Reims

09.09.18
Homeward. 6 hour + drive to Reims. Our cheese purchases carefully packed with frozen bottles of water and ice blocks and a lot of hope that they wouldn't deteriorate over 2 day journey in the car. Not helped by the fact that the hotel didn't have a fridge! We succeeded though, cheese made it.

French motorways a dream drive, but 80 odd euros for paege from South to North though.

Our last French dinner in the busy pedestrian street along from the cathedral in Reims and back to sleep in the functional Ibis Styles hotel across from the canal where there are moorings, mostly taken up by huge barges. We will be coming through here on our boat next year, can't quite believe it!

We managed to get an earlier Shuttle, and arrived back in England around 2pm. We had been forewarned that there were long hold ups on the M20, so we headed for the coast road home which of course was incredibly slow. A huge contrast to the pleasant French roads we had travelled on.

At least the weather is still good back home.

  

Sur la pont

07.09.18
After a day that started and ended with a heavy thunderstorm and on which we gathered goodies to take home with us: Carmargue rice, chestnut honey and wine, we drove to Avignon and wandered this historic town with its papal palace and 12th century broken bridge. The shepherd who laid the first stone of the bridge under instruction from God, has a tomb here where miracles occur.

More huge hotel boats on the Rhone but nowhere-to-be-seen moorings for smaller craft as we will be. We are hoping we are wrong and that we will be able to visit this town and Arles again from our boat, we shall see.

We found a quiet square further into town than the touristy area, through narrow streets of expensive shops. We had lunch of champignon risotto and creme brûlée with tonka  bean cream and fruit sorbets , yum.

Sur le Pont d'Avignon
L'on y danse, l'on y danse
Sur le Pont d'Avignon
L'on y danse tout en rond

Back for a swim and wine and our hostess appeared to say goodbye as she thought we were leaving tomorrow! A bit of panic thinking that she had new guests arriving, but she hasn't and in fact on checking our booking we are booked until Sunday, phew! Off to Sommiere market again tomorrow - more goodies to take home with us!

Course de Tau

05.09.18
Back to Saintes Maries de la Mer for 3.30 start of the bull run. We bought our tickets,  a mere 2 euros, and headed into the arena. Concrete step seats in the glaring sun with no shade anywhere were not comfortable but luckily it was not crowded and everyone filtered in gently. The tannoy shouted - we couldn't understand what intermittently with some brass band sort of music and eventually the 10 Raseteurs ( the trained runners) made their appearance. Each one had his name announced and raised his arm to acknowledge and then they casually jumped the barrier with no effort at all ready for the start of the show.
At a long horn blast the gate was opened for the first bull to enter the ring ..... and nothing appeared! Then after a minute or two a bewildered bull ran out, stopped and gazed around. At this point the Raseteurs  jumped in to join it, goading and running at him to try to snatch the rosette and tassels from his head. These young men  are so agile that you tend to overlook the danger of this, the bull becomes more agitated and paws the ground, twisting and turning to try to butt the protagonists. When he actually butts the wooden barrier in frustration you realise how powerful those horns are. It is thrilling to watch these athletes duck and dive from their handsome predator, confounding the bull by changing direction after grabbing for his head and running like crazy to leap the barrier  and hang from the railings like a monkey before swinging back in for the next try. There appeared to be 2 teams of 4 plus a chief 'goader' for each team. They have a metal 'claw' (crochets) fitted to their fists to enable them to hook the rosette and/or the tassels. When they manage it, they raise it triumphantly to applause from the crowd.
Each bull is only in the ring for 15minutes, sometimes they do not voluntarily leave when the gate re-opens, you can understand their confusion! To get them out another bull with a bell appears - clearly his 'leader' which he meekly follows offstage to loud applause. Some of them jumped the barrier themselves and one tried very hard to get back through the gate, standing on hind legs and virtually nose to nose with spectators.

Exciting stuff and 2 euros very well spent. At the end the gaurdiens race through the town on their white horses - another exciting spectacle, but unfortunately we were at the back of the crowd for this.

We went on to have a great meal of guardien beouf! The local dish of course.

