I’m pleased to report that the fishing line  Brody swallowed almost 2 weeks ago has finally made an appearance, along with an assortment of small lead weights. It occurred about one hour after we’d finally decided to have him X-rayed by our vet in the U.K. next week.  Just saved us £350 – thanks Brodster 💕🐾👍

So, we have begun to explore the region around Pont-de-Vaux and are, so far, pleasantly surprised and pleased with what we have found.  A short drive from the marina brings us to the Saône and a perfect dog walk that is on good ground but forbidden to traffic, so they can have a wonderful time without us humans interfering with concerns about them being run over!

We also drove up into the vineyards on the hills above us, home to some of the Mâconnais wines produced here.  As we climbed up the winding road to the top we couldn’t help but notice the snow capped mountain semi translucent in the clouds to the East.

When we reached the top we were surrounded by vineyards and the farmer was there tending his crop.  Frank approached him, explained he spoke French un peu and asked about the mountain on the horizon.  Mont Blanc came the reply and he went on to explain, in excellent English, that the vineyards had been in his family for generations.

We marvelled at his wonderful workplace and went for an explore into the forests above the vineyards until the passageway became too narrow and we had to turn back.

We’re looking forward to spending a few months here and getting to experience some of the local bevvies and discover the historic tales of this region.

We left Tournus this morning having been woken and then kept awake for several hours by the racket of thousands of starlings planning their next murmuration creation over breakfast.

During the night a Saône passenger cruiser had sneaked into the port and when I walked the dogs the occupants were enjoying their first meal of the day.  At the same time the commercial barges were beginning their passages between wood yards and scrap metal graveyards.

Our relatively short journey to Pont de Vaux was uneventful but we passed pretty scenery and enviable riverside property.  Enviable, that is, until you consider the winter will see the Saône rise in excess of 5 meters from its current level, surely inundating much of the land and threatening the homes lining the banks.

The final leg of the journey is via the lock and 3.5km narrow cut leading to the port.

It’s only when you’re through the 2.5 meter deep lock and in the port that you realise even here can’t escape the impressive increase in water level, with the piles that hold the pontoons in place soaring above you and the built up banks around the port designed to protect the town.  It could get interesting!

Our allocated berth is on the first pontoon of the main port and we literally squeezed Thirza in between the finger pontoon and our new neighbour.

As soon as we were in we headed across the footbridge to town and had a lovely lunch.

Our next challenge is to get back to Diou to collect the truck.  We just need to get to Macon on the scooter to collect the hire car we’ve booked for tomorrow.  Let’s hope we get the sunshine predicted or it will be a very uncomfortable re-enactment of Dumb and Dumber!!

Today we glided down La Grande Saône at 8.5kms ph from Chalon to Tournus.  As we wended our way down, we basked in 25C sunshine – not bad for the end of October!

Our first ever visit to Tournus was with Colin and Carol after they’d joined us in Chalon in 2002 when we took Armanda to the Med.  Our second visit was in 2003 on our return from the Med and on on both occasions we enjoyed the location of the halte and the town.  This time we can’t help but feel things have taken a turn for the worse.  The whole place has an uncared-for feel and there are one too many winos wandering around looking like they’re waiting for an opportunity to score more booze.

It is even more unfortunate that Brody leapt onto the jetty as soon as we arrived and picked up some fishing line.  With the line trailing from his mouth and all attempts to see whether there was a hook on the other end failing we called the nearest vet for advice.  Keep an eye on him, check he eats and performs his business normally and if we have any concerns at all call them any time 24/7 – there is always someone on duty.  Reassured to some degree we await the reappearance of the fishing line and pray there was never a hook attached to it.

in the meantime we encountered some of the mighty vessels that earn their keep shifting passengers and goods up and down this impressive river.

There’s one……

There’s another one……

There’s another one……

To top the day off, the local Starlings began to gather over the town, ready to roost for the night and as we walked the dogs just before dusk I was “lucky” enough to be shit on from a great height.  The ol’ poem came to mind:

One day whilst sitting under a tree; a bird flew over and shit on me; as I looked up and wiped my eye; I said “thank goodness cows can’t fly”!  Well, it was something like that anyway!!

The flip side was the amazing murmurations we were treated to as they vied for a place to spend the night among the trees separating the town from the river.  I’ll share a video taken from the pontoon.  Really beautiful.

