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.

Choir Boy or Court Jester?

I heard the clip clop of the horses and ran to the window.  What a surprise.  Swans were trying to take off using the canal as their runway.  Their big feet beating the water sounded like horses.

Having not done any research before coming to France I was surprised to discover that Burgundy has many chateaux.  They are all so varied in size, style, condition, furnishing, etc.  We were given La Route des Chateaux en Borgogne du Sud at the tourism office.  This brochure alone had 17 Chateaux we could visit.  At one per day we could be kept busy a long time.  Narrow, curvy, country roads force you to slow down, relax and take in the scenery.  Now that it is September many are only going to be open on the weekends.

This is Chatau de Cormation XVII.  The first decades of the 17th Century saw the rebuilding of a large number of chateaux.  The building of a castle was an essential component of social recognition.  A castle was not built in order to have a beautiful country house, it was to make a statement about its owner.  (Some things never change.)  The medieval site is retained to affirm the family's antiquity.  This chateau originally of the du Ble family could boast of belonging to the oldest nobility in the kingdom.  They were already recorded as noble in the charters of the Abbey of Cluny in the year 1000!

This is the privy closet which later became the boudoir or sulking room.  The tub is draped in cloth because the sides of the tub would become slimy.  Do you like the toilet?

There were amazing paintings on the walls and ceilings.  The study had a great deal of gold leaf.  Gold was used to reflect candlelight which makes a dark room seem brighter.

Another view of the chateau from the back.

A piece of art along the canal.

My shoulder has healed enough that it is time for me to re-learn how to handle the lines.

We left Jerry and Arlene in Montchanin.  We went to Montceau-les-Mines, Genelard, and then Paray-le-Monial where we stayed 5 nights while Wilco had a much needed break.  It was a chance for us to go exploring which we enjoyed.  We spent one night in Genelard where we went to a boulangerie that had wasps flying in the display case with the pastries. Montceau wasn't very interesting but the marina was decent.  The tiny market was overpriced. I did find a top to buy at a woman's clothing store.  Retail therapy is important once in a while.

Paray-le-Monial is a lovely town with beautiful mosaic streets.  It has gained in importune and is a major centre of Christianity and pilgrimage dedicated to the cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  We met Canadians Marc and Mary whom we hope to see again next year.  They were a wealth of information.  Thanks to their advice we had a couple of lovely dinners in town.  Trois Pigeons was good with a nice setting and La Basillique was excellent.  The Charolais beef is amazingly tender.  The Basilique is run by 4th generation owners with the next generation learning the hotel and restaurant business.

Now a little history:  Marguerite-Marie Alacoque entered the convent of the visitation at Paray-le-Monial in 1671.  She had a series of "visitations" and wrote down the revelations made to her, thus initiating the worship of the Sacred Heart in France.  This town is dedicated to the Sacred Heart and pilgrimages have been repeated every year since 1873.  Even Pope John Paul II made a pilgrimage to Paray-le-Monial.  Today someone with "visions" is diagnosed as schizophrenic, given medication and possibly locked away in a mental hospital.  Back then people who heard and saw things could be persecuted as witches, or become saints as happened with Marguerite.

A view of the basilica from across the canal.

Hotel de Ville (Town Hall) dating from around 1525-1529.

Another view of the Basilica.

We are in the Brionnais and Charolais regions of the southwestern corner of Burgundy.  This is where the more distinctive white muscular Charolais cattle are raised.  They are feeding on beautiful green pasture lands and are delicious eating.  Everywhere we have been driving and cruising we have seen fields and fields of these beautiful cows.  No feed lots for them.  It must be time for them to go to market as trucks filled with them have been driving by.

It was time to visit Chateau de Digoine considered by some to be the jewel of the Charollais region.  It is pure 18th century classicism with formal french gardens and a greenhouse set in English parkland with ornamental ponds and an Italianate theatre on 75 acres.  We didn't stick around for the inside tour.  We were tired of not understanding a word of the tour guides.  We peeked in some windows and it did look very special.  This is the front view.

We enjoyed a walk around the grounds.  This is what we saw in the back.  The castle is being restored and the gold leaf on the balconies is beautiful.

Even better, it is berry season.  I had to stop and stuff my mouth with their delicious blackberries.  The country roads are lined with blackberries now ripe for the picking.  We see people stopping their cars, armed with bowls picking fruit.  We aren't that organized.  When we take our walks we simply pick and eat as we walk along.

Here is the side view with the greenhouse on the left and the kitchen gardens in the foreground.  Since no one lives in this chateau (or maybe they do?) we couldn't resist helping ourselves to a bit of fruit from the trees in the garden.

On to Roanne where I met up with these two characters.  I think they're trying out for the church choir.  Either that or court jester.

Here is the local church with a tiny timber house next door that has a definite tilt to it.  Roanne is a town where we had one of the best meals of the season.  Troisgros is a Michelin 3 star restaurant who share their kitchen with Le Central (right across the street from the train station).  We had lunch at Le Central.  We took a chance (not completely understanding the menu) and ordered the reasonable 3 course prix fix lunch.  It was delicious!  I noticed they had crepe suzettes for dessert on the menu. They were kind enough to make that substitution for me.  I was in heaven!  To top that off, they served meringues afterwards.  Oh my!

After that amazing lunch and a walk around town we drove to Le Chateau de la Roche.  This chateau would be just the right size for us.  Originally built on a river that has since been damned up, it now sits in the middle of a lake.  Can't you just imagine a princess coming out of the front door? I think my darling granddaughters would do well in that roll.  They already have their princess dresses.

Side view of Le Chateau de la Roche.

It is always interesting seeing what the eggs look like when I open the carton.  I love the speckled egg.

My second painting of Girl in the Mirror inspired by Picasso.  I think I will call her Claire.  The deformity in her face is caused by a wrinkle in the canvas.  I can't imagine how this will be stitched.  Claire and I will have some deep conversations as I add my stitching and hopefully make her come to life. 

The weather has changed dramatically.  Last week it was hot and humid.  A storm blew through and now I am sitting writing wearing sheepskin boots, long sleeves and a down vest.  I am thinking of putting my down vest.  I am thinking of putting on my down parka instead.  It is still possible we will have another heat wave before fall starts.