Tuesday 9th October
We travelled back to Auxerre on Saturday. On Sunday we continued down the Yonne and stopped for lunch in a restaurant at Gurgy. Lunch was five courses after which we were fit only for a gentle stroll and a snooze. So we stayed the night at Gurgy and made our way back to Laroche-St- Cydrione on Monday.  Today Felicity and Leon joined us having driven up from Ile d’Oleron where they had been surfing and enjoying French cuisine and wine.

David working hard on the way back to Auxerre (no Germans to help this time)

Friday 12th October
On Wednesday afternoon we made the short trip down the Yonne to Joigny and in the evening went for dinner at the Restaurant Paris Nice to celebrate Louisa’s birthday. We looked around Joigny on Thursday morning and travelled back to Migennes after lunch. We moored in the pound at the beginning of the canal de Bourgogne. To enter the pound from the river Yonne we had to go up through a deep lock.  We had watched a boat going down through the lock last week and noticed there were no bollards down the lock sides and wondered how we would attach our ropes to the bollards over five metres above us. The answer? The lockkeeper uses a long rope to lower a hook for us to loop our ropes onto which he then hauls up and puts around the bollards at the top of the lock, simple!
Felicity and Leon had to leave early this morning to travel back too the UK. It has been a while since we have needed to set an alarm and get up in the dark! This afternoon Ettie, Tesserrae’s sister ship moored up next to us. We had last met up at Chalons-en-Champagne in August. They had travelled to Migennes via the Canal de la Marne a la Saone and the Canal de Bourgogne. We had a very enjoyable dinner onboard Ettie and swapped barging stories.

Colourful church door in Joigny

At least its a change from a statue of Joan of Arc

I wonder what the sign says

Saturday 13th October
We set off along the Canal de Bourgogne this morning. We have not been on a small canal since August and had to concentrate to negotiate the narrow bridges, small locks, shallows and lots of weed. We moored up before a lock at lunchtime and waited for the lock keeper to have his lunch. After lunch no lock keeper arrived and several attempts to phone for help were unproductive. After two hours David cycled back to the previous lock to alert the lock keeper there (he had been putting this off as it had turned wet and windy).  When she arrived the lock keeper was very apologetic. Our afternoon trip to St Florentin was uneventful. In fact we fairly zipped along with all the locks ready for us as we arrived and the lock keepers being particularly attentive.

Concentrating  on the narrow canal

Tuesday 16th October
Sunday was very wet and windy and we decided to stay put, read a bit, did some jigsaws, watched a Bond film – how decadent can one be? Monday was a lovely sunny day and so we stayed put again and did the laundry – its not all decadence. St Florentin is an attractive old town on a hill above the canal. There is a remarkable church ,St.Sépulcre, with wonderful 16th century stained glass windows.

St Florentin 

St.Sépulcre

Today we travelled further along the Canal de Bourgogne to Flogny-la-Chapelle. Very attentive lock keepers all day and no problems with holdups except the usual lunch break. We passed a water tractor that was sweeping up the weeds, it looked great fun.  After we were moored for the day a hotel barge came past, we were relieved not to have met it as we were going along as it took up most of the canal. We have been told this is not a very attractive section of the canal with quite a lot industry along the banks. So far in the autumn sunshine with wild flowers still in bloom it has been pleasant enough.

Views of the Canal de Bourgogne

Lunch break on the Bourgogne

Water tractor collecting weed