L'Avenir - cruising Europe's inland waterways

Boating in France is not all about lazing on deck sipping wine in the sunshine as you may be aware if you've followed this blog for any length of time. There are times, like now, when the view from the window, if indeed you could see it through the rain lashed glass, is unrelentingly grey. The weather has steadily deteriorated over the past week as have our moods. One of us was even heard to wonder, this morning, if it would be possible to change the date of our flights home. Things could be worse though. We could be one of those (not all holidaymakers) camped in tents on the banks of the River Loire. At least we are in a port with access to electricity and have the luxury of huddling around a fan heater with our mugs of tea. I saw one of the campers this morning vainly attempting to keep his campfire alight. Not that it is all that cold - just depressing. The weather was still dry- just- when we visited Sancerre, the famous wine producing area of the Loire. The town is situa...

Briare Aqueduct Now cruising another jauntily named waterway - the Canal Lateral a la Loire. As the name says it runs alongside the River Loire. At over 1000 km in length this is the longest river in France although the canal is only 196km. The part of the river we are cruising alongside at the moment is extremely wide with the channel meandering and splitting around islands and large sand banks. These islands are an important conservation area and habitat for many types of birds. River Loire from Briare Aqueduct River Loire from Briare Aqueduct We arrived at the Loire at the small town of Briare. Once waterborne traffic had to make a difficult and dangerous river crossing in this stretch but now we can soar over the wide river on a most impressive aqueduct which opened in 1896. Until 2003 this was the longest aqueduct in the world. The lovely ornamental columns at either end and elegant cast iron lamps the length of the broad towpaths which run each side of the 6m wide ...

'Haste Ye Back' say the signs in Edinburgh airport's departure lounge. A life lived on the move is one of both happy reunions and sad farewells and we've had plenty during our month in Scotland. It doesn't seem to matter how much time we plan to spend 'at home' it is never enough to see all the family and friends that we want to. So, apologies to those we missed this time. We will certainly hasten back - well, next year anyway. As I mentioned when I last wrote Scotland turned on the good weather for us again this year so we decided to hire a car and do a 'grand tour', reaquainting ourselves with favourite spots and visiting some new ones. Scotland may seem a small country but it is crammed with a wealth of beautiful places and interesting historical sights. So, I'll let the place speak for itself with just a few pictures of places we haven't been before. (We are now back onboard L'Avenir in Briare and about to begin the quest...