Seascapes Travel Log
Michael Grew
Wed 16 Jun 2010 12:58
08:00hrs I cycled up to the Boulangerie and bought croissants and a Baguette for everyone’s breakfast. Then over champagne breakfast in the cockpit Maureen opened her cards and presents. Later we took our visitors on a guided tour of the town finishing up in the Auberge restaurant for Sunday lunch. After a super meal we waddled back to the boat for a natter. Later, after a light tea we played cards in the motor home until bedtime. Once again the weather was fine until the evening when it chucked it down with rain. (it’s more like bloody April!)
14/06/2010 48:10:88N 02:43:39E.
Up bright and early (07:00hrs) had breakfast in the motorhome and was very very pleased to see one of the mechanics making an early start on refitting the oil cooler. We said our goodbye to our visitors and then I went and saw the Mr Rousseau and got the bad news (the cost of the repairs) over with ASAP. We then cycled up to town and emptied the ATM machine outside the bank, did some food shopping and returned to the boat yard. By waving large denomination Euro notes about in the yard office I managed to get a discount of almost two hundred Euros off the bill !! After a much needed clean up of the decks and cockpit at Halte Fluviale, we were able to resume our intended journey. We were so enthusiastic that in that one afternoon we covered 30 kilometres going through 10 locks! and finishing up at a small town called Souppes ( I’ll leave you to do the jokes on that one). The locks today are totally different from the ones so far. They are much, much small (more like English locks) either with a lock keeper who has to manually open and close the gates (and expects you to help) or they are unmanned and you have to pull a lever to open them electronically. We thought we had worked out a foolproof way of getting through the locks without making a complete pig’s ear out of it and started awarding ourselves marks out of ten for our performance. We were doing very well getting 8s and 9s until one lock when everything went to pot when we decided (well alright, I decided to change sides at the last minute and everything got cross threaded. The lock keeper got a lesson in Anglo Saxon expletives. Once again it started to rain hard at the end of the day. Tied up at the Souppes town quay at 19:00hrs
15/06/2010 48:09:60N 02:43:35E.
Left the mooring at Souppes at 10:15hrs, pottered down to the lock at Chalette sur Loing in bright sunshine. There we moored up at 11:30hrs and cycled to Chateau Landon a distance of 5.5 kilometres. On route I very nearly ran over a large brown grass snake that had decided to sun its self in the middle of the road. We had a picnic sitting on the river bridge looking up at the huge building of Abbe de Sevrin. The town is very up-market, build on the edge of a high ridge, overlooking the canal and river. (It is a bit reminiscent of the town of Rockamador, if you have ever been there) After a very steep climb up to the main square, after lunch, we felt very much in need of the cool beer we had in a tebac in the main square. We were very surprised at how deserted all the towns seemed to be. I think it is because we are so used to living in such a crowded island. Back on the boat we pushed off 14:20hrs and continued down the Canal du Loing to the end where it becomes the Canal du Briarre and stopped for the night on some brand new and deserted pontoons. Just outside Bugis Lock at 17:30hrs (that was the 19th lock we have been through on the Canal du Loing and 49 Kilometres travelled). We found we were moored very close to a huge leisure park that had a huge amphitheatre, windsurfing lake and covered stalls for market days and presumably the pontoons were built to encourage tourists to the park. Played cards (again!) until 23:30 then spend a very noisy night, with the wind causing the boat to move around vigorously, making the mooring ropes squeak .