Canal Boating - Personal Diary

Cruising on the Canal du Nivernais - October 2000

by Andrew Fairgray

Thursday 28 September 2000

Today we flew from Florence to Paris in order to start our canal boat trip in France. We had a hell of a time with strikes in France by airport workers but managed to arrive in one piece! We were travelling with our two young boys Robbie and William (9 and 11 years). It was dark by the time we arrived at CDG airport in Paris and then in the dark had to drive down to Joigny where we were starting our cruise. We had no idea how to get there but with our world atlas we managed to follow the signs perfectly, thanks to Margie’s superb navigation! We arrived late at our hotel in Joigny.

Friday 29 September 2000

This morning we met our friends in the hotel who were going to travel with us on the barge. They also had two children the same age as ours.

This morning we went to the large supermarket close to the Locaboat base and stocked up - even buying some maggots to use on the fishing hooks - who knows, fishing may keep the children entertained for hours!

Our barge was a Penichette 1400 (14 meters in length) from Locaboat Plaisance in Joigny. There boat had two double cabins at the rear of the boat (with shower, WC) where we all stayed, and there were two double cabins at the front of the boat where our friends and their two children slept (they also had their own showers and Wcs). We couldn’t believe how great the kitchens were in the boat - almost as good as ours at home! Overall the boat was absolutely perfect for our two families, providing a surprising amount of privacy on a small boat.

After lunch we checked in to the Locaboat office - filling in the paperwork was easy. Then we could load our bags and supermarket shopping in to the boat, with the help of the barrows provided (nice touch!). The children (and parents!) were beside themselves with excitement, and even the light drizzle falling wasn’t noticed by any of us!

Because we got there early we were one of the first to given the technician’s "Everything you need to know about a Locaboat canal boat" lesson. He showed how to drive it, how the Wcs worked etc., and then he took us out on to the river for us to get the feel of the boat. We were pretty confident we could handle it, and at the end of this demonstration by the technician it was Ben who amazed everyone by swinging the boat back in to port like an expert!

We decided to head out of port straight away because we did not really want to hang around port for the night - we liked the idea of parking our boat beside a little village with no other boats around us - then we and the kids could make as much noise as we wanted without waking the neighbours!!

We only travelled through a few locks before mooring. Ben was a natural so we got through the locks as though we owned them! The kids were so excited they had pushed, pulled, poked, played with, everything that was possible in our first hour, and as soon as the boat was tied up to the bank, the boys were out the back with the maggots on the end of their fishing lines, and Sarah was feeding bread to the white swans that found us!!

After pre-dinner drinks and nibbles, our on-board chef (darling wife Andrea) treated us all to an exquisite dinner of pasta and salad, followed by a fruit tart, and all eaten with wine which was almost the same price as bottled water - heaven! The next week is shaping up nicely!

Saturday 30 September 2001

We all woke around 7h30 and looked out to a canal which looked like a mirror with a fine mist hanging over the river creating a most beautiful sight. We all had a lovely cooked breakfast which I prepared, and before the kids were even dressed we had the engine idling, and then we were off to Auxerre. This route took us along the Yonne River through lovely countryside - a very gentle cruise.

The first thing we had to do was find a bakery before the shops shut at 12h00. We ended up stopping at 11h55 at a little village called Gurgy, and Andrea and Ben headed off on the bikes in search of bread. Ten minutes later they reappeared with baskets full of bread, tarts, and fruit!! Bon appetit! After lunch the kids took off on the bikes (we only had two of these) and those not on a bike took off on their scooters which we had brought with us. The scooters were invaluable for travelling, and the children (and sometime parents) loved them!

Shortly after this we came to the very picturesque village of Monéteau with a good sized Intermarché supermarket right by the canal which suited us fine.

On L'Yonne this day we passed through several relatively large commercial locks, manned by professional lock keepers. These commercial locks could accommodate a number of the tourist barges. On this part of the trip the river was deep and wide, and the locks were several kilometers apart, allowing us to travel all the way to Auxerre by mid-afternoon. We had to plan our daily distances fairly closely since the locks are closed from 6:00 PM to 7:00 AM as well as for the noon hour. At almost any point on the canal it was possible to tie the barge off to shore and spend the evening in the canal.

