Well, another late posting! That's one of the challenges when on the move - good internet and the time to use it! Still, it's a small price to pay in comparison to the fun we're having.
We left PK72 at 07:50 and immediately met two commercial barges. It was not much of a drama as there was plenty of room and depth.
Another day welcomed us into her glorious sunshine....
We left PK72 at 07:50 and immediately met two commercial barges. It was not much of a drama as there was plenty of room and depth.
Another day welcomed us into her glorious sunshine....
There are plenty of lift bridges in this section. This one has been lifted for quite some time. The lock lights indicate that we should be ready to enter.
Crossing the bridge prior to the lock.
Here the water is clean and clear, you can see the bottom at about 2.5 - 3 metres (mid channel).
I miss my horses! These toughies look like they could pull us along easily! The strawberry roan on the right is the exact same colour as one of my ponies when I was a kid.
Black cat luck? Taking a quick drink from the lock.
This commercial barge has just come through a narrow passageway under a lift bridge. The traffic is patiently waiting.
Each town's Mairie Office is always adorned with bright, cheery flowers.
What a funky roof!
The sign clearly indicates that we should keep to the right-hand side in the channel when passing the blue mooring post (for commercial vessels). You can just see the back of the sign for vessels indicating that they should be on the left of the channel (when going the opposite way). It's only for a brief time, but when passing one of these mooring posts another vessel came around a blind corner on my side. He was following the signs instructions - so was I....
Chamouilley. A free jetty (with about 10 Euros to pay for electricity and water if you want it). A pretty and tranquil town and the entire jetty to ourselves! As it's Friday we gave ourselves an early mark and stopped at 16:00.
The clouds indicated that wind was coming!
Our legend (the red circle) is right over the mooring post - we are in the right place! We thought this was an ideal place to sample a beer in the small village.
Here's our green route. To the left of us is Paris, the windy, light blue channel.
Making great progress! So we celebrated with some Chavignon. What? You've not heard of Chavignon. It's a homemade blend of .... well you can guess, can't you?
The town's water supply - back-when....
We first thought this could be the communal laundry house, but you'd soon get a back-ache reaching down to the water. Perhaps it was the bathing house.
First painted monument we've seen.
Every town and village in France takes great pride in displaying flowers wherever they can.
We met Jean-Wiffnid Leroy when Noel spotted his rather fancy motorbike. We started to chat (well, 'chat' as well as we could). This gentlemen is a very clever artist. He does artwork on bikes and is a bike fabricator too.
He turns barrels into chairs! Aren't these neat?
This is just fantastic - his attic - I want one! He has a trap door in the floor so he can haul up bikes.
The attic is incredible and his home is beautiful (on the ground floor) - it's surprising what 'ordinary' houses contain!
His skill extends to other areas - the nose of a plane.....
... is a shark! Yikes!
We spent about an hour with Jean-Wiffnid, fascinated with his clever talent and his home. We thought we'd have a beer at a bar in town - the only bar shut at lunchtime.... a very different culture to what we are used to for Friday! But, we were tired and glad to get back home.
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