The Nivernais

Well onto the Nivernais Canal. September brings with it cool nights and warm days and spiders.

It is just such a wonderful time to cruise. It was busy from Auxerre ,at the beginning of the Nivernais, but by the time we reached Mailly la Ville it was very quiet. Simply "impeccable"(spelled the same but imagine the French accent). Although we had cruised the Nivernais last summer we loved being there and this time we were doing it in reverse direction and in September rather than June, so an entirely different experience.

One day when we were staying in Mailly la Ville we went for a bike ride to a small town called Arcy sur Cure. We discovered next to the road an old Roman road that just went off into a farmer's field. It was a remarkable experience to be on top of a ridge riding on a road that the Romans had built many many years ago. Then as we neared Mailly la Ville on our return a block of stone caught our eye. We looked up the drive toward a building and discovered that there were many blocks of stone and sculptures. As we were gawking a gentleman appeared and invited us onto his property and into his "atellier". He was a sculpture and worked in stone, wood and clay. This was one of those experiences that just takes your breath away. We felt so lucky to have seen this place and then to be invited into look at what this man had created. His name was Yves Varanguin. He was just like all the French in that he had all the time in the world to spend with us and show us his work including a monument he was delivering the next day to the town of Cravant memoralizing the French from that town who died in WWI.

Yves in front of his Atelier - look carefully and you will see a stone sanglier

Some of Yves' work in clay

The fall gives us so many sights to see. The bridges on the Nivernais are very low and when we first did the canal we measured each bridge before we went through. Being the second year we now know that we fit through them all. Most of the bridges are old and made of stone.

At the summit of the Nivernais canal is a small and I mean small village called Baye(pronounced Baya). It is large water conservation area with a large body of water that feeds the canal. The water eventually goes to Paris. This canal was really built for that purpose to take water to Paris during the summer. It is beautiful as you can see from the photo below. It is tranquil and remote with the only Boulangerie (bread) 6 kilometers away. To get to Baye from Auxerre the last 9 kilometers is a stretch of 24 ecluses and three tunnels . We spent 3 nights here this year and loved every minute of it. There are many great bike rides.