Tournesols

July

Back to Migennes where we started our French adventure a year ago - a good spot for washing clothes and the boat and generally tidying up ready for our trip to the UK.

Night Fishing

We were going  back for Paddy and Hannah's wedding but also took the opportunity to have the car serviced, visit the opticians, and doctors too for our MOT's!  We left Slo-Motion at Evans Marine and travelled to Calais via an overnight stop at Amiens. We'd booked a town centre hotel and were able to walk to the cathedral and see the best parts of this lovely city. The highlight was seeing the front of the cathedral 'mapped' in coloured light to show how it would have originally looked when the exterior was painted - truly amazing.

In the UK we spent time with Nick and Val and with Mal and John - thank you all for your kind hospitality and much valued friendship.

The wedding was fantastic  - a beautiful sunny day and a lovely couple who just radiated happiness. The reception in a nearby village was creatively themed and the food was to die for - we're sure everyone enjoyed the day as much as we did - thank you, Paddy & Hannah.

Bridal Limo

We returned to France and rescued Slo-Mo from a very hot and dusty boatyard - complete with new alternator. Then spent a few more days in the basin washing the dust off, stowing all our UK purchased and socialising with some new friends, Pete and Sheena on the hotel boat 'Elizabeth'.

Leaving Migennes, we headed upstream to Auxerre, stopping overnight on a restaurant pontoon at Moneteau, where we enjoyed a hearty meal and bottle of cold Chablis. Just missed their musical evening, which sounded great fun. 

A couple of snacks!

Auxerre quayside was noisy and dusty with construction work, so we moored for the night in the very pretty park just through the first lock on the Nivernais.

Now in Vermenton, a delightful town with good moorings. 

Well used mooring

We have our own trees just outside the boat - the shade has been a godsend during the last week with temperatures in the mid 30's.

 This is the centre of the 'Flotteurs'. In the 16th Century wood was cut from the forests of the Morvan, assembled into rafts and then a crew made the hazardous 10 day journey on the rivers to Paris where the rafts were disassembled and the logs cleaned before being sold to provide firewood for heating. It was not until the early 20th Century that this activity disappeared with the arrival of coal.

Replica log raft

Tomorrow Mal and John arrive and we will continue our journey south.