Off we go..... Cruising 2009!!!!

Well we finally left the Port of Roanne. Not easy - Eric needed to renew his passport and we had to wait for its return. Of course it was more complicated than that but the passport arrived Wednesday the 19th and we left on Thursday the 20th of May. So good to be out of Port. The noise. We stopped in Melay, on the Roanne/Digoin Canal, for 2 nights then on to Coulanges, on the Loire Lateral Canal, for one night and then Beaulon where we have been since the 23rd of May. Beaulon is a small village with a post office , great bakery, a fabulous Traiteur with the best moules we (Simon, May, a great couple from Roanne on the boat Joie de Vivre, Eric and I) have had - yes without a doubt!





The day we arrived in Beaulon there were 7 other boats - all but 2 were from Roanne. Of course there was a "happy hour" at 5:00pm each evening. After about 3 days some of the boats left and we were left to paint along with Simon and May. Work , work , work.......





During our last 2 days in Beaulon a family arrived - Dad, Mom, 3 young children, a dozen or so chickens, a goat, a pony, five dogs as well as one who was only 14 days old, a cage with 2 birds - and a Roulotte ( a customized wooden home/trailer usually drawn, in the old days, by a horse and now by a truck) with a whimsical sign on the side saying this was the Fortuna Major Circus. At first we thought it was gypsies but not so. They were a wonderful family who are living a very simple life. No electricity, the goat provides milk and cheese, the parents juggle and play music, the kids are charming and delightful.



By coming to Beaulon we have gone the opposite direction of where we want to go but only by about 30km. As we left Roanne we noticed that the Roanne/Digoin Canal which is about 55km long was quite low on water. We had been noticing that the Loire River is also quite low. We also found that there was a bit of debris that we were encountering as we went along. So we decided that perhaps going to the Centre, Bourgogne, Nivernais and then Loire Lateral might be a better choice than the other way around. We are aware that the Bourgogne and the Centre struggle during low water years. So with that said we have come to Beaulon to paint because it is quiet and a comfortable place to be. We found out this past Friday the 29th that the Canal Roanne/Digoin has closed due to a break in the canal wall. So an explanation for the low water in the canal as we left the week before. The sad and infuriating part is that there are still boats now stuck in Roanne for the summer as it is likely to take several months to repair the Canal - and this is the 2nd time in 3 years this has happened.



The Canal system was mostly built in the 1800s. This particular canal was built between 1830 and 1838. The canals are old but they also have problems with burrowing animals, tree roots and just saturated soil. So understandable that there will be problems. We sometimes encounter problems with the old locks ( "ecluse" in French) as they mechanically fail and occasionally we have awakened on a canal to find that a significant amount of water has drained out of that particular pound between 2 locks. But a complete break in the wall of a Canal is unusual and difficult to repair because of the remoteness of the location as well as the remainder of the Canal wall that must be refitted as well.



So we are now, after leaving Beaulon, going in the direction of the Centre Canal which is the southern Bourgogne region of France - lots of great wine.