Arles and the Carmargue

03.09.18

On the day my son starts his new job in the city, we take a trip to Arles and Saintes Maries de la Mer.

The Rhone at Arles is vast and empty, one solitary fisherman on a boat and 2 enormous moored trip boats, one like we had seen in Tournon. There appear to be no small craft moorings here and the concrete banks are high and steep.

Walking into this once again faded beautiful city, I am very aware of Van Gogh's sad life here. The yellow house where he lived with Gaughin no longer exists, but the cafe he painted in Place de Forum is still here although the pretty cobblestones are gone and it is surrounded by other cafes. It is painted yellow with yellow sunshades which cleverly evokes his painted night-time glow.

We wandered around and took in the amphitheatre and another Roman semi circular theatre - they clearly liked their entertainments! But it is the city atmosphere that captured our senses. More narrow side alleys, quiet, hot and sleepy away from the busier periphery roads. We ate our lunch in the park across from some young teenagers who were doing the same, but more noisily. Pete noted their care in rescuing their food bags which blew away at one point. They sensibly threw everything in bins at the end of their lunch. It's a shame to even be mentioning it I guess, but you rarely see the same respect in Britain.

We drove down through the Camargue and saw our first pink mingos 😀 as our grandson would call them. Lots of ranches with white horses for hire and other wild white horses to be seen on this flat marshy landscape. Saint Maries del a Mer is the capital of the Carmargue on the coast with several small beaches formed into man-made coves flanked by rocks which makes the sea invitingly still. Whilst having a drink at a bar across from the bull arena we read that there will be a 'course de toureau ' in 2 days time. Pete asked the barman if we needed tickets and understood that the system of pay is to put money in a hat! We intend to go and watch this local sport. In all the years I have come here I have never seen one.

We were more careful where we chose to eat and had the most delicious guardien boeuf - a local dish we had not found on menus until now.

Back to the gite, driving across the Carmargue in the dark with windows open  and cicadas whistling outside.

Market day

1.09.18
Off to Sommiere Saturday market at the crack of 10am, oops, when we meant to get up early specifically. We did manage to get a parking place though, just.

This gorgeous old town of little alleyways,  lacy rusting iron balconies and fading wooden shutters is bustling on a Saturday morning with a popular market. Bric a brac, clothes, jewellery and food stalls full of interesting stuff under bunting-strung streets. Of course we over indulged ourselves buying wonderful produce : cheeses of varying strength, salami style sausage (poivre and tomato), crusty pain de campagne, green beans, huge peaches, rosy pears, eggs laid yesterday. What a feast for later! Except we succumbed to lunch beside the river: smoked herring and potato salad, chicken drumsticks with pasta and cheese sauce followed by proper French apple tart. Oh dear, full up again!

The atmosphere was buzzing, a saxophonist busker playing a lazy mellow jazz completed the picture. And by 2 it was all being packed away and the streets swept and tidied, the town going back to it's sleepier self apart from the tractors hacking through with their trailers overflowing with grapes! They were courteous enough to stop at the crossing from restaurant to river front for our waitresses to convey their food; cauldrons of moules and plates of fish. Love it. We might have to come back next Saturday our last day, to stock up for home.

Back to the gite and a swim to try and work off some of that lunch! Great day.

Water jousting

31.08.18
40 minutes drive and we got to Sete, on the coast, but an island amongst canals and the link to the Canal du Midi through the Etang du Tau, another trip we will be doing one day. We identified the Port du Plaisance where we could moor but saw no boats our size - they all seemed enormous!

The inner canals have extremely low bridges, so only small motorboats are moored and travel along them. However, the water jousting festival was underway - a surprise to us and we enjoyed the entertainment of this daft sport, that apparently dates back to 1177.  We watched the very young contestants determinedly lancing their rivals and the triumph when they managed to unbalance them into the water. Some that just stumbled and collapsed in their position on the 'ladder' at the back of the boat were extremely upset. The ones that went in just accepting, either being dragged into the support boats or casually swimming to the pontoon to get out and dry off. Good fun, the players in suitable white trousers and striped blue and white tops and the boats very jolly.

