WiFi blues!

We made it back into port in October, but the WiFi in the port doesn't seem to be adequate to carry the traffic with all of the boats now back and using it.  We still have our 3G key, but its slower than what we're used to in the states, and I've been having a hard time trying to upload photos to the blog, hence no postings for a while, though I have lots of posts written in draft form.

All is well with us.  I managed to catch the nasty cold that was going around the port and have been suffering with it for 3 weeks now but am finally nearly back to normal, whatever that is.  We had a great visit with our friend Catherine Carpenter from Denver and had lots of fun finding the fixings for a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner, which we prepared the Sunday before T-day so we could enjoy it with Catherine before she returned to Denver.  Our good friends from Australia, Laurel and Andrew, joined us for their first taste of an American Thanksgiving.

Our port association arranged another beaujolais tasting event this November, this time we traveled by bus, visiting most of the 10 Cru Beaujolais villages and arriving at the vineyard of Guy Trichard for a tasting, and lunch.

We're now decorating the boat for the first of several festivals in the port, the arrival of St. Nicholas, by boat, the evening of December 6th.  Many of the liveaboards in port are busy hanging lights for the event.  It will be interesting to see what happens when we all turn them on for St. Nick!

More to come...hopefully with pictures . . .happy December everyone!

For Jill, and for Mom

My mom was an amazing gardener, she could grow anything, and loved nothing better than to spend the days outside tending to her flowers, vegetables and fruit trees.  All of us kids inherited bits and pieces of her skill, but my brother Jerry's daughter, Jill, inherited the whole caboodle, and then some.  She is an artist in her garden with fabulous displays of color, texture, whimsey and an amazing sense of design, proportionality and composition. 

As we moved along the Canal de Briare a week or so ago, we entered a lock around 11:00 a.m.; the locks all close for lunch between noon and 1:00 p.m., so we thought we would tie up for lunch somewhere in between locks, have a bite to eat and get to the next lock some time after 1:00 p.m.  The lock keeper told us he didn't think we could make it through the next lock by noon, and I told him our plans.  He suggested he call the next lock keeper and ask if we could wait in the lock over the lunch hour - not something we've ever been able to do before, but we jumped at that chance since it would mean we could be out of the lock as soon as lunch was over. 

We cruised into the lock, and the lock keeper came riding up on his bike (he tends more than one lock), set the lock to fill ever so slowly, and went into his house for lunch.  As we ascended, we were treated to a spectacular show of flowers, beautiful beds, hanging baskets, groomed shrubery.  I immediately thought of Jill, and of course Mama.  So these pictures are for them.

Oh, and the lock keeper came out to take pictures of our boat in the lock as well!

The pictures are in the Jalbum to the right, Ecluse 20.

Jumping ahead to this past week

I have a lot of catching up to do - we haven't had the best internet connections in the countryside, so forgive me if I haven't responded to emails in the past month or so, or been able to post to this blog.  I'm fast forwarding to this past week.  We had a long-awaited visit from our Tucson friends, Bill and Mary Read, on their post-retirement trip to Europe.  We picked them up at the train station in Montargis, one of our favorite towns.  We had moved the boat the week before to Ouzouer-sur-Trezee on the Briare Canal, a lovely town a few kilometers away from Briare.  After cruelly forcing them to stay awake through an early dinner on the back deck so as to fight off jet lag, we spent the next day visiting the wine region of Sancerre, where the harvest had just ended.

Mary and Bill in Sancerre

The hilltop village of Sancerre

In the afternoon, we returned to Ouzouer, which was celebrating the annual national heritage weekend.  The old Romanesque church in town was open for tours in the afternoon, so we headed over to find a lovely local woman who took us on a tour of the church, the grounds, and pointed out some of the historic sites in town.  The Romanesque section of the church is from the 12th century, with a gothic section added later.  In 1961, as the pew of a section of the church were about to be refinished, paintings of the 12 apostles were discovered on the wood underneath the seats of the pews.  The paintings were removed and mounted on the walls of the church, and if I remember correctly, they are dated from the 16th century.  One building we had noticed every morning when heading out for a baguette has beautiful carvings, and a door much too short for Randy to go through without hitting his head.  This place also dates back to the 16th century.

The next morning we were underway, going through two locks, and crossing the Loire River on the Briare Viaduct. 

After we exited the lock, Bill noticed our big ball fender floating off behind us, so we nosed into the bank, I hopped off with the boat hook and ran back to retrieve it from the lockkeeper!  A nice morning jog for me!

Bill had a chance to drive while Mary joined me on the bow to enjoy the scenery as we cruised across the viaduct and into the town of Beaulieu.

