some of the

items in the temporary exhib were

very evocative.

           

 On returning to the port I found that “Nenuphar” had arrived. This is the big American owned hotel boat that I had met a few days back.

They would have to pay me a lot of money to host a bunch of rich Americans like this! I hope that the charming staff are really well paidm they deserve it!

I had also caught up with Will again here yesterday. He had intended to move on but the locks were not working as a lock keeper had gone off sick! He had gone on my return so I guess they are working again.

12th Sept. Moved on to Pouillenay today and moored on the stone quay with no facilities and no other boats about. The idea was to be able to cycle up to Flavigny, 5k of solid up hill. The village had been recommended by Peter on Hotel Boat “Elisabeth” because it is one of the prettiest villages in France and is the village where “Chocolat” was shot. However when I got there I found that there was so much more to the place than the none descript closed down shop front that was practically the only recognizable aspect of the film. The village is in effect a walled medieval town with double ramparts; imposing gates; a church interior boasting some of the original wall painting and some charmingly carved figurines in the choir stalls; intregeuing narrow cobbled ally-ways; quaint houses; active seminary and the factory that makes those little sweets that come in oval tins with the old fashioned illustrations on the front. Oh! and I nearly forgot the C9 crypt. As you can imagine the camera was working overtime.

 

 

                         

 

    

 

 

 

 

13th Sept A long day as I pushed through 17k and 32 locks to get to Pont Royal where I will spend at least two days doing some touching up and another window frame. It is a nice port, very quiet and rural with no shops but the Capitanarie will deliver your daily bread if you so wish.

18th Sept.  Following on from a few days at Pont Royal where I did another window frame and some touching up I have been moored at Pouilly-en-Auxois for a few more days doing more of the same and laying in some supplies. Today I cycled back along the tow path to a C12 castle at Eguilly where the current owner, a really charming lady, took me round and told me the history of the place. She and her husband have owned it for 31 years during which time they have done a staggering amount of very tasteful renovation. This was necessary as the previous owner, a farmer, had used it to stable a whole range of livestock and animal feed. There were chickens in the chapel and such heavy bales in the top floors that the ceilings were collapsing. There were traces of the original tiles in the chapel, all that remain unbroken by the farm traffic and a lovely painted ceiling in the great hall. Lovely wall murals have been defaced by pitting to facilitate plastering over which fortunately did not happen.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

19th Sept. Went through the tunnel today and eight locks to arrive at Vandenesse at noon. The tunnel is 3.3k long and has lights all the way through. It is large and airy and because it is controlled by lock keepers there is no danger of meeting another boat coming the other way. You have to book at time and they give you a radio with which to communicate if you have any problems. All very civilised. The basin at Vandenesse has  a lovely view up to Châteauneurf and was full 0f hotel boats. The village has two hotels, two restraunts, a tea shop, some nice stone houses and a C13 church.

 

21st Sept. Had a busy day painting yesterday and got an additional coat of the blue done and the grey deck paint all over the deck except the back cockpit. It was a good day for it and it dried well before the rain in the night. I am pleased with the outcome. So today and tomorrow will be, letting the paint dry and cure properly days, ie: staying put and not walking on it.

That meant I was free to plat. This morning I joined a few other boaters for tea in an English Tea Shoppe! Run by an English couple in the village and this afternoon set off on the bike to Commarin, a village 5k away where there is a castle. This was quite impressive and being a Sunday rather busy. I did not go in but the exterior was attractive and the village lovely.

There was an attractive lavoir with the towns very old fire engine on display in it.

        

There was also a most delightful “ice-cream” folly in strawberry and vanila!

 

 

 

 

 

From there I headed back towards the canal and then up the extremely steep hill to Châtteauneuf. Entrance to the castle was free for this weekend as they are having an historical interest drive. I will come back tomorrow for more of a look at the village as it was getting late and raining. I did go into the Brocant (half way between a junk shop and an antique dealer!) as Son jon has set me a quest to find chandeliers for his shop. There were two there that I photographed and sent to him!

27th Sept. Now moored at lock 34 where the lock cottage serves food and drink (with a good reputation among boaters) and has a little boutique attached with local produce, wine, and art and craft items. After Vandenesse I moved on to Pont d’Ouche and with the few days in each managed to get most of the painting finished that I wanted to do at the moment. I have been slowed down on the sight seeing front by a very swollen knee following the climb to Châteauneurf. The leaves on some of the trees are beginning to turn but we are still enjoying beautiful sunny days. Below is the attractive little marina at Pont d’Ouche and the attractive facilities at lock 34.

 

 

2th Sept.  Another beautiful day. I have been in text contact with Sue and Grant on Chocolat who are just a few locks behind me and are going to stop here for lunch. Doris and Urs and doing a, vide Frigo end of season, buffet. Before they arrived I took a cycle back to the village of Gissey-sur-Ouche as U had noticed a lavoir while passing through in the boat. Don’t groan, I haven’t published (because I haven’t seen) one for days!

 

      

There was also a vide grenier (empty your attic as opposed to empty your fridge above) so I had to walk round and see if there were any clocks, mirrors or chandeliers for Jon!

We had a really lovely lunch and I think I may stay here another day as it is such a nice spot.

29th Sept. Cycled forward along the path to sus out future moorings and found a nice spot at Fleurey. There is not electricity but the town looks worth a visit and there are two restaurants on the quai. The autumn colours were brilliantly diplayed in the Virginia Creeper adorning one of the lock cottages.

 When I got back to the boat a large Hotel Peniche called “Saroche” pulled up behind me and will be here till 3pm tomorrow. The Mataloe and hostess are a married couple and while she is Dutch he comes from Durban! I am trying to make a plan to meet Helen in Dijon for her to cruise back into St Jean with me. As there is no electricity between here and St Jean I might as well hang out here. Doris and Urs will be closing the restaurant after this evening and Doris will be moving her efforts to her art workshop which I have said I will give her a hand with. Meanwhile I am going to the lock for snails and chablis at six and meeting up there with some of the American guests from the Hotel boat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

30th Sept. took a ride into Fleurey again today and posted son Paul’s birthday card. Doris came to the boat for drinks. I am going into Sombernon with her tomorrow to help clean up her workshop.