Racing Around

L'avenir appartient à ceux qui se lèvent tôt = "the future belongs to those who get up early"

Sage advice from a port captain somewhere or other. L'Avenir is the name of our boat and it always raises a smile and often a comment when noted down by lock keepers and port captains. The comments are usually sayings and proverbs regarding l'avenir (the future) most of which, being whimsical or philosophical, are beyond my still basic French.  This one I did understand. We've had to get up early a lot recently.
The past couple of weeks have been a bit like that programme 'Race Around the World' - just replace 'World' with French waterways. It seems that at every stop we've been given new and conflicting information and we've had to adjust our plans. Making plans is very overrated. This year is the first time we have had even the vaguest notion of one and we're in no hurry to repeat the process. Going with the flow seems much less stressful.
The Plan. Cruise the Canal de Bourgogne. Leave L'Avenir safely moored in a friendly port for the hot month of August and fly to Scotland. Return to France in September and continue cruising. Fly home to Australia early October. Simple.
The first part was fine. Last time I wrote we were at Migennes at the end of the Canal de Bourgogne. This seemed a good place to leave the boat until we were told of lock closures for the month of September which would have meant that on our return from Scotland we would have to retrace our steps over the canal de Bourgogne. Now, beautiful as that canal is, the prospect of all of those locks again within the space of a couple of months was just too much. So, we decided to head to Pari,s at speed, via the dreaded sloping locks of the River Yonne.

En route we are told the Seine is also to be closed so we turn for the Canal de Loing and enquire about leaving L'Avenir at Saint Mammes at the junction of the Seine, the Yonne and the Loing. No problem says the port Captain at the beautiful medieaval town of Moret sur Loing.

We breathe a sigh of relief and begin to dream of a lie in the next day until she adds, but you do know the Canal de Loing will be closed all of September....Time to get up early again. We need to move on to the next canal. The canal de Briare.
Missing August's heat is now immaterial. This July has been the hotter than all the previous Augusts. Every day the temperature reaches the high 30s and we are cooking inside a steel boat. Tempers are rising in line with the temperature.
Time is now of the essence and we still have nowhere to leave our boat. We enquire at Montargis and they say no - there's apparently a maximum of 15 days. So what about all those rather sad looking vessels further along the quay? They look as though they've been here quite a while. They shrug. We cast off and move on.
It's now only a few days before our flights. I email the port at Briare and Patrick, the captain, responds with a maybe. They're busy but he'll try and fit us in. We arrive and he meets us with the words' I have a place for you.'
Thank you Patrick and the lovely port of Briare.