We are tied up along the Canal du Centre in the middle of a small town called Paray-le-Monial and it is bliss. It is not that it is sunny. It is not that it is cold. It is not that there is a great view. It is not that it is free. It simply because we have found a mooring deep enough for our draught and in the shade of trees. For the last week we have endured blistering heat. It hasn’t rained for 3 weeks (except a short thunderstorm) and been over 30C every day and in the boat by the end of the day when the steel hull has absorbed all it can it can reach over 44C. The bedroom last night started at 33C (11pm) and was down to 29C by dawn. Then it starts all over again. But today we have shade though it is still 34c in the shade.
We have been travelling along the Lateral Canal de Loire all week some 200km at an average 20km a day. We have passed through sleepy towns like Nevers with its ancient Ducal Palace, through Decize where we dropped down from the canal and into the Loire hoping to find a shady place in the town centre. But we went aground and all our probing for a deep passage was in vain, so we tied up along an abandoned quay in the blazing sun.
And on we crawled up the canal until yesterday we crossed the Loire over a 285m aqueduct at Digoin and left behind our friend of the Lateral Canal as we joined the Canal du Centre to make the mad dash for the summit and descend into the valley of the Saone River.
But that is still to come. Entering Digoin we were greeted by the news that the lock there was ‘en panne’ or out of action because of a thunderstorm that morning. It brought lots of flashes and claps and a small amount of rain which soon disappeared to leave a hot sunny day.
But it did knock out the electrics on the first electrically operated lock we had been through for over a 10 days!. (All the rest had been manual)Luckily there was a manual override and the lock keeper manually operated the hydraulic pumps to work the lock until they could get a generator in place later that day. That day was also Wendy’s birthday and I had arranged dinner in a top restaurant in the town. We had wonderful food and wine and because as I mentioned before it was a hot day and the boat was shut up in the evening, when we returned the bedroom was 33c. Oh what a night!
So now in the shade of the Paray-le-Monial Plane trees I write this blog and motivate myself with the thought of an ice cold beer shortly and a the World Cup final being played later this evening. For all of those of you who are thinking how can these people complain about hot sunny days when it is so cold and wet in the southern hemisphere, then all we can say is that there is some truth to grass being greener elsewhere. (And steel takes a long time to heat up and a long time to cool down)
This week we have Bastille Day when the locks are all closed but hopefully by the end of the week we shall have reached the great river Saone and begin our exploration of a new area of France.
