A Resolution

We are back in Tucson for a few months and I am resolved to do some blog posts over the holidays with pictures from our cruising season in 2013.  In the meantime, here's a pretty one from the town of Gray in France.  This was an entrance to the old chateau high atop a hill overlooking the Petite Saone River.

Happy Holidays everyone! 

Harvesting Lavender

Today I spent the day harvesting the lavender I grow on Alouette while Randy picked wild mirabelles (plums)....internet connection is not good here but life is great in rural France...Happy nearly the end of August to all from our wild mooring in the tiny village of Charentenay, along the Petite Saone river!

We cannot direct the wind, but we can always adjust our sails.

After a very cold and wet spring, we finally shoved off on a foggy morning.  We had a great winter in port, with French lessons with Frank Postma, followed by our Thursday night happy hour get together at L'Authentique.

Franklin, the last day of class, with our thank you gifts

 I started a Stitch n Bitch group in the port; we met on our boat every Wednesday to have some fun with crafts, and very little bitchin, followed by coffee.  As a group, we made a basket of baby goodies for the owners of L'Authentique - their baby Louise arrived in March, before we all shoved off.  We also have a group on the Ravelry website, Nautical Knitters, where you can see what we've been doing as a group.

Our plans were to cruise up the Roanne a Digoin canal, hang a right onto the Canal du Centre for a visit to one of our favorite towns, Paray-le-Monial, then turn around, head back out onto the Lateral a la Loire, into Decize where we would cross the Loire River and onto the Canal du Nivernais. We continued to have very heavy rainfall all across France, interrupted only occasionally by a sunny day - we began to think it might be necessary to sacrifice a goat or something to the great yellow ball in the sky when it occasionally appeared.  As we crossed the viaduct over the Loire River in Digoin, the Loire was in flood, as was La Bourbince, one of its tributaries, which flows through the town of Paray-le-Monial.  We started to have some bad feelings about the rising waters and the state of the canal and river networks in France, and sure enough, most of the rivers and some of the canals were closing temporarily due to floods.  When that happens, everyone usually stays put, so mooring spots are at a premium.  I needed to be in a place where I could catch a train to Paris, as I was scheduled to return to the U.S. for my niece Kaitlin's wedding on June 8th.  Then a serious breach occurred on the Canal du Centre, halting all traffic across that section of the canal until it was repaired.  The locks at Decize were closed and we would not be able to cross the Loire onto the Nivernais and get to a place where I could easily catch a train to Paris, so we stayed put in Paray until the breach was fixed, and continued on the Canal du Centre to Genelard, where I could easily catch the TGV high speed train to Paris for my trip home to the U.S.

I ended up buying another ticket home to the U.S. to see my sister, who had been recently diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.   So I flew into Chicago a week earlier than planned, and hopped a flight to Fort Myers Beach, Florida, to spend some time with my sister.  We had several really great days together, but  then on June 4th, my sister passed away in her sleep.  It was a shock, as she had been given a prognosis of 8 months, but in retrospect, I am grateful she did not have to suffer longer.  Her last few days were pain-free and filled with happy occasions, including a ceremony by the Nightingale Society, which honors nurses for their years of service.  In attendance were my sister's two children, Melodie and Mark, and their spouses Tony and Sondra, her grandson Cody, our sister-in-law, Sandy, and Marge's partner of 15 years, Allen.  Also attending were several of Marge's close friends, including Mary Maci, who had become Marge and Allen's "Meals-on-Wheels," bringing home cooked meals, and so much comfort, to both of them.  

I flew back to Chicago to end my trip on a joyous note, the wedding of my grand-niece, Kaitlin, and Drew Koessler.  The days before were packed with lots of happy events, culminating in one of the most fun weddings I've ever attended.  And the days before gave me time with my niece Kathy, mother of the bride, her husband Tim and their sons Taylor and Corey, my nephew Dan, who flew in from Florida, and my sister-in-law Julie, grandmother of the bride. I had a fun time getting to know a few of Drew's relatives.  We - Kathy, Kaitlin, the bridesmaids, Drew's mom Jane, and her twin sister - had some good girly-girl time getting pedicures, manicures, make-up and hairdos together. 

The morning I was scheduled to return to France, my flight was cancelled when the air traffic controllers in France went on strike.  I was able to get on a flight the next day to Brussels, and then catch a train from Brussels to Paris, and on to Le Creusot, to get home to France, just before the trainworkers went out on strike!  Summer is the season for one or two day strikes here in France, and I managed to dodge both of them!

The weather had finally improved while I was gone, and we spent another week in Genelard, doing a little painting, and visiting with friends passing thru the port.  I plan to do another post on how small a world it is later, but we once again adjusted our plans, this time to cross the Canal du Centre, get onto the Saone River, heading north, and take either the from Champagne to Bourgogne and up into the Champagne region, over to catch the Nivernais and back down to the Lateral  a la Loire, or up the Saone, catch the route to Strasbourg, and back down the Rhone a Rhin, the River Doubs.  We then learned of a bridge repair on the Nivernais that would last until November and boats over 4 meters wide would not be allowed through.  We are 4.4 meters, so that put a stop on that route.  Then on July 4th, the huge incline lift on the route we would take to Strasbourg failed, crunching up a tour boat, thankfully no one was injured, but repairs will take several months.  So once again, we had to adjust our sails.

