Beaulieu. Decisions, rumours and mis-information.
Posted by contentedsouls on 08/06/2016
2 weeks today we’ve been moored here now and, for the last couple of days, I’ve been able to get out and about again with Muttley who has suddenly decided to become a bit of a water baby. I was actually able to get down to the Loire again but kept Muttley’s lead on as, if he’d lost his footing, he would have been swept away and never seen again!
After a day and a half of sunny, sticky, humidity; we copped this lot yesterday
We have not had notification that navigation on this canal has re-opened however, all the boats pointing south have gone leaving just Stefan (on the bike barge hotel boat) and us pointing North at Briare and the breach. Stefan says that VNF are doing an ‘inventory’ of the condition of the canal to Briare and the locks (hopefully the aqueduct too!) and it is still closed beyond our bridge. Also, that movement to the south is restricted to draughts of <1.4 m. Then, yesterday, the huge hotel boat Deborah came trundling passed us (with a draft of 2 metres plus) towards Briare saying that they had been given clearance to Chatillon; 8 kms north of us and about 7 kms south of Briare – the French have a name for all this conflicting information – radio gunwales, which I rather like.
So with no further info to go on, Stefan left this morning to start a 6km cruise in reverse to the nearest winding hole as the one by the bridge is not long enough for him.
Our, inherited, rental of the garage at Roanne was up for renewal at the end of May and, despite letters and emails, we haven’t been able to contact the owner and pay another 12 months. We’ve been getting quite worried about it as our car is in it, so G decided it would be a good idea to take a train back to Roanne, visit the owner of the garage in person, check Matilda Rose and bring the car back. We were up at 6.30 am and G left for a 20km bike ride to Briare to get the morning train to Roanne – it was cancelled due to flooding, so he bikled 20 km back again.
Meanwhile I’d walked up to the village market for our ontake of fresh veg, cheese and eggs, where G caught up with me, and we sat and had coffee and pastis and scoffed the pastries I’d bought in the boulangerie – they were so good that we went back to get more to take home with us!!!
French parking cracks me; a narrowish street with cafe tables on one side and parked cars on the other – first the post lady abandons her post van in the middle of the road whilst she come to the bar for a coffee, then another car driver and a tractor driver did the same. No-one bothers or honks horns – they just sit and wait or come for a coffee themselves.
The market was bigger this week – it had a clothes stall
Returning to the boat we were Billy No Mates (but our calorie stash was very comforting) and we decided to turn and head back south the way we’d come.
Then G realised that he’d bikled to Briare and back and not picked up the post ……… so we headed north instead, to the delightful town of Chatillon–sur-Loire and, discovering the massive Deborah wasn’t there, rang the port of Briare to be told the port de commerce was open but not the locks beyond to the marina. G cycled back in the 7 kms to pick up the post and, guess what ….. Deborah wasn’t in the port de commerce either – perhaps she fell out of the breach!!!! Poor Stefan could have gone forward to Briare to turn rather than that long reverse.
contentedsouls 
Margaret Budd said
Oh deary deary what can the matter be now,does that mean that Roanne is flooded or WHAT!!
I do hope you get some better news on your next blog G and J xxx
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contentedsouls said
who knows Margaret; floods, strikes ….
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vallypee said
It’s just as well you aren’t in a huge hurry, Jill. Is there any kind of work around? You must both be getting very fit (or G is) with all this cycling to and fro. I love the sound of the French attitude to life and cafés. Oh sigh. How I’d love to be in France. That said, the weather is pretty okay here at the moment. We are due to head south for the French border lands next week on our Hennie H. Wish us luck!
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contentedsouls said
You had me worried there … work, WORK? Mind you, I have considered selling leek and Stilton soup to the poor drowned and frozen cyclists on the Loire velo route.
It’s a long while since Hennie H has been on move isn’t it? You must be so excited – I shall follow your trip with interest.
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vallypee said
PS When I say work around, I mean can you take another route, not find a job 🙂
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contentedsouls said
All we can do is go on about 30 kms (if/when they let us) and/or turn around and go back the way we’ve come; the 130 kms to Decize. Then we could go up the Nivernais.
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paula said
Oh my goodness gracious, I feel your pain. To cheer you up,we are 4 weeks on hard standing come Friday waiting to launch and still no go. What’s hilarious is we arrived on 21sr April and other than our shakedown small cruise have moved 800 meters..into Migennes port and back. We are like you enjoying the food until it’s “start your engines!” Take care, let’s hope cruising starts soon. P&P.
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contentedsouls said
oh Paula – so frustrating for you. All one can do is sit it out and eat!
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andywindy said
What? You’ve Moved a bit? and I was beginning to fear that you were in danger of becoming a Houseboat! (Not you as a person Jill, the boathold (couldn’t have called you all a household as that would have been wrong but now I’m calling you a mobile warehouse, also wrong! Aaahh what’s a fella to do?))
Glad to see you are also partaking of what Al Murray would call ‘Wheat based baked products’ they sure do make us feel better temporarily at least.
I am reassured to know that the French bureaucracy is up to it’s usual confusing state, I’m convinced they’ve got 3 hands and none of them communicate, unless of course you don’t want them to…
The French are great Engineers, so lets hope they get things sorted out soon, though from what I’ve seen and heard in the Media it is going to be a massive task.
Back to normal here, I’m back in Cornwall and work and my Wife is back in Hampshire, (too long a tale for this place) Good memories of this last Fortnight and a VERY loud Cuckoo clock! (THAT surprised the neighbours, he he he.)
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contentedsouls said
We’ve moved 12 kms I’ll have you know – last of the great adventurers us.
Glad you had a good holiday although sorry to hear that the Wife felt she had to move to Hampshire after 2 weeks of your undiluted company!
We won’t get any more info on the waterways situation until Weds or Thurs now as the little darlings thought we didn’t have enough to worry about so have gone on strike now.
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