Unexcused Absences

Sunday morning we woke up to a pretty chilly boat, but the heater was back in business courtesy of Pete at the Châtillon-sur-Loire LeBoat base, so all was well! A quick note about our diesel-powered heater, it’s not like a house’s central climate system where you set a temperature, this heater is either on or off, and is meant to be used in short (~1 hr) stretches, so even with a perfectly working heater we still wake up to a boat that is within a few degrees of ambient temperature. Fortunately it acts quickly, and within forty-five minutes is able to purge the cold autumn air from the boat.

Sunday morning about 10km west of Nevers

We left our mooring early, because we wanted as much time as possible in Nevers, a medium-sized city, but our schedule limited us to a one night stop. The Canal du Nivernais closed on October 23, and we needed to be back in Baye for our hivernage (wintering) spot at the Aqua Fluvial chantier (boatyard). We arrived in the marina at the end of a short branch canal by mid morning, and immediately met our boat neighbors, an older French couple onboard a former charter boat, Jodi. Nicole and her husband live part-time on their boat and part-time in their big house (J’ai soulevé neuf enfants – I raised nine kids!), and they keep the marina supplied with baskets of fresh vegetables from their garden. Nicole was so helpful, telling us where to go and what to see in Nevers, she even got us set up with the laundry in the marina office because the marina manager was out for a few days.

Port in Nevers, including "Excargot", a boat belonging to an ex-British-now-American who lives in France

The port at Nevers is unique in our experience, because most of the full-timers we met there were either American or French, with a scattering of Brits. The majority of canal boaters we’ve encountered have been Australian, Dutch, or British, with very few French living on their own canals, so this marina definitely stands out. For visitors, the port is something of a split personality; it’s convenient to the main Loire Canal, but is a good couple kilometers from the Nevers city center. By the docks is an attractive space with trees and a park, but across the water is an abandoned industrial area. The port, at least on paper, offers the usual services (water, electricity, toilets, showers, laundry), but the port captain is rarely around to sell tokens for those services – and the laundry machines were distinctly balky devices. But overall its advantages outweigh the minuses – let’s give it three out of five stars.

Cathédrale de Saint Cyr-Sainte Julitte

Nevers in various forms has been around for a very long time, with records showing occupation of the area from well before the year one, and Julius Caesar made the town (called Noviodunum at that point) his western headquarters in 52 BC. By the 5th century the town (now called Nevirnum) was the seat of a bishop. The most interesting sight in the old city is the cathedral, which at first glance resembles your standard French gothic cathedral. On closer inspection, the structure is actually two buildings, with the western apse and transept the remains of an old Romanesque church, and the eastern nave and apse in Gothic style dating from the 14th century. And yes, you read it right, the cathedral has an apse at both ends! A second look at the stained glass shows a thoroughly modern design, in what appears to be a 1950’s/1960’s abstract. And inside, the main east-west axis of the building isn’t quite straight; there’s a distinct kink in the roofline two-thirds of the way towards the altar. Later, we found the answer to these oddities; the British accidentally bombed the church during a raid in 1944, and the roof and all the stained glass was destroyed, as was the whole eastern altar/choir section. The building was painstakingly rebuilt over the next 15 years, which explains the modern stained glass design, but we’re not quite sure why the rebuild also introduced the bend in the roof. Overall, a striking structure.

Nevers skyline

Nevers also has a great pedestrian shopping area, where Favorite Wife satisfied her craving for lèche-vitrine (loose translation – “window shopping” – but literally meaning “licking the window”), and where we found a kebab stand, I belive our first kebabs since the city of Sens on the Yonne River many weeks ago. One night was all we could stay, though, so after lunch on Monday we set off again, as we needed to get within two hours of Decize by evening. We had a beautiful drive through the middle Loire Canal, and began to encounter fields of grazing white Charolais cattle we had last seen in the northern Nivernais. As we arrived at the last lock below our parking spot in tiny Fleury-sur-Loire late afternoon, a car loaded with tough-looking athletic guys drove by, but we didn’t give them a second thought until we found our mooring spot for the night. And at that point the evening became one that we will remember forever.

