Bluey

Bluey
Come with us as we travel round Europe in our floating home

Sunday 26 May 2019

Canal de Bourgogne

Hello, nice to see you here again

With Narwal safely installed in the dry dock we stayed for a few days on the steps at St Jean de Losne. It's a busy spot with a high turnover of holiday boats who turn up and immediately plug into the electric.


While we were there we had 2 visits from the gendarmes. They wanted to see our papers and licences and also checked our extinguishers and life jackets.  Some boaters I talked to think it's an intrusion of privacy but I think it's a good thing. I wish the same regulations also applied to the hire boaters who can rent a boat with no tuition or licence and who often struggle to handle these large cruisers and have no idea how to moor up safely. I've lost count of the number we've helped recently, and before someone comments that everyone has to start somewhere, it's not rocket science! You don't throw unattached ropes or jump off the boat 4 feet from the bank wearing high heeled sandals! Some of them are just accidents waiting to happen and it makes me cringe.   The second time the gendarme knocked on our door I explained that we'd already done the "controle" and he stopped to chat for a while. It's nice that the local crime rate is so low that these guys have the time to be friendly and not too officious.

We've now left the big river and are slowly working our way up the canal de Bourgogne.  It's new territory for us and so far we like it very much.  It's quiet and the countryside is beautiful. The first section from St Jean de Losne is typically French, very straight and tree lined both sides.  The lock keeper who helped us the first day told us about a really pretty, secluded "wild" mooring which was so quiet that we both overslept and were almost late for the first lock next morning 😀


Unlike the canal de Centre where the lock side houses are mostly derelict, here they are well maintained and lived in.


well almost all are lived in, 


and the flowers beside the locks are stunning too


It's now Sunday and we've spent the weekend on another peaceful wild mooring, surrounded this morning by a fishing match. They take it very seriously here, arriving at 8.00 and having a meeting which lasted till 10.15.  They then drove down the towpath in a procession to their allocated fishing pegs and set up their gear. At 10.50 there was a loud blast of an air horn with the "start fishing" blast going at 11.00. Not much talking between themselves and no real sign that anyone was catching anything either.  It's 3pm and with the blast of another air horn all rods have been taken in. I wonder how long a meeting they'll have now to decide the winner?

That's all for now. I'll try and keep to a regular weekly blog but the Internet signal is getting weaker by the day. As the city of Dijon is our next port of call it may improve in time for next week's instalment.  Watch this space 😀 

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