The photo above is in front of the Michelan restaurant when we stopped to book for dinner.

Friday 5th August
Last night we had the nicest dinner at a Michelan Restaurant in the village. The matre-de was a lovely lady and was so enthusiastic, telling us about her husband –the chef – and how she loved food and wine. She even said to us “don’t hurry to pay the account as this is the best part of any meal”. We sat outside under a large awing and at the table next to us were these two young ladies. We struck up a conversation that lasted for the whole time that we were at the restaurant. We finally left to go back to the boat at around 10pm.

Good sleep again and up in the morning to our usual routine. We pulled in the power cord and had filled up with water and seeing a huge boat backing out from its berth, fired up the motor and took off – pole position. The first lock wasn’t that far away and soon we were back into the swing of entering locks, tying up, waiting whilst the lock filled, waiting for the gates to open and then easing out of the lock into the canal. Our halfway point was to be Villiers-sur-Yonne where we were going to offload the bikes and go into the village of Dornecy and have lunch on the boat after we got back. This would also coincide with the lock keepers lunch break.

Ok, four locks later we tied up to a grassy area under some trees and off came the bikes. Hung a left out of the mooring area and set off up the road past houses on the outskirts of Villiers. Vey soon we were in the countryside. All freshly plowed fields and great stacks of firewood everywhere. So neat and well stacked – boy it must be cold here in winter!! Up a hill – got the old heart ticking and then the long downhill run into the village of Dornecy. We spotted a Tabac. Sort of sells coffee, wine and other liquor, cigarettes and light lunches. We can’t believe how many French people smoke. They must have done it hard when it was decreed that there would be no smoking in Public Buildings.

Got our coffee – not the best we have had and went for a walk to get something to put on the bread that we had for lunch. The pattiserrie had sold out of everything, the boucherie was not open and the general store had some saussison and jambon. We looked at the beautiful covered wash house that was being cleaned by a young fellow who wanted his photo taken. We couldn’t find the old lime tree that has been watching over the village for 400 years. Got onto the bikes and headed back up the long hill. The girls had to get off and walk but again the run down the other side to the boat mooring. Back on board we made lunch and got underway again at 1.15pm. Lunch is over for the lock keepers. All of the locks today are really deep, around 2.5m, and we needed the help of the lock keepers to aid us in tying up.

The first lock after lunch was manned by a lovely young girl and she got us through in no time. As we approached this lock there was a mother duck and four babies in the lock. I had to be extra careful as we entered so as not to run them over. The girl closing the lock had to stop just before the gates finally closed to stop from squashing one of the babies. Alas one of the babies was left in the lock and started chirping and continued to chirp all the while the lock was filling. Just as we were about to cast off and move out of the lock, mother duck and the other three ducklings came waddling up the bank and onto the lockside. They had walked all of the way around the bottom lock gate and up the hill to where the other baby was. So cute. We set off to the next lock, only 500m away and as we were going along the young girl passed us on her bike, peddling like hell. We got to the lock and the two girls chatted all the while we were there. We gave them the usual €1 coin. One of the girls kept telling us that the French were going to be rugby champions of the world this year. When I gave her her €1, I told her that this was an unlucky coin for the French. She then said All Blacks as Champions. But as a parting remark she yelled Viva la France for the world cup. A refreshing change from the BIG lady of a couple lunch times ago.

Next came a lift bridge – this was a manual winder rather than an automatic one as the previous one was. Jane leapt off – first leaping and all the training she did prior to coming to France! She got back onto the boat after we had gone through the gap. And we were off to the last lock of the day. The rise of this lock said 4.69m – when we approached it the gates were closed and there was a high bridge above it. We stopped and Jannie leaped ashore and walked up to the lock just as the gates started to open. It was instantly obvious that this was a double lock. We entered the bottom lock and were glad that Jannie was on shore as we couldn’t see where the bollards were to tie up and Jane and Paul were able to throw the ropes to Jan and we tied up as normal. When the sluices opened at the bottom of the gates the water that poured through was impressive and if we hadn’t been tied up we would have gone through the gates behind us – turbulence big time. Once this lock was full we motored forward 20m and performed the whole procedure all over. Same same with the water turbulence.

Jannie climbed back on board and we proceeded along the final bit of today’s trip. We moored across from a Le Boat depot – it says on our manual that there are showers, water, power, fuel, rubbish and moorings. Once again nothing works and the power and water pedestals are all broken and everything looks pretty tired and overgrown.

Jane wanted to go and look at the village of Tannay. We all set off in the hot, hot sun. Mad Dogs etc. Half way up the hill Jannie and I decided that it was too hot and turned around and went back to the boat for a cold shower and to do the washing and prepare dinner. Lamb chops, potatoes and beans plus the usual wine and beer.

There have been lots of nice picnic spots on the side of the canal today with tables and nice flat areas to sit. Tonight our mooring (moorage is Jan’s new word) is by a strip of grass and under a tree – v ery civilized!

Tomorrow is our last day on the canal Nivernais. We arrive at Corbigny which is where we give the boat back but we don’t have to do that until Monday morning at 9am! We will make good use of the time to explore Corbigny and to find out how we go about getting to Dijon. We think we have to get a couple of trains. It will be a bit of a mission to pack up our things but hey we have time and I’m sure we will manage. It has been a great experience that we will never forget!