HAPPY FRENCH HOLIDAYS

13-07-09

Hello Everyone,

Well, we are stopping over for 3 nights in the small town of Belleville-sur-Loire situated still on the Canal Lateral a la Loire which means this canal runs parallel to the great Loire River. It gives straight access from Briare right through to where it joins up with the Canal du Central and will take you onto the great Rhone River and right through to the Mediterranean. However, we are headed for St Jean-de-Losne where we will winter over at the port of H2O which is a huge complex and a good winter service centre. Meantime, we have lots of cruising to do and lots of interesting areas to see.

As I have been recuperating over the last few days following my fall, we stayed put until I was strong enough to manage the boat again and hence we are here at this nuclear power plant town. It is a town where the people must be very proud of their environs as everything is so tidy and every home has nice lawns and gardens and the place just has the feeling of being cared for. As tomorrow is Bastille Day which is a huge day for the French, we will stay for another couple of days as everything is closed for this celebration day and it is so pleasant.

We look across the canal one way and across the paddocks to this huge nuclear power plant which has two towers standing about 80m high and even the main office and admin blocks are 10 to 12 storeys high. There is no comment from the locals about the dangers of this plant or the end product, in fact, I believe that approx 37% of all of France's power is generated from nuclear reactors such as this one. I guess it is a case of if you want power, you had better make it from what is available.

We have taken some photos of the parks and grounds which are included for you to appreciate just what can be done when a community cares. We can't believe how works of art and ornaments are left on show without any sign of vandalism whatsoever. Rhonda and I often comment with sayings like "gee look at that, it wouldn't last one night in New Zealand before it was stolen or vandalised."

We attended the local Bastille Day Celebration Ceremony attended by the Mayor, the chief gendarme, a small colour party of 4 and about 30 people only. We were pleased to be there to represent New Zealand on this auspicious day.

Well as they say, before long all things can be reversed as last night there was a Bastille Party across the street which was relatively noisy and was to be expected, however, in the early hours some of the louts decided it would be fun to let go of our mooring lines off the wooden bollards. We awoke around 6.00am to the noise of being clunked into the opposite bank as we drifted quietly across the canal. No damage done as there is no current and no wind but it was annoying and while we couldn't do anything about it we reported the event to the local Lock Keeper.

We decided to move off out of the town so as to avoid any further misbehaving so travelled some 6kms further along to the next village of Lere and as we pulled in a couple off another boat came to take our lines and to welcome us to this small but very pleasant township. These folk are from Cambridge New Zealand and have been on the canals since 2004 so are a wealth of knowledge about where to go and what to see.

This village, Lere, is on the edge of the Chablis and Cab Sav grape growing area so we look forward to sampling some of the fine products on offer. The village was built away back in the 5th century and has remains of buildings from that period which are still available to view and the church was built in the 8th century and offers small tours of the crypts underneath. Amazing really when you consider what has gone on during these past centuries of ravaging storms and wars and civil unrest. The home of Jeanne d Arc is also here where she lived in 1421 in the house which shows in our blog, is still lived in and is in pretty good order.

On Thursday we got a phone call from Allan and Kate, my nephew and niece from Hamilton who have been touring London and now France, to say that they were staying on the other side of the Loire Valley some 2 hours drive away and wished to come over to visit. Well, the day was another perfect one weatherwise so we were able to sit up on the deck under the umbrellas and have a great chat with them and their kids, Rebecca and Ben.

They had bought with them a whole lot of English papers, plus chutneys and pickles from Harrods so added to a typical french style lunch that Rhonda had prepared and we had a great time all round. It was so good to see them and the day came to a close all too soon and after they left we sat upstairs rejoicing at how blessed we were when we noticed a cloud bank coming over and sure enough we experienced one of the worst storm I have been in.

We just had time to get everything packed down, closed up and tied down when the storm hit with the most amazing electrical storm followed by a huge hail storm. The pieces of ice were about half the diameter of a golf ball and then teeming rain with winds up to about 60kms hit which stripped the leaves off all the nearby trees and plastered the boat like a wallpaper job. I honestly thought that the windows were going to break, so strong was the storm and force of the hail hitting us. We are 45 tonnes and were pushed about a lot on our ropes and that was worrying until you looked at some of the fibreglass rentals which were also berthed in front and behind to see them bouncing around like corks so everyone waited with baited breaths until the worst had passed then helped each other to re-tie lines and to collect stuff which had been blown off boats while others helped clean up water which had forced its way in through windows or vents.

