5th – 15th April 2018. Delays at Decize, then across the river Loire to join the Canal du Nivernais.

We had to wait for nearly a week at Decize, until the Loire was open. Spring is certainly here with the celandines beside the port.

The lock out on to the Loire is strange, with see-through tops to both top and bottom gates.

The sign at the lock makes sure that we know where to go!

On the Loire the flow was much gentler than it had been last week, and we had an easy crossing to St Lèger des Vignes, on the canal du Nivernais.

It is a pleasant town mooring at St Lèger.

Climbing up above the trees behind our mooring gives a clear view across the Loire valley to the old town of Decize.

Three days later we eventually set off along the canal du Nivernais, past these very French plane trees. We are in no hurry as the Nivernais canal is closed, beyond lock 76, until 15th March.

8 kilometres further on, we stopped on a wild mooring, and walked up the hill to visit Verneuil. The view across the valley from The Puzzler is really good.

The church of St Laurent in Verneuil dates from the 12th century.

There were several of these small, wooden carved reliefs inside the church.

They can be seen above the ancient murals, which are painted along the walls.

Two cranes had a nest on a pole, at the far side of the field, and one of them is there now. They tend to lie down, so are difficult to see.

The other one is hunting for frogs, quite near to the boat.

On Sunday we moved on to Cercy-la-Tour, and were the only boat on the jetty, despite there being electric and water too, at last!

16th March - 4th April 2018. More bridge, MAMMA MIA, followed by our departure from Roanne.

We have been playing bridge three or four times a week. Our bridge club looks out over this road, and the port can just be seen beyond the roundabout at the end of the road. New trees are being planted along by the widened road.

There is a major redevelopment going on here, with the creation of a new park in front of the monument. This monument commemorates the liberation of Roanne from the German occupation in August 1944. It has been interesting to watch progress every week, when we are here for bridge. Maybe we will return to Roanne one day and see it all finished!

We went to see Mamma Mia at Les Maronniers, in Le Coteau. It was an amateur performance, but was performed very professionally.

Eight of us went on this outing. We all really enjoyed the evening, which was a fitting finale to our time in Roanne.

This was the finale of Mamma Mia, with half of the songs in English and half in French. All the audience sang too, in whichever language they preferred! It was great!

It is 31st of March and, sadly, we are now leaving the mooring where we have happily spent the last three winters on The Puzzler in the Port of Roanne.

We are doing a circuit of the port, and Quaintrelle joins us. This circuit is great fun. Everyone sounds their horn as we pass by, and we reply with ours. Liane has to get the award for the loudest horn!

Into Roanne lock together.

A lot of our friends both from the port and from Roanne have come to the lock see us off. We really appreciated them doing this.

Iguerande is the first of the villages to be seen, as it dominates the skyline, away from the Roanne Digoin canal.

Two donkeys out for the day.

Artais church is always impressive. We stopped at the mooring soon after the village, where table tennis in the wind is always interesting!

The lockkeepers have realised that one gate is enough for two boats, so long as they are both narrowboats!

Making good time, we reached Beaulon by midafternoon on Monday. By the time that two hireboats had fitted in too, the mooring was full. If ever you stop in Beaulon, do not forget to visit the delicatessen in the village for your preserved sausages.

Tuesday found us at Decize, from whence our fellow narrowboaters, Aileen and Mike, left us the next morning. We have enjoyed travelling together, and plan to meet again in the future. They are continuing on along the Canal Latéral à la Loire, while we are turning right on to the Nivernais canal.

12th - 21st October. On to Decize on the Canal du Nivernais, then to Beaulon and Pierrefitte, on the Canal Latéral à la Loire, .

The canal du Nivernais is widening out, below Cercy.

At Decize we reach the end of the canal du Nivernais, and are briefly on the River Loire, before rejoining the Canal Latéral à la Loire. In Decize the old citadel greets us, as it lies on the confluence of all three waterways.

The clock tower, which was built here in 1848, is 33 metres high. It is in the main town square, standing proudly in front of the town hall. It also has three bells in the bell tower at the top, one of which weighs 1300kg.

Moving on, our next port was at Beaulon, where we found Nico and Ianne on Liane again, and met Mary and Brian on Kyrenia. All three boats are heading for Roanne for the winter. The others left the next morning, but we stayed at Beaulon for three days.

This street sign in Beaulon is typical of French towns, telling us where to find all the points of interest. If it is near to lunchtime, when all shops close for a couple of hours, at least, this can be very useful, finding them before they close!

Further along the canal, we came to Pierrefitte-sur-Loire, and spotted this woodyard, near to the canal. Our negotiations at the adjoining house found us with two cubic metres of wood promised.

Our man delivered one load later that afternoon. It was a great relief when he offered to cut it up for us, as well as bringing it right to the boat. We had had visions of moving load after load on our small trolley!

It was nearly dark when the second boxful arrived. The woodman had cut it all to our specified length of 25 cm, so that it would fit into our fire.

Philippe and Pierrette were next to us on Dream's Rivers, a lovely cruiser. We spent two enjoyable evenings with them, which was very good for our French, as that was the only language we were using!

On Wednesday we stacked all of the wood both inside, and on top of The Puzzler. With so much wood, it is a question of keeping the weight as low as possible in the boat, and also balancing it, to keep The Puzzler level.

Thursday was spent in recovery time, along with a couple of walks around the nearby lake, where Shannon loved chasing anything that moved, on the beach there. She followed it up with a dip in the water, so was not too gritty when we returned to The Puzzler! Here she is later on, having dried off, with her little friend, another Shih-Tzu.