Stranded in Montargis!

While we continue to sit in Montargis we haven't wasted any time.  Having a car has allowed us to venture out and continue exploring the area around us.

This month is Gatronomie dans le Montargois.  Many of the restaurants have price fixed meals that include wine.  Our first restaurant was Oh Terroir recommended by a couple of people.  Tom loved his meal.  I was less than impressed.  Presentation was beautiful but my salmon wrapped in phyllo was tired.  Here they placed a piece of foie gras mason on top of a piece of waffle. An interesting concept though not completely successful in my mind.  Wine was served with every course.  Again, not worth the calories.  I would have rather ordered a bottle of good wine and spent a little more.  Tonight we try another recommendation.

We continued to explore the Chateaux in the surrounding areas.

Here you see Chateau de la Ferte Saint-Aubin.  It is currently lived in by its eight family.  The current owners bought this castle in very poor condition in 1987.  The building you see on the right had a devastating fire destroying the roof and interior before the new owners took over.  The owners Catherine and Jacques Guyot must have had a tremendous amount of money when they purchased their present home.  I'd love to know their background as they were quite young when they acquired it.  They have furnished 10 rooms thus far for guests to view.  On the left the stables have been restored.  There is a beautiful saddle room with one of the finest collections of harnesses in France.  Some of the harnesses on display were designed by the renowned Parisian saddle-maker Hermes.

Here in the restored stables guests can practice their skill in archery.  Tom did better than me.

The classroom

 The park covers 80 acres and the chateau is listed as a historic building.  You can see the Chapel Island  behind the trees.  Because it is unsafe guests are not allowed to visit.

What you can see are the stables, guardroom or games room, the castle attic with an amazing collection of old tools, the entrance hall, sitting room, billiard room, some bedrooms, dining room, and areas that give you an idea of the magnitude of the project the owners have undertaken as well as progress made to date.

We needed to do something besides visit Chaetaux even though they are all unique and interesting.  Tom wanted to visit the town Orleans.  It is a fully renovated old town with a preserved pedestrianized medieval area where we can see colorful wooden buildings and other excellent examples of old construction.  My first reaction was "Oh Good, antique shops!"  The tourism office informed me they had no antique shops any longer in town.  They had all closed.  Tom thought he lucked out.  He hates shopping and wanted to spend his time enjoying the atmosphere of this old town.

St Joan of Arc is the heroine who saved Orleans on May 8, 1492.  She is considered a very important person and is honored with a chapel dedicated just to her.

This is the street leading to the Holy Cross Cathedral, Orleans.  Truly breathtaking!  This picture doesn't do justice to the immense size of the cathedral.  The stained glass windows I found quite unusual.  There are ten stained glass scenes portraying the main episodes in the life of Joan of Arc.  Other windows are dedicated to the history of the city and its cathedral.

I was excited to walk around the back of the cathedral and find what I thought was a Jewish synagogue.  Unfortunately this facade is all that is left with no explanation as to its history.

When we came to the pedestrian area I wanted to go left down to the end of the street rather than start in the middle.  I didn't want to miss anything of this charming town. I scored!  I found an antique shop! It was open!  I now have my secretary, a place to store my things, my own place to work.  Purchasing this piece was challenging.  The owner didn't speak any English.  Our French certainly didn't meet the needs of the day.  The owner talked up a storm extolling the merits of the piece I liked.  He spoke rapidly.  We just nodded a lot.  We asked the price…we left!  We returned. We bargained.  We drove away.  I called with my final price.  He returned my call and wanted cash.  Deal!  The next day we drove over an hour back to Orleans to pick up my new desk.  He didn't have two working keys.  Could we come back next week?  Another 2 1/2 hours of driving?  Not likely.  With great effort over an hours time he made a key from another piece fit.  Antique de la Prefecture.  The owner is David.  It was a tiny shop and every piece in it was beautiful, but overpriced.  We drove a hard bargain.  David is very nice.

I believe I mentioned last year that the French are passionate about their fishing.  We see all ages, shapes and sizes fishing, no matter what the weather.  The prize went to a man with 8 fishing poles in the canal at once.  They all have their own style of fishing.  We had never seen this before: a space reserved for handicapped fishermen.

