Summer 2016 - to cruise or not to cruise...

That was the question ... We had so enjoyed our cruising in Slo-Mo over the past four seasons that the maintenance and 'to do' list had been getting longer and longer. So last season we stayed in port and started knocking off some of those items.

It was no hardship as Saint Jean-de-Losne comes alive in the summer, there's lots going on, people are returning to their boats for the season and there are many visitors in port. 

We were quickly 'volunteered' to help cook 'street food' at the H2O Open Weekend. It was windy, wet and cold but we had great fun.

Soon afterwards Mal and John came to stay. We enjoyed a visit to Louhans market and the museum at Pierre-de-Bresse. We even managed a cup of tea in the château - first time we've found a café in a château - unlike the National Trust Properties.

It is a very elegant château, and a very good museum. 

Baron Pete

We had been intrigued to hear about a collection of old vehicles and planes at another nearby Château at Savigny-lès-Beaune. There were rooms and rooms full of motorbikes, sports cars and cycles

and outside in the grounds

collections of old fire engines and jet fighters - amazing

Mal and John spotted a dinghy for sale - and soon it was ours! 

Pete was soon messing about on the water (engine kindly loaned by Nick)

He also enjoys buying his daily baguette at our local boulangerie ...

In May we returned with Mal and John to England and were delighted to attend the wedding of Pete's nephew, Jake to Ami.  

It was a wonderful day and such a pleasure to meet up with the rest of the family.

Towards the end of our stay Glen and Val attended a concert at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham. It was the Hall's 25th Anniversary and it still looks great. Described as 'an acoustic marvel' it really is a world-class venue.

We returned to Saint Jean-de-Losne and started the installation of the air-con unit we had purchased whilst in the UK. It was never going to be easy, but we didn't expect the most difficult part of the process to be the positioning of the TV in relation to the Zeppelin speaker and the internal air-con unit. It took five attempts - or was it six?

But boy, were we pleased to have got it installed later in the summer when the temperatures were well into the 30s.

Our next visitor was June. Although we weren't cruising, visits to Dole, Dijon, vide greniers and attending the various activities in the port gave us plenty to do.

We even found her a classic car to sit in

The H2O Dragon Boat Team

Staying in port for the summer, brought other benefits too. Apart from the pleasure of watching six fledgling kingfishers learning to fish and fly over the course of a week, we also made the first sighting of a rare visitor on 'our' island - a little bittern. 

not our photo unfortunately 

and the weekly music concerts kept us entertained. The final event was French Floyd - stunning.

Nick and Val came to visit - 

another classic car in Châteauneuf. Where's Maigrait?

And fortunately the tea rooms were still open in Vandenesse

bon appétit Nick

October, Glen's birthday and a visit to Ornans and the Courbet Museum. 

Ornans was lovely but it wasn't the best birthday lunch, if you want gluten free, then you can have salad. Though it was marginally better than a couple of years ago when it was salmon and a mound of tinned beans in Dijon.

Autumn sky over the marina