A Day in the Life of Barging on Rabelo

A day in the life on a barge called Rabelo

Wine Tasting.  

 A friend was wondering what a day in the life of barging was like.  Since every day is different I've decided to occasionally insert a description of a day on Rabelo.  Yesterday (Tuesday) was an unusual day.  We are thinking of demolishing our one guest bathroom (shared by our two guest bedrooms) and replacing it with two ensuite bathrooms.  Originally I was opposed to the idea because of the expense and mess we would be dealing with.  Unfortunately, there is a 24 year old holding tank that must be replaced before it rots through.  (That's the holding tank for the toilet.)  We've been left with no choice.  We started out at the civilized hour of 9:00 a.m. and drove back to Auxerre.  (The stores don't open before 9 am anyway.)  That was the closest decent size town for miles.  Bricorama was our first stop.  It's the equivalent to our Home Depot back in the States.  We learned a lot but didn't see anything acceptable for our family and friends. 

Tom liked this cabinet in a shiny black finish.  The shape and size were good, but black would  be too hard to live with.

Onward to a fancy bathroom store called Aubade.  Now that's what I'm looking for.  Their bathroom exhibits were well laid out with many options for cabinets, toilets and showers. We didn't even look at appliances.  This was my chance to "get educated."  After the two stores, we got gas (for our car), cash from a bank, and then stopped at the large supermarket for a "few" things.  Back to the boat we unloaded the groceries, I made lunch, we ate and cleaned up.  Then it was time to go wine tasting.  (Yes, we liked the wines enough to buy 9 bottles)  I'm working on next year's supply of wine as our wine cellar for this year is full.  Next was an art exhibition at a church.  The artist was excellent but beyond our price range.  At 3:45 we pulled in our lines and began moving Rabelo to our next destination.  We had decided to skip the Galo Roman ruins.  

Katie and Skip rowed over to Rabelo for cocktail time.

That evening we bumped into some new boating friends from Texas and invited them over for cocktails.  After a delightful visit (and two bottles of sparkling wine), I cooked dinner, we ate and it was time to clean up.  Showers and bed!  It was close to midnight.

We started with a bottle of Brut Rose from Champagne.