As Sunday was going to be a very hot day, we had arranged
with our éclusière to go down our first lock at 10 so we could moor out in the
country again before lunch. Before then
it was a trip to the boulangerie and then to wish the four hire boats bon
voyage as they were all leaving before us and in the opposite direction.
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| Our first lock on Sunday at the far end of Montbard |
We’ve been a bit slow to realise it but at the last dozen or
so locks the metalwork (handrails and bollards) have been painted in the VNF livery
of blue, green and white. We had just
thought they were being well looked after!
You can just see the handrails and bollards in the picture above.
Soon after the lock we passed the 100km stone. This meant we only have 100 kilometres to go
before we complete our circular trip and return to Migennes where we started. With only 50 locks left it means we will have a
more lock-free journey than we have had for the last week or so. We want to be back in Migennes by Tuesday 18th
June so that means an easy average of just over six kilometres and three locks
a day.
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| Point kilometre 100 |
We saw no more boats on the move during the morning but, on the butterfly front, caught the odd scarce swallowtail, brimstone, common blue and small
tortoiseshell paying brief visits to our flowers as we cruised along. We also spotted a couple of freshly emerged
second brood speckled woods.
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| Approaching our last lock of Sunday, at Buffon |
We were looking for a nice quiet spot where there was shade
for Buddy and somewhere where we could safely have a barbecue. We moored up at a likely place just before
Buffon and then went for a walk further along the towpath to see if there was anywhere better on the other side of the village.
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| Moored outside Buffon |
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| Buffon |
At the other side of the bridge in the middle of the village
a fishing competition was in full swing.
There were numbered pegs that were very close together, so it looked
serious stuff until we realised that it was mainly children and teenagers on
the pegs and the adults were sitting back drinking wine and generally having a
good time 😉
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| Fishing competition of sorts |
We found a better spot to moor about a kilometre the other
side of Buffon so it was back to the boat and a mini last cruise before mooring
up for lunch and the rest of the day.
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| Moored at Forge de Buffon |
It was such a hot day that we did very little else other
than sit in the shade. We even barbecued
in the shade later in the evening whilst listening to South Africa getting
beaten again in the cricket.
The forge, or ironworks, were built in the late 1700s by the
metallurgist, George-Louis Leclerc the Count of Buffon. It was built in the same philanthropic manner
that Titus Salt built his mills and village for his workers in Saltaire near
Bradford in Yorkshire. The forges at Buffon included houses and associated
shops and school for over 400 workers. The forges were driven by waterwheels with
water provided by the River Armançon.
It was a fairly cloudy morning on Monday so when Karen
returned from her morning run we spent some while planning our trip to Paris in
July. As much as it’s fun not having a
plan and going when the fancy takes us, for somewhere like Paris it’s a bit
different. We need to book our mooring
slots at the different places we want to visit and at €79 a night we need to get it
right. The other constraint is that
there aren’t many places to moor overnight on the week or so we will be
spending on the River Yonne and then the Seine.
This means we need to set a daily target and also work out things like
fuel, food and water stops.
Anyway, we had a really successful session and ended up
making our reservations although we’re yet to hear whether or not there are
spaces available.
After lunch we set off for Perrigny-sur-Armançon with a view
to mooring somewhere quiet where we can continue touiching up the paintwork. In
the end we couldn’t find antywhere that was ideal unless we didn’t mind
stinging nettles or using a gangplank.
For some reasons the pounds are a bit low at the moment and also the
sides are very rocky.
In the end we moored up and decided we should walk the next
few kilometres to see if we could find somewhere better. We found a spot just before the next lock so
we walked back to get the boat and, at one point, I just avoided stepping on a grass snake.
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| Grass snake camouflaged on the towpath |
When we arrived at the mooring, we found it was even worse
than before and couldn’t get in at all so I jumped off and walked down to the
lock to see if I could find a number to call an éclusier so we could go
down. An éclusière was actually tending
her garden and was more than happy to let us down but explained that we would
have to go through two locks before the pounds and therefore moorings improved.
We heeded her advice and went down two locks and ended up at
a brilliant mooring in Cry-sur-Armançon.
I say it was brilliant for several reasons: there was no access other
than to boaters; we had the place to ourselves; it was ideal for doing the
paintwork and we had access to water.
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| Our mooring at Cry-sur-Armançon |
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| Spot the difference, and I don’t mean the washing |
As we had our own turning circle, we were able to wash the
boat down and then spin it around and wash the other side. Everything is now in place for carrying on
the maintenance on Tuesday. I had
arranged to go down the next lock at 1.00 on Tuesday but took the éclusière’s
number in case we decide to stay put because it’s due to be really hot again
tomorrow.
It was also a good mooring because we wanted to visit the village anyway and will also be able to cycle back to the previous village that we missed too. The only drawback was the poor phone/internet signal but at least it was strong enough to listen to the England-Bangladesh match (and write a blog update!).
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| Our view of old quarry workings from the front |
The weather is set to stay hot so we will be continuing to
leave the doors and windows open all night which will be fine until the mosquitos
start arriving, but we haven’t come across more than the occasional one so far.
On Monday we ended up cruising nine kilometres down five
locks and we were glad we didn’t give up trying to find somewhere decent to
moor.
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