We arrived in Auxerre around 17h00. What a divine place! Auxerre is the most picturesque of the towns. The town was truly buzzing with activity for it turned out that this evening was their "end of summer" festival. We moored at the port in the town overlooking the glorious Cathedral, where we promptly filled up our water tanks. While doing this, suddenly a deafening noise rang out. What on earth was that!? We were told that these were the speakers being tested for the evening celebrations, which were going to continue until 2h00 in the morning!! Only one thing for us to do - get out! So we set off again with only ten minutes up our sleeves before the locks closed for the night. The last lock out of Auxerre was simply exquisite - long and narrow with a lovely lock-keeper’s hut and flowers. This is where Ben excelled - he drove the 14m long canal boat straight though this lock without even touching the sides - a difficult task given that he only had about one metre free on either side.

We found a mooring shortly on the edge of what seemed to be the Botanical Gardens - very beautiful, and even a playground for the children!!

Tonight we walked the short distance in to town to watch the celebrations. Our highlight was a dinner sitting at tables on the street. I’ll never forget the children saying - look they have snails on the menu! So I said that they should try them - Alexander and Robbie (9yrs) both loved them and hardly left the parents any!! We dined like kings!

Auxerre is a lovely town, but it really has a village mentality, and I know if anyone was to visit here they couldn’t help but be taken by the place, like we were.

Sunday 31 September 2001

As we progressed upstream from Auxerre, L'Yonne became dramatically more narrow and shallow. We began to travel more and more in the canal than in the river, The scenery also became more rural, as we passed several vineyards and large fortified farms. On this leg the locks became more frequent. We stopped for lunch in Vincelles, which is directly across the river/canal from its twin city of Vincellotes. I had been told about the wine village of Irancy, so as we only had two bikes the boys won the toss and rode the 4km there. This was such a picturesque village, full of vintners! We sampled some wines before biking back to join the others - at least after this exercise we deserved another wine! On our return the children were busy playing on the sports ground!

Four more locks and we headed towards Vermenton where we moored near that village, just out of Accolay - must be close to the bakery!

Another wonderful dinner on the boat; tomato and basil salad as an entrée, followed by a chicken pasta, and a few serious cheeses to finish!! What a cook is our Andrea!!

The evenings on board were always great fun. Tonight the children eat while we the adults had a pre-dinner drinks on deck (bowl of olives and macadamia nuts!!). Then while we dined the children were seriously in to games - chess is the game of the week, and it is hard to get them to stop for bed!

Monday 1 October 2000

We had a slow start this morning to our travels. Another great cooked breakfast - eggs, bacon, and the compulsory percolated coffee! Alexander still trying to catch a fish out the back of the boat - and the container of maggots is still sitting in a threatening manner on the steering wheel counter on the top deck - who is going to be the first person to send that flying in to someone’s lap!

Loaded with fresh food we drove to Prégilbert where we stopped to wander through the town. Let’s stop for lunch! Then we were off again and stopped at Mailly le Ville before arriving at Mailly le Chateau where we moored for the night. This was a great spot and the view from up by the Chateau was wonderful - Sarah takes a spill on her scooter, but she’s not too unhappy, she just beat Robbie at chess!!

Tuesday 2 October 2000

The country side was now becoming quite different - far more rugged, with large limestone cliffs along the canal. Now the locks were coming almost every kilometre as river/canal continued to rise.

That afternoon we passed the Rochers du Saussois whose impressive limestone cliffs are used by rock climbers. In order for the children to use up a bit of their energy levels the men took the kids up some tracks leading to the top of the cliffs where we received a lovely view from the top. The ladies stayed on the boat, either snoozing or reading their books - it’s OK I had done it earlier!!

We then continued up past Chatel Censoir, to Clamecy. It had been our intention to take a taxi from Chatel-Censoir to Vezelay 18km away, but I think we were all too relaxed and decided we would visit there another time!

We actually moored for the night in Clamecy. Not my favourite place, but some good restaurants to choose, even for families like us. We found we could eat quite reasonably, as all restaurants offer three course children menus of FF30/40, and we could get some lovely three course meals for FF120/150. Wine was cheap by the carafe, and although not fine wine was perfectly fine for us!

This is better than working!

