contentedsouls

Still in splendid repose in self inflicted isolation on our island on Sunday, we received a ‘phone call from Debs and Kevin at 7 pm saying they were 30km away. So, all hands on deck, we rounded up the menagerie and pulled pins to move the lockless 5 km to Jussy where narrowboat and motor home could moor adjacently.

it wasn’t long before a good old catch up commenced and Muttley and Herbie were soon stuck into their own catch up, whilst the oldies, Ted and Baxter, tried to keep a low profile.

On the Monday they kindly took us to the vets (for Baxter’s medication), supermarket (chorizo and tinned veg was beginning to wear a bit thin) and outdoor/sports clothing retail outlet – yoga mat for Debs, shorts for G and new walking sandals for me as our car was back in Saint Quentin. Thanks guys. Herbie disappeared and came back covered in mud, requiring utilisation of the motor home’s outdoor shower.

We waved goodbye on Tuesday morning – us heading for Chauny and they heading for Amiens and then Calais.

There was no space for our 20metre boat in the little port at Chauny, so we moored on the opposite bank in front of a very unusual barge called Trojan, flying a red ensign and DBA flag. In the morning Chris, from Trojan, came round to see if we wanted to go with him to the supermarket which was a lovely offer but we were OK thanks to Kevin.

We trundled into town with the dogs and I bought a pair of shorts before heading to the ‘Lucien’ for lunch – we received fabulous service from the happy and sociable waiter who, initially, bought the dogs a coffee cup of water out each before replacing them with a giant glass champagne cooler full of water. The food was great and I managed to wade my way through pudding.

Due to my offering pork scratchings to the French families, on the adjacent tables, for their non-existent dog (don’t ask!), we started chatting and they helped us no end with our French – how much we’ll remember I’m not sure. We had great fun with them and lunch turned into a prolonged affair.

Back row L – R Bruno and Johann, front row L – R Lino, Severine and Isabella. Severine works in the Marie’s Office and was being visited by her friend who is a teacher. It was a long time speaking French for us and we had brain ache by the time we left them.

We eventually returned to MR in time to have a short snooze before Chris & Janet (from Trojan) came round for drinks at 6 and we started all over again, but this time in English. We have certainly ended our island sojourn with a massive social bash.

We headed off this morning and were heading for Pinon but spotted this rather lovely mooring above lock 3 at Crecy so pulled over here for the day where the boys could sleep outside, undisturbed, in the sun and Daisy could go hunting after being confined to barracks boat for the last 2 nights at Chauny due to an adjacent road.

It’s still shorts and T-shirt weather although we have had brief showers mixed in with the sun – the forecast looks great for the weekend