We have had a lovely relaxing week on the River Yonne. Any worries we had about river cruising soon left us. The rivers here are wide but that gives so much more room to manoeuvre than in the canals and other boats were very few and far between. The warnings of the wide sloping sided locks were unfounded. We were the only ones in them and the floating bollards meant no work for the bow line crew (me).
The weather has been beautiful, hot and sunny, as we hear it has been in the UK too. Being on the water though we have had a nice cooling breeze so sleeping at night has not been a problem. No sign of any mozzies either although we had stocked up with all the plug ins and sprays.
Skipper at the helm
Our first stopover was in the medieval town of Joigny. Joli Roger was too long to be allowed into the Locaboat marina so we found the visitors mooring just a bit further downstream. This turned out to be a very quiet and peaceful spot just on the edge of town nestled into the river bank looking across the terraced hillside of St Jacques with its quaint houses and sloping vineyards. On the opposite bank was a private mooring against a restaurant. After a quick google search we realised this was a Michelin 3 star restaurant and hotel also complete with helipad. Hopefully the clientele enjoyed the view of our boat from their exclusive terraces and balconies! We thought about going in for a drink to look across at our floating home but at 78 euros for an apertif and 30 grams of caviar we thought better of it! We had the same if not better view for free.
We spent a couple of days just chilling and recharging our batteries, wandering the medieval narrow streets, going to the market, snoozing and reading in the deck chairs. The French seem fascinated by our boat, cars slow down or stop dead to have a look, passers by say hello and take photographs next to it. All good practice in speaking French though.
The town of Joigny
Relaxing on the stern deck
We cruised on to Villeneuve sur Yonne, smaller than Joigny and 850 years old this year with evidence of that history everywhere. Parts of the old walls are still intact as are 2 of the gates, very disneyesque. We found another edge of village mooring opposite a beach on the other side where people were making the most of the hot weather. Lots of activity on the two man sailing boats all around us but they seemed to know what they were doing although they got very close at times!
Loved the feel of this place and could have stayed much longer than 2 nights but with Bastille Day celebrations coming up we decided to move as a nautical festival was planned all along the quays complete with fireworks. We didn't fancy a rocket falling on on our new canvas canopy!
One of the two entrance gates to Villeneuve sur Yonne
As all the locks are closed on Bastille Day we needed to get moored up somewhere the day before preferably away from the fireworks as the ships dog is none too keen. We came back upstream and moored up again in our spot in Joigny so another couple of days spent chilling. We visited the gothic churches, museums one of which was very interesting celebrating the French Resistance movement, and watched the world go by. We deserved a rest after the last few weeks!
There is always something going on though. We were sitting with a glass of wine on the back of the boat last night watching a moorhens nest through binoculars 10 feet away. We discovered it was there when a newly hatched chick got stuck between the fenders of our boat and the quay. Chris was working out a way to help him out when mother came along and took him back to the safety of the nest. Our peace was disturbed by about twenty different motorcycles and vehicles from all the emergency services parading through the town on blue lights and sirens as part of Bastille Day celebrations. Then we noticed the two oriental young ladies on the grass right outside our boat doing their tai chi routine to taped music. Perhaps they think the boat has good karma, let's hope so!
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