Still no summer

Judy and Geoff arrived in Chagny by train, late morning on May 21st. Unfortunately the weather was still miserable and wet. We met them at the station and walked the short distance up hill to the harbour on the canal where Matilda was berthed. Yes, uphill! The canal actually passes over the railway line in a concrete aqueduct at the end of the station. It can be seen (not very clearly) in the photo below.

We all came back to Matilda, had some lunch and tried to warm up. The continuous rain has been causing problems. Further up, the Canal du Centre had broken its banks, flooded some fields and stranded a number of boats in an empty pound. It is taking some time to repair and at this time the canal is closed to traffic. Unfortunately we have no pictures of the event. It also meant that the Saone River was in flood and we were reluctant to enter it.

We departed Chagny next day after lunch and headed towards Chalon sur Saone and pretty soon Judy was giving a group of VNF workers a hard time.

We moored at Fragnes and travelled by bus to see something of the town of Chalon.

We found a market in progress in the small square outside the cathedral. The square was surrounded by this style of building.

We wandered into the church and amongst the other beautiful things we were fascinated by this beautiful tapestry. Peter’s photography does not do it justice, but look at the fellow in the left hand lower panel. Horns?

Next day we were allowed on to the Saone and we headed towards Dijon. Geoff enjoyed handling Matilda on the river. The high water is obvious under the trees on the shore.

We were soon through St Jean de Losne and into the Bourgogne Canal. Here we were followed by an eclusier who manually set the locks for us. Generally someone will jump ashore and give a hand with the gates.  

We were once again passing these beautiful buildings. This one at Longecourt en Plaine has been owned by the same family for more than three hundred years. They still farm the land surrounding it and also use part of the chateau and out buildings as a hotel.

Another, not so grand, but with the beautiful roof tiles typical of the Burgundian style.

We continued on and Judy was quickly picking up some of Marg’s rope handling skills. Those more observant ones amongst you will notice that the jack staff on the bow is missing, a piece of old wood in its place. Very good! The top of the jack staff is the highest point on the boat. It is set about 100 mm above the cover of the rear deck. With the extreme rainfall the water level is up in the canal and the clearance under bridges is at a minimum. We have found out the hard way that Matilda’s roof has passed less than 100 mm under some. Fortunately only the jack staff suffered.

We arrived in Dijon and moored in the harbour on the sloping quay. Judy and Geoff were  keen to move on so we took them via the new tram system to the station. We had them on a train to Toulouse via Avignon that afternoon. We hope they were moving into warmer weather as it had been pretty miserable while they were with us. We even had the central heating on at times to keep the boat warm.

Craig and Penny were arriving in a week. This meant that maybe we might get some time to do more painting. It will be great if we can sit and watch paint dry!!

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