 |
| Yes, another wash house – this one’s at Tonnerre |
On Monday we sat having breakfast while watching the early
morning activity on the hotel boat opposite.
The crew were getting ready to leave by nine and the guests were slowly
appearing on deck to be served their breakfast.
After exchanging goodbyes with those of the crew that we had met, they
were off with the deck canopy lowering for the bridge at the end of the port.
Soon after they had gone, we did a figure of eight to end up
where they were moored but slightly behind and opposite where we had started
from. We wanted to top up with water in
case we couldn’t get any more before getting to Migennes next week.
Everything was timed perfectly as by the time we had topped
up, put the hose away and got to the first lock it was bang on our allotted
time of ten o’clock. Rain was forecast
for the afternoon, so we hoped to get to Tonnerre by lunchtime.
 |
| Enterprising advertising by the second lock offering pick ups from and wine deliveries to boats |
Unlike most days there were other boats on the move and four
hire boats passed us in the opposite direction during the morning. We remembered that there is a large hire boat
base down at Migennes so guessed that’s where they were coming from.
By 11 o’clock the clouds were rolling in and we were
beginning to wonder if we would get to Tonnerre before the rain came.
 |
| Clouds starting to roll in |
At the final lock, which was just before the town moorings,
the rain started. It came down quite
heavily for a while, so it was on with the waterproofs while we moored up. There was a concrete sided quay stretching
for a 100 metres or so but without rings and bollards for the first 30 metres,
making it impossible to moor on that stretch as stakes can’t really be driven into
the pavement! Saying that we did see a
couple of boaters doing just that on the Ashton canal up near Manchester. The tarmac on the towpath had just been laid
and was still soft and these guys hammered their stakes into the drying tarmac.
We eventually found a spot between two rings that were so
far apart that we had to use both the extra-long lines we had specially bought
for use over here.
 |
| Our mooring outside the captainerie in Tonnerre for a couple of days |
It continued raining while we had lunch and didn’t stop for
another couple of hours and then we took Buddy out for a walk around the
town. The older part of town was like a
larger version of Raviéres, some lovely looking buildings/architecture but most
in need of a lot of love and attention.
We did find the town lavoir (as shown at the top) which was really
interesting.
It was built in 1758 on the site of the spring that supplied
the water for the townsfolk. It was
fairly large and consequently had four fireplaces but there was no sign of
there being any drying rails or toilets 😉 I
have since re-learnt that wood ash is a good cleansing material and was mixed
with fat to produce soaps so my assertion that the fireplaces were for drying
clothes was probably not the complete story.
 |
| Part of the washing area and one of the fireplaces |
 |
| Look how green the water is from the minerals in the ground |
I shared a picture of the lavoir on our family WhatsUp group
and my daughter Sophie gave the feminist point of view that “increased mass
production of white goods was detrimental for women because although they had
things to help with the volume of housework, they were removed from public space
like the wash houses and the female social networks that came with it”. She’s right of course, but what happened
before we became civilised enough to start washing clothes?
While on history, a fellow boater (Shaun on Elle) provided a
link to a very interesting website that includes details on the different types
and construction of the lock houses on the Burgundian canals.
I won’t dwell on it here,
but this is the link,
so thanks Shaun.
During Monday we dropped down six locks over nine
kilometres.
I had a DIY success while Karen & Buddy went for their
morning run on Monday. I managed to get
the electric hook up working. I mentioned
a few weeks ago that we tried the hook up for the first time since we bought
the boat in a place call Franges. It wouldn’t
work and we even had the nice girl from the captiniere come along to check that
the supply was okay.
A few days ago, when I was doing my monthly rain channel
clearing duties around the engine bay, I noticed a couple of wires were adrift at the bottom of the
control panel. Upon investigation I
found that they were wires at the back of the hook up plug so I connected them
back up. As we were moored right next to
an electricity point here at Tonnerre I tried the hook up and, to my surprise, it all
worked fine. I didn’t leave it hooked up
as the solar panels provide enough juice even on the two greyish days we’ve had
today and yesterday.
After lunch we went on a historical tour of Tonnerre; Karen
had picked up a leaflet from the tourist office on Monday, so she led the tour. The tour all started well, and the first stop
included a descriptive plaque in English, so we learnt all about the secret
agents of Louis XV of France. The Knight
of Eon was one such agent and fooled his enemies by dressing as a woman.
 |
| Where the Knight of Eon was put under house arrest for six years from 1779 |
From the next stop onwards, there were no more plaques ☹
The guide sheet just had numbers on a stylised plan of the town. The numbers had a key that gave a small clue
like ‘Mansion XVIIIe siecle’ but no description or picture to make sure we had
found the right place. As the numbers
were on a stylised plan we also had to guess where each point of interest was.
The tour itself was fun and Karen improved it by finding
things that really should have been included!
I say improved because we really had to stretch our imagination to
understand why many of the items of interest were on the tour in the first
place. Although it was a grey day, it wasn’t
cold and it didn’t rain and, as we’ve come to expect on days like these, the
sun came out for the evening.
Here are some of the highlights of the tour, including some that should have been in the tour:
 |
| The main street with a blue door in a 17th century archway |
 |
| 'Beautiful' wrought iron grills |
 |
| Neo-Gothic house dated 1893 |
There are three waterways plus the canal that run through
town including the River Armançon that the canal has been running alongside for
the last week or so.
 |
| The Petite Venise part of town (not on the tour) |
 |
| At least one of these houses dates from the 16th century |
 |
| An old mill waterwheel |
 |
| No idea about this one |
 |
| An entrance to a chapel, dated 1709, that has been built around |
 |
| Not on the tour but must have been quite grand in its day |
We walked to the top of the hill in the middle of town to
find the church of Saint Pierre. Buddy wasn’t
allowed in so I didn’t bother either, but Karen popped in to get a couple of
shots of the stained glass.
 |
| Looking over the old town from the church with new town high rises in the background |
The seventh century Sainte Catherine’s crypt is in a medieval
square and, although on the tour, it is no longer open. It has been paved over but at least the
planters were full of tomato plants that were advertised as being for the
community to share.
 |
| Crypte Sainte Catherine |
 |
| The general sad state of the buildings of Tonnerre old town |
 |
| A statue of some biblical relevance |
We came across a redundant sweet shop that doesn’t look like
it has been entered for years. It even
had a plaque in the window explaining that Charles de Gaulle’s wife used to pop
in to buy his favourite sweets.
 |
| Thévenin confectioners (not on the tour) |
Probably the grandest building is the Hôtel d’Uzès, built in
1532 as a private mansion and converted to a bank in 1907 but now closed down
and decaying.
 |
| Hôtel d’Uzès |
As it was a Tuesday the place we really wanted to visit was
closed of course. This was the hospital
built between 1293 and 1295 and now houses a museum. The blurb says: “it is one of the most
emblematic medieval relief structures in Burgundy, if not the country itself”.
 |
| It certainly was an impressive building given its age |
We don’t want to put you off Tonnerre because it certainly
is well worth a look around, just don’t put it high on your list if you’re
looking for somewhere to base yourself in Burgundy for a holiday. The local wine from Épineuil is very good
though, well the red provided by Don & Cathy when we visited them on
Oldtimer was, so do look out for it, I certainly will be.
We will be leaving after lunch on Wednesday as it’s one of Tonnerre’s
market days and we must pay a visit, not only because we need to top up with provisions,
but also because we can 😊
No comments:
Post a Comment