Canal du Nivernais: Mailly-le-Ville to Auxerre via Vincelles.

28 kilometers, 16 locks.

Wednesday 13 September 2017. Mailly-le-Ville to Vincelles – 14 kilometers, 8 locks, 4 hours 40 minutes (95 minutes of delays).

Morning dawned with Elle rocking on the mooring and clouds scudding by but as the wind was forecast to be coming from behind we decided to move on, moi just hoping that we would not be blown into any lock gates. The lady lockie at the first lock arrived twenty five minutes late, still rubbing the sleep from her eyes but from then on the trip was singularly uneventful with the wind not being an issue at all!

At the last lock we realised that we were entering serious wine tourist territory as there was a sign offering to have one collected from one’s boat and taken for a half-day tour of the Chablis vineyards at the snip of a price of €65 per person…

The long wall outside the crêperie (pancake restaurant) at Vincelles had an opening for us and in no time we were safely tied up;

Vincelles mooring.

after a light lunch, it was off to the nearby Atac supermarket to provision up. That evening we had supper at the much rated crêperie and while my goats cheese salad was good, Lynn’s escargot crêpe and chocolate and cream pancake desert were rated “okay, but not that great” – the escargot dish was a real disappointment and was simply snails in garlic and parsley butter tossed onto a pancake, a combination which did not really work. A cream sauce creation would have complimented the crêpe far more.

The next day, after doing a load of washing at the Atac

and taking a short tour around the small town we set off over the river, through the pretty riverside town of Vincelottes and down to the caves at Bailly some three kilometres from our mooring. For €6 per person the tour of the underground chalk cellars capable of housing some seven million bottles of Crémant de Bourgogne sparkling wine is a must and two glasses of bubbles, and the souvenir flutes, are included in the price. Bargain!

Reception

Murals in the cellar.

Anyone for bubbles?

Friday 15 September 2017. Vincelles to Auxerre – 14 kilometers, 8 locks, 4 hours 40 minutes (50 minute lunch stop).

The luxury charter barge Randle had moored behind us at Vincelles and they were also leaving for Auxerre so we locked through with them all the way – with their twenty three meters and our thirteen, the locks were pretty full of boat.

Randle

Auxerre lock decor

Tree pruning crew.

Coming into Auxerre - stunning!

The Aquarelle hire boat base at Auxerre was packed with, in some cases, boats three abreast, many of which were closed up for winter. Fortunately, the wall on the old city side of the river (we’re on part Nivernais canal and part Yonne River) had a space right at the downstream end which was ideal. Mike, the friendly captain collected our money for a three night stay and one electricity jeton and then it was braai and chill time. We were joined by a huge Le Boat who squeezed in behind us and whose luncheon had obviously been good judging by their sundowner loquaciousness.

Saturday morning it was off to the automotive spares outlet to find a gas strut to replace the one which holds up our doorway hatch (no luck!) and to the eLeclerc supermarket for food and wine.

Part of the fish counter.

We do seem to spend an inordinate amount of time in supermarkets but with only a small 140 liter food refrigerator/freezer we can only store a limited amount of meat, veggies and salads. And then we wandered through the old city which is really lovely albeit quite crowded with tourists – to be expected this being Heritage Weekend when many of the museums and galleries are open to the public free of charge. But Sunday was to be our ‘tourist’ day…

The Aussies behind us (Pete, Barry and ? and wives) were in fine fettle once again and after lending them a water connection gin swilling Pete came aboard with a bottle of wine which he emptied before they all set off for dinner. We heard them arriving home after midnight amid much laughter so obviously a good time was had by all.

Auxerre mooring.

And so Sunday arrived with the first task being to make five trips to the nearby Atac fuel station and to load up two hundred litres of diesel, the same process to be repeated the following day. With a jerry can apiece we set off down the cycle path, filled the jerries, bungy corded them on to the carriers and mine promptly fell off! Back in place, Lynn gingerly moved off but crash – jerry can meets concrete. It was corded back on again but not before both jerry can and bike had taken a tumble. And I did a good job of repeating the comedy of errors. The plastic of the cans was not bonding with the steel of the carriers at all so leaving me on guard Lynn went back to Elle, collected some straps and eventually we made it back, emptying twenty litres into the tank and saving the other for a top up when we close up for winter. We will not be repeating the process, choosing rather to pay the exorbitant surcharge and fill up the remaining three hundred and fifty or so litres at the Aquarelle waterside diesel pump.