We managed to reach Chalon sur Saône last night, after another long day with a couple of stoppages at locks.  Again, it was a beautiful sunny day so a real pleasure travelling through this part of the country.

There’s no doubt that the Canal du Centre is one of the most picturesque canals on the system and we have enjoyed our journey this time every bit as much as the other 2 times we’ve done it.

There are several 5+ meter deep locks on the descent to the Saône and they are made dead easy by the sliding, floating bollards that you attach a centre line to.  The final lock into the Saône is almost 11meters deep and quite a void to be in when you reach the bottom.

When the gate finally opens to the Saône it is quite a feeling!

The sun was low as we made the short distance from the cut leading to the Canal du Centre and Chalon, making a beautiful evening but severely affecting visibility!  Who knew we would be heading West in this section of the Saône??!!

We got to Chalon at about 6.30 and after walking the dogs and a freshen up we headed out to the Taj Mahal for a proper ruby!!  It was sooooo good!

We had a couple of celebratory bevvies (of course) before turning in for the night – totally knackered!!

We woke up to beautiful sunny and clear blue skies this morning and pushed away from the berth at 8.30 to make sure we were front of the queue for the lock.  Queue!  Errrmmm, not quite – we only saw one other boat on the move today, going in the opposite direction.

We’d decided to make our way to St Leger sur Dhuene but I don’t think either of us really looked at the navicarte.  Turns out there were 35kms and no less than 28 locks to negotiate before arriving at our destination.  We worked out that each lock takes between 7 and 10 minutes to get through, so we spent over 4 hours of our 9-hour day doing locks!  Absolutely knackering!!

Thankfully it was a beautiful day and the countryside is just gorgeous darling! (Sorry, been watching Strictly!).

The day wasn’t without its worries either.  At some point this morning we heard a bit of a clunk and change in engine tone followed by reduced speed and unusual vibration throughout the boat.  There was obviously something round the prop and our tried and tested method of running the engine astern for a short period was unsuccessful.  Eventually we decided to try full-steam astern again but with the boat securely fastened to a lock wall.  That did the trick and Frank was very happy that he wouldn’t have to don his wetsuit and goggles to dive under and inspect the propellor – not sure why!

Anyway, we arrived safe and sound and are hoping to reach the Saône by tomorrow evening.  We’ll let you know how we get on!!

Hello bloggers!!  We are on the move again, taking ourselves and Thirza to Pont-de-Vaux on the Saône for the winter to carry out repairs and maintenance ready for next years adventure.

We left Diou Saturday morning after an hour and a half waiting for water to lift us off the bottom of the canal, where we were stuck fast.  I shall explain; last Monday the canal pound above us suffered a significant breach when the bank collapsed emptying the contents of the canal into the farmers field below.  Fortunately there were no boats in that section at the time and apart from it meaning there was no water to refill the canal sections below it, there was no real harm done and the work was complete by Friday.  What meant we had so little water was the fact it will take some time for the sections below the breach to recover water levels so we struggled to leave the side when we’d planned.

Never mind, we finally got underway and managed to reach our desired destination of Paray Le Monial for the night, despite the thick brouillard that had descended overnight and refused to budge until midday.  Having moored up, we made our way into town for a show-stopping burger in L’Ovale and walked the dogs back through the park so by the time we got back to the port we were exhausted.  An early night was had by all!!

Day 2 and the fog was upon us again.  You’d think it wouldn’t be a problem in the canals but when you can’t see locks and bridges ahead of you – or if other boats are coming in the opposite direction – then it makes for tiring and slightly stressful boating.  Again by midday it lifted and the sun came out meaning jumpers and overcoats came off to reveal t-shirts as the temperature responded to the sun’s rays.

We were certainly thankful the fog had lifted by the time we encountered Adelaide!

We reached our destination of Montceau les Mines by 5pm and enjoyed a little sundowner…….or two!

Our final night in Pierrefitte was lovely.  Absolutely no back light to spoil the amazing clear sky at night, with every star imaginable on show and the Milky Way clearly visible.  It’s one of the things we love about our little house, the nights can be so dark that you literally can’t see each other when you’re standing side by side.  It was a dead silent night with only an owl occasionally spoiling the ability to hear a pin drop. Magical!!

What a lovely stop Paray is.  It is the City of the Sacred Heart and bus loads of pilgrims and school children descend daily to learn history and pay homage to their faith.  We went to our favourite restaurant to eat well and pay the bill!!

