and a couple of family visits.
26th July to 4th August 2023, with a two week break in UK
READER WARNING: somehow this ended up a bit longer than planned. Maybe give yourself a break part way through, or just look at the photos!
The navigable section of the Yonne, before the Canal de Nivernais branches off to run alongside, goes from its junction with the Seine at Montereau-Fault-Yonne to Auxerre. We did also dip into a few kilometres of the Nivernais and I have included them here.
Our time on the Yonne seems long, but there is a break in the middle for us to return to the UK for a few weeks. During our first two and a half weeks we had two sets of family visitors – my brother and his wife for a couple of days, and then our son and partner for a few more. It always adds an extra dynamic when we have visitors – there is a tendency to see new things and eat out more, as you will see below.
Montereau-Fault-Yonne
It took just a few hours to move from Moret-sur-Loing, past Saint-Mammés where the Loing meets the Seine, to the bridge across the confluence with the Yonne at Montereau.
We had a plan to stop at Saint-Mammés and top up with diesel but the fuel quay had a queue of commercial barges so we decided to continue on and find another option (more of that later).
At Montereau we turned to starboard, under the bridge, and into the last space on the pontoon.
Montereau-Fault-Yonne has quite a lot of history attached to it, mainly due to its strategic confluent position. The Fault part of its name comes from the old meaning of the verb faillir (“to fail”); Montereau is where the Yonne falls into the Seine. I rather like that.
John the Fearless was killed on the town’s bridge in 1419; this is commemorated around the town in various ways. His son, Philip the Good, seized Montereau but only held it for 8 years. From then on through the centuries it changed hands again and again. It was even the place of one of the last victories of Napoleon on 14 February 1814.
We had a walk round the old town with its narrow streets and small squares, and ventured into the park. There was a plan for a riverside beer, but the chosen bar was closed so we opted for a Calliope back deck supper.
Port Renaud
The Yonne is home to quite a few locks with sloping sides; they are not immediately easy to use! Calliope was going upstream and it was not long before we came to our first lock and saw a green light inviting us to enter.
It would take a mightier crew than me to throw ropes onto bollards in these locks, but luckily that is expectyed and the éclusiers (lock keepers) emerge to help us moor up. I only have to throw my rope to land at his/her feet.
As we continued up the Yonne we received messages that there would be ‘passing Pipers’. Friends on other Piper boats were on their way downstream and we were able to shout joyful hellos across the water as they went by.
Along the way towards Port Renaud we had constantly changing views, from the heavy industrial gravel loading sites to some incredibly green (overgrown!) weirs and the intense yellow of sunflower fields – with apologies for the orange netting.
I’m sure someone more skilled than me could remove the netting from the photo!
After a few sloping sided locks we were pleased to find a nice straight sided lock at Port Renaud. Not only that – the whole area was stunningly beautiful, very tranquil, and we had noticed a small road next to the lock.
Still needing to refuel we decided to stay here for a while and see if we could get a tanker to deliver fuel to Calliope here as we were now rather low. A quick chat with the éclusier resulted in permission to moor on the river at the side of the lock so we ‘reversed’ back out and were soon tied up.
A phone call and an email with maps to show our position – bingo! A local company could deliver to us, but not until Monday. Oh dear, we would have to stay on this beautiful place for 4 nights! 😂
I hope these 4 photos convey how lovely it was to be there, moored below the lock on the river for a few days. The lock at Port Renaud is at the start of a canalised section of the Yonnne. This meant we were on a wide peaceful section of the river with no boats passing except the occasional fisherman’s little craft.
We were more ‘disturbed’ by kingfishers, herons, woodpeckers and the call of golden orioles.
Being away from civilisation is wonderful, as long as you have plenty of stores aboard. Luckily we were well stocked and had no problem bringing together ingredients to make tasty, if unusual, meals.
