Well we made it to Saint Jean de Losnes with no further maintenance/repairs to Narwal required 😀 It was a huge relief all round and we celebrated with a really nice lunch in the local restaurant La Cotiniere.
When I left you last time we'd just arrived at Fragnes. The wind died down slightly but was still fierce enough that we thought we'd stay put for a couple of days. Chico is now almost 14 years old and it's showing. Before we left Roanne he had a couple of seizures and the vet put him on heart medication and told us to try and not get him excited. The meds seemed to be working and he didn't have any more seizures until we got to Fragnes when he had 3 in 36 hours. It was very distressing for him and for us as we thought his time had run out. I've doubled his medication and this seems to be working, he's back to normal and as soon as the wind died down he resumed his sunbathing position on the gunwale. Fingers crossed the new dosage continues to work.
While we were in Fragnes it was my birthday, no I'm not saying which one and Roger took me out for lunch. We chose not to eat at the restaurant in the port as it didn't get very good reviews on t'internet. Instead, we walked for 10 minutes down the towpath to a small place beside the long term moorings at le Bassin de Fragnes.
We arrived at 12.45 and got the last free table. It was packed with workmen which is always a sign of good food. The meal was excellent. 4 courses, with plenty of choice, inclusive of wine and coffee for 14.50 euros each. As they were leaving the workmen were all saying "see you tomorrow" which says it all really. It's definitely a place we'll be visiting again.
The final lock on the Canal du Centre is the deepest we've done so far this year. At 35ft deep it looks quite intimidating, but actually it's one of the calmest we've done and has the benefit of good floating bollards.
Narwal looked quite small down at the bottom of the lock. We followed shortly after.
It was a beautiful sunny day, although still quite windy, and it was great to be back on a river.
We passed this one a couple of hours later, loading up with gravel for the return trip.
As there was only the one lock to do I had plenty of time to do a spot of baking en-route mmmmm.......cake 😋
The only problem with rivers is that there aren't very many mooring places. We stayed at Gergy for one night and then moved on to Seurre. The Halte Nautique there has been totally renovated since we stayed in 2017 and the town itself is undergoing a big make-over with roadworks everywhere. It'll be lovely when it's finished. The pontoons are only for boats up to 15m and although they were empty when we arrived, by 6pm they were full of Le Boat hire cruisers. The wind had finally died down and it was a perfect evening to sit up on the top deck and open the bar.
Cheers! See you again soon X
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