On the "canals" again!

We are back on the "road" again - actually the water. It is a wonderful feeling and quite different to be free of land and for us it is freedom of another kind as well. We leave our 10 year old Ford (fix or repair daily) parked in a garage during the summer. We are reliant on only our bicycles and our feet to get us to the store and on trips through the country side. It is quite suprising how different that feels. We quite like the idea of being self reliant. Riding our bikes also provides us with more contact with people and the countryside to say nothing of the much needed exercise. We also tend to see the world we are in through a microscope rather than just whizzing by it. One of these suprises was in Seurre on the river Saone. We happened to stop there because there was a large commercial - I mean large- ship comming toward us out of the ecluse we thought we wanted to enter and another large (double pusher charge) bearing down on us from behind. Needless to say these ships, which are longer than 100 meters and about 12 meters wide, have the right of way. The better part of valor and the only thing we could do was to pull over and let both of them pass us and each other. Fortunately there was a mooring just at that point - actually we knew it was there but could not see it from the place we were on the river. We were just hoping there was a space for us to moor - there was and we did!!!!!!! Well we ended up staying for 2 nights. The photo below is the 13th and 14th century church in the village of Seurre. We went to see it because of the barge that hangs inside. To our delight and suprise we met in the church a man named Rene Vila - 90 years old with very imparied vision but a large and generous spirit. He proceeded to tell us how the church, which is his passion, survived during WWII when all else around it was devastated by German bombs. He toured parts of the church with us and explained the different places - all from memory as he cannot see it now. Rene took from his plastic shopping bag a wooden flute and began to play the most astounding music. The Star Spangle Banner , the Canadian national anthem, Amazing Grace and on the harmonica he played Ave Maria. While I wept of course. Rene went on to explain that he was in Berlin at the end of WWII with what he described as his compatriats the Americans, Canadians and the English. What a gift to us.

These are old vines in the area of Pouligny-Montrachet. We spent the day riding

our bikes through the beautiful beautiful vineyards of the Cote d'Or.

John and Jack's birthdays aboard Deja Vu in Melay.

A welcome home party for Karen and Barry

John - Eric - Jack - Nigel

My - how did all that white hair come to be??????

Sitting on the fence waiting to leave for a wine tasting event. One of our favorite parts of boating has become the friends and people we have met. As you can see we are all of a "certain age" and barges large and small are the common denominator.

We have traveled from Roanne to St Jean de Losne on the Roanne - Digoin Canal, the Centre Canal and the Saone River. All of 240 kilometers and 73 ecluses in an astounding 30 days. We did spend one week on the Slipway getting the bottom of the boat cleaned and repainted. Even with that included this is slow , slow , slow. What a way of life. We tend to go very slowly as biking is our real goal but there are others that do extraordinary amounts of travel each year - 2000 to 3000 kilometers.

Rocky Mountain High and points west.........

Moab Utah

I am having some trouble with the BLOG website from Google. So the photos in this posting are out of sequence and I was not able to move them around to make sense. So just endure! I am sorry.Sierra Nevada Mountains on the way to Bishop and Mammoth Lakes, California.

Fairly entertaining door repair at Pete and Michele's home !!!!!!!The boys at work.

Lisa and Tom and Eric with the new Buddhist bell that has an extraordinary sound........

No place quite like it - Mendecino California - The county is the largest producer of "pot"!

This King Seal was on the beach in Cambria, California along with hundreds of others - March is the end of their winter "hibernation". Only the babies and older males were still there. The mothers had left some weeks before.

Oil wells in Nevada - some sight to see.

Las Vegas

Utah desert.

It is hard to imagine that the last BLOG we posted was in January 2010. By that time we were in Aspen having a wonderful time. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Aspen - so much so that we are returning next winter - same house for January , February and March.

In March we packed our skiis and boots and "Yak Trax" away in our storage and left for a trip through the Western USA. Our plan was to see family and friends for the entire month. We did just that. What a trip. We went from Aspen to Minturn to Green River,Utah to Las Vegas to Paso Robles to Carmel to San Jose to the coast of Northern California and Oregon to Seattle, to Bend Oregon, to Dublin ( San Francisco - again) to Southern California, Newport Beach/Costa Mesa to Bishop California, to Mammoth Lakes then across the desert of Nevada to Ely, to Moab Utah, to Grand Junction to Palisades ( a whole peach story to follow) and back to Minturn, Colorado. As you may or may not remember we started driving (around December 15th,2009) from Virginia after we bought a car. When we finally stored the car in Colorado on April 6th we had driven 10,000 miles.

We are now back in France - we arrived about 3 days before the volcano. We have a number of friends who were not so lucky but fortunately they were only delayed about a week. It is both good and not so good being back. We have to work hard again to talk and be understood- it was far too easy in the USA and we must say sometimes it was not a blessing understanding everything you heard. This is also true in France. We often just get the gist of something and that is just fine. After all the hiking, running, swimming and skiing in Aspen we have gained weight both traveling for the month in the car but also returning to France and the bread, cheese and wine. As the French say we are now on a "regime." We (that is the royal "we") are getting the boat ready to cruise. We hope to leave the Port of Roanne next week (May 10th or so) and we will return around the beginning of November. Sounds like a long way away - stay tuned for Postings from the canals. Hopefully I will be able to produce a more coherent BLOG by then. Not sure what the problem is with the photos. Any ideas???????

