L'Avenir - cruising Europe's inland waterways

France is criss-crossed with a network of marked walking routes the shortest of which are the yellow PR (petites randonées). Many villages will have an information board showing a map of the walks in their area with some details about the length, level of difficulty and time required. So, you look at the map, decide where you want to go according to how energetic you feel, and set off. Every so often there will be a marker pointing you in the right direction. Fool proof you'd think. Whilst visiting the tourist office in Santenay the helpful young man there showed us a photo of a fully restored local windmill telling us was that this was the last working windmill in Burgundy. "It's not far," he assured us, whilst waving in a vaguely easterly direction. Or maybe it was more north....Anyway, after consulting the map in the village square and discovering the windmill route was classed as suitable for families and required 2 hours, two of us decided that we'd ...

Paray le Monial The Canal du Centre passes through some lovely countryside but there's a price to be paid for hills. Locks. Lots of them. The locks on this canal ones are automated but they need to be set by an itinerant lock keeper who will arrange with you each day what time you will set off and will appear from time to time during the day to ask 'continuez?' in the firm hope that you will say, 'non,' so he can go home. Locks and heatwaves are a bad combination. The mechanisms (according to the keepers) don't like them and shut down randomly meaning a call to the control centre on the emergency intercom. The person responsible for answering the intercom doesn't like them either or is perhaps overwhelmed by calls, because they don't answer. The crew member handling the bow rope doesn't like them because s/he (me) has to stand out in the blazing sunshine for the 15 minutes ( assuming all goes well) that it takes to work through. And the eclusi...

Warning - gratuitous product name dropping you may find offensive. I was amused recently to discover that we have apparently joined the ranks of the 'chic'. Here we were, moored beside a pretty village in Franche Compte enjoying a very late and pretty ordinary ( or so I thought) lunch of bread and cheese and a glass of the local white. We were both reading the day's English newspaper which had been magically delivered to our Kindles via Whispernet. (Yes, I know it's not chic to read at the table but we're about to more than make up for that). He was still on the front pages which were filled with stories of rioting and looting in English cities whilst I, having had enough of that depressing news, had flicked to the magazine section and promptly choked on my crusty baguette necessitating a gulp of wine before I could read on. Me. 'What do you think of the fromage?' Him, barely looking up. 'You mean the cheese? S'okay. Prefer the blue though....

We love having visitors and are really appreciative of the long distances people travel and the convoluted routes they are prepared to take in order to find us (not to mention the even more involved route they might have to make to return home). Our somewhat lackadaisical approach to planning means that we're never quite sure where we're going to be even a week hence so I'm afraid intending crew have to be pretty resourceful, adventurous types prepared to make their final travel arrangements at the last minute. If you're thinking of joining us over the next month or so I can say with certainty that we will be in France (although we are very close to both Switzerland and Germany at the moment) and with some confidence somewhere in Franche Comte or Burgundy. Unlike some other countries France has maintained an excellent train network which generally works efficiently and as canals and railways often share similar routes we are usually not too far from a station. I say gen...

  Well things could be worse. At last the sun is shining. We are now on the River Doubs which is in cow bell  distance ( heard them today) of Switzerland. The river is pretty but there are very few places to stop which becomes more of an issue the nearer it gets to lock closing time. The canalised sections of this navigation are in a very poor condition and so it's difficult to moor except where there is a pontoon ( practically nowhere). And even if there is a pontoon, hard luck if you happen to want to tie up on a Sunday. There'll be a fishing competition and there's no arguing with French fishermen. We tried and lost.  We've had a long couple of days with every stop already occupied and so lunches on the run. A rather prettily lit tunnel. We are now in Besancon.

Things to do on a warm Sunday morning in Dole, France: lie in bed..... ....go to this church or.... don a lovely shiny helmet and play grown-up super soakers with your friends and team mates and have fun!

The locks along the Canal du Centre are automated - supposedly. The way it's supposed to work is that you slowly approach the lock, a radar beam detects you, the lock either fills or empties depending on which way you're going, the gates swing open, the traffic lights turn from red to green and in you go. Then, once you've secured your lines, you pull on a blue rod which activates the lock for you. (Apologies to those who  read the blog last year and know this already). There are many opportunities for things to go awry and they do but eventually one, or two, or three men will turn up in their little white vans and sort things out. Unless it's lunch time. Arriving at the first lock out of Digoin we discovered it was turned off. Eventually, little white van man arrived and told us that due to the water shortage we would have to wait until such times as another boat appeared in order to share the lock. Apparently days and days of rain had made no difference to the level ...

A year ago on this day we were in Sedan and being treated to a tornado. This year we've had 2 days of  impressive and rather less frightening, thunder storms and about 100mm (4") of rain. (Hopefully replenishing the canal) We had decided to stay in Digoin as it is the largest town around and as such would have some sort of celebration. A firework display was due to be set off from the canal aqueduct on the evening of the 13th however the rain threatened to turn everything into damp squibs so it was called off. Weather permitting it will take place tonight. At the time of writing there are increasing blue patches in the sky so fingers crossed. Bastille Day ceremony, Digoin This morning we jumped on our bikes, having been stirred into action by the sounds of a brass band and pedalled off in search of the source. We eventually discovered it in the Place de la Republique (where else?)  and just in time to catch the end of the Bastille Day ceremony. It was all over fair...

Aqueduct over the river Loire at Digoin Storks nesting on roof of eglise at Digoin - you'll need to click on pic to see! Aqueduct over the Loire Aqueduct from above Have nothing much to tell but we have an internet connection here in Digoin and I can't let it go cpmpletely to waste. The pictures are taken in Digoin on the River Loire. We have been told  that the water levels are very low from here on and that we need to share locks. There's even rumour that the canal may be closed by the middle of August. We'd better get a move on.