Tuesday 1 September 2009

31st August 2009 Monday St Julien-sur-Dheune C. du Centre.

4.3°C Cold night but getting much hotter later and sunny all day. The DB left around ten heading downhill. I gave Mike a hand to do the scumbling; I put the brown paint on and he did the scraping with the rubber “comb”. It looked quite good if a bit darker than we really wanted, more like oak planks than pine. I set to work on the bedroom ceiling. First I had to remove all the stored stuff off the shelves and cover everything else with plastic sheeting. I scraped the loose paint off and gave the bare bits of wood a coat of paint then made some lunch. After lunch Mike did the monthly check on the batteries and I painted the ceiling. We both sprawled out for a siesta in the heat. Around 5.00 p.m. I started putting all the stuff back in the bedroom as the six hour drying time for the paint had been more or less halved by the heat. Two boats arrived heading uphill, a third one carried straight on. Mike had a chat with the Australian crew on one of the cruisers. They lived on board and hadn’t been here before. The VNF had accompanied them up all the locks and made them wait over lunchtime until 2.00 p.m. – another boat overtook them and went on up the locks! They’d got engine problems and were off to Montchanin. Amazing, we’d decided to leave next day and there was more traffic in one day than we’d seen since we’d been there. Change of plan, shopping tomorrow and head uphill on Wednesday.

30th August 2009 Sunday St Julien-sur-Dheune C. du Centre.

3.3°C overnight (Getting cold!! Soon be freezing!!) Warm and sunny day. Mike was up first and went to find the depot de pain, via the boulangerie which was closed - notice said bread and papers by the top lock. He went to the Vival superette first, notice said no bread or papers. Up by the top lock he went in the café-bar and they pointed him in the direction of a small gift shop on the opposite side of the lock and they DID have bread and papers. He got the last loaf – at 10.15 a.m. I put the brass bits back on the front doors and then sorted the paint locker, listing what tins we had in stock. Mike ran the gennie to watch the F1 from Spa Belgium. A large Dutch Barge arrived and moored on the quay.

29th August 2009 Saturday St Julien-sur-Dheune C. du Centre.

5.8°C overnight (Getting quite chilly) Warm and sunny day, nice cool breeze. Mike went by car to buy some bread. The boulangerie in St Julien was closed for holidays and he had to go into Montchanin to buy a loaf. I got stuff ready to start work. I cleaned the front doors down ready to paint the inside. Mike sanded the engine room roof and gave it a coat of cream paint. We both finished in time for lunch. Mike watched the F1 qualis from Spa Belgium. I cleaned the old varnish off the brass fittings for the front door and revarnished them.

28th August 2009 Friday St Julien-sur-Dheune C. du Centre.

Warm and sunny. Had a lazy morning. The Locaboat left at lock opening time, 9.00 a.m. Did a few chores then made lunch. After lunch we went by car to Chalon via the scenic route through Villeneuve on the D48 and the Bourgogne vineyards to Casto. We took the laptop with us to get 3G and do the blog. Parked on Casto’s car park and set up. The stupid inverter wouldn’t work so I used my fifteen minutes of battery time (by the time I’d connected up, etc) to upload a couple of photos and posted three of the draft blogs. Mike went in Casto and bought a tin of brown paint, 20,50€, two 20mm brushes at 2.60€ each and a pack of sanding pads for the delta sander for 7€ - 32,70€! Ouch! We went back home via the scenic route

27th August 2009 Thursday St Leger to St Julien-sur-D C. du Centre

A large white cruiser was waiting below the lock for it to open at 9.00 a.m. I was wiping the condensation off the boat roof when a white haired man came to ask how long we were staying. I explained that we were just about to set off. He told me that there was a fishing contest to be held all along the bank where we were moored, right up to the lock, on Sunday. I asked if he was a fisherman and he said yes, president of the angling society. We chatted about fishing and painting (I said Mike had to be in the right frame of mind to do it and he said he was the same – he should be painting his house shutters) and he went off in his car. We set off at 10.10 a.m. just as a tractor went past towing a trailer full of young cows and took them into the next field. The house next to lock 19 was lived in but there was no one about as we rose 2.53m. The D974 was very noisy from the traffic passing close to the lock. On to the 1.8 kms pound leading to lock 18. I made a cuppa as Mike had already knocked half of the last one over the cabin roof. Lock 18’s house was lived in but the garden was overgrown and unkempt. We rose another 2.69m and set off on the 1.7 kms length to lock 17. Part way along the pound there was an old high piled loading quay which had been nicely kept as a mooring with well cut grass, bollards, bins and picnic tables. We passed the first houses in Bérain-sur-Dheune and spotted an old well, then a bar for sale alongside the canal. Lock 17 had walls covered with weeds and a cherry tree by the old lock cabin. A VNF man was mowing grass along the left bank. He waved. Apples were falling off a tree a bit further along the left bank and lying on the ground going to waste. Up another 2.59m in lock 17. The houses of St Bérain stretched along the canal halfway to the next lock, their long gardens separated them from the canal. Now the locks start to get closer together, 1 km to the next. A VNF car went past. Lock 16 was ready. Alongside it was a very smart house with swimming pool sheltered by a bank of trees and an immaculate garden. 300m to lock 15. Camper vans were going up and down the road. I couldn’t pull the rope in lock 15 so Mike did it. The lock house was deserted, the garden a wilderness. Two cherry trees remained by the old cabin on the lockside. 1.4 kms to the next. A once posh house stood on the right bank beyond the road. Judging from the bank of postboxes outside it had been converted to apartments. Next to it was a ruined factory with no roof and a tall chimney. A family was fishing from the corner of the first bridge on the remaining bit of old towpath, having a day out with their chairs, sunshades and picnic tables spread out on the bank. Lock 14 had a very posh lock house and garden. 




