Kerr Barging Blogs

We travelled a short way downstream (North) on the Yonne River so that Tess and Frank could see St Cydroin plus Joigny and also have a fabulous dinner at the Paris Nice Restaurant- one of our favourites and a truly excellent restaurant.Historic town of Auxerre

We then delivered them to the Gare at Migennes, so they did experience 200metres of the Bourgogne (Burgundy) Canal. However, the real reason was to be near a close station for their trip to Paris and then Barcelona.

After that, we set off South along the Yonne and over-nighted at Moneteau, a small village outside Auxerre. We were astonished to meet with our friends Chantal and Christian just before heading to the lock the following morning. They had dropped their grandson at school and then gone for a walk. Seeing an Australian flag on a boat, they investigated and found it was us! What a nice surprise.

We had a speedy trip past Auxerre and ended up in Vincelles. This is the sister village to Vincelottes where we attended our first Vide Grenier of the year and successfully bought a number of French books for our grand daughters (who are studying French at pre-school).

Vincelles, in the Yonne River valley

After Vincelles, we went up the "Vermenton arm" of the canal and stopped at Accolay, just short of Vermenton. This branch of the canal follows the Cure River rather than the Yonne which is followed by the Nivernais. Some year ago, we visited fascinating prehistoric caves at Arcy, on the Cure River.

The Cure River

From Accolay, we backtracked a short distance to the town of Cravant where we stayed an extra day so that Penny could travel up to Paris and spend the day with her sister who was travelling from Jerusalem to Sydney with a longish stopover in Paris. That day was relatively fine in Paris but quite wet in Cravant, so it was g good day not to be travelling on the canal. Indeed a couple of lock keepers mentioned that there were no boats travelling that day.

The Vermenton Branch Canal

After Cravant, we travelled to the picturesque town of Mailly le Chateau which is perched high on a cliff. We visited this fortified town last in 2010. Amazingly, since our last visit here, the authorities have provided free water and electricity for up to 12 boats. But we are the only boat within kilometres. People think that the depressed European economy plus the high cost of rental boats is keeping down the number of visitors. In the peak season, in previous years, there have been 30-40 boats per day passing any particular spot. Many of these are rental boats.

Best Regards,

David and Penelope

Typical Nivernais bridge and lockAttractive wood house in Cravant (built 1380!)Main town gate of Cravant

Guedelon- building the Chateau FortWe have managed to pack a lot of things into the time since we arrived.

As well as performing maintenance work on Anja and getting things out for this year's adventures, we have attended two Vide Greniers, three Markets, done lots of provisioning and taken the boat down and up the river in order to show Tess (daughter #4) and Frank (new son-in-law) something of barge and river life in France. We had an excellent dinner at Paris-Nice in Joigny (what an excellent restaurant!). On Sunday, Tess and Frank caught the train to Paris and then onto Barcelona. There was an accident on one line (delaying that train 2hrs) so they needed to catch a later train with tight connections at Bercy-Gare de Lyon. But, they made it okay.

We had an excellent time visiting Guedelon. This is a Chateau-Fort which is being built using 14th Century techniques. They started in 1995, so construction has been going 20 years with another 20-25yrs until it is finished. It is self-funded by visitors such as ourselves (300,000 per year).

Cutting and dressing the stone

The workers mostly wear the costumes of the time and use all the old techniques. The only concessions to modernity are hard hats (worn under period felt hats) and some safety equipment. Sheep are shorn and the wool spun to make rope. The Blacksmith hand forges the tools and repairs the worn and broken ones. The trees of the forest are felled and cut. Horses and carts and people are used to transport the materials. The clay, chalk and cement are all hand made. The stone is quarried on the site and cut/trimmed by hand. So, work proceeds at a slow but steady pace.

Construction is in an old quarry and there was careful archeological checking to ensure no prehistoric site was being disturbed. We spent a thoroughly enjoyable and educational morning at Guedelon- something we have wanted to do since 2010.

Best Regards,

David and Penny

The happy couple- on Anja at Migennes

Moving stone, mortar, wood, people

Making the ropesMaking a spikeBuilding a high wall

Hello everyone,

We have been very busy until now, so BLOGs are a little behind. We have only been in France 11 days but it feels more like 20 days!