Wednesday 3 October 2000

We had another slow start to the morning - we had a few chores to do in Clamecy - buying more films, getting more cash etc. The children were brilliant in the mornings - they were usually the first ones out of bed at about 7h30/8h00. They would dress, and promptly get out on to the deck with the broom and sweep the boat down - and then you’d always find Alexander and William sitting on the back of the boat with those wretched maggots again! I keep threatening that they must stay behind in Clamecy!

We all found the locks really easy. Generally Ben was the skipper and the three remaining adults would take it in turns to jump off the boat with the rope to get it around the bollard before securing the boat. Then as the lock rises we would take in the slack on the ropes in order to keep the boat neatly positioned against the wall of the lock. It would often take about 10 minutes to get through a lock, and we always made sure the children jumped off for a run around - a few cart wheels, a rugby scrum, a few balls being thrown around, and they were back on board again. The kids loved it, just like their parents - there has never been one raised voice or bad word - in a car we often get "are we nearly there yet?", but on the canals we had none of it - they often used to steer the boat along the canal although we usually let our skipper take the boat through the locks.

We noticed that other canal boaties had some problems in steering out of a lock, as they would tend to treat the boat more like a car, by just "driving" straight off when the lock opened. Doing it like this you could seldom get clear of the lock wall, and these people would often bang in to the end of the lock. By the manual you should start in reverse backing in to mid-stream before heading forward. We found that everything was solved if we just pushed the boat out a metre from the edge prior to the last one jumping on board - worked a treat, trust me!!

We’re now kicking ourselves that we didn’t stay at Chatel-Censoir, for a trip to Vezelay - c’est la vie!

Only three locks up from Clamecy we stopped for lunch by the village of Villiers sur Yonne, where we all took turns on the bikes and the scooters. Then off again. We had a bit of a wait at the next lock, the reason being was that the lock-keeper here also looked after the next lock up stream so we had to wait for him to close the upstream lock before coming back to put us through the lower lock - we’re in no hurry!

After lunch Margie and Andrea used to walk along the canal path - they usually kept ahead of the barge if we had locks to go through, but if we were on a long stretch with no locks we used to just cruise at their pace.

We spent the night just near the village of Cuzy, upstream from Tannay. The ladies rode in to Tannay for some provisions as they had required some special ingredients for tonight’s menu!

This time Margie whips up a storm in the boat’s kitchen - they should go in to business! The children set the table for us all to dine together - hand-made place mats, candles galore, our favourite classical music on the stereo, and drinks all round!! We have a starter of terrine which the ladies had picked up in Clamecy, and then Margie treated us to garlic prawns on rice, finished with my favourite tarte au citron (which they had carefully carried back from Tannay on their bikes!). I haven’t even walked along the canal, but after tonight’s feast I vowed to walk the rest of the way!!

Thursday 4 October 2000

Today we cruised along more beautiful countryside to the village of Chitry les Mines where we are due to return the boat by tomorrow morning. I didn’t walk - maybe another day!

The children were keeping themselves busy writing up their diaries. They have all been doing this during their holiday and it is a treat to behold. Sarah has a small Polaroid instant camera and along the way she has been taking photos of things that interest her - her brother (9 yrs) tasting wine at a winery, the white swans near Auxerre, her father sleeping on the deck of the boat. The end result of this exercise is going to be amazing - surely a treasure for her and us in the future. She wrote in her book "Barging is cool fun!" and we all agree with her.

We stopped at a few villages today. Monceaux le Comte was where we stopped for provisions for lunch and dinner, and we actually stopped soon after this for lunch. Alexander this time had set the deck chair on the canal’s bank and was still fishing with his nylon thread on the end of a stick (plus the maggot) - he looked just like all the other French men we had seen, often lining the banks with their fishing roads the size of telegraph poles. With all these fishing rods and fishing lines draped in the water we were always sure that we would hook one of the fishermen on our boat - it would have been the only thing we would have caught all week!!

Another grand dinner party on board at Chitry les Mines as a farewell to a truly magnificent holiday in France, only spoilt by that wretched container of maggots being spilt all over the deck just while we were about to eat our dinner - it had to happen - and we caught no fish!

Friday 5 October 2000

We handed our boat back to the base today by 9h00 and continued with our onward travels. Would we do it again? Roll on next time, we can’t wait!

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