Canal lateral a la Loire 4/8/18- 21/8/18
We started this canal at the end of the Canal Centre at Digoin, where after the Pont canal/aqueduct the canal becomes the canal lateral a la Loire. This canal is 196 kms long and 37 locks.
We waited here for our visitors, friends we meet in Croatia 3 years ago.
Jackie and Mark from Sydney arrived on the morning of the 5th and the afternoon spent relaxing on the boat and a small walk through town and lunch. Next day Jackie and I hiked for miles to the nearest Supermarket, stocked up with food for the next week, a heavy job lugging the very full trolley and 4 bags all the way through town and then along the 3kms of canal to the boat, plus John did 2 bike runs for the alcohol with his back pack. Certainly not enough alcohol but a start.
Di and Mick who come from Perth arrived early evening on the 6th we then went locally for dinner and too much wine. Sleeping arrangements were organised and we settled into more drinks on Anja.
Pierrefitte-sur-Loire
Our first stop was chosen as it is next to a lake, but alas no swimming as the lake was full of bacteria. So, after a small walk to another uneventful town, drinks at the bar which was by the canal was the only way to keep cool. The heatwave continues in France, however not as bad as last week. Dinner was a seafood pasta, French style and again too much wine. The next morning disaster occurred as the toilet struggled with too many No. 2’s and paper, fortunately still working but not well. A story that continued for days to come. We had to start using on shore toilets when possible.
Bealon
Bealon was a mooring that combined with a camper-car location and while everyone rushed to the camping car grounds to the toilets we were only to find a not so pleasant squat loo. The girls wandered into town to find loos and the boys investigated the boat loo problem. This ended with no solution as the valve on the outlet pipe from the toilet macerator pump would not close properly. As a result, the macerator could not be pulled apart to clear the blockage as water from the canal was coming back up the line and running into the boat. We were now hoping the blockage would slowly clear by itself.
The afternoon was spent at a tiny bar in town with the local owner giving samples of sausages and cheese which we proceeded to buy. He was a bit of a comedian and provided us with lots of light entertainment.
Gannay-sur-Loire/ Vanneaux
The third mooring was chosen for a small restaurant dockside and as usual in France “ferme”, closed. A walk in to Gannay also found everything including the café closed. What is it with the French, do they ever open their businesses and work.
Eventually the lady of the café saw us all hovering around, so she opened for drinks but not for lunch. Lunch was beer, icecreams and junk, however she did sell bread so back to the boat for a late lunch and a game of cards and more alcohol as the weather was dreary outside. However, it was a pleasant change to the heat. On the way back, we took a Beatles Abbey Road photo of the group crossing a pedestrian crossing. John was wearing a Beatles t shirt so had to lead the party.
This stop also had a boat yard mechanic which John ask for advice on the loo, he was too busy to look at our problem but gave advice that it sounded like a blockage, which had been Johns thoughts too. He advised us to use a different loo paper and hot water to flush to clear the paper. This was a suggestion made by Di but no-one had listened. So, after the hot water, the vinegar and the lemons, things did improve slightly with the saga of the LOO.
Duck with mustard honey sauce was on the menu for dinner. I’ve been creating a few of my French dishes for our guests mixed with the BBQ’s. The girls wash and wipe up and Di said she is the Dish-Bitch of Anja. The boys take care of the drinks, well done lads!
We having been clothes washing each day and today the weather had changed to showers, so the washing was hung downstairs, gosh what a sight our lounge room is with all the washing, luggage etc.
Decize for our guests’ departures and 3 nights.
The first afternoon was a long walk to the train station for departure tickets, Jackie and Mark left the next day, and we had a farewell/thank you dinner at the Port side Restaurant. A lovely mooring at Decize, with the very friendly and helpful Pauline in-charge at the Port. The walk into town is fairly long one and the next day we did it again with Di and Mick, our other guest gone now and this was followed again the next day with a walk down the start of the Nivernais Canal. Unfortunately, we can’t use the Nivernais canal as Anja is too tall for 2 of the bridges. We will do part of it another year from the top and turn and go back when we get to the too small bridge.
The final night we had a BBQ on the pontoon with an Aussie couple moored 2 boats away and by coincidence new our guest Mick who they had worked with him in Perth. It is a small world
The next morning Di and Mick left for Paris by train and John and I set off again on our own.
We had thoroughly enjoyed having our guest on board, it was a fun week, now for our livers and stomachs to go in recovery mode.