But the one thing that it is easy to miss in France is fresh baguettes. We did get one special delivery from friends who were coming downstream on their boat and brought us some bread. And we walked to visit the two local villages, one on each direction, along the bank or through the fields.
After a delightful weekend’s sojourn in the country our fuel tanked arrived and a very friendly helpful tanker driver (just visible by the wheelhouse) was soon on board filling us up with 800 litres of white diesel at a good price!
By 1330 we were on our way.
Pont-sur-Yonne
In our very next lock we were pleased to find that from now on the locks have floating pontoons; this one is at Vinneuf.
It is an interesting procedure in these locks; the pontoons are about 10m long, half our length. But Captain Stu had it worked out and by bringing the bow rope back to midships we tied up securely.
Before long we were at the end of the canalised section and re-joining the Yonne.
It was a bit of an overcast day, but I think the photo shows the canal we have left on the right and the river on the left.
We had been heading for Pont-sur-Yonne where we were due to meet up with my brother and wife – the first of the family visitors. We arrived ahead of time, allowing a quick walk into the village for a few supplies and a first look at the remains of the old pont (bridge) over the Yonne.
There are good long mooring pontoons just below the bridge and we were pleased to secure a space at the downstream end.
By the time I had returned with my bag of food and drink goodies we had been joined by my brother Phil and sister-in-law Geraldine. They were on their way through France to enjoy a holiday further south but managed to catch up with us on the way.
Of course we had to return to the famous bridge, or what is left of it. This time we went up on the bridge and discovered a timber viewing platform with a glass section allowing the brave to walk over the water below!
We left the Captain on board while three of us had a walk round the small town. As so often in France there are many interesting buildings amongst the more ordinary, and also some really modern touches, including the adaptation of the old bridge.
The central photo attempts to show the fancy colourful and patterned brickwork that was on many of the houses .
Before leaving Pont-sur-Yonne a little history might bne interesting.
Sens
Although only with us for two nights Phil and Geraldine were keen to get some cruising time in so we moved on next morning, leaving their car behind to be picked up next day. We were heading for Sens and luckily there are frequent trains between the two places.
The first structure to be seen was a much newer bridge over the Yonne – in fact it is an aqueduct built at the end of the 19th century.
Then as we progresses up the river we once more came across two Piper boats travelling in convoy.
This was at the écluse at Cuy., where the sloping side lock had one platform to help boats go up or down. So being friends they rafted together to the platform and negotiated the lock ‘ensemble’.
In the meantime we had to wait below the lock for our turn, but that did give me the opportunity to walk up to the lock take the photo of the two boats.
Then it was Calliope’s turn. These two photos illustrate rather well the Yonne sloping side locks with their floating pontoons. You can see Calliope attached to the pontoon at the bottom of the lock, and then again at the top. It is an effective waY of dealing with a difficult structure, apparently built to give extra strength to the walls of the locks.
Soon after that Captain Stu relinquished the helm and let brother Phil have a go.
He is a good and experienced car driver, but soon learned that the currents and different depths on a river mean that a boat does not respond in quite the same way as a car.
After a bit he got the hang of it, and enjoyed it I think!.
As planned we were approaching Sens by lunchtime. Mooring was not as easy as this image suggests; initially we could not see a decent space on the pontoon and headed for the stone quay, but another, smaller, boat rudely nipped in ion freont of us and was not interested in moving..
However it emerged that neither of us could easily moor on the quay due to the spacing of the bollards, and friends from another boat who had paced out the pontoon space reckoned it was just long enough. So with his usual good helmsmanship Stu put Calliope into a space about 2m longer than we are; beautiful.
And so began a couple of days in Sens, another fascinating and often beautiful city; it’s a shame it was so grey. Much of the city is very old and the streets are lined with timbered buildings.
The cathedral is a Gothic style building from the 12th century; the town hall is early twentieth century, and there are examples from every century in-between. And probably the wavy steel bench brings us up to date.
