Alouette is a Luxemotor barge built in 1910 in Zwartsluis, Holland. She was first used as a cattle transporter, and later as a shrimp fishing boat. In 2002, she was lovingly converted by a British couple into a liveaboard barge. We are her third owners - Randy and Deborah, two Americans from Colorado who escaped corporate life in search of an adventure. After a few years of searching for the right adventure, we discovered the barging life. Having sailed for most of our adult lives, it seemed a perfect fit. We spent another year looking for the right barge and in the summer of 2010 found her in Roanne, France. We've renamed her Alouette - the Lark. And so in her 100th year, together with our two Russian Blue cats, we're shoving off for a life on the canals and rivers of Europe.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Tournous to St. Jean de Losne

We had an easy trip up the Saone from Tournous to Verdun sur le Doubs, a town we had visited our first year as we took the boat to dry dock, and then back to Roanne.  We left early in the morning, but made great time against the current, and actually slowed down to arrive in the early afternoon, as the port in Verdun has a spot for one large barge, which we reserved, but we didn't know if there was a barge lingering there from the night before.

After a lovely evening, we retired for the night, only to be awakened at 2 a.m. by the sound of a cat fight . . . in our boat . . . Our cats, Dimitri and Anya, are litter mates, 15-1/2 years old, so we instinctively knew it wasn't them.  We had left one of the windows open, with a screen, and as I rushed out of the master bedroom, I saw a black and white cat desperately trying to jump back up and out that window.  It had pushed in the screen, awakened Dimitri (not Anya, she slept through it all), and the hissing and howling was coming from Dimitri and the intruder.  We ran around chasing the cat, finally getting Dimitri locked in one room, only to have the cat rush into the room where Anya was sleeping.  We managed to chase it out, up into the wheelhouse, and out the door.  It was quite comical, but not as funny as our friends on Tokoloshe, who had a cat fall through the screen on one of their butterfly hatches in the middle of the night. It walked across the control panel in the wheelhouse, stepping on the switch for the horn, waking up everyone for miles.

We left the next morning for St. Jean de Losne, where we began our search for a boat back in 2009, and where Alouette was hauled out in 2010 for her survey and bottom paint.  We had hoped to find a spot along the steps of the town quai, but it was full, so rather than tie off to another boat there, we turned back to tie up to an old penische we had passed on the river on our way into town.  It looked secure, but abandoned, and it turned out to be a quiet, peaceful spot to spend the night.  

This was an old working boat, the owners, oftentimes a couple, hauling cargo up and down the canals and rivers, and living on board.  Sometimes the owners retire on board, or the boat is sold and turned into a liveaboard floating home.  This one had been their for a while, but the lace curtains were still in the pretty brass porthole window.  Who were they, I wondered.

Alouette, tethered to an old penische, Saone River




Our overnight spot provided the perfect place to watch for an opening on the steps in St. Jean de Losne and as soon a charter boat pulled out, we fired up the engine and pulled up to the quai on the steps.  It was the first time we were able to tie up there, and we had spent many times sitting at one of the waterfront restaurants looking at boats, so it was quite a treat for us.



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