Elaborate metal walkways had been put over the lock gate opening gear (Mike had been saying how dangerous they were with exposed hydraulic cylinders on gimbals) so we surmised that the people living in the house were not VNF employees. A man in a VNF car parked between two cars on the lockside while we came up in lock 14. He said nothing and drove off uphill before the gates opened to let us out. 900m to lock 13, 2.62m lift. Deserted, no house, no garden, but the grass had been mowed in a 2m wide band on either bank. 600m to lock 12, 2.5m rise. The chamber had been refurbished in concrete and the old ground paddles were still in situ by the tail end gates. The old automatic system (and before that) used to keep all the gates closed so that if the lock was empty it would weir over the top end gates and fill the lock, then weir through the paddle cylinders (which had open tops). A simple and efficient system which didn’t waste much water. Now the automatic locks empty after every uphill boat so that they always sit with gates open and green lights on, wasting a lockful for every lockful used, i.e. using twice as much water as necessary. The top end gates had gate paddles, two automatic ones opened on the left - the opposite side to the lock operating post, which flushed the boat to the left hand side of the chamber quite forcefully (the water from ground paddles just pushes the boat over gently to one wall or the other). Lock 12 was lived in by VNF staff, grass neat and tidy but no flowers. 12.30 p.m. as we set off on 1.5 kms long pound to lock 11 (the first with a name) Villeneuve, which had no house or garden just an old tin lock cabin. Gate paddles again swilled the boat to the left hand side as we rose 2.69m. 555m to lock 10 Chez le Roi, the first of the next series of deep locks, 5.13m. Our VNF man in a car was there and pulled the cord for us as we went up to it. Backed off down the chamber and put a rope on the floater on the right hand wall – but not for long as the incoming water came in on the right and flushed the boat left – so  I took the rope off again. 445m to lock 9 Moulin de St Julien. The VNF man was there by the lock cabin. As we went up to the cord by the top end gates he indicated that he would set the lock for us from the cabin. We backed off and put a rope on the bollard. Our scribblings in our old guide said this one filled on the left and kept the boat on the right hand wall. Well, almost. I kept the rope very slack and we came up mostly in the middle. Chatted with the keeper who understood why we didn’t try to hold the rope in tight and just went with the water as the deep locks filled. He had a Spanish accent. He asked if we were staying at St Julien. We said yes, maybe for the weekend if there was space. He told us there was one boat there for lunch who would be moving off soon. 






We arrived at 1.30 p.m. and tied on the piling at the downhill end of the layby. A German cruiser was moored on the quay with bollards at the other end of the layby. As we were tying up they set off downhill. The church clock chimed, then we remembered what a loud bell it had. We’d also remarked that the animals here were noisy too – what the cows? We’d had a text from our friends who were at Fragnes and would catch us up slowly. It was 3.30 p.m. when Mike went back to get the car from St Léger via the scenic route. The mooring at St Julien was OK but had no water or electricity. A notice said water was available from the square by the Mairie (next to the road bridge). OK if you wanted a few bottles of drinking water, otherwise you would need a very long hosepipe! I put the laptop on and did the log. It was 2G and slow. A Locaboat arrived and moored at the far end of the quay on the bollards. 

26th August 2009 Wednesday St Leger-s-D

Cloudy morning after more overnight rain. Sun out around midday. Had a day off doing odd jobs on the boat.

25th August 2009 St Leger-sur-Dheune. C du Centre.

Noisy night due to traffic on the busy road opposite. We went shopping at Chalon Sud, 25 kms away just over the hills. Bought some new pillows, two for a bargain price of 5€ (for cushions, 60cm square French pillows) and Mike bought new earplugs – might get a better night’s sleep. Back home, slowly across the hills stuck behind slow cars, for a late lunch. Problems. Had a call from friends to say that the VNF were closing the canal and draining it this winter to do some work on the lock gates where we had intended to moor. They didn’t say exactly when and for how long. Mike suggested no change of plan until we know something for definite. 2G was not fast enough to edit the draft blogs I’d done or upload photos. Gave up, at least the rain had stopped.