An interesting English connection is that Thomas Becket lived in a monastery close to the city, effectively a refugee from his home country due to differences between him and the King. A window in the cathedral is a memorial to his time in Sens.
Phil had done research into the Gallo-Roman times of Sens and knew that we could trace the lines of the old city walls along tree lined avenues.
So in the evening we went walking round those line in search of a curry – an odd thing to do in France I suppose, but that’s what we all felt like eating.
And we found one.
One of the most beautiful (slightly) old buildings is Les Halles de Sens – the covered fresh food market. It stands proudly opposite the cathedral across an open square, light and airy inside.
Above the doors the stained glass gives an indication of the joyous foods within, although the day that I visited was not a main market day and there were only a few stalls and tasty delights to ponder.
The doors have spades as handles, quite a quaint reference to the origins of much of the food inside; I think these are probably a more recent addition.
And just inside one door is a big marble fountain, disappointingly with ‘non potable’ (drinkable) water there days.
Overall Les Halles de Sens, like les halles in so many other French towns, is a great reminder of the importance that France has attached to good fresh food for centuries. So often they offer a taste adventure of local flavours and food combinations. I love them almost as much as lavoirs!
I could fill an entire blog just on Sens, but this is supposed to be about the Yonne. So I will finish the Sens section with a few small photos. Two show some remaining parts of the town walls, the lower levels of which go back to the Romans. One is of St Matthew’s church which stands on the island in the middle of the Yonnne at Sens.
And the last one is ……
We had a plan for the next day. Phil and Geraldine were to go back to Pont-sur-Yonne to collect their car and continue their holiday. We were to continue upstream for two days towards Auxerre where we were to meet son Ashley and partner Theresa in a few days time.
Other boaters had warned us about a forecast ‘orage’, but we are always optimistic. However we woke to a truly massive storm with heavy rain and strong gusting winds.
Phil and Geraldine needed to press on so I walked with them across two bridges to the station, but on my return to Calliope it was fairly obvious that we needed to hunker down for 24 hours!
The next morning was still a bit wet, but manageable! So we set off upstream towards Villeneuve-sur-Yonne.
Villeneuve-sur Yonne
Wet weather gear was definitely the outfit of the day to start with, though it gradually brightened and by the time we reached Rosoy it was much calmer.
It was just on lunch time when we came through our penultimate lock of the day at Véron.This meant that although we could continue to our last lock at Villeneuve we had to wait, gazing at our mooring, until lock keepers’ appetites were assuaged
No big deal; we were soon moored up below 12th century St Nicholas bridge, from which I took this photo. It is a great place to moor, with electricity and water and on a nice tree lined quay.
But we soon found out that there was far more to discover within the town.
Two of the original five fortified gates still remain in place, named after the cities they lead towards – Sens to the North and Joigny to the South. Traffic still flows through them and they form the ends of an axis through town.
As you walk round the path that follows the two kilometre walls towers there isd another serious tower to behold. This one was once part of Louis VII’s royal keep.
The rest of the royal palace was destroyed two hundred years ago.
I also found a couple of lavoirs to add to my collection. The first one, with the double tiled roof, is in the old moat area. It looks rather lovely but there are steps down to it and the gate at the top was locked.
The other was in a surprising position – in a tunnel under the Gate de Joigny where a natural spring flows through.
One more tower still exists; Le Tour de Bonneville. It is now a small hotel in a wonderful quayside position.
It was a shame to be there such a short time, but I did manage to visit the Friday market before we left – and then we were on our way again to meet Family Part 2.
Laroche-Migennes
Getting to Laroche depended on arriving at the lock 11, d’Epineau-les-Voves, at one of its 3 opening times per day. This was due to a damaged lock, due to be repaired, but until then the lock was operated as little as possible. We were aiming for the 1400 opening!
The travelling day began with blue skies and blue waters …
… but by the time we reached Armeau lock, with its two floating pontoons, clouds had drifted in and it was grey again.