Beautiful Colorado

We made it to Colorado in 4 days with our 2 night stop in St Louis to visit Tricia and Tom. The weather was cooperative and the drive was easy if not boring at times. We listened to "Stones into Schools" Greg Mortenson's new book ( "Three Cups of Tea"). Greg Mortenson is an incredibly dedicated human being - read his books - he has shown what a difference one individual's effort can create. Christmas was with our daughter Mandy and her two beautiful daughters Emily and Carly. It was a delicious and wonderful treat with a "brined Turkey." The best !

Then on to Vail and Minturn to stay with our son Thom and his wife Tracy. So sorry just pictures of their dogs - actually just Petey and Tulah on the Gore Creek Trail.

Then on to Aspen and a sunset looking toward Snowmass from Woody Creek.
The view up Maroon Creek from the top of Snowmass.
Our 1st day of skiing after 5 years with our good friends Bonnie and Phil.
This photo is of the Aspen Grove Cemetary. We are lucky enough to be renting a charming house with a spectacular view, just east of Aspen. The cemetary, dating back to the 1800's is just beautiful and runs up and through the middle of the neighborhood. We are so enjoying being here and back in the mountains. There is nothing like the clear, crisp, blue skies of Colorado.

The mountains of Colorado and the Canals of France are like apples and oranges. Both juicy, tasty, colorful and beautiful but so very, very different. We are so lucky , actually beyond lucky , to be able to experience both of these worlds and lifestyles. For us having this adventure in our lives is as necessary as breathing.

Life in the USA!

We spent a month in Charlottesville living in a Residence Inn. We were grateful for the Athletic Club in town that provide us with an outlet. We left Virginia on December 16th for Colorado. Traveling the highways of American is an amazing experience.

The Truck stops on the Interstate.

A common sign - "meatloaf all you can eat."

A sign at a gas station selling hogs in Tennessee.

Eating ice cream ("concrete") in St Louis with Tricia and Tom on a cold winter day The confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Then there was Kansas... can you say flat?

Going to the USA !!!!!!

After a lot of work draining, antifreezing, cleaning, shutting off, arranging, checking, closing, moving and on and on and on we were finally ready to leave our barge in Roanne on November 15th and drive to Paris to spend the night prior to our flight on November 16th to Dulles Airport in Washington DC. As usual we were amazed that everything went as planned. Tulah , although not raving about how fabulous the trip was, arrived in good form.

Our first stop in Charlottesville was - of course - Walmart for those things you don't bring with you like toothpaste, shampoo etc. The next day guess where we were again ?

This of course was followed by our first visit to the world famous "but not as good as the French coffee" Starbucks.

We are amazed at the shopping, traffic, number of good inexpensive restaurants, lack of good coffee and the number of people going no where to do nothing.

Then there was Thanksgiving with family which was a treat after all this time.

Not only did we have dinner with Eric's mother, sister, brother-in-law, nephew and his wife but we were lucky enough to meet Alice and Violet. Tulah was not as sure that they were so charming or possible great girlfriends.

We have been here - Charlottesville, Virginia - for almost a month. It has snowed twice! We have experienced Black Friday, spent enough to help the economy a bit, seen family, enjoyed American TV shows, eaten our share of hamburgers, read the newspaper Washington Post almost every day, found you can call family and friends who are on AT&T whenever you want and now we cannot wait to go West on Sunday the 13th of December.

The finish of this year's cruising!

As we head for the end of the Nivernais and onto the Loire Lateral Canal we leave behind all the low low bridges. We will miss the quaintness of this wonderful small canal.

Our last stop on the Nivernais Canal is at Cercy la Tour on a full moon evening. What a treat and wonderful place to spend our last night on the Nivernais Canal.

The Fall mornings are often very foggy as the cold air mxes with the still warm water in the canal. As it does on an ocean coast , the fog burns off by noon and we have these glorious warm sunny days and cool nights.

This is a photo of our last bit of canal. We finished this day in our home Port of Roanne. We are glad to be home after 5 months of cruising and yet will miss the constantly enjoyable exploration of France with our great barge.

5 months of cruising - May 20th to October 13th, 2009

842 Kilometers

435 Ecluses ( really hard to imagine)

6 Tunnels ( the Pouilly on the Bourgogne we did 3 times )

Roanne/Digoin Canal, Centre Canal, Saone River, Bourgogne Canal, Yonne River, Nivernais Canal, Loire Lateral Canal

The Port of Roanne. Although this photo is probably too small - you might be able to see at the end of the Port a humongeous Circus. This view is from the ecluse that lets us out into the world. We are moored on the left side of the Port.

This winter for the first time ,in the 4 years we have lived in France, we are going to the United States to spend Thanksgiving with Eric's mother, sister, brother in law and nephew and his wife. We then go onto Colorado for Christmas with our kids. The spring will be with more of our kids. Then back to France in April 2010.

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.