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.

Watching paint dry

We had seen Peter M off on the train to Paris, en route to London then home to Darwin and we planned to stay put in Chagny, do some more painting on Matilda, see some sights and generally put our feet up until the arrival of Marg’s sister Judy and husband Geoff in about three weeks time. Chagny was only a small town but had a regular market every Saturday. All the streets in the old town centre became full of stalls selling everything!

Chagny has several culinary credits to its name. It has two Michelin Star rated restaurants and a high quality cookery college.

This building, constructed as a school at the end of the 19^th century now houses a cooking academy. We spoke to a student – a man in his thirties – who was finishing his eight months of studies and he explained to us that graduates from the college were highly sought after as their training was known to be of  high standard.

A little way up the road is this wonderful rooster in the town square. Behind him, the Lameloise Hotel boasts a three Michelin Star restaurant. It was not uncommon to see fancy cars such as Ferrari, Lambourghini and Lotus on the forecourt as their owners spend around 500 euro a head on lunch. On our previous visit to Chagny with Ali and John, we purchased coffee here so we could use their Wifi. John will remember - expensive coffee.

Chagny is only a 15 minute train ride from Chalon sur Saone and we decided to visit. We wanted some hardware items and to check the condition of the Saone River. It had rained quite a lot since Peter’s departure and we thought the level would be high. We purchased some paint and a piece of outdoor carpet and returned to Matilda after noting that the river was in flood – and it was still raining!

A few days later we decided to take a trip to Beaune to look at the wine growing region there. All the provincial trains cater for bikes, there is a specific area set aside in at least one carriage where you and your bike are welcome.

The French have a very complicated system for classifying their wine growing regions. It classifies areas right down to the smallest of paddocks by the soil type and depth, the direction it faces and is far too complicated for us to understand let alone try to explain here. So we won’t! However we took a guided tour and were suitably impressed by Beaune as a city and the vineyards and villages on the hills behind it.

The vines are mainly Pinot Noir with some Chardonnay, Small and  low to the ground. We did not see the amount of fruit they produce but the acreage was very large.

The buildings in the villages are all old, many of them very splendid.

This one in a courtyard of a grand chateau intrigued Peter, the roof was made of limestone slabs and would have been 30 centimetres thick. (1 foot). All resting on a substantial wooden frame.

Back to Matilda and in the next few days, we wanted to complete some painting jobs, the weather has not been good and we need three or four good days to do what we have to do and the forecasts don’t look good! We were fortunate and picked a break that allowed us to paint the cabin and coach house roofs with no more than hours to spare before the rain set in again.

We have Marg’s sister Judy and her husband Geoff arriving soon and it was good to have some of the work done.

So, there will be more to tell, keep in touch.

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.