On the viaduct over the Loire River

Although the weather is starting to turn chilly, we had another nice dinner served by Chef Randy, and the next morning, Bill and Mary were off to Paris to join a Rick Steves tour of France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy.  Not a bad way to officially start your retirement!

After dropping Bill and Mary off at the train station in Briare, we moved the boat up to Sury-pre-Lere, a favorite spot, where we have high speed internet coverage, so I'm able to post a blog or two before we get underway again tomorrow.  We plan to be in port some time around October 15th but if the weather holds, we may just enjoy some of the anchorages on the Canal Roanne a Digoin!

Au Revoir Montargis

Au Revoir Montargis!
Today, as if to say no,
you cannot go,
you sent a swan.

But how can I leave this place
with its canals
and flowers
and people who adore their dogs?

Dachsund next to the bowl on top!

All along the canal
they promenade.

Bayeau, Rezzy and his shar pei.

Rezzy, an Iwok in a dog suit

Beloved, beloved French dogs!

We hope to return next year
with biscuits for you.

We'll be back when we have a better connection

We spent a wonderful 3 weeks in Montargis, visiting chateaus, marches, shopping, riding our bikes.  Last week, we cruised through Montargis to the turning basin to turn Alouette around so we could begin heading back to Roanne.  We are in Ouzouer-sur-Treeze but have a poor internet connection, so like all good Americans, we headed out to the local McDonalds in Gien, where we can access high speed internet.  I'll post more pictures once we're at a good wifi spot, probably Sury-pre-Lere.  We are excited to have our buddies from Tucson, Bill and Mary Read, arriving on Friday.  We'll pick them up at the train station in Montargis, visit Sancerre, and cruise with them to Sury-pre-Lere.  They will head back by train to Paris to join a Rick Steves' tour!  In the meantime, here are a couple of rare photos - Debbie driving, Randy handling the lines!

Sweet Home Colorado!

We are still in Montargis, planning to leave Sunday or Monday.  We have seen many hotel barges, but the Hotel Barge Princess, has been the prettiest  we've seen, with the hardest working crew.  Today as they coasted by into the lock, we heard American being spoken - - not just American, but Coloradan American - sweet sweet music to my ears!  This evening, before dinner, a sweet lady named Debbie - hey, I can remember that name - came by since we had hoisted our Colorado flag, and as a true Coloradan -- she noticed. She came on board with a few other folks on Princess, including John Schenden, who is pres. of Pro Jeep in Denver.  I am bad with names, but it was great to have people from home on board!  And I think I'm gonna need a Jeep when we eventually get back to the Big D!!  A Champie toast to all of you Mile Highers!

To everything there is a season . . .

Oldtimer is for sale

We initially started this blog to keep our friends and families informed of our whereabouts, but also to provide information to those thinking about joining the barging family.  One thing we learned early on from our research is that there is a life cycle to this way of life, usually somewhere between 5 to 10 years, and after that, most bargees tend to move on to the next adventure in their lives.  Its still new to us, so its a bit hard to see some of our friends who have been enjoying this life move on to the next chapter.  But we must celebrate their decision with them, even though we will miss them.

When we began to investigate (on the internet) this lifestyle, we were so lucky to tap into the website of our fellow Coloradans, Eric and Sudi, on their beautiful ship, Oldtimer.  Sudi is an excellent writer and photographer, and one day out of the blue, I contacted her.  She followed up with tons of information, and we would not be here today were it not for the kindness of both Eric and Sudi and the wealth of information they provided.  We would not be on this boat had they not encouraged us to both look at every boat available, and take a look at this one in particular.  They have spent many years here in France on their sweet boat, and recently have offered her up for sale as they move on to the next adventure.  If you are someone reading this blog and interested in this lifestyle, and want a well-loved and well-maintained boat, have a look at Oldtimer - I've posted a link at the beginning of this blog, as well as at the links to the right.

Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore . . . or, we've got to get a bigger boat.

We returned from a quick shopping trip to find Fleur - a huge hotel boat tied up to us in Chatillon-Coligny - that's actually Alouette looking quite tiny,  towards the right center of the photograph. Shortly thereafter, Arian, a 26 meter barge pulled in front of us for the night. We were planning to set off early in the morning for Montargis. Happily, the captain of Fleur plans to shove off at 7:30 a.m, so we'll scoot around Ariana in the front and be on our merry way in the morning.

