The Yonne: Joigny to Sens via Villeneuve-sur-Yonne

Monday 14 May to Friday 18 May 2018.

Monday 14 May – Joigny to Villeneuve-sur-Yonne.

18 kilometers, 3 locks, 3 hours thirty minutes including the delay at the start.

After a night of bucketing rain and buffeting wing nothing had changed by morning except for the rain having slowed to a pesky drizzle, so sodden lines were cast off and we headed for our first lock where service had been arranged for nine o’ clock and in true eclusier fashion we were eventually admitted into the basin at nine thirty.

This part of the Yonne is wild and quite pretty (if only we could see it through the rain and mist)

Not great crewing weather for the girls.

Lynn's new garden.

and it did not take long before we were through the locks, under the last bridge and tied up against the long stone wall in the port of Villeneuve-sur-Yonne

Approaching Villeneuve-sur-Yonne.

The long town quay - the boats are clustered around the only power outlet.

with its single power outlet holding two plugs, both occupied - Ian used a splitter and shared with the narrow boat Grand Dutchy but after having seen the occupants of the other boat take out a big fan heater we decided to stay on battery power for fear of tripping the system. No water outlet and we are getting a little concerned as we have not taken on water since Auxerre.

A quick walk around town revealed a pretty town with an impressive but unfortunately closed church, many old mortar and wood houses and a sprinkling of shops, many of which were closed it being a Monday.

The closed church.

Flying buttresses.

North city gate

South city gate.

The town hall.

Tuesday 15 May – Villeneuve-sur-Yonne to Sens.

17 kilometers, 4 locks, 2 hours 30 minutes.

The next day after another brief exploration of the town and a game of petanque against the Carters where we were soundly trounced, we set off downstream for Sens. This time though the lock was ready for us as were the next three and we made it to Sens in record time tying up at the town quay with its free electricity provision but finding out that the two taps which had been here a week ago when Ian and Sian had passed, had been removed.

Sharing a sloping lock - the lockie allowed us not to tie up.

A typical lock entrance: Barrage on the left, lock on the right as indicated by the arrow.

Madame la Amiral

Sens mooring.

The mooring from the opposite bank.

We managed however to cobble together a hosepipe adaptation and, after having topped up with fifty litres using Njord’s jerry cans, managed another two hundred and fifty litres with the hosepipe; so much for the concern about running out of water – we had only used half a tank!

Wining away time while filling with water.

The cobbled adapter.

Some of the locks directly to the north of us (and some behind us) are now closed until Friday for barrage repair so we will only be on the move again then.

A Cuisse Carter braai finished off a very good day.

Sens is a very ancient city, having its origins in the first century BC and still retaining some of its Roman city layout which makes cycling around a pleasant but somewhat higgledy experience. The 12thCentury Cathedral is stunning and ecclesiastically, once held seniority over Paris, and its architect, William of Sens, apparently designed Canterbury Cathedral as well. If you can find it, a Ken Follett novel The Pillars of the Earth is a good read before visiting Sens or even if you just want a good read with cathedral construction supplying the fabric.

Looking downtown.

The side entrance to the Cathedral.

The massively imposing main entrance.

Every one of the saints' faces has been defaced.

The courtyard.

13th century windows - unbelievable!

The Covered Market - we had coffee at the cafe with the red chairs.

The Mairie or city hall or Hotel de Ville - call it what you will.

Statue of Jean Cousin the Elder

Swans with seven goslings.

Supper aboard Njord - Sian's vindaloo curry.

Although Sian spent some two and a half hours in the Sens museum and rated it highly, we were somewhat underwhelmed, possibly due to a surfeit of prehistoric and Gallo-Roman artefacts, possibility due to the raised expectations of the pamphlet blurb heralding the Cathedral Treasure as “…the richest in France…” (try the Arsenal in Moscow if you want ‘rich’), or possibility due to the tribe of very, very noisy school children which followed us into a couple of the galleries. But some of the items in the Treasury were interesting such as the ancient fabrics and tapestries, religious relics including a cross purportedly made from the wood of Christ’s cross and presented to the Cathedral by Charlemagne, and a sliver from the crucifictional crown of thorns. And the view down from the small room in the archbishop’s palace into the Cathedral where he could keep an eye on goings on down there was a little voyeuristic.