After a pleasant evening before with Charlotte and Ted, on August 3rd I departed for Tonnerre. With only six locks to go, I was in Tonnerre by 1:30 PM, tied up behind an old converted sailing barge. The real issue to be faced, or simply dealt with, was a forecast for extraordinarily high temperatures over the next few days. It seemed to make sense to sit for a day or two.
The barge ahead of me was an example of some of the remarkable ways in which the old barges have been converted. As a sailing barge, it had it’s mast lying down. The original hold had been converted to living spaces, but without modifying the original covers to the hold. Instead, weather permitting, they simply removed selective hold covers and opened the living space beneath it to the open sky.
A bike trip (and walking uphill return) to the large E Lecleric on the edge of town to stock up on groceries, fluids, and a replacement bike tire tube. As an aside, the visits to the large grocery stores in France is an adventure, even for an American accustomed to the choices available at local US stores. The array of fresh seafoods, vegetables, and different meats and sausages is remarkable. One key is learning to pick out vegetables and fruits, then measure them at the scale locate there, guided by pictures, to generate a pricing label for your order. In the seafood area, the wide and reasonably priced selection of Salmon cuts became a staple choice for dinner. Another staple was Orangina, a cross between Orange juice and ginger ale, a mix certain to cut the heat, refresh ones energy, all while keeping up your Vitamin C intake!
Ferrous had pulled in an hour or two behind me, mooring several slots ahead. Ted and Charlotte continued their hospitality, inviting me to join them one evening for fruit, cheese, crackers and wine. We talked about many things, and found a common interest in certain topics, with me sharing the titles to several meaningful books I had read recently.
The second day, I simply tried to remain cool. I wandered town a bit, thought about trying one of the local restaurants but ultimately elected to avoid the walk into town and eat at the boat. Instead, knowing the end of my trip lie shortly ahead of me, I spent time refreshing myself on end of the year prep to leave the boat, including such fun things as oil changes, introducing antifreeze for water in the boat’s sytems, and leaving the battery and electrical systems set in the proper manner. The end of my trip was approaching, and I needed to be ready.
On August 5 I left Tonnerre and Ferrous behind and headed to Flogny. This is a rural mooring, and I found I had it entirely to myself. Ironically, I awoke in the middle of the night and lay in bed with some apprehension. The cause of my concern? It was simply too quiet, a quiet that I was unfamiliar with, and which caused me to get up and look around, simply to reassure myself. At times, the quiet I found on the canals was simply too quiet, that irony not being lost on me!
August 6, I departed for St. Florentine, only getting several hundred yards before waiting for the eclusier. It turned out there were two boats locking up in the two closely placed locks that lay ahead of me. Just as I had decided to reverse to my original mooring, the eclusier came along on their motorbike. They informed me of the situation and, with the passing of the two boats headed upsteam, my path to St. Florentine was opened to me. By 2:10 in the afternoon, I was safely moored at St. Florentine, noting as I did that the port was quite full, but that’s a story for next time.