Coulanges to Pierrefitte–sur-Loire (Sun 17 and Mon 18th)
Posted by contentedsouls on 21/04/2016
1 lock, 4.5 kms, 1.5 hours
Well, we don’t want to overdo it. The adjacent hotel/restaurant had been reported as closed but it has been renovated with its exterior decorated to reflect it’s name; La Peniche.
Rather apt as we are starting to see the odd ‘small’ commercial again now. The skipper gave us plenty of room though, even if his dog looked down on us!
As the village was quite close to our mooring, I persuaded G and Baxter to accompany Muttley and I for an afternoon walk into the village on Monday. We had a choice of a village shop cum bar or a (very) small supermarket. Deciding to support the little guys we bought everything we could from the village shop before walking to the supermarket – the latter was closed for lunch from 12.30 until 4.15; that’s going some even by French standards. I walked back at 5.00pm to find it still closed; I hadn’t read the small sign that said the owners had gone on holiday that morning and that, in their absence, the shop would only be open from 7 am until 12. I also discovered that my ‘support the little guy’ philosophy had stitched me up with two boxes of eggs more than a week over their ‘best before’ date.
On that note, I set off around the lake with Muttley where he learned the meaning of a sign saying “terrain humide”!!!
I thought I was in for a soaking too, but we made it all the way round before the heavens opened.
We had already booked passage for 10 am on the Tuesday, so I had to get up early to get to the shop. I could only just see the sunrise through the mist and there was a severe frost on the roof of the boat. Even getting there at 8 there were only 3 croissants left and, in the veg department, I had to resort to salad and endives; I haven’t seen a mushroom outside of a tin since we left Roanne!
The sun quickly burnt off the mist and we were in for a glorious day.
contentedsouls 
Kevin TOO said
Your last three photos remind me of that song by Lindisfarne… Fog on the Tyne… LOL
I suggest you cross off La commune de Pierrefitte–sur-Loire from your places to shop at… what a disaster of a town 😦
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contentedsouls said
….. is all mine, all mine. I love that song.
It is, actually, quite a pretty little place. It’s not their fault that I didn’t read the ‘extra’ sign on the opening hours. As for the little village shop, many of them are only just waking up to their seasonal visitors and I would normally check but forgot my glasses …. hey ho. Baxter doesn’t care too much as long as he gets a scrambled egg for breakfast that isn’t, actually, ‘off’
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Margaret Budd said
It looks a very pretty village,but guess that you are off to somewhere you know where they don’t sleep in the afternoons lol xxx
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contentedsouls said
We don’t know this area – new waters for us
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andywindy said
Steady progress then! mustn’t overdo it whilst your still getting used to Francoise.
I do like the Peniche ‘Murial’ that must have taken some planning by the painter.
Another pretty Village, if not the ultimate shopping experience at the time of your visit!
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contentedsouls said
We can’t get passed Decize on to the Nivernais until the Loire subsides a bit. Decize is only just up the road and there will be a backlog of hire boats in a hurry.
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