Winter mooring St Jean de Losne

We arrived at our winter mooring in the H2O marina in St Jean de Losne with 10 days to go until our return to the UK for Sophie and Mark's wedding. Amazingly we have travelled a total of 686 kilometres and gone through 287 locks to get here. There is so much support here at St Jean de Losne and Chris received lots of guidance from other boaters to ensure the JR was all properly winterised. She won't be going anywhere now until next spring. We look forward to spending the winter months planning next year's adventures. There are so many routes we could take, we are thinking of heading for Paris which we are told is a very special experience in your own boat, then on to Strasbourg, but we shall see. We have realised there is a lot to do in the top half of France before we head south.

The town of St Jean lies at the heart of the french waterways and canal system in southern Burgundy. It has a fascinating museum dedicated to it's history of commercial barging going back hundreds of years. There is a lively community amongst the boaters who chose to live aboard during the winter months, coffee mornings, book swap, boys beer nights, franglais, tai chi, walking group and lots more socialising. We still haven't decided yet exactly where we will be this winter but if we do go back to the boat for a spell we certainly won't be bored!    

The historic towns of Dijon, Beaune and Dole are all within a half hour or so's drive. We only had time for a day out to Dijon which was a fabulous place but we shall definitely make sure we visit the others on our return. Trainee doctors out fundraising sang to us for a donation.

And so our first season of boating comes to a close. It's difficult to describe to people what this cruising life is like but Chris says it's like going through the back of the 'wardrobe' and coming out the other side into Narnia - and this IS the other side. We've come so far since those first days back in June when we quickly realised we had a lot to learn. We won't be gone for long but the next time we cruise off on another adventure we won't be the same 'babes in the water'. We will have become fully fledged members of a new world - the secret, unique and wonderful world of people who live on boats.

And finally.... how could I resist? My beautiful daughter and new son in law.