Montargis
Seascapes Travel Log
Michael Grew
Thu 17 Jun 2010 14:13
Left the mooring at 09:15hrs and pottered down the Canal du Briare in bright sunshine but with a very cool,strong, tail wind, shame we couldn’t put the genoa sail up, we would have flown along without the without the noise of the engine. After two shallow locks negotiated without too much trouble we then arrived in the pretty, main town of the area called Montargis. As we entered the town locks we were photographed repeatedly by various parties of tourists. The last lock of the day being the deepest we had been in, at 5.5metres. a very worrying sight going in, until the young lock keeper looked over from the top and then lowered a line with a hook on the end to take our mooring ropes. (Phew!) Just outside the lock was the town quay where we moored up and found we were right behind the two Canadian boats that we had been moored near in Halt Fluviale. We had an invitation to have a roast lamb dinner on board one of them. We had not intended to stop any longer than to have a lunch and a quick wander round town, but it sounded too good to miss so we decided to stay the night. Interesting town boasting a large chateau and several different waterways threaded their way through the town centre. The huge 12th century church of Sainte- Madeleine de Montargis has a large collection of beautiful stained glass windows and painted pillars. Very reminiscent of the Italian style. We spent a very enjoyable evening with Wally Szumylo and Lori Whyte on their boat “Do Littles” and their friend Dave ? from the other boat. Left at 23:00hrs and walked back to our boat in torrential rain.