Our next stop
Fleury-sur-Loire
An overnight stop, no facilities in the small town except a Boulangerie open the next morning. So, we had Baguette for lunch. The scenery is farmland now with the occasional glimpse of the Loire river.
Nevers, 3 nights
To reach Nevers the canal takes 3kms and 2 locks on a branch detour from the main Canal lateral a la Loire.
A huge mooring on a nice new pontoon. We spent the first afternoon exploring this ancient town, the palace ducal, and many churches. The walk into town is a good 2 kms each way and crossing the Loire is quiet pretty with lots of fish visible and a swimming beach area set up by the river.
The churches in Nevers were quite different. One was half Roman architecture, 11th century and half Gothic, 14th century. The strain glass windows replaced with a modern design which was totally weird. This church had been bombed accidently in 1944 by the RAF. The raid totally destroyed the roof and all of the stain glass windows, leaving only the walls standing. The British bombers had been targeting the rail yards about a kilometre away. John was astonished that British bombers would even attempt to drop bombs on a large French city. They killed a thousand French people in the raid, such is the madness of war.
We then visited yet another church, a masterpiece of Roman architecture, a 17th century church with frescos and a Baroque style chapel.
Then onto the Palais ducal which was built in the 1460’s and provides a Renaissance appearance. Nevers was an enjoyable and interesting town.
Bourges, a day trip by train from Nevers.
A 45 min train trip took us to Bourges a large town off the canal route. It had a really good display of typically wooden/ stone houses, a huge cathedral, lots of museums and a flamboyant palace of gothic architecture built in 1433 by Jacques Coeur, a steward of the royal expenditure to King Charles V11 and merchant of some wealth. We visited both the palace and one museum, which had a bronze vase that was from 400 BC.
Lunch stop at Guetin
Here we crossed a river on a 260-metre-long Pont canal (canal bridge), followed by a double lock, one of 6 metres deep and the next of 4 metres. There were swarms of tourists taking pictures of us. Anja is very popular with the tourists.
Cours les Bours, an overnight stop.
A small church, boulangerie and a pretty mooring. The scenery now is farmland and the vineyards of the Sancerre area have started appearing on the hillsides. Some areas had planted large sunflowers all facing the sun.
Sancerre
We had to do a long days motoring so we could stay in Sancerre for 2 nights, this wine area is predominately Sauvignon Blanc.
Our mooring was in Saint Tribault a small off shoot on the canal from St -Satur, where a huge train and road aqueduct runs over the town. Saint Tribault had a camping ground on the Loire river which will be a lovely place to return to in the future when we have more time. The mooring was difficult and the gangway got used for the first time. The sloping bank wall and shallow depth kept the boat about a metre off the edge, which was the reason for the gangway.
A taxi was organised for our day trip to Sancerre, it was 3-4 kms away and up a very long steep hill.
In Sancerre we visited the Maison de Sancerre on wine making with 4d cinema and tastings among other activities. We climbed the Tours des Fiefs, 100 plus wooden steps inside a stone tower which when at the top had amazing 360 deg over the vineyards and surrounding area. We had a leisurely lunch of 4 different types of Canard (duck) and wine, John and I again sharing the dish again. A strange bloke dressed as a clown came along doing a weird mime act, which was very disconcerting. Everyone ignored him and he eventually packed up and wondered off.
In general, a lovely stop and the scenery of the vineyards wonderful. A place to return to another time.
The port we were in was very narrow so when we tried to leave the next day we had to wait for hire boats parked behind us to leave first, so we had enough room to reverse and turn around for our exit. The people who blocked our departure were Dutch and they wouldn’t move till it suited them, 1.5 hour wait for us. If they had of been private boat owners they would have been a lot more cooperative.
On the way to our next stop, we had a few interesting events occur. First was the late start, then we had to help a NZ boat that was on the side of the canal. They were stuck on the bottom but with us being the tug boat we managed to pull them free.
Then a hotel boat pulled out in front of us and moved very slowly causing us to crawl along to our next destination with another boat, a British couple following and sharing the locks with us. One of our slower days of motoring.
This canal finishes here, with our last stop at Belleville-sur-Loire, a small town with a few minor facilities and a nuclear power plant nearby.
We also stopped at a small town Beaulieu-sur-loire, this is shown in the two small pictures above and is a town we began our adventure on Anja in 2015 with the previous owners.
We now approach Briare, and a new canal and a new blog starts.
