Last Days

4th October, 2012 (Tony)

The last three weeks have flown by. Mark and Debbie joined us at Fragnes, first port off the Saône on the Canal du Centre. Fragnes is one of our favourite places, not much of a town, relatively new, but a lovely port with excellent facilities including a great restaurant and a boulangerie right on the quayside. The Indian summer persists and we sat under the shady bower of a magnificent weeping willow sipping champagne, two evenings in a row. We all biked into Chalons sur Saône to explore the town and enjoyed a healthy salad lunch in the cathedral square. After that the cycling was exclusively their domain. They brought their own bikes from Australia, with all the associated kit and gear, to discover the bikeways of Burgundy. There was no way we were going to try and accompany them on their rides. So we harried Sable up to Chagny and beyond while Mark and Deb pedalled deep into the Bourgogne district. It's very pretty to see. From Chagny, we took the train to Beaune where we wandered the town, one of the most popular tourist spots in France, then met them for lunch at a cafe in the sun. We caught the train back to Chagny and had a nap, exhausted by their strenuous exercise, as they continued their exploration of the vineyards via Mersault, Montrachet, Puligny and Santenay. Everywhere grape pickers were bent among the vines busy bringing in the harvest.

We spent a couple of nights at Chagny then moved barely five kilometres up the canal to a rustic mooring close to the village of Santenay, one of the prettiest in Burgundy. There, the oldies managed to bike half-a-kilometre to the chateau to indulge in a degustation of pinots and chardonnays. Meanwhile the junior riders roamed far and wide to take in Nolay, Rochepot, St Romaine collecting a few samples to bring back to the boat. They were also very adept at selecting delicious sausages and tasty cheese at village markets. We continued to St Léger sur Dheune where the weather took a turn for the worse — heavy rain for the first time in weeks, but it didn't last long. Since our first visit to Burgundy we have made strenuous efforts to learn to like and appreciate its pinot-noir wines, for which it is world famous — the most expensive wines are produced here, unaffordable to most, includung us. Each little village has its own distinctive "terroir". My favourite is Mercurey, considered by connoiseurs to be rather 'rustic' but to my palate its wines are more robust and aromatic, comparable to Aussie cab-sav. So when Deb mentioned that one of her employees was French and had an aunt who owned a domaine in Mercurey that they hoped to visit, we begged to tag along — on our motorbikes. Despite being in the middle of harvest, Natalie kindly invited us to come for a tasting at 6pm. We all set off up the hill, deviating first to Givry a picturesque village farther along the Côte Chalonnaise. We arrived in Mercurey village centre in time to see dozens of grape pickers, dismissed for the day, alight from mini-buses, cold, dishevelled, mud-spattered but in remarkably high spirits, change into dry clothes in the car park and get into their cars to drive home; or in many cases their camping base. Natalie hadn't had an opportunity to change but warmly welcomed us into their cellar and gave us an informed insight into the full process. Her husband stood atop a ladder, stirring with a rake a vat full of freshly picked grapes. They ferment for up to a week in the skin to build the colour before going into the crusher to remove the first cru, then into new oak vats for eleven months. All seems very simple really but we know that everything to do with making wine and growing grapes involves lots of very hard work. We tasted the full range of their wines, red and white, from previous vintages and bought half a dozen bottles to take home. They sell 60,000 bottles each year, 30% at the cellar door, so we were very grateful to Natalie for being so hospitable to us on a day that would have been one of her busiest of the vendange. Peering at an aerial photo of the town and environs, Sally and I realised we had sat among Theulot Juillot vines when we paused for lunch on our motorbike journey to Mercurey in 2010. Burgundy AOC comprising 27,900ha is the oldest appellation in France, though one of the smallest. Around 200 million bottles are produced each year — 61% white (chardonnay); 30% red (pinot noir); 1% rosé; 8% Crémant.

Determined to see more, Deb and Mark rode 75km to Macon and then caught a train to Lyon. They spent a night there and were as impressed with this great city as we were. They returned bitten by the bicycling bug and next day set off through the Grand Cru scenic route through the Cote d'Or to Dijon for another night to remember, past some of the most renowned villages and vineyards in the world — Aloxe Corton, Pommard, Nuits St George, Givry-Chambertin etc, blah!! Meanwhile we continued on, through the top pound at Montchanin, to Blanzy and Montceau les Mines. We had to keep moving as the Canal du Centre was due to close for the year on 30 September. The Canal du Centre is one of only a few canals in France not fed by a river. It relies on huge man-made reservoirs with relatively small catchment areas. Last year, as in the UK, there was very little rain and at the start of the season the authorities declared that the canal would only open until 20 May. No sooner was that decision made the deluge started and it rained almost non-stop for four months. But with hardly any rain July through September it was decided to conserve as much storage as possible for next season. We found Sable virtually the last boat and by the time we left Paray le Monial it was obvious no water was being released behind us. At each of the last few locks boats ahead of us drained another lockful of precious water. The water level was about half a metre lower than normal and at times we were scraping the bottom. And at Digoin they refused to fill the last (empty) lock until another boat approached upstream, a wait of two hours til the local tourist 'lunch afloat' boat returned to base. We were pleased to be back on the canal to Roanne with a day to spare.

We took several days to drift back to Roanne, stopping along the way to greet old acquaintences still cruising; and to bike into Marcigny where Emile Henri, makers of attractive earthenware cookware were having a sale. How did Sally know that? We pedalled back across the Loire laden with all sorts of pie dishes, tartine pans, serving bowls, cake plates and even shot glasses. Come, be entertained. It was all we could carry yet we didn't spend more than 85€. We arrived in Roanne and friends were on the quay waiting to greet us before we had finished mooring up. There has been a big chageover of boats in the port and I doubt if we know half of the bargees mooring here for the winter. We're off to lunch today and so another round of socialising starts... We're due back in Aus within a couple of weeks and are looking forward to walking the beach and relishing more sunshine. But first we have to get Sally a new knee. Our love and best wishes to everyone. We hope to resume this cruising life May, 2013.