We walked all around the water: the Lateral Canal which leads out to the Etang du Tau. Once again it was baking hot and we were glad to finally relax in a restaurant, although we made the mistake of choosing one on a busy canalside street of many, all fish restaurants and the food was not great, sea bass aside. We will know next time to go further into the centre Ville.

Street parking  has to be paid for but we were pleasantly surprised to see that it is free between 12 and  2 - very civilised for people to have their lunch.

Aigues Mortes and Grau du Roi

29.08.18
Off to revisit other places I have enjoyed before. The Carmargue with  its wild horses, bulls and flamingoes is a place apart - it has a different feel to other parts of France and is unspoiled.

Aigues Mortes, the walled ancient city is a tourist attraction but still fascinating. It's narrow streets largely pedestrian only, are flanked with pretty houses, shops, bars and restaurants. It's centre square heaving with restaurants all al fresco under large sunshades. Plenty of eating choices here and lots of Carmargue beef (toureau) or 'gardien' beef. I couldn't help but have a memory of my Dad here not long before he died when the 3 of us came for a holiday, choosing to let my Mum and I wander the shops whilst he rested in a restaurant and had a crepe for his lunch before we took a boat trip and watched the majestic gardien on their horses rounding up the bulls. My parents had been coming here for years and it was them who introduced me to the area in my teens.

We went outside the walls to explore the waterways : the Rhone and Sete canal where plenty of pleasure boats were moored along with the trip boats. Another must of a stop identified for our future travels by boat. All along the coast from here are the salt flats where the water is pink (from the sea creatures I think). Sometimes flamingoes can be seen wading but we didn't see any this time. Carmargue salt is thought to be the best and very pure. Being true tourists, we bought some of course.

We went on to the beach at Grau du Roi - not a touristy place with little to remark about it and still as I remember it - a fishing port with  huge boats coming and going. A swim here in the Med - although it took a long walk out for it to become deep enough.

Pont du Gard - what have the Romans ever done for us?

28.08.18
Another amazing feat of Roman building is Pont du Gard aqueduct which was built to carry water from the source of the Uzes river to  Nimes.
Another blazingly hot day and I welcomed a swim in the cool river. I came here in my 20s and then you didn't have to pay to get on to the bridge - now it is one large museum. There were a lot of people enjoying the amenities as well as viewing the bridge and learning about it. Some daring young people were tombstoning from rocks into deeper parts of the flow, many were kayaking and plenty swimming from the little bays all along the banks. It is a magnificent sight and the river is clean and inviting.

Nimes

27.08.18
After a day getting used to our new home and getting in the food we wanted, we visited Nimes and it's fantastic amphitheatre. My knees and Pete's non head for heights prevented us from climbing to the very top to look out over this old city but we got close and got a feel for the amazing feat of construction managed by the Romans in 5AD! Everyone on any terrace would have had a perfect view of the brutal fights that went on in it's vast oval arena. I learned that arena means sand in Latin the name merely refers to the ground covering and not as I had always thought to a circular or similar shape. The Romans were truly a blood thirsty lot and the spectacles of gladiator fights, bear and lion confrontations became more and more viscous until the Christian community and some more humane members of the higher classes called a slow down to it all. The theatre was taken over as a fortress during wartime and now seems to be used as a music venue.

It was blisteringly hot to be walking a city, so we found a restaurant in a square where we had lunch. Pete had his first taste of Carmargue beef - it got the thumbs up. Me, paella, which was a mistake.

Nimes is a busy bustling  city with ancient Roman architecture and beautifully dressed ladies.