Crossing the Loire River on the Briare Viaduct

A few days after Andrew and Laurel crossed, on a rainy, blustery day, we headed out from the Village of Beaulon to cross over the Loire River on the beautiful Briare Viaduct.  It was overcast but Andrew and Laurel came out, not just to capture us in photos, but on film as well.  As soon as I figure out how to upload the film, I'll post it.  I've posted a few photos in the album to the right.  If you click on the "i" in the slideshow bar, there are descriptions.  We're leaving for the village of Montbouy in the morning, and on to Montargis for a couple of weeks where we'll meet up with Andrew and Laurel, do a little touring around by car, a little maintenance work on the boat, and turn around to head back to Roanne.

A view from Sancerre

Not many posts recently, we've been having too much fun! Crossed the Briare viaduct over the Loire River, and onto the Canal de Briare. Had great visits with friends Bob and Faith from Tucson, and Janet Rubenstein from Santa Fe, NM!! Janet took this shot of us on the tower on the ramparts around Sancerre. I'll get around to posting soon. We are in Chatillon-Coligny, heading towards Montargis.

Tour de France

We took the train into Paris to watch the final day of the Tour de France.  Here's a picture Randy snapped of Team BMC leading its team member and overall winner, Cadel Evans (in yellow), into Paris! 

Tshirt stalls with tour gear

Public art exhibit near Palais Royal

King of the mountain float with moving mountains

 

 

Alberto Contador

One of the pelatons

 

 

Street orchestra in Place Collette near Palais Royal

 And my favorite float, there was dead silence from the men in the crowd, a lot of Ooo Lah Lah's from the ladies!

 This float is for a laundry detergent sponsor of the Tour - I just might switch brands to Xtra!

First ever Tour de France win for Australia!

Slimed!

We're leaving Sury-pres-Lere this morning and will lose our access to high speed WiFi so we don't know when we'll be able to post pictures, somewhere up the canal.  Dimitri has been showing a lot of interest in getting off the boat - first in our home port of Roanne, where he visited Elizabeth and Richard on Larbesque, the boat next to us.  We let him come out on the back deck for fresh air, and walks around the deck, but every so often, he jumps off.  Yesterday, while I was writing a letter, I heard Randy ask if Dimi was down below with me.  No Dimi, so we both ran out and jumped off the boat.  Next to the quai the town has put in a little green belt with pique-nique tables.  There's a little irrigation ditch, the sloping side heading up to the canal quai, its been recently landscaped and is still covered with black plastic to hold the shrubs and flowers on the slope.  You know where this is going - Dimitri was on the slope, tumbled down into the irrigation ditch, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw one very wet scared slimy cat climbing out of the ditch.  Of course, I ran and got the camera.

A bucket of fresh water, a trip to the shower, and rubdown with a towel, and all was well again!

You're never too old for bunny ears!

Laurel, Deb & Randy

Waiting for the Bastille Day fireworks in Briare - Bram Hewitt, Andrew and Laurel's son, visiting from Melbourne, Australia, surprised me with a set of my own flashing bunny ears! I promised I would wear them with great pride forever, though I don't know where, but a promise is a promise.

Here are a few shots of Andrew and Laurel with Bram on board, crossing the Loire River on the Briare viaduct. A cloudy and rainy day, but a beautiful sight nonetheless!

Laurel and Bram, with Andrew in the wheelhouse (well, someone has to drive!)

Apremont-sur-Allier

 

At one of the locks before we reached Decize, our lock keeper excitedly chatted with me about our flowers - his petunias were not doing as well as mine, etc.,  we have villages designated Ville Fleuri (the villages with the most beautiful flower displays) and our boat should have a "Bateau Fleuri" designation - a very big compliment - and then he asked for our cruising guide.  He pointed out a chateau on our map and said we must use our velos (bicycles) to ride over to see the gardens.  It was only about a 5 kilometer ride from the quai near the double locks at Le Guetin, so we hopped on our bicycles and headed out to Apremont-sur-Allier.  Our route took us along a canal no longer in use with a round lock taking barges into the Allier, which at that time was a navigable river.  Now it is a beautiful spot for fishing, kayaking, and the river is a spawning ground for salmon making some of which make a 6,000 kilometer journey home to spawn.

Round lock, this could be fun!

Back on our bikes, we rode into a postcard perfect town, Apremont-sur-Allier.  The village itself is pristine and beautiful, the chateau sits high above the town and the River Allier, but the gardens were stunning.  Rather than write, I'll just post some pictures.  You can access the slide show for Apremont-sur-Allier in the JAlbums to the right. If you are visiting this region of France between April and October, add the Parc Floral d'Apremont-sur-Allier to your itinerary!

The Chateau

Another view, town and River Allier below