Late afternoon arrival in Fleury-sur-Loire

The only spot on the quay was right next to a picnic table, and as we pulled in we couldn’t help notice that the same car full of guys (all in black track suits, mafia-style!) was parked next to the picnic table, and the guys were unloading boxes and boxes of food. We were more than a little apprehensive, as from all indications the very best we could hope for was a loud, late-night party, while the other end of the spectrum didn’t even bear thinking about. Still, we were committed; the locks were closed, and this was the only place to park. Might as well make the best of it.

Campfire building with the Georgians

We had discovered from the last lockkeeper that the local boulangerie would not open until the next morning, so we were baguette-less for happy hour. I noticed that the guys by this time had unloaded a pile of at least a dozen baguettes onto the picnic table, so I put some euros in my pocket and hesitantly approached the group, hoping to say a quick bon soir and maybe buy one of their baguettes. I greeted them with something like, “alors, etes-vous un equip sportif” (well then, are you an athletic team?), and they laughed, and said that yes, they were, two were soccer players (one from the French national junior team) and two were rugby players. We exchanged where are you from’s, and I soon discovered they were from Georgia (not our Georgia, of course, but from the former Soviet Union), and that it was Alexander’s birthday (one of the rugby players), and that they were all in France on contracts with various sport teams. They insisted that I join them for a glass of wine, so I went and got Heather from the boat and we threw together a cheese plate (still hoping to score a baguette) and sat down with them.

Picnic dinner

People with absolutely nothing in common are interesting creatures; we speak basic French and no Russian. They spoke basic French and no English. And yet we all had a wonderful time, conversing in halting French. They were very curious about what it was like to live on a boat, and what it was like to live in America, and we were equally curious how a bunch of Georgian athletes, born behind the iron curtain, had wound up in a small city in central France (they were all living in Nevers). As we talked, one of them got a bonfire going, while the birthday boy (Alexander) prepared skewer after skewer of marinated pork (oil, onion, salt and pepper), and then set to work wrapping a couple dozen fish individually in foil with lemon, onion, and salt. Another carload of Georgians showed up, and everyone insisted that we join them for dinner. Heather, thinking on her feet, made an excuse to go back to the boat and secretly put together an apple-cinnamon cake and threw it in the oven to bake.

Bonfire

One of the newcomers (David) introduced himself and said that he was very happy to meet us because he had not practiced his English in years. His hobby is language, of all things, so in addition to his native tongues of Georgian and Russian, he speaks Armenian, German, Italian, English, and is in the process of learning Chinese! David was able to fill us in on some of the subtlety we had missed earlier because of the language barrier. Everything was simply fantastic; we were all gathered around a bonfire on a cool autumn evening at a picnic area in a tiny village in central France, drinking wine, swapping stories, and being treated to some truly delicious hospitality by a contingent of eastern European professional athletes. Both the fish and the pork were simply spectacular. And when Heather brought out the cake, straight from the oven, they were in turn amazed by her ability to make a cake on short notice, on a boat no less. They spontaneously broke into “Happy Birthday” for Alexander – in English! We also gave him one of our American flags, which he was very happy to receive. A truly amazing experience all around.

Morning on the Loire Canal

Tuesday morning was back to reality, we drove the last stretch into Decize and tied up at the LeBoat base late morning. I had a few minor boat questions to ask them, and I had to take a train back to Nevers to rent the car that will give us local transportation around our winter spot in Baye, and also give us our ride to Paris for our flight home. We found a new Intermarche a short walk from the port, complete with laverie automatique (laundromat), so Heather was able to run some laundry while I rented and returned with the car. There is also a fancy new private marina being built next to the LeBoat base, so Decize may just be a candidate for a future wintering spot. The town is very convenient, with train service, good provisioning, and its location at the southern end of the Nivernais and the middle of the Loire Canals. From here we can go north to Auxerre, west to Nevers and the Loire/Briare/Loing Canals, or south-east to Digoin and the Canal du Centre and beyond to Alsace/Lorraine.

Eastbound on the southern Nivernais Canal

Same moment in time, different view

Cercy-la-Tour, east of Decize

Wednesday we had a long, six-hour drive ahead of us, and I had to bring the car along with a combination of driving along the canal towpath (with our roving lockkeeper) and using my velo (bike) to shuttle between car and boat. Complicated, but we worked out a system. And Favorite Wife finally had to drive the boat by herself in the locks, something she had been resisting up to this point, but she turned out to be a natural at the helm. We spent the night moored at a closed campground in Panneçot, but for some reason they hadn’t yet turned off the electricity, which was a welcome bonus.

