We had a reasonably uneventful cruise up the Rhone from Lyon to H2O’s old lock mooring taking about 5 days. However, we did have an altercation with a fisherman when we reached Tournus.
There was space on the quay behind a large barge called Baron d’Ecluse, which at first we assumed to be a hotel barge, but right in the middle of this empty quay was a fisherman. There was a space on the quay ahead of Baron d’Ecluse, but we knew it to be the mooring for the trip boat which was coming up behind us, so we asked the fisherman to move as we were mooring up. He absolutely flatly refused to move, telling us to moor here and there, on the finger pontoons (impossible as limited to 15m and 20 tonnes) on the passenger boat mooring (no). Eventually we managed to alert the captain of Baron d’Ecluse and seeing our problem, he suggested we moor on them, which we gratefully did.
But, who do these fishermen think they are? God Almighty or something? Surely the quays were built for boats, not fishing? A perennial problem.
Once safely moored Louise rang Tourist Information in Tournus to alert them to the problem. They said it was a police matter and they would pass it on. We took a photo of the fisherman and his van and emailed both to the TIO. Then, blow me down!, if 10 minutes later the bugger started to pack up and leave!
However, despite this unpleasant encounter, our overnight stay alongside Baron d’Ecluse was peaceful and pleasant. We arrived at H2O and the old lock in good time and went to suss the trains at the local station for our journey to collect the car: a lot more trains are now available at Saint Jean-de-Losne than there used to be which meant planning our itinerary was much easier.
Alex decided we would pay full price for the ticket to Dijon and try to persuade the ticket-seller at Dijon to give us an ‘old age’ discount for the rest of the journey to Moissac where we had left the car. We’ve often found that a discount has been given despite our not having a Senior Travel Card so it would be worth a try.
We arrived at Dijon in good time (7.30am) only to discover that the ticket office didn’t open till 9.00 am and our next onward train was at 9.20.
We looked at buying tickets on the automatic ticket machine to see what sort of price it was going to be and Hey! What’s this? ALL the trains for today and the next two days were fully booked! Not a single ticket to be had.
We then found ONE multi-ticket for Thursday’s journey which Alex immediately bought and then waited for the ticket office to open to see if they could help by finding matching tickets for Louise, otherwise it would have been a long journey AND a night in a hotel (alone) for Alex. And yes, the young man came up trumps. Louise could do the first of the three legs first class and the other two trains second class for an extra €30. OK, but we would be travelling in different coaches never mind not in seats together for the whole first two legs – 3½ hours then 2½ hours. The last 20 minutes from Montauban to Moissac was in a local train, where seats were free.
And of course we had to change our overnight booking near Moissac and our ferry booking for a later one as well. What a palaver!
Yes, we should have booked in advance as it was the French holiday season, but we have never had this problem before even at the same time of year. We think it has to be the staycation effect of Covid.
However, on the Thursday all went well and after 4 trains we got to Moissac around 5 o’clock and thankfully when Alex got to the car (leaving Louise at the station with our haversacks) it started OK: in fact, there was a very faded note on the driver’s door asking if we wanted to sell it!
And then, when we opened the boot to throw the luggage in, there was the remains of a cucumber!
Well, we had done an extensive shop at Moissac before setting off some months previously but on reaching Toulouse, we realised that we had ‘mislaid’ said cucumber, even though it was on our till receipt. So Alex had a bright idea and rang friends still on a boat in Moissac and asked them to check the boot with the hidden spare key and if it was there to help themselves (rather than have it putrefy in the heat of the car boot while we were away).
But for some reason they couldn’t find it, so we had to assume we must have left it in the shop. Thankfully, it hadn’t putrefied and attracted swarms of flies as we had expected: it had just dessicated, shrunk and turned yellow. We can only think it must have been hiding under the roof bars we keep in the boot.
We got to our hotel for the night at about 7 o’clock making it a 12 hour day of travel. The next day we returned to H2O and the following one home. And after all the lorry problems a week or so before, which we’d seen on the internet, the ferry was virtually empty, as indeed was Dover port when we arrived.
We returned to the barge after a 5½ week break in the UK, but when we consulted VNF and our PC Navigo program we learned that as a result of the drought and/or weed, each of the routes we had hoped to take north are closed for one reason or another so there is no chance of getting to Seneffe before the year end: we would just have to winter in St Jean De Losne.
At first we were moored on our own bank-side place - nice shady spot after 4pm!
Shady spot under trees for boat and car
But then we were told we'd have to move before September 9th as, because of the difficulties many boats were having getting north, many more were expected into the old lock. Thus, we'd be moored outside a 38 metre barge - TELEMAK whose deck is like the deck of an aircraft carrier!!
Close to the old lock is this enormous grain silo quay which loads 80m barges
On one of our day trips in the car from Saint Jean we followed the old natural line of the river at Seurre - nowadays boats take a man-made 'derivation'. That leaves this lovely port of Le Chatelet 'up a blind alley' and as the river is rather shallow over its 5 kilometres - no chance for RICCALL!
The air con is still being problematical but at last we have managed to arrange for some engineers to look at it and they say there is a leak on the internal wall unit which is irreparable. So - take out the wall unit and hope to buy a new one when we get back to the UK. This air con is proving to be very expensive!!
Added to that, Alex has a problem with a tooth, so we are cutting this visit short to return to the UK again to have it sorted.
What a year!!
Here are the stats for this year:
Kilometres 1137
Locks 206
Bridges 2