On to more permanent living

25.08.18
Our last night of moving around was in Tournon sur Rhone. The town lies on both sides of the river with a pedestrian bridge to connect the two, steep vineyards with their names on billboards backed the streets. We didn't explore very far as we were not here for long but the river frontage along from our hotel had been newly developed with pontoons. We have read that there are few mooring places along the Rhone, so it was good to identify this one at least. It was backed by a plane tree edged square which looked likely for a market on certain days. At the back of the square were several bars and restaurants. We had our evening drink on a barge. This establishment appeared to be run by a very young couple and it was difficult to establish just what they were offering; cakes, pastries and alcohol it seemed. An enormous hotel boat passed by, we will be dwarfed this end of the Rhone for sure!
We intended to have a light dinner as we are overdone with restaurant food. We found a tiny restaurant the back of which was cut into the steep rock that runs behind here and that forms the base of it's castle. We had 'ravioles' - the restaurants speciality, which were tiny green ravioli parcels of cheese and parsley in a cheese sauce, mine; goats cheese, Pete's; Roquefort. Delicious, but so much for the light dinner! Of course a bottle of cote du Rhone had to accompany it.

25.08.18
Saturday and on to Nimes where we have a gite for 2 weeks. An easy motorway drive despite a few hold-ups which we were warned would be the case as this is the last weekend of French holidays.

Our gite is in a quiet suburb and quite rural. We were met by hostess and neighbour, Lou who showed us around this quirky little 'barn'. We have our own pool which is luxury. Lou is an artist and her paintings adorn the walls. Everything is shabby chic and slightly scruffy, which suits us. Her dog, Yagi comes to visit and positively moaned at me when I didn't give him dinner scraps. He is gentle and friendly though and well trained not to go for your food so we will welcome him despite not being lovers of dogs particularly. The garden is wild with fig trees, olive trees and firs and all the windows are leafy.
The temperature has dropped from a sticky 32 to 27 degrees with a cool wind and clouds. It is forecast to crank up again tomorrow.
A light dinner at home tonight.

Auxerre

18.08.18

We arrive in Auxerre on l'Yonne. A stunning old town with timbered buildings tumbling down a steep hill to the river which is bustling. Many boats here and we chatted to an Englishman sitting on the back deck of a Stevens just like ours. He has shares in it and this was his first trip. Their mooring is with Aquarelle and we asked the manager about winter mooring here. It would be a suitable place to leave our boat as from here there are several waterways to explore, canals Nivernais and Bourgogne and the river Yonne, and Auxerre is easy to get to by car or train. Tariffs  were a little higher than we had hoped but that's mainly because we want the best protection for her.
Boats were nose to tail along this stretch of water and this was the first time we saw people moving around mooring for the evening to enjoy the town. A barge, Grizzled Skipper was moored here - we have seen this on our travels on the Thames.
We had a beer in a busy square and researched a few restaurants around it to investigate later, but once again, the one with the best review - an old hotel - was closed down. The most thriving (as it was the only one) was a bit of a fast food establishment. Luckily, as we were early we managed to get a table at a hidden brasserie tucked at the back of a courtyard, Poivre et Sel, where the food was more authentic French. We lucked out for sure.

Auxerre cathedral - beautiful (wish we had heard this harpist playing, he seemed to be resting)

Mustard

23.08.18

Took a train ride into Dijon today, buying our tickets from the tourist office at her than the slightly confusing machine in St Jean station. Train bang on time there and back, so it was all very easy. Another blisteringly hot day and we walked a lot. Dijon is another beautiful city, the centre full of expensive stores. Of course we had to stop at the mustard shop, which was a fun experience. All sorts of different flavoured mustards including one with cassis. We bought a balsamic blend and aubergine and rosemary, hmmmm.

Went to the museum of art which had an exhibition about the Dukes of Bourgogne and their artefacts - lots of rich paintings, armoury, altars, tombs and religious decoration, all very detailed and intricate. Not entirely our sort of thing but some of it interesting.

Lunch on a pedestrian back street alongside the museum - people watching. Lots of very beautifully attired ladies drifting by.

We checked out the riverside where there are moorings, so this will be a future stop again.

Future moorings and book swapping

22.08.18
Found the H2O office and Florence to ask about winter moorings for 2019. They can provide all we need so we will probably go with them. St Jean is a good place to start from with several waterways to explore.
We visited the old lady's book swap and met some more helpful people - the whole town is geared up to boating of course. I was able to take a book despite not having one to swap as I haven't finished my current read yet. It was suggested I bring a swap next time we are here, which I will. 2019?
Drive to couple of other villages in the vicinity, quiet peaceful deserted places. One had a large table set up by the river however, where lots of people were congregating and chatting. Seemed the only thing on the table was melon and coca cola though.

