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

Le Guetin

After a few days of really hot weather, the heat wave broke with some wonderful rain.  We settled back into moderate temperatures, so we shoved off from Decize.  Getting out of Decize takes a bit of time, one lock to get out the Nivernais canal where we had moored, a bit of cruising on the Loire River, and then two locks to get back onto the Canal Lateral a la Loire.  The water is low right now, and boats are being convoyed through, so we had a few holds, and then the locks are closed for lunch from noon until 1:00 pm.  We made it onto the Lateral a la Loire at 11:45 am and stopped along the shore for lunch.  We moved on intending to spend a day or two at the anchorage in Fleury-sur-Loire, but were advised by the lock keeper that it was a bit shallow and boats had been grounding in the port, so we stopped short of Fleury near the village of Avril and spent a lovely evening staked out - just tied off to the shore using big mooring pins pounded into the ground.
We pushed off the next morning for a long day of cruising.  This year we've been traveling about 4-5 hours or so a day when we move, but we wanted to get to through the stretch of canal near Le Guetin, where the canal becomes a viaduct over the Allier River, at the end of which is a double lock.  That meant an 8 hour day at the helm for Randy, with a lot of activity, crossing the viaduct into the big canal, all at the end of the day.  Added to that, it was windy, and the wind would be coming from our starboard side as we threaded the needle of the viaduct and then the locks with our 70 ton barge.

Approaching the viaduct

As we approached Le Guetin, the canal took a sharp turn to the right under a bridge.  Access to the viaduct is controlled by a traffic light, and we had the green so we were good to go.  The canal narrows to a one lane viaduct, at the end of which are the locks.
I went forward to get ready for our approach - Randy does a great job of maneuvering the boat but it helps to have another pair of eyes on the bow.  I pulled out the binocs and saw the lock, and the crowd of spectators waiting to see us cross the viaduct in the wind and maneuver into the lock, hopefully without bouncing off the sides in front of an audience!

On the viaduct

Looking down over the River Allier

Into the first lock

 

The crowd!

Randy kept the power up just the right amount to get us across in the wind, slipped us into the lock and I tied us off to a round of applause from the bystanders.  Lots of pictures were taken as Alouette is looking quite pretty with our overflowing pots of flowers and herbs.
The first lock actually empties into the second lock as we dropped down a total of 9.2 meters - over 30 feet - to return to the canal on the other side of the Allier.  Another round of applause, we took a bow and eased the boat out of the lock and onto the quai at Le Guetin!

Gates opening into 2nd lock

Descending the 2nd lock

A quiet evening moored at Le Guetin