It was still the same at Villevallier lock, but being able to look out at complete countryside more than made up for it.
We passed by a lavoir in a canalised section of the river at Saint Aubin; it looked well maintained, but there was no opportunity to set foot ashore and see.
At the end of the canal part we emerged through a ‘Gard’ back onto the Yonne.
On we motored, past Joigny, and towards our 1400 lock opening.
Joigny is quite a major town on the Yonne, but not for us that day.
We were slightly held back at the next lock for the usual lock keeper’s lunch time, so we were slightly on edge about getting to Epineau in time, but we did.
A few boats came down through the lock at 1400, and then it was our turn to go ‘montant’ (up) with another small cruiser that, like us, had been waiting its turn.
These locks are quite hard work for the éclusiers. Although they are automated the controls for the various operations – close doors, close vantelles, let water in, open doors – are done at opposite ends of these 117m long locks. So the éclusiers spend a lot of time waking from one end to the other!
And within half a kilometre after the lock we saw the little quay at Laroche that was to be our overnight stay.
A walk around the area in the cool of the evening surprised me with some bright flowers by the river and by an old lavoir.
And then, as the sun went down ……
…. a golden display from sky to river.
Auxerre
We pushed on up the river to Auxerre in the morning so that we would have a few days to collect the car from Saint Usage (where we began our summer cruise) and get stocked up for our second set of family visitors.
We were lucky to have another blue sky start, leaving behind a superb weeping willow.
We could tell the seasons were bringing to change by the amount of dew on the roof – a good excuse to use the water to do some cleaning!
Within a few minutes we passed the entrance to the Canal de Bourgogne – our way ‘home’ in a month’s time. But for now we were passing the Migennes junction by.
There were three locks , a river junction with the Serein, and a ‘derivation’ between us and a lunch stop. The deviation is a canal section taking us off the river for about 5 kilometres to get round some very windy and shallow sections. This deirvation has a lock at the downstream end (Raveuse) and another half way along (Néron).
We were ‘warned’ by the éclusier at Raveuse that the Néron lock was not manned; he would see us on his cameras and operate the lock remotely. It all worked just as he had explained.
Another 4 kilometres and we were out of the derivation, back on the river, and approaching Gurgy where we moored up for lunch.
A short walk to a good boulangerie added to our meal, and a family of swans kept watch in case we had any spare.
The last 10 kms to Auxerre were pleasant, with a few diversions to keep us alert along the way.
We passed a couple of merry barbecue boats – little round hire boats with a barbecue in the centre, and nearly always with revellers aboard!
Then a dividing of the water, and the directional arrow hidden amongst the bushes on the central isle! Luckily our map told us which side to go. And a bridge undergoing maintenance; we knew this from VNF notices, but had not realised this would mean a platform underneath and a subsequent lowering of the height for boats to pass below. It looked close, but in fact was easily done.
At last we reached lock 1 La Chainette, at PK1 (kilometre mark 1) on the outskirts of Auxerre. You can see the long weir that runs alongside the lock.
Then we were coming into the ancient city of Auxerre, beaneath it historic landmark buildings and bridges. The kilometre counting changes here; PK0 for the Yonne is also PK 174 for the Canal de Nivernais. This is the canal that runs alongside the upper reaches of the Yonne and where we would head with our visitors on board in a few days.
By the time we had moored up and checkled in with the Capitainerie the skies were bliue again.
And we could sit in the wheelhouse gazing across the river to the magnificent cathedral.
What a view for the next few weeks; we were booked in for a month, part of which we would spend in the UK.
Stu and I have been here before, albeit 7 years ago. Actually we have been here twice. We were stuck in Milan when in 2010 the Icelandic volcano spewed ash across Europe and stopped all flights.
We hired a car to drive back, spending a night in Auxerre on the way and sitting in this same square for a a drink before dinner.
