Blogs from Chagny, Burgundy, France, Europe

The waterways of France are important and interesting but above all they are very attractive. We considered a few options for our week on the waterways. Reports about the Midi Canal that connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic made it seem a little too busy for our purposes. The Burgundy Canal was also an option. We were looking for something reasonably quiet in terms of boat traffic but with access to interesting villages and places where lovely food and wine might be found. Of course, being France, any would have done well on the last criterion but we settled on picking up boats at Mâcon and cruising on a route that would include the Saône and Seille Rivers and the Canal du Centre and bring us into Saint-Léger-sur-Dhuene, within a reasonable distance by train from ... read more

Our journey today takes us further north into Burgandy and the small town of Chagny. We started out from St Etienne thinking it was just another weekday but things were to change dramatically by the end of the day.We were also to discover after an hour or so driving that today was also a public holiday,The Assumption of Mary,one we had never heard of before which shows up our ignorance of the Catholic faith.Not that we noticed many people coming and going from the churches as we passed through numerous towns as we took the D306/N6 north. In fact it took us until we started to think about some lunch that we eventually realised it was a public holiday.Although we should have thought about it a bit sooner with the number of cyclists out in force ... read more