Briare to Decize

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Week 8 — October 15th to 22nd (Tony)

If we had previously thought the Canal du Nivernais was beautiful, it was only because we had never seen the Canal Lateral à la Loire which is wider, deeper and even more picturesque especially now as the trees are slowly mellowing into those gorgeous autumnal tones of gold and yellow and occasionally brilliant red. It also has long, meandering stretches of 10 km or more between locks.

We left Briare on a picture perfect day and after exploring Chatillon sur Loire which appeared to have some of the oldest houses we have ever seen, we continued to Belleville a relatively new town developed to house the workers at the nearby nuclear power plant whose gigantic cooling towers imposed their presence on the landscape for miles around. But it was a pleasant overnight stopping place with excellent facilities, including free electricity which was so fresh we barely needed to plug-in.

The next day was another cloudless sunny day. We cannot believe how fortunate we have been, weather-wise. By 3 pm we had reached a spot close to Sancerre, famous for its wine, an old fortified town atop a high hill overlooking the Loire Valley. Back in the 1500's the town-folk had mainly converted to protestantism which didn't please the king. The town was besiged. The seige lasted for 222 days before the few citizens who hadn't starved to death surrended, the town was sacked and the survivors fined an astronomical sum. Today, the town is a popular tourist attraction with lots of restaurants and caves au vins representing many of the 350 local vignerons. It also provides some of the most sensational vistas over the landscape. I rode one of the motorbikes up there and had half-an-hour to admire the scenery and glimpse grape-pickers harvesting the last of the crop, whilst the girls pedalled their way up on bicycles. But then I had to carry the dozen wines puchased home in my backpack.

Wednesday was only the second day we have had rain, and the first we've had to put on wet-weather jackets. But the next day dawned fine and clear again as we approached the confluence of the Loire and another big river, the Allier. Here, a massive double lock lifts you up a total of 9.3 m and then spills you into another canal-bridge almost as impressive as the one at Briare. These giant structures are a credit to the engineers who conceived them 150 years ago. A few kilometres further on we cruised up the embranchment to the boat harbour across the river from Nevers. The ancient cathedral dominates the skyline of this old, lovely city. Myra wa supposed to leave us here to head back to Paris, then home. So we decided to take a day off and catch the train with her to Bourges. We rose early and got a taxi into town at 8 am only to discover that the railway workers had extended their strike. We spent the morning wandering around Nevers, but despite the cloudless sky and bright sun the wind for the first time bore winter's chill. We sucumbed to the comfort of Sable where we spent the afternoon reading. Myra departed the following morning, her plans to visit Tours in disarray as the train services remained disrupted. Hopefully she has made it to the airport in time to catch her flight home. Surely it will not be crowded with despondent Kiwi rugby fans.

Saturday evening we found we had the best TV reception we've ever had, probably because for once, the sattelite dish wasn't peering into a copse of trees. So we nestled down on the couch and watched crap tv (viz. RWC final). Sunday morning, the grass outside was covered in frost.

We have now gone full circle around half Bourgogne and made it back to Décize, now just a few days away from Roanne.

For the statiticians and mathematically minded the following may be of interest:

  • We have so far travelled more than 650 km (116 km to go)

  • We have negotiated more than 230 locks (22 remain ahead)

  • Sable consumes less than 4 litres diesel/engine hour (1eng hr = 1.6 hrs real time at 1400rpm)

  • Sally and I have consumed more than 516 kg fine french food and wine (or so it seems) yet have lost 2 kg and 3kg respectively.

  • More than 100,000 leaves flutter daily from the trees onto Sable (fortunately most blow off)