Blogs from Corbigny, Burgundy, France, Europe

Well, here we are in France, boating on a canal that we didn't intend to travel on, but when we arrived we were informed that we would need to take 3 weeks to do what we intended to do. Funny that, as their brochure said that it was a 2 week trip. Anyway, so what, we are here and we are now traveling the canal and having a lot of fun, drinks ,food and, in general enjoying the slow pace of living this life style. We have talked to so many people who offer advice and information about what we should do, about what we shouldn't do and what we must see. So far we have seen a lot of cloud, some rain, a huge amount of canal water, and lots of other canal boats. We ... read more

CS: Waking in Pregilbert we were ready to catch ourselves some fish dinners. We biked out of the village across the bridge to the Abbey grounds which have been turned into a fish farm. Armed with rods and a small container of sweet corn provided by the grinning attendant, who refused to suggest any clues about methods, we tried our luck in the ponds filled with fish. CS managed to hook a large trout almost as soon as the hook hit the water (how or why she will never know but it was a nanosecond after IJ had noted that she felt the whole human race would be annihilated before a trout took a hook with corn). Nevertheless the process proved slow (IJ also hooked a trout on corn) until we discovered the bait the French ... read more

CS: Leaving Auxerre in the afternoon we backtracked down the canal to Bailly. Seven locks negotiated seamlessly, save for a minor crisis when the barge in front of ours decided to broadside just in front of the lock mouth because a blow-up lie-low had gone over the side. Not tied on, obviously, and not equipped with a line the mattress scooted across the water defying all owners' efforts to retrieve it. Meanwhile we, in a much larger vessel are tight in a narrow channel approaching the other with nowhere to go and two other barges are backing up because having come out of the lock their way is blocked by our 'friend'. Skip again saved the day and lie-low finally retrieved and stowed we proceeded into the lock. We had already had a problem with said ... read more