It was just as nice in 2023.
And the view across the river from our mooring to the city was even more spectacular as the sun set.
The next couple of days were taken up collecting our car and then driving to Chatel-Censoir, 38 kms away, to visit friends and collect some of their boxes to take to England. They had just sold their boat and now needed to move their household from France to UK.
Châtel-Censoir
This made a nice day out for us. First of all there were several lavoirs to be seen in Châtel.
One had been converted into a book swap space and relaxing reading room.
And then an excuse for a lunch out with friends, who dd not want to be photographed, and a delicious rainbow lunch which was happy to be captured ‘on film’.
And before we drove back to Auxerre we went back to the house in the village that our friends have been living in since the boat sale. We were allowed to ‘plunder’ the garden, coming back with apples. pears, plums, mirabelles and rhubarb!
Once son Ashey and his partner ~Theresa arrived things changed again. Visitors in Auxerre inevitably means a tourist walk around the old city, the abbey, the cathedral. Here is a taste of it.
Once we had crossed the river and climber up the steep streets to the top we went to the Abbey. We were lucky enough to catch both a sculpture exhibition and a soundscape exhibition.
This is a tiny insight into the views round every corner in the old town. There is historical facts attached to just about everything, but this is a boat blog not a history blog so I must leave it to those who are interested to research more info.
Naturally the evening moved into a meal put at a restaurant. We were so lucky with the weather – just right for sitting outside.
And being in Borgogne we had to have some escargots (snails).
Vincelles
Captain and I had planned a short cruise for our guests. They were only with us for a few nights so we went onto the Canal de Nivernais and looked for a couple of nice places to stop.
Theresa and Ashley soon found out that at manual locks it is a good idea to help the éclusiers. They both got stuck in, jumping, or climbing, ashore to open or close the lock doors.
We were soon passing the small village of Vaux, but no planned stop there today.
Maybe on the way back.
Our first planned stop was at the Caves de Bailly, just 11 kms from Auxerre. On ther way we had another short deviation, this time past Champs-sur-Yonne which has this bridge and weir at the southerly end.
The weir is still partly a wooden aiguilles (needle) weir. To change the water flow the waterways men (and women) have to walk along the weir adding or subtracting the wooden ‘needles’.
We reached the pontoon under the Cave de Bailly in time to have lunch and wait for the Cave to open at 2pm. These caves were originally huge underground quarries producing stone for many famous Paris buildings. Later they became the home of a mushroom ‘farm.
These days they are home to a wine cooperative, mainly producing Creamant – the Borgogne version of champagne.
We were able to have a tour round some of the immense caverns, learning about the Creamant method, and then tasting several of their wines.
And of course buying some too!
With wine aboard Calliope continued up the canal towards our overnight mooring. The quay at Vincelles had plenty of room for us .
What a lovely place to spend an evening.
During the beautiful blue blue evening a hot air balloon gently drifted across the space between the trees on the opposite bank – zoom in to see its quiet progress across the sky.
At 9pm it was still light, and just the start of an evening’s rosy sky. A hotel barge had come in behind us, waiting for its guests to arrive by luxury minibus at some point.
Next morning was as splendid, with the sun glowing golden across the Nivernais and onto Calliope’s dew soaked roof.
It obviously enervated our son!
So much so that we went for a walk before breakfast.
First we walked down to Vincelles lock and its neat garden. Looking back downstream we could see Calliope moored in the distance.
Then we walked back thought the quiet village – the only life being some young swifts on a wire, until we reached the boulangerie.
Time to turn round already, but also time for a change at the helm. Stewart enjoyed coaching Theresa and Ashley in helmsmanship. Ashley did well and managed to take the barge into a couple of locks – more than this crew has ever done.
Although that is through choice as I love throwing ropes, and the Captain is so good at steering!
It was yet another perfect day for cruising along with few other boats moving in either direction.
