After we left Rully we stopped at Chagny for a couple of hours to visit the market and there was a Brocante as well. Brocante’s vary in quality – they are basically a boot fair or flea market but this one was particularly good. After lunch we moved on to a wild-camp just after a small village called Remigny. Our mooring overlooked the Premier Cru vineyards of Santenay and up to the Montagne des Trois-Croix. The view was spectacular!
On 27th we moved on to St Leger and decided to spend a few days there so we could get the scooter off and explore a bit more of this region. We got in touch with friends of ours, Sheila and Alan, who were coming along the canal in the opposite direction and it seemed we might meet in St Leger, which turned out to be the case when they arrived the following day. It was lovely to catch up and we had a couple of very competitive games of Petanque (Boules) on the quay next to the boat as well a nice, very French, meal in a canal side restaurant.
On Thursday we went our separate ways as they headed on towards their winter berth in the Soane and we continued our climb to the final summit of our journey this year. On route we stopped in St Julien sur Dheune.
We are really enjoying this final leg of our trip – we are finding this canal to be the nicest we have been on so far. There are numerous places to stop and the countryside is very pretty. Even if there is no actual halte the canal side is being looked after so going alongside is possible almost anywhere.
Today we left St Julien and having passed through the last lock taking us upwards we arrived in Montchanin. There is a basic halte here with bollards but no services. It’s not a problem for us, we filled up with water at St Leger and with the solar panels we can do without electricity for several days. If we get low on power we can fire up the generator to charge the batteries.
Having secured the boat we headed into the village to walk the boys and stumbled across a pizzeria where we had a lovely lunch and booked a table for tomorrow night. After, we headed over the canal to the park so the boys could swim and we took a little trip down memory lane to 16 years ago when we arrived here on our way to the Med with our first motor cruiser, Armanda.
We have approximately 70kms and 30 locks to go before we arrive at our final destination this year. We are hoping the weather improves a little – it hasn’t rained but has definitely cooled down to a more Autumnal feel but it looks like it’s warming up over the next few days. Hope so – don’t want this summer to end.
Adventures with Thirza 