Morning mist, écluse de Saigne

Thursday morning we woke up to heavy, soaking fog. We had to press on, though, our travel schedule was more complicated now that we had the car. With the canal only a few days from closing for the season, we’d been the only boat in motion for the past couple days, so it was a bit of a shock to pull slowly out of the mooring area at Panneçcot and suddenly see the bow of a large boat materialize out of the mist! No harm, but it was quite a surprise. Traveling in the fog is surreal; normal colors (green of the shrubs and grass, gray stone of the locks and bridges) are muted, which somehow seems to make the red and yellow autumn leaves stand out even more. This is already an incredibly scenic stretch of canal, and the mist made it jaw-dropping. The sun came out right around lunchtime, so we took the opportunity for a nice bike ride back to Panneçot to pick up the car and bring it forward to Châtillon-en-Bazois.

Moored in Châtillon-en-Bazois

Châtillon is a very scenic town, with free water and electric provided by the municipality. A large chateau looms over a hairpin bend in the canal, right in the center of town. There’s also a delicious boulangerie (ride or walk due east from the canal bridge until the road bends left, the bakery is on the right). Not quite good enough to make the top five in France, but very tasty nonetheless.

Frozen boat-hook

Friday morning was more fog, although this one was close to the water, so in the bright sunshine overhead we set out headed north for our final day of canal travel this trip. Oh, and one more thing – when we woke up the deck was covered in ice! The temperature overnight was below freezing, so there was a nice layer of frost on everything. Good thing we had two comforters and two wool blankets on board. It’s always a heart-in-throat moment when we turn on the Webasto heater on cold mornings, because it only seems to come on about 85% of the time. Fortunately, though, this morning the heater was in a good mood and got our un-insulated boat to a manageable temperature.

More mist at écluse d'Anizy

I drove the car by road to the first lock, and Heather arrived about 15 minutes later in Après Ski. From the ridge the view was amazing, bright sunny blue sky with a layer of mist in the low area around the canal. Unfortunately I had no time to stop and take a picture as I was following our lockkeeper through twisty back roads. At noon I drove the car all the way to Baye, then road the bike about 40 minutes back to meet Heather for lunch below a five-lock staircase. The stretch of Nivernais Canal between Châtillon-en-Bazois and Baye is possibly the most beautiful stretch of waterway anywhere. We arrived at Aqua Fluvial in the late afternoon and arranged with Michel to crane us onto land Monday. In the meantime we had one full day and one half day of boat projects and winterizing to do, and we devoted Sunday morning to watching the France vs. New Zealand Rugby World Cup final, which France lost in a nail-biter.

Village de Bazolles

Near Bazolles

A very low bridge

Stork migration

One other interesting thing from this week, for several evenings straight we witnessed the amazing sight of the stork migration from Scandanavia to Spain and north Africa. The first evening, while still driving the boat, we heard what sounded like hundreds of geese, but we couldn’t see where they were; the sound was all around us. Then I glanced up and saw not hundreds, but thousands of big birds WAY up in the air, loosely arranged in V formations, honking loudly, and heading southwest. It’s hard to imagine what they could possibly be saying to each other; “Hey, I’m flying!” … “Wow, I’m flying too!” … “Eeeewww, just swallowed a bug”. The flock stretched literally to the horizon. For several evenings after that, about an hour before sunset, we first heard and then saw the continuation of this annual event.

So this is it, the end of our first year of boat ownership. Après Ski is now safely up on land with engine and other systems winterized for the coming months, and we’ll tidy her up and then head for back, as they say in Nova Scotia. We’ll continue to post here at unexcusedabsences.com, we’ve got a few more adventures in store for 2011 before we return to France next May for more cruising on the canals of Burgundy!

Fall 2011 Week 6 Numbers:

• Kilometers: 118
• Locks: 42
• Engine Hours: 23
• Cost of Moorings: 0 euros

Fall 2011 Total Numbers:

• Kilometers: 547
• Locks: 221
• Engine Hours: 120
• Cost of Moorings: 79.30 euros

Arriving back in Baye to complete our loop

Marina in Baye

Near Cercy-la-Tour

Frosted flowers in Chatillon

Just south of Baye on the Nivernais

Fall 2011 Week 6 History