We went in and out of several locks, where Ashley and Theresa again proved to be enthusiastic éclusiers.
Theresa also got stuck in using the dew to clean the roof. Good job!!
As the morning wore on we began to look for somewhere to moor up and enjoy the baguette we had bought earlier.
A pontoon at the pretty village of Vaux, with this riverside lavoir, looked a good option so we tied up and had a lunch break.
Theresa, always active, went for a quick walk round the village before we left, and came back in great excitement to tell me she had found a lavoir or me to see.
I immediately got permission from the Captain to go ashore if I was no longer than 5 minutes and I followed Theresa to the basin of water on the left. It could perhaps be a lavoir, and a signpost in the village pointed towards it ….. but as we walked away from it I realised we were now passing the actual lavoir – see the photo on the right.
The first ‘watering hole’ was just that – a place to dip buckets in and take water home. It was above the lavoir, so full of clean water. The water then flowed into and through the lavoir, picking up dirty soap suds as it went.
Lunch and lavoirs over we were back into cruising mode. As so often happens, it was the locks that provided interesting things to photograph. One is yet another ‘desirable’ deserted lock keepers cottage; so many of them along the canals. And at another, where the lock keeper is still in situ, a delightful use of a tree stump to hold pots of flowers.
Park at Auxerre
This had to be a short cruise. Ashley and Theresa only had 4 days with us and we had to leave for the UK ourselves.
So we planned two nights back at Auxerre, one at a different mooring above the town by the park.
Not only was it by the park; it was also close to the old pumping house, now part a funky bar and part a bike hire business. So cue one of my worst ever selfies style photos of the four of us outside having an early apero!
Back on board, under the shelter of the parasol, we went for aperos round two!
Then after supper, as it cooled down, Theresa and I explored the park
Auxerre again
The following morning, under grey skies, we took Calliope through the last lock off the Nivernais, back onto the Yonne, under Pont Paul Bert (with his statue at the centre), under Ashley and Theresa to Paul’s right, and onto our mooring at Auxerre marina.
There was a plan for the rest of this day; Ashley and Theresa were keen to visit some other vineyards and I was keen to go with them!
We began at Domaine Ferrari at Irancy, mainly to taste the their red wine. But we found ourselves tasing some rosé as well.
Several bottles were bought from this cave and from another, Benoit Cantin, recommended by a wine conoisseur friend, , along the road.
Ashley even bought a bottle of the best Palotte red for the Captain, who had not come with us.
Then we were off to Chitry -the village being a treat in itself.
Chitry is full of narrow streets and characterful buildings, including a rather lovely church and a surprising lavoir. (Hope you are not fed up of lavoirs yet!)
Amongst the streets are something like 15 different wine caves. We chose one that turned out to be both incredibly friendly and very nice wine – at a good price.
I think you can tell that the tastings are broadening our smiles!
We were not back on board long before we decided to try out Le Pub, just 5 minutes from the boat.
Despite its rather corny name it turned out to be a great place, serving lots of Belgian beers (Captain developed a taste for them when we spent 3 years cruising in Belgium).
There was a so a funky beer garden, providing not only shade, but also a fringe for Stu!
It was our last night togethjer on the boat, so we decided to treat ourselves to a meal out the other side of the river before retiring to Calliope for the rest lof the evening.
The Italian restaurant we chose was excellent – we all had absolutely delicious food.
Next day Stewart and I left for the UK where we had things to deal with for a couple of weeks. We were able to leave the new crew to stay one more day, giving them a chance to visit Chablis for a bit more wine tasting before they too came home.
So Calliope was left alone, moored up in Auxerre for just over a fortnight.
Once we got back to the boat we wanted to set off for the last canal of the season – the Canal de Bourgogne. This would mean retracing our steps down the Yonne as far as Migennes, then turning up onto the canal.
