mardi 30 octobre 2012

30.10.12

We finally made it to Auxerre last wednesday 24thOctober. We arrived at the free side in Auxerre to find that they have dug it all up and are laying out new concrete paths and flower beds!! We managed to stay there for 2 nights but being awoken by a huge digger right outside our bedroom, meant that we had to swallow our pride and ask the Port de Plaissance to make space for us early in our winter moorings. ( we have to pay summer rates until 1st november, but at least we have electricity and peace and quiet!!)
 
 
 The sluices had been opened up wide which made our entries into the locks quite difficult!

There are definite signs of Autumn now with the leaves turning into a myriad of colour!

 This photo is taken from the Bow of The Puddle Stone and shows how far away John is when steering !
 
The reflection as we entered Auxerre, just made this interesting effect, but sadly I didn't quite centre it properly, still I think it looks good!
 
John sitting in the glorious, but cold, sunlight practising his new songs that he has written.
 
Here's The Puddle Stone in her winter moorings, as usual the view is fabulous and we dont even have anyone alongside us - thank goodness!!
 
 

Just as I was finishing off this entry John called me outside as there were some people dancing in national dress. I took these photos, they were actually filming for a french equivalent of "Come dine with me" which is to be shown tonight. The music was  pleasant, and the dancing entertaining but it was a pity that there were no young people involved, so this is something that is going to die out, a real shame.
 
Finishing with Patrice as usual, this is his favourite place to sit when we are travelling, poor John has to stand!


lundi 22 octobre 2012

22.10.12

We spent a couple of nights at Sens, and had a good time but it rained all the time! We filled the boat up with water, and got talking to a residential bargee who calmly told us we had 3 days to get off the Yonne as it was then closing until the end of November! So we battened down the hatches and set off at full speed, we got to Laroche St Cydroine on 13th october with the river behind us closing on the 15th! So we were saved! We have now been here for 10 days with free water and electricity but tomorrow we leave to go to Auxerre. We will probably get there Wednesday and there we stay for the winter until the end of march 2013!
 
Our moorings at the moment
 
 
 Today we went for a lovely walk in the sunshine with Patrice



Two lovely sunsets!



Usual cute photo of Patrice to finish!!!

mercredi 10 octobre 2012

10.10.12

Eventually I made the long return journey and got back from the UK late on the evening of 28.09.12 tired but pleased that it had all gone well with good news!
 Our lovely moorings at Moret sur Loing. It suited us all, electricity, water, woodlands for Patrice, a nearby supermarket plus a Lidyl, what more could we ask?
The very early mornings made the river look as though it were boiling!
 
  We meant to move off the next day but I felt very tired so we decided to stay another couple of days, by which time it was obvious that I had returned from the UK with a nasty virus! So, we eventually left our moorings at Moret on 5.10.12 with a lovely sending off from new found friends!
 Thr trip onto the Seine was much as it had been before, dicing with death with those dratted commercials! We were rather bemused by the 'half a commercial' in this picture!

 The internet is being difficult and I cant delete this sideways picture, but it shows another lovely old ship left to rot on its moorings in the Seine.
 Good old Napoleon signifying that we were about to leave the Seine (Goodee, until the next time, you can pick on someone else now!!!!!)
 We waited ages for this lock to empty of its commercial, seems like we were still being persued! We finally had to moor for the night against grey pylons put in the river for boats to wait for the lock as were 5 minutes too late to go through.  We settled for the night and I was cooking dinner about 8pm when suddenly a huge commercial demanded that we must move for him as he wanted our space!! There was plenty of space behind us for him, there were loads of pylons, so he tried to bully us into movingby pretending to squash against us....! We stayed put and a strange argument followed in half french, half english, and he eventually capitulated..... Oh Commercials!!!!!
 The next day we made for the moorings we had been aiming for the night before and had a peaceful night in the wild outside a disused silo but we were disturbed Sunday morning by....yep more commercials demanding our space so we moved on again.

 We waited ages for this lock and then this beast turned up leaving us nowhere to moor in the lock so we had to tie to the big boat......for once the commercial was pleasant to us but we were glad to get out of that lock! We continued on to Pont sur Yonne where we moored on pontoons meant for us and not for the commercials. The weather was terrible with the rain coming in sideways and even a thunderstorm on monday night so tuesday we moved on and now we are moored at the minicipal halt at Sens where the good people donate us free water and electricity, but sadly the weather is still very wet!
I finish with the cute photo of Patrice who, now the colder weather has arrived, prefers to be protected from the elements by John's bottom!!

23.09.12

We left Nemours on 19.09.12 and returned slowly to Moret sur Loing staying in the same places as we had on the way up. The weather stayed good for us until we moored back in Moret just above the lock on the 21.09.12, when the heavens opened as we cycled around to the port to make sure that she had kept us a place for the week as I was returning to the UK for hospital tests and appointments. There was no room so we moved on 22.09.12 and moored alongside ' Hendrika' for a couple of nights and John slotted the Puddle Stone into her moorings on the following Monday. On 22.09.12 Moret held a 1900 wedding, everyone dressed up and there was a procession to the church where two young people got 'married' and also two dogs got hitched too....!! All a bit surreal but will show you how in pictures of the day!














It was a lovely day and we were pleased that it was a nice way to spend the day before my long trek back to the UK via local trains, Metro and Eurostar....alone!