July, 2017 - Travels with Verne and Roy

Weekend in Lyon, 22-23 July

Rivers Sâone and Rhône:

Lyon stands on the site of Lugdunum, the capital of ancient Gaul, established in 43BC

Our only lock from Neuville to Lyon, Couzon, took a good hour, as we and three other leisure boats (including The Way, which moored behind us last night) had to wait for a montant (going upstream) commercial barge.

We tried the two-ropes-to-one-bollard technique, just for practice; and have stuck with that for the rest of these big Rhône locks.

From there, it’s a picturesque cruise into Lyon, France’s third-biggest city.

Flashback to the 80s

My last trip to Lyon was in the 80s, as part of my first overseas adventure, a six-week Contiki tour of Europe. Here’s a blast from the past, if you’ll excuse my gratuitous arm art. We were all dressed up for a “Bad Taste Party” at the disco.

Flashback to 1982 – or was i 1983? Here we are at Contiki Tours’ chateau in Lyon, all dressed up for the “Bad Taste Party”. That’s one of my Durban friends, Julie (now living in Auckland, NZ), in the pink headband. The others were mostly Aussies, as I recall, so you get the picture.

Port de Plaisance de Lyon Confluence

Apart from being a mouthful to say, the huge, modern Port de Plaisance de Confluence at Lyon is quite something to behold. Smaller boats moor at pontoons near the capitainerie, in the port de plaisance proper; bigger ones like ours go under a 4.5m bridge and moor against the pier.

In the port de plaisance of Lyon Confluence, Karanja is to the left and fellow Piper boat Wanderlust is behind her

There’s a two-metre gap between the water and the pier, so it’s a bit of a leap from our roof. Confluence itself is a big, hyper-modern shopping mall with, wait for it, a Zara. Not just a Zara, but one of the biggest Zaras I’ve ever seen – and I’ve seen a lot of Zara shops all over the world. (Yet nothing tempted me; I must be coming down with something.)

After an extended apéro session with hospitable Californians Becky and Dave on board their beautiful Piper boat Wanderlust (where we also met Kiwis Cilla and Aaron Hegerty from Christchurch), Roy and I headed to a nearby brasserie called Midi à Minuit.

Though it was closed for renovations, its menu was being served at the highly unexpected “English-themed” Peaky Blinders Tavern right next door. I had some excellent salmon, Roy had seven-hour-braised lamb shoulder (about €65 for two mains, a bottle of wine and a café gourmand).

An unexpected encounter – Peaky Blinders in Lyon?!

Sunday Lunch in the Old City

From our capitainerie, we’d got the timetable for the very convenient Vaporetto, a water-taxi that shuttles between the Confluence port and three other stops.

The Vaporetto water-taxi shuttles from the port to the old city and a couple of stops

It’s just €2 per trip, and the first stop is perfect for visiting the old city of Lyon, highlights of which include the Cathedral and the old neighbourhoods, Quartier St Jean and Quartier St Georges.

Without even trying, we stumbled on two Sunday morning markets – first a general one with some great-looking fresh produce, other food and household stuff, then a market selling a wide variety of art.

Colourful bowls at one of Lyon’s Sunday markets

Provence-style olives at Lyon’s market – Provence itself is not far now!

At random, we chose L’Amphitryon for lunch. Empty except for us at noon, it was packed by 1pm, as were all the other bouchons (typical Lyonnaise brasseries) in the old part of the city.

L’Amphitryon, one of the traditional brasseries, or bouchons, that Lyon is famous for

L’Amphitryon does an excellent set lunch, and this is my first course

Delicious if fiddly pied de porc (yes, pig foot) for Roy…

… and for me, pike quenelle with lobster sauce

Everyone, naturally, wants to go to the three-Michelin-starred Paul Bocuse Restaurant. We didn’t have time to even try, but we did attempt to visit the indoor market “Les Halles de Lyon – Paul Bocuse” in Part Dieu shopping centre, recommended to us by David and Becky. It was closed for Sunday afternoon, which was fair enough. So we took a cheap and easy tram back to Confluence. This is a very convenient city to visit by boat!

St Jean-de-Losne to Neuville-sur-Sâone, 16-21 July

Doubs River (briefly) and Sâone River: Roy in a good mood at Verdun-sur-le-Doubs, return to Chalon-sur-Sâone, treats in Tournus, Mâcon, medieval masonry at Montmerle-sur-Sâone, not-so-new Neuville-sur-Sâone

Four hours and two beautiful, big locks after leaving St Jean-de-Losne one lovely Sunday morning, Karanja berthed at Verdun-sur-le-Doubs, just in time for Roy to catch the last half of the British Grand Prix.

Boats moored astern at the port de plaisance of Verdun-sur-le-Doubs

A week in St Jean-de-Losne, 8-15 July

Canal de Bourgogne: A rattling good time in St J-d-L, French engineering, friends and neighbours, out and about, memorable musée, Bastille Day bonhomie, minor mishaps

St Jean-de-Losne seemed far more attractive this time round than it did on our driving holiday in October last year, when we stopped in for a quick look-see and a coffee. That was a good thing, as we were going to be spending a full week here, moored to the Blanquart service quay just after the lock that takes you from the Sâone River to the start (or end) of the Canal de Bourgogne.