Had dinner at restaurant we had wanted last night. Very nice on waterfront in 32 degrees of heat. Storm clouds gathered and lightening appeared on horizon but never got to us.

Met a couple from Melbourne on the walk back who had come to pick up their boat, Eureka 1. They have been doing this for years and I queried what it was that attracted kiwis and ozzies to come to France for boating. She replied that there was nothing like it for them at home - only sea. And on these waterways there are mooring places every 10k or so that are lovely places to stop.

St Jean de Losne

21.08.18

Clamecy: famous for its log boats to Paris until 1923. Very low bridge by lock : swing bridge that didn't seem to have the space to swing.
On to st Jean de Losne and a very old building for our BnB. Smiley young proprietor showed us our room over the courtyard garden and told us there was a beer machine there. Visited the H2O Marina to enquire about winter moorings. Vast place on the edge of the Saone. We will speak to Florence tomorrow who will fill us in on how we can moor here.

Returned to BnB and had beer in garden with kiwi couple who own an ex hire boat (a Broom) and had just arrived to board it and cruise until October. Learned a few tips from them about winter mooring with H2O.
Another couple from England turned out to be narrowboat owners. Their boat is moored at the bottom of their garden on the K and A canal near Bradford on Avon - an absolutely idyllic area we know.   They were here to visit her 96 year old mother who had lived on a boat for most of her later life with her husband in the Med, then swooped that for a river boat and spent time in St Jean. When her husband died she sold the boat and continued to live here in a tiny house. She was originally from Eygpt and had lived in Nice and brought up family in England, so a well travelled independent lady.

Our chosen restaurant for dinner was fully booked, largely because it was about the only one open on the waterfront tonight. We ended up eating at a tiny tapas place run by a young thin rasta  couple. Food was good.

Joigny and others

19.08.18

Visit Joigny - another old picturesque town on the Yonne. Back to our hotel in Auxerre, Parc de Marechaux for a swim, then out into town for beer and dinner at La Tour. Our hotel is a chateau of faded elegance. A pleasant quiet room overlooking the garden that is thick with mature trees. Ours walls are of slightly padded grey silk!

20.08.18
Feeling fragile after tummy upset through night. Drive to Cravant on le canal de Nivernais then onto Vermonton where France Afloat are based in a very hidden corner. Very quiet, no boats moving, some moored.

On to Mailly le Ville. Home to the lowest bridge on system.

Brienon sur Armancon

Another tiny village with an organised waterfront. There are so few boats around and most of them moored. It is so different to our congested English canals and their towns. Like the roads and linear villages you travel through by car in France, you never seem to see a soul. Where is everyone? Staying out of the hot sun perhaps!
I find myself thinking that the villages could get a lot more out of the boating community if they had grocery stores, cafes and bars near their moorings, or at least signposts to where you may find such things.

Getting a feel for French boating

17.08.18

Euro tunnel from Folkestone at 11.36. Arrived at our hotel in Chalon en Champagne about 3pm! Ibis Styles ; very simple and functional on a lively square in this old part of town. Beer in the sunshine alongside lots of Friday evening revellers. A good atmosphere. Restaurants not so easy to find - some closed, some looking uninviting, more like burger cafes. However after a wander around and down a side alley, we found a tiny brasserie, Le Chaudron Savoyard, where we had a over sized tartiflett each at a table outside and went back stuffed.
The Marne and it's canal passes through here.
Next day checked out the canal in Pogny, a tiny village but where they had built a new mooring strip with several water taps spaced along it. A building plot at the back of this is crying out for a cafe. Next year when we are afloat maybe there will be!

Saying goodbye to Ani (out of sequence) 28th October 2017

These are my notes in the boat logbook.

13th October to 28th October 2017

leaving Fenny Compton mooring for the last time

taking the key out of ignition for the last time

canalside at Whilton Marina