samedi 17 mai 2014

The New Season......return to Auxerre...Hooray we are off again!! 17.05.14

Well, here we are again! We were going to set off at the beginning of April but the boats stern gland developed a leak which needed repairing so instead of cruising we ended up half out of the water whilst it was repaired.



 We finally left Auxerre on 9th April but it was in the knowledge that John had to return to the UK for a funeral so we weren't going to go far. We were pleasantly surprised to see that Bailly Quai had repaired its water and electricity supplies at an extremely reasonable price so we stayed there until 21st April when we returned to Auxerre so I would have the use of the car etc. whilst John was in the UK.
 Our mooring at Bailly

They say that owners get to look like their dogs......!!


So finally after a week resettling into France, playing Boules with our friends in port (Phil and Julie on Philosophe and Kevin and Brigitte on Amazing Grace) and having a wonderful day out at Guedelon castle (which is being built as they would have built it in medieval times. they anticipate it will take 25 yrs to build, it was started in 2000, it is a wonderful day out and well worth seeing!)




with our French friends (Samuel and Marie-Noelle, who live in Auxerre ) we finally set off on our summer journey, AT LAST!!!

 Playing Boules with our Australian friends, John giving friendly advice!!
 Poor Julie suffered with the cold as she's used to Australian temperatures, I just had jeans and a tshirt on!!!
The empty space in Auxerre where we had spent the winter as usual!

Mind you the boat made its way to Bailly where we stayed another week ( the facilities are so cheap 1 euro a day) and treated our french friends to a quick outing on our boat.
 A picnic by the boat before setting off with Samuel, Marie-Noelle, Barbara, Salome and Melvil, and John of course!
Salome enjoying pride of place in the bows

Well it was meant to be quick but we couldn't turn around for a while so it became a longer trip! John lost it completely in one of the locks as the lockeeper made us share the lock with another boat and it kept ramming us...thankfully the french children could not understand the english 'naughty' words......!!

We left Bailly last Wednesday and moved to Vincelles, just one lock , as it was near a supermarket and we stocked up on provisions. We were pleased to re-aquaint ourselves with friends John and Jill who share a barge here and also have a house in Vincelottes nearby. Yesterday we moved on to Cravant where Patrice fell in whilst we were mooring up. It was very very windy with the wind blowing us away from the shore, he leapt ashore on his lead and as the wind blew it dragged him into the canal! I watched, helplessly, as he did doggie paddle (or should it be cat paddle?) back to the boat and climbed back on board using one of the fenders! At least we know he can swim but it will be the lifejacket for him from now on!
Our friends John and Jill joined us last night for a drink and we had a lovely evening with them over several bottles of wine. We will stay here for today as the sun is shining and the mooring satisfactory!
A lovely rainbow at Bailly to finish with. I loved the clear mirror effect in the river.