Unexcused Absences France 2013 - Week2 Recap (he said)

France 2013 – Week2 Recap (he said)

by Kent 2 Jun 2013

A quick look at the “numbers” section at the bottom of this post should tell the tale; we have been “stuck” in Clamecy for a second week. Of course being “stuck” in a beautiful historic town in rural Burgundy with a fun market, great boulangerie, a nice wine merchant, free moorings and a tasty kebab stand isn’t too much of a tragedy, so don’t break out the tiny violins for us just yet.

A (rare) sunny moment in Clamecy

The cause of the delay is the continued rain throughout France. Because the canals sometimes share space with the rivers, a flood can shut down sections of the canal. At Clamecy, just past lock 47, the canal enters the Yonne River, which has been flooded for a couple weeks. And so we (and Après Ski) wait.

Place de l’église, Clamecy

Our week was quite productive, though. Heather put in quite a few hours of work on the big website we’re building for our client in the Bahamas, and I got some other work and reading done. I also took some time to go out and snap photos, and in general we had a very relaxing week with no schedule or itinerary to maintain.

By far the highlight of the week was the Wednesday visit by our friends Marie-Hélène and Christian, who we met while we were cruising the Briare Canal in October, 2011. They live in the southern suburbs of Paris and spend summers aboard their river cruiser, Wisdom. We were hoping to rendezvous with them on the Seine River in early June, but because of all the closures (the Seine is also currently closed to small boat traffic), they kindly offered to drive down to see us in Clamecy.

Chateau de Bazoches

We had a proper French lunch (sit down, bottle of local wine, delicious meal) up in the main square at La Vieille Rome, an Italian place we have visited before. After lunch they offered to drive us over to Château de Bazoches, the home of the famous French military engineer Maréchal Vauban. During the rein of Louis XIV Vauban quite literally wrote the book on both securing fortresses against attack and in laying siege to enemy forts. He was truly a prodigy; by his 27th birthday he had participated in or directed ten sieges with distinction. By the time he was 30, he had directed another three big sieges such that he received a promotion to colonel.

A unique church

While he is mainly famous these days for designing fortresses and fortified towns throughout France, his greatest renown during his life was as an architect of methods of attack against strongholds. His systematic approach was so well thought-out and documented that his methods remained relevant from the mid 17th century right up to the dawn of the 20th century. He was most certainly not an under-achiever; during the last 40 years of his life he upgraded the fortifications of close to 300 cities, and directed the building of 37 new fortresses.

A close second to our Wednesday rendezvous was a surprise visit by Bruce, of the barge Rival. We were enjoying a rare moment of good weather late one afternoon, sitting on our upper deck, when a car pulled into port. The driver looked at us and did a double-take; Bruce had just arrived from Seattle that day and was driving to his boat, located another hour or so south of Clamecy. He had driven into the port to see what the situation was with the flooding, and there we were! His wife Yerda was planning to join him in a couple weeks for their summer cruise, and he had arrived early to begin de-wintering their boat. Heather cooked up a dinner and we had a fun time catching up since we had parted ways last October on the Loire Canal. The floating village is filling with its summer residents!

Saturday saw the arrival of my father, who showed up on time at the train station in Clamecy for a nine day visit. Unless a miracle occurs and the canal opens to our north Sunday morning, we will turn south at the start of Week 3 and see where the open canals take us.

France 2013 Week 2 Numbers: