Plans changed again!

Bonjour et bienvenue,

Welcome to a VERY hot France. We are currently having the second heatwave of the year, with temperatures reaching 43'C here in Auxerre yesterday afternoon and not dropping below 26'C last night....phew......

Chico's keeping cool by wearing a wet bandana and tea towel and sleeping on wet towels, not the most fashionable of attire but he seems very comfortable in it and doesn't try to shake it off 😂

We had originally planned to go up the river Yonne as far as the Seine, turn round and come back to the canal du Nivernais in a couple of weeks but the morning we arrived at Villeneuve-sur-Yonne the botton lock gates failed, shutting the river until next year.  The gates were already scheduled for repairs/replacement during the winter maintenance but they just couldn't last that long. The lock-keeper was distraught and almost in tears.  Unfortunately the river Yonne is one of the most important routes into Belgium and the closure has forced many boaters to have to try and find alternative winter moorings simply because they can't get where they wanted.  If we'd been there the day before we'd have been in that situation too, luckily all it's meant is that we move onto the canal du Niverais a couple of weeks earlier than we'd intended.

We spent a few days in Joigny moored opposite this 2* Michelin hotel/restaurant but were never tempted to visit, 168 euros for a set lunch is just a little bit out of our pocket. Instead we went to the restaurant owned by the 2* chef's sister and had a fantastic meal for 31 euros each

After the peace and quiet and lack of boats on the canal de Bourgogne the river Yonne has been quite busy, although the lock-keepers reckon it's nowhere near as busy as previous years and the man running the Le Boat hire base at Migennes told us their bookings are well down.

After Joigny we stayed a couple of nights at Gurgy. The moorings are excellent and free, although you do pay if you need water or electric. It's also a very popular camping car stop and the enterprising locals have set up "degustation" cabins - free tasting of local wine, cheeses, cakes and sausage.  They were doing a roaring trade ad we bought a few bottles of wine.

The grapes are coming on well, despite the late frosts and now the heatwave and lack of rain so fingers -crossed for  good harvest this year.

This was the first view we had as we arrived in Auxerre.  It really is a beautiful town, with many very old multi-coloured timbered buildings.

We haven't stopped in the main port as there is absolutely no shade. Instead we've gone up the first lock onto the Nivernais and are moored opposite the weir where we are entertained every afternoon by the young locals swimming. There is an excellent swimming pool complex about 500m away but I suppose they prefer the river as it's free. I'll stick to soaking my feet in a bowl and feeding the fishes and ducks.

That's all for now. Stay cool and drink lots of water wherever you are and see you again soon X