Bélâbre (campsites improving)

On Sunday we went to Auxerre to visit the port and see where we may be staying for a couple of weeks when we first get the boat to France.  The current plan is to have the boat taken over on a lorry next March and then craned into the river Yonne at Migennes (about 200 metres from our campsite there).  Once in the water we will take the boat upstream to Auxerre and wait until the canal system opens at the end of March. Even though the system is closed for winter we will be able to get éclusiers (look keepers) to see us up the nine locks into Auxerre where we will spend time getting acclimatised etc.

The beautiful port of Auxerre where we hope to be moored in six months

Auxerre is quite different to Migennes and we had a good walk around the town investigating the alleys and side streets.  It made us chuckle that it’s twinned with Redditch but at least Redditch had donated them a red telephone box which was proudly displayed in one street (yes, we both checked to see if a post box had been donated too!).

  

Whilst having a rest on a park bench we called Mike and Aileen, who are currently on the Canal du Midi on their narrowboat, to make arrangements for seeing them next weekend.  We were on speaker phone, so we could have a four-way conversation and when we told them we were camping in Migennes, Aileen’s immediate reaction was, ‘Isn’t it a shithole’.  This substantiated my comment that Auxerre is quite different to Migennes.

Walking along the riverside we were reminded that we need to brush up on our international inland waterway signs that were part of our CEVNI tests we took earlier this year.  Although some of the signs on the UK’s rivers and canals are to international standard, most are still localised and often consist of words rather than symbols.  I suppose the internationalisation will stop post Brexit anyway.

Signs on one of the bridges in Auxerre

Before leaving Auxerre we finally went to our first bar in France on this holiday, definitely breaking a record by taking five days to visit one 😊

 

We stopped for a picnic halfway back to Migennes and found a nice quiet spot on the bank of the Yonne.  It was really exciting imagining we would be cruising along this way early next spring although the grass won't be parched brown

Picnicking on the Yonne

When we were having our picnic, we saw several butterflies including our first clouded yellow of the year.  These butterflies often migrate across to the UK especially in good summers but, although plenty have been seen in the south of England this year, we haven’t seen any in Yorkshire.

We drove a different way into the campsite when we got back to Migennes and crossed over the Canal de Bourgogne which meets the river Yonne at Migennes.  The road crosses a lock and an éclusier had arrived by car to see a boat through the lock.  It reminded us of when we went up the River Severn one March when the lock keeper went ahead of us in his car to set each lock.

Lock #114/115

The lock has two numbers as it replaced an original double staircase lock and is now also known as Laroche lock and is just over 5m deep.

Monday morning saw us decamping and preparing to travel further south; we were heading for Liglet, a village between Potiers and Limoges, to visit Noel, an old friend of ours who used to live in the same village as us in Kent.

Before we set off we popped into the boatyard to have a chat with Simon and Phillipe.  We are provisionally booked in for craning into the river at the beginning of next March.  It has to be provisional as it depends on the water levels; this winter just gone was the wettest they have had and the yard and offices were flooded.

Assuming all goes well, and we get craned in we may still have to contend with potentially strong flows on the river.  It’s normally only a day’s cruise but if we find we are struggling against the current they explained about places where we can moor overnight on the way to Auxerre, so we can take two or three days getting there if need be.

We arrived in Bélâbre in the middle of the afternoon and found a small campsite by the river.  It was only about ¼ full and four of the other five couples there were Dutch but we were the only ones in a tent.

The river by our campsite in Bélâbre

It was really peaceful and definitely the best site we have been to this holiday.  As I said earlier, it seems each site is better than the previous.  It has also been getting steadily hotter as we have travelled south, and we were really glad of the shade under our tent awning.

Late evening and the sun just going

Buddy must feel constantly moving camp is a bit like cruising on the boat - when he gets up each morning he is never sure where he is until he gets out of the boat.

We have now travelled 550 miles through France and plan on staying here until Thursday when we will head down to Carcassonne to meet up with Mike and Aileen.

Bridge over the river in the middle of the village

Although we have only been camping for six days, so far we have only thought of two things we should have brought with us.  We wished we had brought our French inland waterways book, so we could be more informed about the canals and rivers we see and how they interconnect.  We also could have done with a 12-volt charger for the laptop.  I know it’s odd taking a laptop on holiday, but we are away for 11 weeks and still need to do financially administrative things etc.  Also, I like to keep up the blog which I plan on doing every other day whilst Karen goes for a run😊

Our route through France so far