On the way back with our fuel we happened to bump into Aussie Barry off the Le Boat boat who said that that the other two guys had sat drinking bottles of red wine until 5am – they all left at eleven thirty for Migenne for ‘hand back’ and the hangovers must have been monumental.

And then the heavens opened and the wind blew and so it continued the whole day, dashing our sightseeing plans and, being Heritage Weekend, it was a double whammy.

Braaing in the rain - enormous cuisses.

The next day the weather improved somewhat and our first stop was the Post Office where a parcel for Lynn’s brother Ian was despatched to Diksmuide and then we made a fainthearted attempt to ‘reverse follow’ the tour of the old city. We missed quite a lot but I found the place delightful although Lynn thought that it lacked the buzz of some similar sized French towns.

Cadet Roussel

St Eusebe Church founded in the 7thC.

That evening we had sundowners at the café across the road where we bumped into the recently retired Professor of Hydrology at Pretoria university Fanie van Vuuren and his wife Leone.

Fanie bemoaning the Springboks record 57 - 0 drubbing by the All Blacks!

Canal du Nivernais: Clamecy to Mailly-le-Ville – Back on the move again.

6 to 12 September 2017. 32.2 kilometers, 15 locks.

Wednesday 6 September 2017: Clamecy to Châtel-Censoir – 19 kilometers, 5 locks, 1 lifting bridge. 5 hours, 15 minutes (including 1 hour 20 minutes in delays and lunchtime).

Clamecy is a lovely town and when Lynn arrived back exhausted on Saturday the second she slept for more than a couple of hours and when she had recovered we took to exploring and people watching and chatting to other boaters. Luvverly!

The big and the smaller.

Collegiate St Martin.

The Mairie and old market place.

A typical French square.

Roofs of Clamecy

The weather is definitely cooling down but the daytime temperatures make for ideal cruising conditions and this part of the Nivernais is very pretty.

The lock leaving Clamecy

The road ahead.

A lockkeepers entertainment area.

Friendly lockie-dog.

In what seemed like no time at all we were in Châtel-Censoir where we moored opposite Lazy Notes and, after a walk through the very small town center (described in our guide as “The big village of Châtel-Censoir…”), returned to Elle to be entertained by a group of Icelanders on a big Le Boat

– they had obviously had a couple on their way from whence they had come and were full of cheer – by evening they were full of cheering and singing but nothing obtrusive and we enjoyed their merriment.

The next day was the morning market and after purchasing a baguette, some cuisses, veggies, figs and some assorted sweeties,

One of the Icelanders at the War Memorial

And two of the ladies.

we set off on the bikes up a steep hill to the old city wall which enclosed the old Church of St Potentien which in turn contains a relic of the Saint. Old and a bit dilapidated but lovely in its simplicity.

The old walled entrance.

The last remaining castle tower.

Spiral stair to the choir.

The crypt.

The Relic - a bone from St Potentien

15thC or 16thC popular style crucifix.

The village down below.

After a cup of coffee in the square and some more people watching,

Typical mid-morning cafe scene.

and back in port the Icelanders place had been taken by a smart Linsson hireboat with two Aussies with UK citizenship but resident in Doha, Qatar, on board. Ron and Janice seemed besotted with the lifestyle which they were enjoying so we invited them aboard for a drink and a look around and chatted boating life for a while – they set off on the last leg of their journey to Vermenton at two o’clock leaving us to watch and assist with the comings and goings in the port and to be hugely entertained by our chatty port captain who had us in stitches with his imitation of the various French accents he has come across; English-French, German-French, Canadian-French, East Coast USA-French and even South of France-French – he battles with Californian-French and Icelandic-French was just too much for him!

A lovely stay in a lovely little village.

Friday 8 September 2017: Châtel-Censoir to Mailly-le-Chateâu – 9 kilometers, 4 locks.

