The 14th of July.

Yesterday was the 14^th of July. And that is better known as Robert’s birthday. We are moored at Montereau where the Yonne river meets the Seine and the French decided to join in our celebrations and mount a wonderful fireworks display. Similar to Australia Day on Perth Waters, the mortars, squibs, rockets and other firepower were loaded into two barges and embedded in sand. The barges were tied up less than 75 metres from our mooring.

As the evening twilight stretches to after 10.00pm the show did not get going until 11.00 but there was no pre or post show entertainment, and the locals kept themselves amused. They were allowed to buy their own fireworks and so there were rockets, roman candles. penny bungers (and much bigger) going off all over the place till early morning.

We took our place in our deck chairs and watched a 30 minute display that was as good as I have seen outside Perth (Australia Day) and Sydney (New Year’s Eve). Not bad for a small town of 17,000 people. We were really too close to the display to get good shots - my excuse and I am sticking to it.

Happy birthday, Rob.

Of course by a coincidence - the French celebrated Bastille Day as well.   

Keep in touch.

The End is Near

We are now in Migennes, the end of the Bourgogne Canal. Here it enters the Yonne River. The town seems to have little going for it. The harbour is between the working end of town and the railway yards and the high speed trains can be very noisy at two in the morning. The town seems to be as old as the canal and although a busy industrial hub with some lovely buildings, offers little to the tourist. We are leaving tomorrow.

We have spent the past weeks in a very pretty section of the canal. It passes through open countryside, through grain fields then heavily wooded sections with the trees hanging to the water – sometimes making our passage difficult. The country is scattered with grand estates and the associated chateaux. The beauty of this part of the canal attracts the hotel barges and we would have seen a half dozen or so in the past few days. They are usually big, sit deep in the water and make their presence felt when we are around them. The skippers of the small hire boats are intimidated by them (as they are by us to a degree) but for Matilda, they are really like big sisters. We get on with their crews and they appreciate that we can handle our craft around them.

The farmers here are harvesting their grains now. Wheat and barley fields are in profusion and now every town and village we come into has its grain receiving point to be hauled away by rail. The farmers work into the long twilights harvesting and delivering their crop. A little different to the broad acre handling systems we may be used to as the farmers here haul their grain with their tractors in about a 25 cubic metre trailer. It is still light at 10 pm.

In the past the canals played a big part in the moving of these crops. We have come through a number of “harbours” with substantial wharves and grand warehouse buildings unfortunately no longer used for that purpose. The building here has been divided into flats and even though it is 10 kilometres from the nearest town, it is well occupied.

Tomorrow we are out on to the waters of the Yonne River and we will probably make the Seine by the end of next week.

The open water comes tomorrow.

So, keep in touch.