Off Seine Hotel - Paris, France

 

We turned in the boat, and got a taxi to Clemecy, and took the train to Paris.  Our mission, in Paris, is to see the interior of Notre Dame. According to the news, the lines to get in are hours long.  You can get an online reservation to go in for free but they were always sold out.  Deb had me keep checking, but there was no change.  On the train, she asked again, “Did you check?”  I check and YES…an available time slot at 4:00.  There were several screens to get through for the reservation and I kept loosing the internet going through tunnels.  After twenty or so tries. I got tickets!

Got to Paris, dropped off the bags, got a quick lunch, walked to Notre Dame, used our pass, and saw Notre Dame.  Pretty crowded, but impressive.  Found a little sidewalk cafe for a drink, and a reminiscence of our trip,  Dijon was an unexpected highlight.  Innsbruck was great.  The Jungfrau did not fail to impress!

Work in progress 

Tomorrow is a National Strike day in France.  The RER, the train to the airport is on strike.  We have booked an Uber.  The receptionist at the hotel said, “Oh, interesting!”  I guess we’ll see what that meant.

Nivernais Canal - Flez-Cuzy, France

 

Left Clamecy under cloudy skies, but no rain in the forecast.  I am driving until lunch and then I go back to being the bow man.  This canal has a lock every one or two kilometers which is a lot.  Because of logistics of getting here and going back we decided to go from Migennes to Flex-Cuzy. Well that turns out to be up river, which isn’t too bad, but at every lock we enter at the bottom and rise up.  You need to tie off the boat when it’s in the lock so it doesn’t bounce around, but the bollards you need to tie to are way up there!

Today we do the last nine locks with a break halfway for lunch.  The final lock of the trip is a double lock with three sets of gates.  It’s a long way up.  

We end up at the boat rental place, ready to turn in the boat tomorrow and head, by train, to Paris and a national strike. 

We did it!

Nivernais Canal - Clamecy, France

 

So cute!!

The boat has two steering positions, one on the bridge and one in the cabin.  The problem is that you can’t see very well when steering from the heated, dry cabin; so this morning we are driving the boat on the cold bridge in the driving rain.  Everything on the boat is wet from three or four days of drizzly weather, but there is sunshine in the forecast and a mooring in a larger village on the float plan. You can definitely see an improvement in the attitude of the crew!

We pass through a guard lock (normally open but can be closed to prevents floods) which was guarded by goats.  We go under a drawbridge that you are required to get out of the boat to open.  

Clamecy has a pretty large marina, but it’s Monday and most of the shops are closed.  Eventually we find a little bar for a beer and a glass of Chardonnay before returning to the boat.

Tomorrow is our last leg of the trip.  This leg is going to be mostly open fields

, but hopefully sunny open fields.

Nivernais Canal - Chatel Censoir, France

 We are required to be at the next lock at 9:00 and we have left a little late.  Then, that nagging moment…I think I forgot something.  In case you are not happy with the location of the bollards, you can always just drive a rental company provided stake into the ground, anywhere.  Well, you need to take the stake when you leave.  I forgot, and left it there, so we did a quick u-turn in the narrow canal went back and recover the stake.  

For lunch we stopped in Merry-de-Yonne. There a nice cliff by the river, with an All Trails hike to the top.  We can‘t resist.  And Deb hasn’t used her hiking poles yet, is that

We have left most of the rental boaters behind, so we are going through the locks, solo.  The locks have been ready for us as we go.  This was the first place that required a Mediterranean mooring ( backing in with the two stern lines holding the boats.  I got it on my first attempt (first ever).

 Chatel Censoir is another very quiet town, where everything is closed on Sunday.  Everything being the local convenience store.  There is a Chatel (castle) on the top of the hill with arrow slits and cannon holes.  Of course it burned down two or three times since it was built, but at least one of the twelve towers is still standing

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Back to the boat before the rain.

Nivernais Canal - Mailly le Chateau, France

 We have arrived at the next canal at precisely 10:00.  Phew!  It’s still a little overcast, but nice.  Lunch in Dames.  It is a restaurant right at the lock, and very good!  Everything made locally.  

The afternoon is pleasant with some very low bridges.  Sitting at the helm, I would be decapitated if I didn’t duck way down.  We arrive at Mailly le Château early enough to go into town. We are moored in a field on the edge of the lower village (there was no businesses there), it’s a 500ft climb to the upper village.  The upper village had a massive church, a town hall, a cafe-tobacco shop-newsstand-bar, and a little market.  

The bar was a table with six chairs, and five minutes before it opened, there were six burly men standing outside.  We decided that we had seen enough of the upper village.

Back to the boat…to pleasant pitter patter of little raindrops! 

Nivernais Canal - Cravant, FR

Waiting in line at the boulangerie 

After loosing our rafting buddies, we decide not go to the farmer’s market in Auxerre because it is too far to walk, especially with 20 to 30 lbs of fresh produce but instead head for Cravant.  It’s about an hour further than our originally planned stop, but they have a farmer market to die for.  The lock masters all communicate with each other, and know when we should be at the next lock.  Somehow we have decided that 1/2 a tank of water is not enough, so we pulled over to a wharf to fill up.  It was very high tech, using a QR code, and remote access to turn on the water.  Of course this put us a bit behind schedule, so the lock master came over on his bicycle to expedite everything.

Once we reached Cravant, we got some meat from the butcher, some bakery from the baker, and some miscellaneous stuff at the market.  (Little side note - there hasn’t been a farmer’s market in Cravant for years). 

Closing a lock

We are on the less popular part of the canal.  The lock masters have no intention of going to work until there is someone to lock-through.  So “what time are you going to be at the lock?”  We respond “about 10:00”…”NO about!  Exactly what time?”…”We will be there precisely at 10:00!”  

So tomorrow, we’ll be there at 10:00

Nivernais Canal - Auxerre, France

 A quick walk to town to get some croissants for breakfast, and a few minor requests from the boat rental place, and we are off.  The boat rental is on a little side channel, so within our first 100’, we have our first lock to negotiate.  We are getting instructions from the lock keeper, and the manager from the boat rental place.  At least, we fared better than the boat behind us, they had to have one of the boat rental employees get them into the lock.

Once on the canal, we join the convoy…five boats all travelling together, bunching up to go through each of the ten locks for the day.  We stay with the convoy until we reach Gurgy.  Our first restaurant, “Nous vous désolé!”  For the rest of the day we were in a convoy of two.

In the weeds!

There appears to be no place to tie-up in Auxerre.  I suggest a place by the boat ramp, it’s shallow, and covered with reeds, but buried in the reeds are some relic bollards, unused for years.  Finding the bollocks   Our lock-mate ( the ones that needed help) have searched endlessly for a mooring, but have come up empty.  They finally asked to raft up with us.  

Tomorrow off to Crevant.