This side of the bridge is St Jean-de-Losne – behind me is Saint Usage, the marina and the Canal de Bourgogne

Pontailler-sur-Sâone and Auxonne, 5-8 July

River Sâone, Part One: Far canal stats, Roy “The Knife” in Poncey lock, feasting on frogs’ legs in Pontailler, cycling around Auxonne

Here are the stats for our journey so far, according to the Ancient Mariner:

From Calais to the River Sâone, 654km over 31 days
195 locks, so an average of six locks a day
Average distance, 21km per day
Total engine running time, 136 hours.
And we’ve come 41.4 percent of the way. Far canal!

River Wide

It’s fabulous to be on the wide, beautiful River Sâone, which we have mainly to ourselves. You get an inkling of what a big country France is – and that there’s often not very much in between the towns.

Orientation (for Carl, who likes to know)

We’ve come south to Pontailler down Le Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne – here, if you can read the tiny light-blue script, it’s called by its old name, Canal de la Marne à la Sâone.

Map showing Pontailler-sur-Sâone – we’re heading south via Auxonne to St Jean-de-Losnes

Roy “The Knife”

It wasn’t all quite this peaceful, though. At our only lock today, at Poncey, at the end of a short canal deviation from the Sâone, that very dangerous thing that everyone warns you about happened: Roy’s mooring rope got caught and the boat started to “hang”.

Quick as a flash, he sprang into action! Leaping across the wheelhouse, he got the knife that had been sitting in its box waiting for this very thing to happen, and cut the rope with a loud twang. Cleverly, he cut it near the eye, so we wouldn’t lose the whole rope. All he has to do now, he says, is to “splice another eye*”.

Skipping forward to Roy having masterfully spliced an eye into cut rope

(*Everyone should have one or more things they are totally incapable of doing, lest they find themselves uncomfortably indispensable. Mine used to be answering switchboards; to that, I’ve now added splicing eyes in ropes.)

Pontailler-sur-Sâone

We loved our two nights at Pontailler’s conveniently located Canalous Port. (Canalous, by the way, is the name of a boat hire company, and very nice they look, too.)

Entrance to Canalous Port, Portailler – those are horse-chestnut trees

In the middle of another heatwave, cooking was out of the question, and so we ate our dinner two nights running at the excellent Les Marronniers restaurant – named for the nearby grove of horse-chestnut trees.

Two of the best meals I’ve had this year in France – at Les Marroniers in Pontailler-sur-Sâone

Like most countries, I suppose, France has its share of mediocre eateries; this is not one of them. We had foie gras salad, oefs-en-meurettes and tartiflette pizza on the first night; on the second, chicken supreme for Roy and frogs’ legs in parsley butter for me.

Rather more of these amphibians than I’d expected

Those weren’t very good – I’m going to send them back

Auxonnes

Auxonne mooring – it’s taken me 15 minutes to walk from the boat to this point

Having been ushered to the far end of the visitors’ pontoon by Aussie John the port captain, we were about as far as it was possible to be from the pretty centre ville.

In splendid isolation at the end of the Auxonne port visitors’ pontoon

But it’s better to be away from the row of families closer to shore, moored side-by-side and close enough to smell one another’s farts.

Parfait! – the bigger and shinier, the better

Our bikes came in handy at Auxonne, as we rode them to the big and beautiful Intermarché and its neighbouring Brico – a sort of DIY chain, like the UK’s Horrible Homebase or Oz’s Boring Bunnings*.

(*These are places I avoid in the normal course of events; but I unfortunately managed to drop the action-end of the deck broom into the canal a couple of days ago, and part of my just punishment is sourcing its replacement.)

Auxonne is famous for its association with Napoleon Bonaparte, who did his officer training here

And later, we cycled back to town for dinner at Le Corbeau, said to be the best restaurant in town; and though the food was fine (Roy’s duck breast with mash was excellent; I had the faux filet with frites, a bit dull), I thought the best thing about the place was the waiter. So precious! – I dared not photograph him.

Saint-Dizier to Revènes , 24 June to 4 July

Le Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne: Saint-Dizier, Chevillon, Dongeux/Rouvroy, Viéville/Vraincourt, Chaumont, Foulain, Rolampont, Heuilly-Cotton, Cusey, Fontaine Francaise/Saint Seine, Revène

French lessons, service with a sourire, semi-villages, famine country, Chaumont and the Holy Grail, French Style Police, heroic Henri IV fountain

In case you (like our son Carl) have been wondering exactly where we are – and I know the feeling well! – here are are a couple of maps, boldly nicked from the internet. The red squiggle in the centre of the map of France (left) shows Le Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne, whose 114 locks we’ve just completed, heading from north to south.

We’ve just come down that little red line in the square, the Canal entre Champagne and Bourgogne (CeCB)

… and this is the route of the CeCB in more detail

Reims to Orconte, 17-20 June

Canal de l’Aisne à la Marne, Canal latéral à la Marne, Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne:

Ropy run to Reims, Lynn and Kim for lunch, close but no champagne at Billy-le-Grande, super-chaud in Chaussée, stranded in Orconte

Berry-au-Bac to Sillery port (10km from Reims)

For today’s 14 locks, we’d be experiencing a different automatic lock system – one that’s activated by twisting a perche, or rod, that’s suspended from a gallows-like contraption over the river.