Onwards to St Jean de Losne, and home.

September has been a beautiful month of lovely long warm summer days and some sultry evenings with spectacular sunsets. Night often cool and we wake up to misty mornings and then the sun dissolves it all and the day is great.

PorT de Savoyeux, Had a night with new friends, from Freemantle. (won’t hold it against them), Jayne and Peter, on their boat Carat. ( 3 yrs from scratch this year, never been on boats before and loving it) (As you can see, the old man came around again to sell us beans from his garden)

Stopped at GRAY on the international pontoon, and then leaving Gray.

next, AUXONNE. Another beautiful morning.

They have such fun with what they put on the roundabouts to decorate them. Here are the people picking nuts, as its walnut and cobnut season arriving.

And ladies weeding and keeping gardens clean.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And of course the Fisherman in his boat.

 

Auxonne Notre Dame’s Church. Started to be built in 12thC,  rest built during 14th and 15thc. Fully restored beginning 19C.                                                          There aren’t many of these houses left that are half timber and have these amazing outside steps. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We just love the little windows and the chimneys

And of course the young Lieutenant Bonaparte,in 1788 (aged18). He left in 1791 to join the Grenoble Regiment and so the saga of Napoleon era began.

And so on to St Jean de Losne

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Finally made it to St Jean de Losne, and we moored out on the river for a few nights.

 

Its a nice place to watch boats go by and the see some strange strange sights,,, although nothing really surprises us now.

 

Weather is cool nights but lovely warm days and evenings.

 

Managing to get a few drinking sessions on the boat with friends.

 

A small gathering of nibbles, and showing off the lovely Rimu cheese board Max got from Emma fro his birthday.

The boats above were heading down to the Med for a spot of sailing.

This little boat we have seen before., but the one below is a new one to us.

 

This is a new way to make money.. AMAZING!!!!!    These big boats are bought really cheaply up in Estonia, all the super structure lowered or taken off, then weighted down with sacks of rocks so they can get under the bridges. They take them down through the Canals to the Mediterranean where they do them up and sell them.

Lovely evening sunset.

Blanquarts Marina, in St Jean de Losne.

We are half way down on the right, and this pontoon only has 8 KIWI boats on it !! , BUT there is also a Canadians boat, called :” Black Magic 1”

So ends another year of travel on the canals. Its been a variable year with the weather, but we have met some lovely new people and caught up with old friends along the way.

Next year we think we may swing up into Strasbourg, down the Rhine, and up the Moselle,  and ?? to Belguim on the way home.

The year after maybe down to the Med for a few years.. but of course the best laid plans can always change.

Hope you have enjoyed reading these travel blogs.

We look forward to catching up with as many of you as we can on our trip back to NZ in November for Emmas” Medical graduation in Dunedin in December.

cheers

Max and Lucy

Toul back to Epinal, and onwards.

End days of August,, Weather holding so our way to the start of the Canal des Vosges and stayed at Richardmenil.  Making our way back along the route we did with Sam and Wok.

Here we met Peter and Barbara who we had met previously in St Jean de Losne when they had their boat…..Syanarah ( new wide beam UK style barge)  up on the hard with us. He’s SA but they live in Dublin. (so a bit of lively rugby chatter)

Sunset,,   hopefully we will have good weather for the next day.

As we have said you see many sights, boats of many different shapes and designs…The next day we pass the owners of the caravan and boat of the last blog, and see the split.     What looks like this breaks down to that!!!!!

Through Charmes for a night (had stayed there with Wok and Sam) .. And its camper city still, but a quiet night.  Off again through locks that look like our own infinity pools….

Will our trusty stick monitor on the front of the boat measure correctly??  Its set up to measure when we have DROPPED the canopy to its lower level. (hopefully about 3.3m) If it goes under the bridge then we shouldn’t rip our canopy !!!!    And of course it does also depend also on the water levels… WELL. 4-5inches to spare,, phew!!!!

The sadder part of life, large disused old brick or other factories, and the commercial side.

EPINAL.. This time we can come up the 3.350km Embranchement d’Epinal  as there is enough water ( didn’t manage it with Wok and Sam, so we cycled instead.)

Epinal a lovely harbour..

These young men are serious fisher people.. they walk up and down the canal, fly fishing all the way.. This lot looked a bit like the Blues Brothers.

 

 

 

 

Views along the way.

Max, having a long run in to a lock. We are 4m, this is about 5.5m wide.

We saw this guy in Toul earlier in the year about 6 weeks ago, and here we meet him coming back up river about 100kms from Toul..  Now this is a small boat. Not big enough for visiters , me thinks….

Lucy doesn’t have the prettiest ankles but the bloody horse flies don’t help…plus they itch like mad.

 

 

 

 

Glorious misty mornings, after heavy dew and cooler nights, but then the sun comes out and its back to clear skies and 26-28 degrees. The French September sun is lovely and hot, but not burning to the skin.

The Gnome lock.