This is my last painting for the season.  It was hard to photograph because of the glare so I'm afraid a lot of detail is missing.  At least you can get the idea.  I can't wait for it to dry so I can stitch it.

Hunters or Gatherers?

We are continually amazed at the differences between the U.S. and France.  The River Seine is an extremely important thoroughfare!  Not only is it used for pleasure craft (such as ourselves), but it plays an important role in commerce.  The river is filled with commercial barges transporting goods all thru Europe, bringing supplies (grain, sand and gravel, scrap steel, etc) to and from as well as thru Paris.  Then there are the hotel barges also going into Paris.  The only way these large vessels can move thru Paris is on the River Seine.  Consider it the 101 and 405 freeways of France!  Yes, you can avoid Paris, but only by adding 6 weeks of travel to your schedule.  When we heard that the Canal du Loing and Seine (to get in and out of the southern end of Paris) were to be closed for the month of September, we weren't pleased but decided we could deal with it. We only had to slightly modify our schedule.  When we arrived in Montargis, we thought we would only have to wait a few days and then head for Paris.  We soon found out there were many more boats here with the same idea.  Unfortunately, this being France and the VNF, the organization that controls the waterways, decided to keep the Seine closed thru the end of October (or possibly even longer)!  Why the work couldn't have been done off season is beyond me.  Worse, the canal we are sitting in closes mid November.  We do not want to winter in Montargis!  We have been chatting with the various hotel barge owners.  They are all scrambling to change their schedules, keep guests happy, and figure out where to put their boats for the winter.  As we tell our friends who join us on Rabelo, you must be flexible.  That goes for us as well.  My dream of spending 2-3 days in Paris sank.  The good news is we still have plenty of wine to drink and cheese and baguettes to munch on.  It's a tough life but that's what suffering on Rabelo is all about.

Marketing in a foreign country can be challenging, and not speaking the language makes it that much harder.  I needed butter for my apple crisp.  I spent at least 10 minutes trying to figure out what butter was right for baking.  I have never seen such a large selection of butter to choose from.  They have butter made from pasteurized creme fraiche, spreadable butter, with no salt, a little salt and more salt.  Butter for baking and butter for eating.  Needless to say I was very confused and unable to ask for advice.  Where was Tom during this?  He went on a wild goose chase trying to track down wax paper for me.  In the end, I was successful, he wasn't and friends will bring me the was paper I need.

I think some of us are programmed to be hunters and others gatherers.  Tom and I are both.  We love hunting for fruit that we can gather.

After docking the boat we took a bag and a long stick back to where we had seen apple trees along the canal.  So far I've baked apples and made apple crisp.  It's almost time to try my hand at tart tatin.

It's fall and I need to share some of the views we see during our walks.  We wonder sometimes how some buildings remain standing.

Canal de Briare

We wandered thru the town of Rogny.  Tom wondered at the disrepair of the town.  Looking closely at the dates above some of the front doors we could understand thee buildings looking a little tired.

Yes the sign 1585 is the year one of the buildings was constructed!

Another building was 1781

I wanted to see what was behind the old church.  The Leaning Tower of Pisa has nothing on this guy.

People were a little shorter back in the old days.  But 5 foot doorways?  Check out the carvings on this building.

Some people go to great effort to make their recluse (lock) look nice.

The main attraction in Rogny is the 7 ecluses which have been shut down and replaced with 6 new ones.  Here they are from the bottom looking up.  Construction started on these in 1605.

Here we are looking down towards the Canal de Briare.  Rather than turn these into swimming pools they are a tourist attraction.

The view from Rabelo when we were tied up in Rogny.

With fall upon us the trees are starting to gently drop their leaves leaving a blanket over the canal.

Those Noisy Ducks

Nevers was a great town to visit with many tourist attractions.

Cathedrale Saint-Cyr-et Ste Julitte is a vast basilica with styles from the 10C to the 16C.  The exterior has pillars, flying buttresses and pinnacles. The Cathedrale was badly damaged in WWII and since then reconstructed.

The stained glass windows have been designed by 5 contemporary artists.  I was amazed at how modern and different each section of the stained glass windows were.

