Getting going…..

Sunday 19th April

Firstly I must apologise to you all for taking so long to blog again …… not all ‘bone crippling idleness’, only partly so, but also because we have been very busy preparing Piedaleau for the off and because internet access is very variable!

Enough excuses, I hear you cry!

We enjoyed Easter at home with assembled children – egg hunt in the meadow and egg and spoon races!

We’ve decided next year to plan a bigger event – weather permitting of course!

So we finally set orf for France last Tuesday (14th) and promptly managed to miss the ferry by a gnat’s whisker! Air was a little blue to say the least!

Anyway we arrived quite late but still managed to empty one very full car ….. been trying to rationalize and store everything ever since. Quarts and pint pots come to mind………

The weather has been variable : from brilliant sunshine to wet, cold and windy. Still we enjoyed seeing the wild flowers on the bank beside the mooring and hearing lots of birdsong – especially the cuckoo – not so keen on the frogs!

We have, of course spent some time at Cascarot, dining in style with Elizabeth and David. Even had a couple of take out samples today as we started our long journey to Migennes and the boat reparations.

David has been busy redoing and improving the woodwork on the top of the boat. It looks sooo much better. Unfortunately we are finding more and more issues that need to be addressed because of cheapo & crappy workmanship in the build. ‘Larry the Lamb’ (whom we bought it from), has been renamed ‘Shuffle bum’, or ‘bullshitter anonymous’ depending on how kind we are feeling!

The latest Larry bullshit has resulted in us being ‘evicted’ from the mooring at Blanquarts at St Jean de Losne! He told us that Blanquarts had agreed we could keep the mooring. Blanquarts said they told him we could only stay til the season started and had allocated it to someone else from end April when they understood we would leave. They knew we have to go to Migennes and took that for our leave date! We weren’t really sure if we wanted to pay to retain the mooring or not – decision made for us! So, we are homeless! or should I say portless? Water gypsies / continuous cruisers!

We are therefore looking for a nice place that we can spend the winter. Would love to be in Paris but they have a waiting list so we are looking down towards Macon on the Saone. We’ll see!

We had intended leaving yesterday but, as often happens, things got in the way …… and then the wind got up ……. so we went to Cascarot for dinner again!

Finally set off at this morning – covered about 18kms and 12 locks. Piedaleau handles totally differently to Misty Morning. Still, practice makes perfect and all that. We’ve decided that Adrian will do the driving for now so that he can get the drop of it. Then, in time, he can teach moi! Bit worried about that but hey ho!

We have to go the full length of the Canal du Bourgogne – all 242 kms and 189 locks! And we are reliant on eclusiers the whole way, so have to ‘book’ our trip each evening for the following day.

The weather has been superb today, became very sunny and warm so that we were to eat our dinner on the deck for the first time. The view down the canal through the back window is pretty special!

Author: mistyjf

I have been boating in Europe since 2009 when I shipped Misty Morning to France. Time & life move on! Adrian, my new partner, & I bought Piedaleau in 2015 to continue and expand our European boating adventures. View all posts by mistyjf