So we are now on the Petite Saone River and what a wonderful spot to be.  The weather has turned very hot, but the River is wide, always breezy, and we can jump in for a swim to cool off.  So, the universe provides!  Why didn't we think of doing this during the hottest months of the year?  Who knows, we're just happy to have been pushed by circumstances in this direction right now!  More on this lovely area next!

Mantoche

Sunset in Gray

Let the Cruising Season Begin!

I still haven't gotten around to finishing posts from the 2012 season, and here we are shoving off today.  We had our last minute repairs and maintenance to do, and were ready to go around the 15th of April, when it turned cold and rainy, and continued until yesterday afternoon.  We're getting underway this morning, taking advantage of a break in the weather, but we expect thunderstorms this afternoon, so we will tie off somewhere along this canal, hopefully for a quiet night in a rural setting.  This year's plans are to travel up the Canal du Nivernais, perhaps into the heart of Paris, perhaps along the Marne River into the Champagne region, back down either the Champagne a Bourgogne canal, or the Canal du Bourgogne, part of which we cruised last summer.  That will take us to the Canal du Centre in the late summer, early fall, and back down to the Canal Roanne a Digoin to the Port of Roanne, where we will leave Alouette winterized in her slip, and return to the US for a few months of winter sunshine in Tucson.  We now have smart phones, so I will be able to do some quick posts along the way, with pictures. 

July in Dijon

July and August were bittersweet months for us.  We moved up the Burgundy Canal to the city of Dijon, yes, like the mustard.  There we discovered a small leak in a water hose in our generator, and since we were heading up into very rural, off-the-grid parts of the canal, we decided to order a new hose, but that took all total 3 weeks to track down, order, and wait to receive it. But Dijon is a lovely city, great parks, a beautiful large lake (Lac Kir) with water sports and a swim beach.  We visited a beautiful outdoor art exhibit in a park - paper mache birds made by both professional artists, and children.  They were protected by decorative umbrellas.

The body is an old vacuum cleaner canister, the tongue is an umbrella handle!

One of the days we visited, some of the child artists were visiting the exhibit, proudly posing in front of their work.  That brought back fond memories of posing with my tapestries on exhibit at Denver International Airport and Tohono Chul in Tucson.

The port in Dijon is home to many waterbirds, but we were really excited to see a pair of bar headed geese with two goslings.  Mom and Dad were very protective of the babies, and had the most curious behavior, I described it as "Happy Feet" - reminded me of Steve Martin on SNL when he would break into a dance routine.  The adults would do the happy feet routine both on the ground, and in the water when they swam over to the boat for our leftover baguettes. We had never seen bar headed geese before, so of course we had to google them, and it turns out that they are from Central Asia and actually fly over the Himalayas.  They are considered the world's highest flying bird.  We don't know what this pair was doing in Dijon, but they were beautiful and much loved by the people around the port.  The port is in the center of the city and is linked to lots of paths for cyclists, rollerbladers, and walkers and everyone seems to bring their leftover bread to feed the birds.

July 14th brought the usual round of festivities surrounding Bastille Day.  But we were in for a special treat in the port.  Taraf Goulamas, a band from the south of France, were in the port park for a free concert sponsored by the town as part of the fete.  Their routine was wonderful - the first set of lively music, sounding more like Klezmer to me, was a lead up to their act - cooking esccargot for the crowd, and serving it during the break.  While we waited for them to start, I thought the large kettle looking thing on the stage was a steel drum, but it was actually their wok/grill!  They took turns playing and chopping the onions and garlic, brought an audience member up on stage to help cook. The "presentation" of the escargot, was followed by a New Orleans style funeral procession through the crowd with the live escargot getting the "last rights" and the first set finished with sauteing the critters in the big pan.  They were amazing musicians, and during the break, we talked with one of them. They are accomplished jazz musicians who have this group as well.  By the second set, the stage was mobbed with everyone - including Randy - dancing.  You can check them out on the link posted to the right.

Fancy drumming, and fancy knife skills too!

Taking a break during the long musical intro

 

We finally received our part and resumed cruising up the Canal du Bourgogne.  To be continued . . .

Remembering Anya

My postings abruptly stopped in late June.  The remainder of our cruising season was great, and I will fill in the blanks soon.  We returned to port in late September,  short one crew member.  When we shoved off in the spring, we knew this would probably Anya’s last voyage.  At age 15-1/2, she had developed the renal problems that are so common in older cats.  She was doing fine on some meds and a special diet, but in mid-July, it was apparent she was slowing down, and she took a turn for the worse in late July.  On August 7^th, she crossed over the Rainbow Bridge.  We are so grateful for the years she spent with us, and for the kindness of so many strangers who stepped in to help us as we traveled to the point where we had to say goodbye to her.  Her last days were spent in beautiful Vandenesse-en-Auxois, in the shadow of the magnificent Chateauneuf-en-Auxois.  But what a life she had, from Austin, Texas, to our home in the mountains of Colorado, to Santa Fe, to life in a high rise in downtown Denver, to Tucson, Arizona, she traveled with us roundtrip twice from the US to Geneva, to our home port in Roanne, and she cruised the canals of France for 3 seasons.  She even enjoyed a vacation on the Riviera last January.  We miss her sweet little routines and her mischievous playfulness, and are so thankful to have had her in our lives for such a long time.

Captains Debbie, Randy and Dimitri

Dimitri and Anya