Digoin, Paray-Le-Monial, Genelard, France

An aperitif to begin a special meal.

It's Fall.  The crops have been harvested.  Red leaves tinge the plants along the canal.  There is a crispness in the air. A hint of what is to come.

I never tire of the spectacle of an aqueduct crossing over a river.  At home we think nothing of traveling through layer upon layer of freeways.  Yet it still amazes me to have one waterway traversing over another.

Leaving the Ville de Digoin on the Canal du Centre we are crossing over the Loire river.

Wooden River Boat

It is common courtesy when tying up your boat to leave as much room as possible for other boats to also tie up.  That doesn't always happen.

This boat was in the middle of a mooring.  Since no one was aboard we solved the problem by moving it!

Now our mooring was much better.  We had water and power here.

This barge Hensie, carrying a full cargo was told they would be able to carry their load to Paris via this canal.  Unfortunately the VNF (the organization that controls the waterways) didn't give them the full story.  They draw around 1.65 Meters while the depth of the canal at this bridge is 1.2 Meters.

Note the sign on the right of the bridge stating the depth of the canal.  Hensie on the left can't go any further on this canal.

There was an interesting discussion going on between the police and the barge owners.  There was no place to turn around and they couldn't go any further because the canal was too shallow for them.  We never heard the outcome of their dilemna.

We continue to soak up the peace, tranquility and beauty the french canals provide us.

The scenery continues to be breathtakingly beautiful with every imaginable shade of green.

We don't always see just verdant green vegetation.  Sometimes it's vista's like this power plant, or cement factories or grain silo's.  We see natural as well as industrial sights along the way.

Canals play an important roll in the life of the french people.  They provide space for recreation:  walking, biking, boating, fishing, exploring, or just resting.  They also played an important roll in the transportation history of France.  With the opening of canals they allowed goods to be moved safely, and away from the dangers of the sea, such as storms, reefs, wars and pirates.  The waterways were originally the preferred route for shipping raw materials such as wine, grain, hay, stone, coal and more.  The Burgundy Canal, a favorite for many was completed in 1832 and joined the Saone, the Loire and the Rhine rivers.

Barges are constructed in different sizes, Rabelo being the maximize size that fits through the standardized frycenate locks.  Originally, before the standardization of locks, there were smaller locks with canals that had much tighter turns.  It's been a challenge for us on some of these canals.  The locks may have been enlarged allowing us to fit, but the canals themselves were not modified accordingly.  For those who might wonder, there are areas where we simply don't fit, such as the beautiful Midi Canal.

This is a cut that Rabelo had to navigate.  Not easy at 130 feet.

We traveled to Geneland on the Canal du Centre in Burgundy.  This area had iron mines, stone quarries, and tile, mechanical and metallurgical factories.  Geneland is found between the mining region of Blanzy and the wooded countryside of Charolais.

Sample of what was manufactured in this area at one time.

Geneland was under the sea 190 million years ago.

These are fossils from the area that was originally under water.

A beautifully restored citroen.

This is an example of one method used in an attempt to keep the sides of the canals from collapsing.

Some canals are too shallow.  Perhaps they haven't been dredged in a while.  Perhaps they were never deep enough.  Or perhaps there simply isn't enough water to keep the canal at the proper level for large barges to travel.  We try to stay in the middle of the canal when we are cruising.  Even so we went aground quite a few times this season.

We moved over as far as we could to safely pass this commercial barge.  We couldn't move far enough to the side because we were aground.  This was an up close and personal meeting.  Nathalie and Alban hold bumpers between the boats trying to minimize any damage that might occur.  This was another commercial barge told by the VNF that they could safely get to Paris along this route. We warned them of the problems to come, but they didn't have a choice as there was no place to turn around.

We came across these old bridges on one of our walks.

Cloister garden at Paray-Le-Monial

Basilica of Paray-le Monial

Paray-le-Monial

The food in france continues to thrill us.  The wines are delicious, cheeses beyond counting and varieties from aged, hard, to triple cream melt in your mouth types.  The summer fruits were delicious and basically everywhere we went we enjoyed our meals.  I cook most of the time, but on the weekends I like a break from the kitchen.  I was surprised to find a Michelin starred restaurant in the small mining town of Paray-le-Monial.  Restaurant l'Aprostrophe is a gem.  I get the impression this isn't a big tourist destination and no one in the restaurant spoke any English...at all!  But we managed.  We always manage, somehow.

We've learned to start an evening out with an aperitif.  These little starters were lovely bursts of flavor.

The meal continued.

We ordered the chief's menu for the table.

Each course was lovely, served with imagination, creativity, presentation and also delicious.

Cheese anyone?  It's hard to resist the cheese cart.

I was full but still had to sample a few cheeses, some of which I didn't recognize.

Dessert didn't disappoint.

And then came more sweets to sweeten the end of the evening.