The short cruise to Mailly-le-Château was a delight and when we arrived at the small, deserted basin where there were widely spaced bollards, despite what our two guides had said, there was electricity and water, all free.

Lock operating instructions.

The small pontoon at PK137

One of a pair who had locked through without a lockkeeper - much to his annoyance.

Soon after we had arrived.

The next morning.

A lovely forested setting but the wind had really picked up and even the Weber flame was blown out despite our very effective wind deflector. By evening the basin was almost full and the wind howled and the rain poured for most of the night - quite dramatic!

The morning dawned cloudy but still and quite chilly at 8C and our boat and the little glen were sodden. By ten o’clock the bikes were unloaded and we set off up the steep hill to ‘upper’ Mailly-le-Château where we found a pretty but almost deserted little village – the tiny boulangerie was packed however and we had seen a pretty constant stream of baguettes passing by so we enjoined the habit.

Looking up at the chateau.

The town square -  almost deserted.

The 12thC church with 14thC tower.

Joan of Arc.

The tiny boulangerie.

The village down below.

We're moored between the trees and the brown field.

Next it was the long downhill to Mailly-le-Ville, another charming little village with three very good thirty metre pontoons equipped with electricity and water; Lazy Notes was there but we did not stay for a chat as Bob was in the process of serving his friends a bacon and eggs breakfast. The only other boat was one called Nivernais – all locked up and looking like it had been there for a while taking advantage of the free services (they were plugged in) and totally ignoring the 48 hour maximum mooring sign. And they were moored right in the middle of the pontoon.

After buying some butter and a bottle of ‘Matthieu Antunes, Bourgogne, Collage la Vineuse’ wine (should be interesting) at the tiny shop in ‘town’ and taking a small ‘pression’ (250ml of tap beer – in this case Pelforth) at the snack bar on the river, we trundled down the cycle path, made arrangements with the lockkeeper for a 9.30am start at the first lock the next morning and waved to passing Welsh flag flying Rowan with whom we had chatted in Châtel-Censoir and who had just left Mailly-le-Chateau. Back at port we struck up a conversation with Trevor and Christine from Allez Cats who had spent a couple of days cruising in the company of Rory and Jenny on Paula.

Allez Cats

Trevor and Christine.

On board for lunch it was snails as entrée and a ham and cheese omelette main course - delicious!

More rain and wind during the night but not as much as previously.

Sunday 10 September 2017: Mailly-le-Chateâu to Mailly-le-Ville – 4 kilometers, 2 locks.

After trying to catch up with the blog and drying off the decks we were on our way again in lovely cool and calm conditions down the short distance to Mailly-le-Ville. A twenty five minute wait in the second lock produced a new lockkeeper and in no time we were tied up one pontoon down from Lazy Notes; we had thought Bob might need a little space after a week with two friends aboard and with Penny returning with a friend to stay after they had spent a week in Norway.

Waiting in the lock above Mailly-le-Ville.

The statue guarding the lock.

Nivernais on the left, Le Boat waiting for us to exit the lock, Lazy Notes.

A quiet day spent housekeeping, reading, braaing and just relaxing in the cool weather.

The hypermarket.

Monday morning, 8.15am. BANG! We get hit astern by a Le Boat hire boat. Blaming the wind (which was on his nose, as was the current) the captain had dropped his crew off onto the pontoon and then, leaving the boat in gear, had jumped off to help him with the lines. Fortunately no damage done. And no apology forthcoming either…

We had Bob and Penni and Penni’s long-time friend from Wyoming, Shelby, over for a curry and hanepoot wine lunch

and then it was all about watching the antics of the many hire boats, some of which powered past rocking us about, some slowing down politely as they passed the moorings and a whole lot who ended up mooring here for the night.

The mooring area this morning - packed.

This morning (Tuesday) we will make a decision as to whether to move on to Vincelles with its apparently dubious mooring or stay here instead and sit out the blow forecast for tomorrow. We were going to be dropping into our winter port of Vermenton before going on to Auxerre but we have heard that is is very full with double banked boats everywhere.

Auxerre weather forecast - gusting to 72kph tomorrow night.