Vitry la Francoise

Seascapes Travel Log
Michael Grew
Sun 19 Jun 2011 16:43


Vitry la Francoise  18.06.2011  48:43:62N  04:35:66E
Awoke early to a dull grey cloudy morning. During the morning there was a general turning over of boats in the marina. We walked up to the covered food market to see what was on offer, but we were quite disappointed there were very few food stalls but several stalls selling ladies clothing. We were told the morning market was for food and the afternoon market was for clothing. (Ah well, that’s the French for you!) supplies. So we bought our supplies in the supermarket instead. As we came out of the shop to walk back to the boat, it started to rain and there was the sound of thunder in the air. We got back on board just in time to miss a torrential downpour. The was also some strong winds with the rain as well that brought over first heavy clouds then the sky would clear and the sun would come out and everything would steam. Ten minutes later the next lot of clouds came over  and soaked everything again. This went on all day but we managed to get our chores done in between the showers so it wasn’t really a problem. We even managed to make one run, with the bikes, up to the local garage, with the cans to get more diesel. We were hoping to get a second run in but a thunderstorm put paid to that idea. Still I managed to get some uninterrupted reading in and Maureen got more knitting done. Spent the evening playing cards. I forgot to mention that yesterday after going to McDonalds to send off the diary entries, we went back and watched the end of the cycle race. Very exciting there were about 50 riders in the race and when we first saw them they were strung out in two groups, with a large gap between the two. When the last few laps were being run they had all caught up in one big group and at the finish line we could not see who had won, they were so close together. They had been racing for two hours and had covered 80 kilometres (50 miles). We were very surprised there were a lot of the riders that were not youngsters any more.
Vitry la Francoise  19.06.2011  48:43:62N  04:35:66E
The weather this morning was a little brighter still raining and the wind quite strong, but all looked promising so after breakfast we did another couple of bike runs to the local garage so that we now have enough fuel to tide us over the next few days when we will be lucky to find garages close enough to the canal. Maureen spotted a poster advertising a “Boaters Festival” (but it was in French of course). She translated the various attractions promised, one of which she said was Neptune was making an appearance. I said I thought that was strange as he is only associated with the sea. We went down the towpath to see what was going on. We were surprised that the Bargees Association have a barge church and a service was in full swing. We went into their clubhouse and browsed through some of their antique photographs of barges on the French canals in the last century. Very interesting to see barges being pulled along, not by horses, but men in a harness. We found out later that it wasn’t Neptune that was making an appearance, but the church service on the barge! ( I think I will sack her as a translator!) Most the afternoons entertainment consisted of a guy playing an accordion (very good) and an hour and a half display by a troop of majorettes (not quite so good) They were called “The Chipettes” I could see why, I think it must the favourite food for a lot of them. Although to be fair some of the back row were the complete opposite, like bean poles. (perhaps they hadn’t been members for very long!). Talking of chips I have persuaded Maureen that we could go up to McDonalds again tonight and use their WiFi facility and while we are there, have our evening meal (save her slaving over a hot oven! See I do think about her welfare!). Tomorrow we move off early. We have 30 odd kilometres to travel and 6 locks to negotiate before our next night stop and there is no facilities there at all, just a place to moor.