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Friday 5th
We had a really lovely night last night. The restaurant was charming and the chef was an award winning chef with a Michelin star. We sat outside on a beautiful little flower laden covered terrace overlooking lovely narrow winding medieval streets. It was a warm evening so we were very comfortable outside sitting on white cushioned seats. The chef’s wife was a very chic French lady who spoke very good English. The Menu was very limited – 28E for 3 courses – Entrée at the Chef’s whim which turned out to be a trio of delights – tomato with a basil pesto dressing with a slice of cheese on top, a salmon roulade and duck pate on avocado with passionfruit and contreau dressing. There was a choice of 3 mains, slow cooked beef en crute, bouillabaisse or lamb shanks. The third course was cheese or strawberry tart flambé at the table by the chef. All very delicious.
We got ‘talking’ to the young ladies sitting at the adjoining table during the evening. They had very little English and we had very little French. They were a couple, with one girl being a beautiful black girl and the other a very sensible shoe wearer (Sue you know what I mean). Both absolutely charming and we ended up having a ball. They took photos of us and we took photos of them and they promised to email us photos. It turned out that the sensible show wearer was a very talented artist who paints on glass. She works on a commission basis and sells her work for about 400E
We will pursue that. We ended up with big kisses all round in true French style. One was Maria-Catherine (very much like sister Mary Catherine) the other Lorice.
Got up earlyish and got all sorted ready for a 9 am start. We all made use of the toilets and showers nearby and then took off in a hurry as we saw a huge long bateaux about to take off before us. That would have meant that only he could have fitted into the locks and would have resulted in a huge wait each time. So, pole position tactics came into play. Off down the canal to a very serene trip through several locks to a small village Villiers sur Yonne, tied up on the bank and got the bikes off. Off for a 2.5 km ride to Dornecy (mostly up hill through farmland) where we stopped for a coffee at a Tabac on the corner of a very busy main highway through this tiny little village just opposite an ancient wash house from the 14th century.
Back on the bikes and again uphill to the plateau and then all downhill again to the boat for a beer and lunch.
Off again after 1 (the locks should be open) and a fairly stress free cruise through several locks, one of which was a double lock and took us up about 4.5m from the lower part to the upper part of the canal. We have developed several methods of dealing with locks. One is to hope that there is an obliging lock keeper there who will catch our ropes. Another is for Jan to climb up a ladder and secure our ropes – this can be a little fraught. Another is to try and lasso the bollards – almost impossible from 2m down in the depths of the lock. Today one of the more successful attempts was to put Jan ashore and for her to run up to the lock and catch the ropes for us.
Another obstacle is the many lifting bridges along the way. These are for local cars, cyclists, farmyard traffic and pedestrians and have to be raised and lowered each time. We did one today – I jumped off and winched the bridge up (not easy), let the boat through and then winched it down before jumping back on the boat again. All good fun!!
Now moored up on a grassy bank with no facilities, but we are all self contained.
Paul and I decided to walk to a nearby village – all uphill and hot as hell. We were going to turn around several times but kept going and were rewarded by a lovely view and a cold beer.
Now sitting catching up with a glass of wine.
We are off tomorrow for Corbigny our final destination, and intend to have two nights there. This will give us one full day to have a good look around and pack up our bags before we hand the boat over at 9 am. They we have to figure how to get to Dijon.
More later.
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