These are the adventures of Andy and Sally Rawnsley on their narrowboat "The Puzzler". We have been living on the boat for over nine years now and are still loving it. Our Ulster born Shih Tzu, Shannon, has grown up, and has taken over the boat! After three wonderful years in Ireland, we transported The Puzzler to The Netherlands, and spent a year there. In 2015 we went southwards, to reach the north of France by June. After glorious weather throughout the summer, we arrived in Roanne in late October, and enjoyed our winter in this friendly port. We cruised extensively in France in 2016, 2017 and 2018, returning to Roanne each winter.


Monday 1 February 2016

21st - 31st January 2016. Galette de Roi at L'Authentique, and Bridge competitions, both on The Puzzler and at le Chateau de Champlong.

Every Thursday all the boaters, who live in the harbour at Roanne, meet at L'Authentique to catch up on all the local gossip. On 21st January we celebrated the Galette de Roi with all our boating neighbours. This is the French equivalent of Epiphany, or The Coming of the Kings.
We all had a slice of the special almond pie. As Jill found the small figurine in her slice of pie then she was crowned as Queen of the day. We are her loyal subjects!


Last week all the harbour flags were replaced, using a cherrypicker to reach them. Now, when they are blowing in the wind, they look great.
We prepared The Puzzler for an evening of bridge last Friday with six of our friends from the Bridge Club, but then forgot to take any more photos of the event itself!  We all had a very enjoyable evening. (J'ai oublié de utiliser mon appareil-photo, mais notre amis ont dit que la soirée était très sympathique.)


However, Marcel brought his phone, so here we are, looking at pictures of The Puzzler in construction. Merci bien, Marcel!

On Sunday all of the Bridge Club de Roanne went to the Chateau de Champlong, at Villerest, for another competition. Isn't this a wonderful room?
(N'est ce pas une salle merveilleuse?)






Both Simone and Michelle were with us on The Puzzler on Friday.


After the competition we had a very smart French finger buffet, with champagne to drink.
Raymond, on the left, is the Director of our club, with his wife, Renée, sitting between Andy and me, with Marie-Claude on my left. Raymond won The Puzzler bridge competition! (Raymond est le Directeur du Roannais Bridge, et aussi il a gagné le tournoi de peniche.)
 

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for sending all the photos through, it is much appreciated and includes our first (and only) pic of Francoise moving!
    We should be back around the end of next week(ish).
    2 people commented about this blog of yours on my blog, which confused me as I hadn't spotted yours at that point.

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  2. Sorry about that. It was just such a good pic of you!

    ReplyDelete