We spent a couple of days shopping, tiny bits of maintenance, and generally making ourselves at home aboard again before we set off. Our last evening was set against a final superb Auxerre backdrop.
Gurgy again
There really shouldn’t be much to say about the return journey, only a month or so later, but I seem to ahem accumulated a wealth of interesting (to me) photos, so here goes.
We left Auxerre on yet another beautiful day – what a summer it has been! Although it has resulted in low water in some canals, so not all good I guess.
We arrived at la Chainette lock having called the lock keeper to ask for ‘passage’, and found it already full of four other hire boats.
There was just room for Calliope at the back – and another barge that was following us had to wait for the next lock.
We were surprised to see so much boat movement.
We then shared the next 4 looks with the same boats, gradually becoming acquainted with the happy crowd on the closest one.
Most of us moored up at Gurgy, with two of them moving up to make room for us when we arrived at the tail of the convoy.
Our new friends turned out to be a lively lot and keen to know us better. This included telling us about their friend who is a winemaker on the Ile de Rai (and giving us a bottle of his rosé), explaining that their daughter made gin, and insisting on us having a tasting session, and finally us know which red wine was the best in the area – luckily we already had a bottle of that on board!
We in turn gave them some whiskey tastings, and everyone endeds the lunch break happier that they started.
After lunch all the holiday boats moved on as they had to get the kilometres done; we retired folk were staying there for the night.
We stretched our legs with a walk round the village – the church seemed to be the oldest building there.
Later, after supper, I went exploring a bit further afield, crosing over the entrance to the derivation that we would return along next day, and walking along the river bank.
I saw signposts for ‘peupliers noir’, which translates as black poplars. Thinking that these must be quite unusual I walked on until I found a small group of them, and they are dufferewnt to the poplkars we normally see in the UK.
On my way back, with darkness descending, I watched the sun going down over the river.
But that was nothing compared to the glorious scarlet dismay we had about half an hour later!
Laroche again
It’s strange how the same stretch of river, or canal, can look different when you are going in the opposite direction. So it was that I noticed the lovely stone steps up to some of the bridges and locks, the later clover growing alongside, and the beautiful old kilometre markers, like milestones. This one was telling us that we were on the Riviere D (de) Yonne and 21 kilometres from Auxerre.
We had to wait for a while at Beaumont lock for some boats coming upriver.
Many locks have waiting pontoons – and many do not! At Beaumont we were lucky to find these ‘dolphins’ to tie up to while we waited.
Once we got into Beaumont lock I found a different lock keeper’s house to all thiose I had seen before.
It was the addition of a covered balcony on the first floor that was a new feature, and would have allowed the éclusier to keep dry whilst watching out for boats approaching in both directions.
I rather liked it, and noticed the same at our final Yonne lock, la Graviere.
By the time we reached la Gravière it was midday, and time for the one hour close down. So we, and the boat that was now travelling with us, moored up in the lock and enjoyed our own peaceful lunch.
We were just two and a half kilometres from our stopover for the night, so it was not long after lunch that we reached Laroche.
Arriving at the pontoon we found ourselves disturbing some young lads having fun swimming in the river. And who could blame them on that hot day?
Once moored up we became part of the fun, giving permission to one lad to use Calliope as a diving board.
He rewarded us with somersaults, back flips and other wild plunges into the water.
Later, as peace descended and supper was over, I walked up to Migennes . This is where the Canal de Borgogne leads off from the Yonne, and our direection of travel next day.
It gave me an opportunity to look at the big deep lock we would be going up, checking for methods of attaching our ropes.
And by chance I saw that Migennes had transformed its lavoir into a colourful social area next to a small playpark.
Then back to Calliope for a last night sleeping on the Yonne.
Morning came, and with it a light mist while we waited for the sun to get going.
Then Calliope got going too, a kilometre back upstream to the turn off for the Canal. The story of the Bourgogne cruise will be in the next blog!
An autumnal story.
goodshipcalliope 