Another Chatillon

We are always surprised and extremely grateful at the effort put in by the various communes in France to make us welcome. Here in Chatillon Coligny we have a  lovely quay, some pontoons, a tourist info office, toilets, showers, electricity, water, wifi - and all for free! Well, the showers cost 2 euro but who needs a shower? In return we ventured into town to attempt to support the local businesses - a not wholly successful expedition.
 The bistro we marked out for an evening meal was closed by the time we returned (7.30).
The Chateau was closed to plebs- except on Sundays which today is not. The supermarche was just closed - perhaps forever.We tried really hard to spend some money - even purchasing another copy of the same newspaper we bought a week ago. Admittedly that was a mistake.  We managed to find a bar where we enjoyed a couple of beers and in the process learned that a very small glass is a 'boc'. Finally, we did have a pretty good meal at a nice restaurant just outside the town walls where the chef felt confident enough to come out and chat to us at the end of his shift. My fish wasn't all that great to be honest but he seemed a really nice guy so, you know, we were polite and eveyone went away happy.
My failsafe solution to the sometimes mediocre set menu is that one person should always order the cheese rather than the dessert. In our experience the cheese platter is always excellent and you can have as much as you like. So, your companions can order the isle flottant and creme brulee which are, to my ( and often their) taste, inedible and then fill up on your cheese.

Tomorrow we head on towards Montargis. Our last lock keeper today asked what time we wanted to pass through the next lock. 10am we said and we'd best be on time. This morning our first lock keeper was hugely upset with us. As soon as we hove into view he rushed out of his litttle office gesticulating at his watch. This was at 11am and according to him we were supposed to be there at 9. We hadn't arranged any such thing. And it was such a busy day for him. I think we passed all of 3 boats...I'm not sure what we were keeping him from. We annoyed him sufficiently that he passed us through the lock at the absolutely slowest pace possible on the basis you held up my day and now I'll do the same to you.
I hope he feels better.