7th – 12th June 2017. At Pargny-sur-Saulx, with American yacht Tsamaya, then on to Mussey for a weekend of Quilles (French skittles).

Pargny-sur-Saulx looks really good in the distance. Close to, though,  we were unimpressed.

The flowers are pleased to be out again at Pargny, where we had a pleasant evening with Janice and Bob on their yacht Tsamaya. They have crossed the Atlantic ocean to be here in France.

Moving on above lock 57, we were surprised to meet barge Forez, backing down the canal towards us! Having been to the factory above lock 56, he has to back down through two locks before he can turn round to continue.

There is another barge waiting at the quay, above lock 56.
Lock 55, just past here, is the first time we need to use our telecommand, but it is not working. Usually, after a phone call, Monsieur will arrive quite quickly, but not this time! One hour, and four phone calls, later, he turned up. He continued on with us, which was a good thing, as our doofer failed us again, two locks later. This time he replaced it with a different one, which has been very good.

We moored at the start of Mussey village, up above this street. The church is on the hill, behind the village.

We walked round the village and visited the churchyard, though the church was locked.

Coming back, The Puzzler looks impressive up there!

We moved on through the lock to the other end of Mussey, and went to find the Quilles competition which we had seen advertised. Yvonne and Leslie were also visiting from England in their campervan.

As each boule is thrown/ rolled, it is collected and sent back via the tin chute.

Andy is sending a powerful shot here. Each turn consists of three boules, trying to knock down all nine skittles / quilles.

This is before his bowl arrived , with all 9 skittles still standing.

And this is after his best shot.

Sally had several goes too, but neither of us won! We each had a best score of 7 skittles down.

On Sunday, the club invited us to share their lunch, which lasted from midday until 2pm. It was a very good lunch, and everyone was extremely friendly.