Another style.

Occasionally an old lock is abandoned.  What do you do with this now unused area?  Someone decided to turn this lock into 5 consecutive swimming pools, a jacuzzi and huge water slide. Unfortunately, there didn't appear to be the population or enough money to keep them going.

We made a brief stop in Merseilles-les-Aubigny.  We strolled the whole town, took pictures, ate pears off an old tree and it took all of 20 minutes.  There were a large number of old barges in various states of disrepair, or the beginnings of conversions into future homes such as ours.

 They had painted bicycles around the town.

I found these guys on the lawn by the canal.

We took the car off Rabelo in Merseilles to pick up my Aunt Mac in Paris.  She was patiently waiting in the lobby of a hotel.  We spent an hour driving in circles around Paris trying to find her.  That is the last time we drive in Paris!

Once we had Aunt Mac on board Rabelo it was time to make tracks.  We had the occasional delay.  A lock keeper was selling wine!  I had to buy some.  I wish I had bought more.  It was good.

Merseilles was so small there had been no place to buy a baguette.  We were out of bread.  Tragedy!  Look!  There is a boulangerie.  Pull over Tom!  I need to buy a baguette for lunch and maybe a little dessert to go with dinner.  I promise to hurry.

Le Pont Canal

 In order to enter the town of Briare we had to cross Le Pont Canal which is the longest bridge in Europe.  It is 2515 feet long.  This bridge took us over the Loire River.  It is made of metal and was designed with the help of Eiffel.  You may recognize the name from the Eiffel Tower.  He was a busy engineer.  It was built from 1890 to 1894 and was a major tourist attraction for the town of Briare.

I forgot to close the blinds in the boat.  People were peering in thru the windows to see what life was like inside Rabelo.

My 82 year old aunt climbed down the ladder in order to walk across the bridge and take pictures.  The tourists were very impressed with her and she got a lot of thumbs up.  She had us impressed as well.

Saint-Etienne Church

Saint-Etienne Church is a dominant sight throughout the town.  It was built between 1890 and 1895 after 30 years of discussions.  The style is romanesque-byzantine.   All around the church both inside and out are friezes of mosaics representing flowers, and swirls symbolizing the Loire and the canals.  The town has been making mosaics and enamels since 1851 when the factory was founded.

An example of the outside mosaic.

A small portion of the floor inside showing the flowers and water.  the entire floor inside is covered with mosaics.

 Once we were tied up in Briare it was time to go sight seeing.  There are still so many chateau to visit.  We decided to see La Busserie, Le Chateau des Pecheurs.

This castle has been continuously inhabited for the past eight centuries.  The castle has a unique collection of fishing artifacts.

This is a taste of how they live.

The best part of the chateau were the gardens which occupy 3.7 acres!  It was intended to feed a household of about 50 people.  I got to pick tomatoes for dinner (and the price was very reasonable).  I had never seen gourds and watermelons growing on trellises.

We also picked raspberries which I used to make preserves.

 I found this guy outside the chateau.

Briare is a charming town with artwork and flowers everywhere.

It is very picturesque.

Berry Picking

Digoin was a town we passed thru,  We ran across this unusual church.  Unfortunately we couldn't find anything written about it.

Digoin Church

We found the interior to be rather unusual.

Detail above the entrance to the church.

Cruising along the canals we found this cute garden.  You have to keep your eyes open and be quick with the camera.

As part of my learning how to handle the lines for Rabelo I also had to help the lock keeper open the lock.  Now that my shoulder is feeling so much better I need to work on strengthening my arm muscles again.

We tied up in the middle of nowhere and went for an evening walk.  We found lots of berries. The next morning we were up early to go berry picking.  Our fingers were stained with berry juice.  I had tiny, sharp, nasty thorns in my hands, spider webs in my hair and clothes…but oh those delicious berries!

We couldn't resist.

When we brought the berries in, creepy, crawly bugs started escaping all over my kitchen counter.  I made preserves which made everything worth it.

Pont Canal de Digoin with Rabelo crossing it.  It is 243 meters long constructed all in stone and completed in 1838.

Making piles of cut wood can be artistic and creative.