So, since our last update we left Montchanin on 1st September and headed to Montceau Les Mines. Montceau is an old mining town that has suffered economically since the closure of the mines in the 90s. Many shops closed and services diminished until some bright spark decided there was value in capturing the passing trade from the canal and also investing in business development. You can see the recent investment in commercial centres and most obviously in the port, where the basin has been converted to a safe, comfortable and well provided for marina.

On arrival at the visitors pontoon, on the opposite bank to a very large fairground, we were immediately told we couldn’t stay there and had to move. Pourquoi? Because tomorrow night is the last night of the fair and they have a firework display close to the marina so we had to move to the other end of the basin. No problem for us. We settled on the end of the large pontoon connecting the numerous secondary pontoons, each with 6 finger pontoons, and was able to get the scooter off.

In the evening I convinced Frank that we needed to visit the fair, for churro’s (doughnuts) if for nothing else and when I saw the huge pendulum ride King Loop I knew I had to have a go. Whata mistaka to maka!!!! Having been swung upside down 100ft in the air several times, strapped into a carriage that spun and twisted in different directions I was fully over my hunger for adrenaline. When my glasses shot off my head on the 4th upside down turn I’d had enough. When we finally came to a halt I blindly shouted into the crowd of spectators that I’d lost my glasses. Frank stepped forward asking where. If no idea other than I was upside down at the time we parted company. Then, without warning we were off again with the cheerful bastard at the controls saying “do you want to go again?”. Noooooo!!!!!!!

Eventually we came to a stop, the pedestrian platform raised and I escaped. As I did so Frank was standing there holding up a pair of glasses saying “are these yours?”. Unbelievable that he took the dogs round the back of the ride and found them among the caravans. Undamaged in any way at all! Frank took the thanks and praise I bestowed upon him but the boys told me later it was Bosun who found them……..

Whilst in Montceau we managed to get both dogs’s rabies and annual vaccinations up to date and I also got their microchips checked to ensure they remain readable. It is rare, but I have heard cases (from vets) where a chip has failed to read upon re-entry to the UK, so I always take the opportunity to check them when possible.

We had a couple of lovely days in Montceau and moved on to Génelard on 4th Sept. Génelard is a lovely place to stop. The port is a large basin near to the busy village, with a hotel, bar, 2 boulangeries, a pharmacy, a tabac and many other small shops. The other thing they have is an amazing hardware shop, right in the middle of the village. Those that know it, it reminded us of Reeves in Maldon, only it is twice the size.

Something we’ve seen regularly in the canals are signs of large fish. A sudden large splash or significant disturbance of the water or small fish suddenly jumping out of the water and skimming across the canal as a predator targets them for lunch. But we’ve never actually seen what makes these things occur. Until we were coming into the last pound towards Génelard. This very large snub nose emerged from the water heading in the opposite direction. It was huge and we think it was a catfish.

In Génelard harbour one day there was much interest in something behind our boat. When we looked we thought at first the enormous shadow in the water was one of these fish. As it slowly got closer to the surface we realised it wasn’t one fish but literally thousands of small ones, all feeding on something. The French lady on the boat behind us tried to explain the phenomenon and I think I understood for the most part. There were young catfish, they would grow to be as big as the shadow we were looking at but they are destroying everything in the canal and eating the indigenous species. If a fisherman catches one he won’t put it back in the water but discard it on the bank. Yes, I know, I said, my dogs roll in them! She said hers does too. She also warned against letting the dogs swim in the canal because the fully grown catfish might bite them.

Anyway, out of curiosity I grabbed our net and scooped up a few hundred from the ball just to see. Sure enough, they were catfish – anything from 3 inches to 8 inches long. There was no sign of what they’d been feeding on but they were not happy in the net. The French man from the boat behind them came along to warn me not to touch the fish, then put his hand in and picked one up so we could get a better look. True to their reputation it bit him and blood appeared on his finger.

It is concerning that these fish seem to be taking over the canal environment. And if what we saw is a common occurrence then the odd one chucked on the bank by a fisherman will have no effect in slowing down this invasion.

Today, Friday 7th Sept, we have left Génelard and are on our way to Paray Le Monial, a large but pretty town just a 30 minute drive from our house. We are only a couple of days travelling away now but plan to stop in Paray at least until Monday before heading to Digoin, just 15 minutes from the house. It’s happening, this years floating adventure is nearing its end.