We had an uneventful flight on Singapore Airlines. However, the flight was slow due to very strong headwinds. As a result, David had to run part of the way from Gare de Lyon to Gare de Bercy so as to buy the train tickets in time. Penny arrived as the tickets came out of the machine and we then had two minutes to get settled on the train to Joigny where our rental car awaited. This train was perfectly on time but we had forgotten how long it would take to run 2.2Km to the rental agency (10 minutes was not enough). David suffered tight muscles for several days afterwards.

The manager of the adjoining Renault sales agency was very kind and helpful- he drove David back to the station, picked up Penny and the baqs and then drove us back and stored the bags in his office. He also told us where to find a pleasant, warm and cheap restaurant for lunch.

We purchased our tax stamps (France still uses these fairly quaint objects) and picked up our Titres de Sejour (visas) from the Prefecture. This went very smoothly. Then it was time to check in at Les Chouettes with our good friends Chantal and Christian. It was good to see them again and they were very warm and welcoming as was Vauban the dog who is now feeling the effects of arthritis. We had a wonderful dinner and caught up on the news from each others' families. Chantal served us farcis champignon and wild boar (provided by their son-in-law who is a hunter) with chestnuts plus a variety of other special dishes, cheeses and wines.

Chantal has made her kitchen very modern with a ceiling mounted display screen to show the recipes rather than the 100 or so hard copy recipe books. There is plenty of work for Christian to digitise the traditional recipe books.

There were 28 items on the ANJA "to-do" list and this year, we only had six days rather than our more normal 10-14. Fortunately, the boat yard had done its work (replacing two windows and re-tarring the hull) before our arrival. Our work involved re-varnishing the floor, epoxying the shower recess  (which we repaired last year in the Netherlands due to cracks) with a new surface finish and also adding a new coat of clear epoxy to the kitchen sink to keep it shiny and new. There were also other routine works such as changing the transmission oil and engine filters.

Broken mounting

One more difficult task was jacking up the engine and removing/welding/replacing a broken engine mount. Christian very kindly lent us a variety of jacks and stands to make this possible. The engine mount (shown here) was welded in 2011 but broke in the same place. So this time, we have strengthened it with transverse fillets of steel. Simon from Evans Marine kindly lent us some large spanners to undo big nuts. Since then, we have purchased our own in case we have problems again, but this is unlikely.

Chantal kindly gave us a "care package" of delicious cakes and patisseries each day and fresh eggs to start us on our 2015 travels.We actually finished our tasks early and were able to become tourists for a day. For some years, we had wanted to visit a Chateau Fort called Guedelon and finally made it (more in the next blog).Into the river- the crane is at its limits

Simon craned us into the water last Thursday and this went well. Penny always goes for a walk during this activity as the sight of our large barge swinging in the air is nerve-wracking for her.

Best Regards,
Dave and Penny

The shower base is now shiny white

In less than a week we will be off again to France for 2015 barging adventures.

This year, we are revisiting some of the places travelled in 2010 and 2011. There are always places we have not seen or places that need revisiting.

We will be going on the Burgundy (Bourgogne) and Nivernais canals initially.

Best Regards,
Dave & Penny

We delivered Anja to her winter home on the Yonne River at Migennes without problem. We completed 2,588km this year.

Then it was off to the beautiful St Malo by train where we spent a pleasant day before taking the ferry to Guernsey to visit our latest grandson and his mum.

After Guernsey, we took another ferry to Weymouth, England. We rented a car and travelled for almost 2,000kms visiting Cornwall and other places. David returned to the place (Binbrook) where he lived for two years on the air force base and revisited the school he attended nearby 60 years ago. We also visited the place where his Ridgway ancestors lived prior to the 1800^s and discovered the grave of his great, great, great grandfather who was born in the 1750^s.

We had an uneventful trip home until our arrival in Sydney at the start of a massive storm. We had to circle for 35mins but once we landed were not able to move due to the danger to ground staff. We sat there on the runway for a further one and a half hours. Finally, the Captain gave up and brought the 777 into the gate with no outside assistance.

Immigration was quick, but because of the dangerous conditions, baggage could not be unloaded. So, we spent a further one and a half hours sitting on the side of the baggage carousel. Customs would not let anyone out without their bags and the airport would not let the bags be removed from the 'plane! Finally, Customs gave in and we were allowed out of the airport at midnight without our bags. That was Tuesday night and now, Saturday morning, the bags have still not arrived.

Best Regards,

Dave and Penny