Entering the Centre

While we were in St Jean de Losne our main mission was to see Catherine, the wonderful canvas worker whose work is admired throughout the barging community. She made the covers for Matilda’s rear deck a year or so ago and we want some extensions for the wheel house roof and sides for additional protection during winter and the colder months.

We visited her in her atelier (studio) and discussed our requirements and what she could do for us. Having done our business, we lunched at the Café National, the Maitre-de having kept a table for us.

We were in very familiar territory and it wasn’t too long before we were running into familiar faces from the past.  

Our visit complete, we left St Jean de Losne at 14.30 on the 23^rd April 2013. We planned a short trip down the Saone, spending the night above the ecluse at Seurre. We all enjoyed a relaxing evening “greenbanking” on a major river. The sunset caught these jet trails high in the sky

We are again in big boat country, and barges on the Saone are now very large vessels. This ecluse caters for them.

It is 185 metres long by 12 metres wide. The hire boat seems lost as it tries to get out. Matilda wouldn’t look much bigger.

Next morning we passed through Seurre and on down the Saone. We will return to Seurre in the future and see more of the town. There is plenty to see on the banks of the river – not to mention this “weekender” with its classical Burgundian tiled roof.

We pulled into this pontoon for lunch, fascinated by the overhead gantry and it’s ornamentation.

In its early life the building was a loading jetty for a munitions dump (there is still an army establishment behind the structure). It is at present set up as a restaurant that has operated during the summer months. Unfortunately during the winter the river is prone to flooding here and the lower level of the building goes under water.

We were now approaching Chalon sur Saone and the entrance to the Canal du Centre which meets the river at this 11 metre deep lock.

The Centre opened in front of us and we started to climb towards Chagny. The weather was looking good and spring was under way

We passed this little chapel which may even have been ruins when this canal was built in 1860. The canal takes a decided loop around the site.

A hotel barge was in front of us as we traveled. These hotel barges are “Freycenet” sized at about 39 metres long and 5 metres wide ( By comparison, Matilda is 25 x 4.7) The locks are theoretically 39 metres by 5.2 metres so, as these pictures below show, there is not much spare room. They may even have to turn their rudder sideways before the gates can be closed. Peter M walked ahead of us to take these pictures.

Matilda seems small by comparison.

We arrived at Chagny in the early afternoon Thursday 25^th April and had a wander around the town. We cycled from our mooring and found this lovely old chateau, now used as a hotel, the Hostellerie de Bellecroix. Parts of this building were here in the 11^th century and it has been modified and extended to the present.

 The structure was built for horses and carriages and shows the marks of its usage in the past.

 

Saturday 27^th Peter M left us in the morning by train. He was traveling to Paris then London before his return to Darwin

Marg’s sister Judy and husband Geoff arrive on May 21^st to spend some time with us and we have some work to do on Matilda in the meantime – if we have some fine weather.

There will be more to tell, so we will keep in touch.

Footnote:

Peter M has kindly allowed the use of some of his photos in this page.  

The Saone to Losne

The Petite Saone was declared open for navigation and we departed Corre on the 16^th April at 09.00. The river was flowing quite quickly and we were going to make a good trip to St Jean de Losne. The Saone and the Rhone rivers are “canalised” for their entire length to the Mediterranean Sea. That is, the flow and levels are controlled by weirs, flood gates and locks making navigation easy in all but the most extreme conditions.

The locks, ecluses in the local language, are semi-automatic and we signal our request for entry with a twist of this pole – or perche.

The river is very picturesque and there are many large elderly residences. This one, at Conflandey was being restored. It  had been a Grand Chateau and hopefully was going to have a new life.

With spring trying to break, the encroaching greenery is slowly hiding it from view.

We stopped for lunch at a pontoon at Baulay, a small modern settlement and the smoked salmon on fresh bread suitably garnished was very well received by the two Peters.

That afternoon, a little further on we came across an intriguing scene.

Breaking news! The authorities were hauling this car from the river. It appears that a man was found dead in the car. No more detail than that but we were there as the recovery happened.

Our next stop was at Port sur Saone, a pleasant village with a good mixture of old and new.

And met some friends.

We went to the Information Bureau, as we try to do at every town we visit and we were amazed that a building with such a bland outer façade would be so rich in detail. This was the foyer of an old City dwelling.

For the timber lovers amongst us, a glimpse of the detail on the ceiling – and they are trying to hide it behind the fluros.

This beautiful stained glass is a typical example of the windows in this room.

We continue on, and the country continues to reveal wonderful old buildings.

After mooring at the Port de Plaisance at Savoyeux, we were intrigued by small signs indicating that there were remains of a Gallo – Roman settlement in the vicinity so we strode out into the hinterland following a trail marked with fluro pink paint on trees and rocks. With the memories of the Chateau at Nomexy in our minds, we were vaguely disappointed that we did not find any archaeological treasure – just broken signs.

There were more surprises on the river - Tunnels. There are two on the Saone in this area, this is the second one we met, the Souterrain de Savoyeux. It is 643 metres long. All tunnels must be treated with respect, these two were negotiated carefully and without incident.

We approached Gray intending to spend some time there as we have passed by the town before. The flow of the river made mooring difficult as one bank is shallow water and there seem to be rings only along the other side – difficult for us to pick up.

A few kilometres out of town we found this free mooring with all facilities. We were visited here by Claudine from the Gray Tourist Office who told us of the town. Her enthusiasm was wonderful and we will make the effort to visit the town another time.

We were soon in St Jean de Losne where we moored on the steps for a few days. We had to see Catherine about extensions to our canvas work and to look again at the area where we first started our barging experience.

For the first time in our experience we were rafted up to by a barge larger than us. Lou is a 35metre working barge and the crew just wanted to stop for lunch.

Some boats have been moored in the town for some time. Although people live on board, to our knowledge Lesage has not moved in three years. Not hard to see how we know!

We take a break here but soon we will be off again, further south on the Saone and into the Canal du Centre.

So, until then, we will keep in touch.

A footnote:

Quite a few photos we have used in this and the last page of our blog belong to Peter M. We thank him for allowing their use.