Along the Loing to a Royal Chateau

leaving Montargis and the canal de Briare

Last year we shot down the canal du Loing at high speed - well, at all of 6km per hour. The locks were in the process of being automated. The canal was to be closed so the work could be done and we needed to get through to the next waterway before the closure or find our boat marooned for the winter. The canal is a fairly short one and quite pretty but we hadn't time to appreciate it sufficientlyso we were pleased to be able to spend a little more time this year. As it happens the lock update remains in progress. I don't know what the point of closing the canal was. They are now getting on with the work as boats pass through. There are still lock keepers between Montargis and Nemours and then again at Moret. I think we may have been one of the first boats in Nemour to receive a remote controller to operate the locks. A cheery lock keeper came round the mooring to hand them out to all the boats there. We were first through that day and a few locals came down to watch and bemoan the fact that the eclusier was 'fini'.

Commercial barge on the canal du Loing

and another making a 180 degree turn beside us in Moret

The occasional commercial still uses this canal. Unexpectedly meeting our first for the year gave us (me that is - I was steering at the time)  a bit of a start. By a start I mean a panicked call to Rob, who was busy in the bilges wearing his engineer hat, to get up top quick smart and resume duties as skipper. I'm happy to steer most of the time except when space is at a premium eg entering locks or meeting commercials on narrow canals.
We have now been in the charming small fortified town of Moret sur Loing for 3 days. We have visited here several times and it is one of our favourites. It was also a favourite of the impressionist painters also though they wouldn't have had  to contend with the modern day scourge of all these towns with a bridge over a river - heavy traffic down the main street.

Moret sur Loing

We were here for the Bastille Day holiday and were hoping for a firework display. Unfortunately they were cancelled due to heavy rain. We spent the day taking the train one stop to to Fontainbleau to visit the chateau and see the opulence of the living conditions of the 1% of a couple of hundred years ago. Breathtaking.

Chateau Fontainbleau - there are 1500 rooms! Only a realtively small number open to visit.

Gilded ceiling

Chapel

Not sure the decor would induce a peaceful night. The bed is also surprisingly short.

Napoleon's throne

Horseshoe Staircase, Fotainbleau, designed so carriages could pass each other beneath

 The canal was closed fro navigation for the Bastille Day holiday but everyone is once again on the move today. We aren't going far Just up the river to Saint Mammes which was (and remains) a major barging town. We need to replace the boat'sdomestic batteries - a major expense. They have been tired for a month or so and just about gave up the ghost altogether when I tried to do some vacuuming the other day - that'll teach me.
The River Seine next. Paris beckons.