Today dawned with much improved conditions so we all cleaned up and relaxed again. It just shows how mother nature can sure dish it out when she wants to and during my morning walk with Harry we noticed trees blown down, many of them fruit trees so that is a sad loss as they are all loaded with fruit almost ready to pick. We just imagined how the grape vines would have suffered as the winds flattened the wheat crops nearby as well.

For those folk who are interested, the Tour de France is underway and while we won't be near the course this year we watch it on the TV and it is amazing how supportive this country is plus the great following by folk from all over Europe. It is amazing how much they know about the riders, their history and placing and when you consider there are hundreds of riders it is great that so much interest is shown. The only names we seem to know is Lance Armstrong and the Kiwis Julian Dean and Hayden Rolston plus a couple of Aussies.

My knowledge of the French language has not really improved much but Rhonda has done so well. She was a great help for Daphne and Claude in working out sightseeing routes and places of interest and in particular travel arrangements. I don't know how we would have got on without her skills and she seems to get on so well with the lockmasters (eclusiers) that we can have a laugh with them and get the best of courteous treatment which is wonderful and we just love the way of life and believe we have done the very best thing we could do.

We will stay here in Lere for another couple of days and then move on towards Sancerre which is highly rated as a true tourist stopover. We arrived in St-Thibadit which is a great little marina in a small canal extension which would without the lock at the end of the port run direct into the main Loire River, however, this river is some 30m below our canal level. The port was very busy and we really had to squeeze in amongst approx 50 odd craft. It is a great place to stay as there are water and power points supplied to each berth. The cost per day which you might find interesting is 12 Euros for our size barge per day with power at 3.50E and water at 2.50E. This equates to approx NZ$35.00 per day which while not being cheap is real value due to the security and all weather protection offered.

We off-loaded the scooter and set off up the nearby mountain which has a castle ruins perched right on top thus giving fantastic views over the wine growing valleys and fields below. The village which is spread out all around the top of the mountain is fantastic with its huge variety of restaurants and art galleries and artisan shops. Great foods and choices and at realistic prices so we ate up there twice and again just loved the chosen menu items.

We ended up staying 4 days as there was were 2 large supermarkets as well as market days offering stall products of fresh vegetables, breads and fresh meats, so we were able to buy what we wanted to restock the boat while enjoying all the town has to offer. It was hot, 35 degrees so we visited the local public swimming baths which are lovely with 3 pools one of which is Olympic size but unusually having a depth range from 1.5m to 2.5m acted as a limiting factor for small children to enter s they had a choice of the other two pools which were .5m and 1m respectfully. We were impressed with the kids behaviour. No squealing or signs of misbehaviour plus any foods purchased or taken to the complex must be eaten outside the hedged pool surrounds so everything was clean and tidy. You cannot gain entry to the pool areas without walking through a large footbath and then walking through the overhead showers before going in for a swim. Also we noticed only 2 lifeguards on duty. No bright coloured uniforms or costumes, just a white cap and a mobile phone. No whistles, megaphones or PA announcements shattering the relaxing atmosphere. The guards made just a quiet approach to anyone who needed to be talked to or who had questions in turn. I guess there were approx. 800 people at least at the complex. What a pleasant place to spend a few hours.

The next day we got really brave and stuffed Harry into the backpack and scootered down to the mighty Loire River which has a water tableway of approx 300m wide and still flowing quite quickly in some areas. We found a nice offshoot and spent a great hour or two lounging in the warm waters. Even Harry had a swim or should I say a paddle as he didn't trust the current all that much.

We met another 2 Kiwi couples and a man who was boating on his own who comes from Christchurch, in fact from Little River, were we lived for a few years with Dad being the local headmaster there. Russ (my brother) and I went to school and Thelma (my sister) used to travel by train everyday to Christchurch Girls High so we had lots to talk about as he knew names of some of the local folk who lived there in our time. We have met so many great people on our adventures.

Sadly this week my much loved brother-in-law, Mel, passed away quite suddenly from lung cancer which had not been picked up much earlier, so we are all doing our grieving at present. So I will leave you with these thoughts again, if you want to do something, no matter how crazy it sounds to others, if you really want to do it, then do it. Don't be sitting in your old rocking chair later in life saying, gee I wish we had done so in so. Get on with life as this one is not a dress rehearsal. Best Wishes to you all.

Locks: 179
Klms: 886