15th - 18th May 2017. On through the villages of Cusey, Piépape and Heuilly-Cotton to reach the summit of the Champagne – Burgundy canal.

At Cusey we met two French cruisers, going the other way. There have been very few boats moving on this canal. They arrived just before we did, but squeezed up to make room for us as soon as they saw us coming. When I thanked him for this, he replied, « C'est naturelle », which was very nice.

Cusey church is unusual, with this circular part at the east end.

There are several old houses in Cusey like this one, with the barn built into the house.

By contrast, this is part of a new development in the village.

The Champagne to Burgundy canal is very attractive, with tree lined sections alternating with views over the wide countryside.

The River Vingeanne has run alongside the canal, all the way from the River Saône, but is quite shallow here, as we are nearer to its source. Shannon thinks that it is a great place to retrieve sticks!

The church at Piépape has an unusual round tower.

The last eight locks up to the summit are all 5.12 metres deep, but are so gentle that we are not using any ropes at all. All that Shannon and I have to do when we get there is to lift the blue rod to activate the lock.

We are moored at Heuilly-Cotton village, on the summit level at a height of 1116 feet 4 inches above sea-level. This is about twice as high as Standedge tunnel in the English Pennines! This is an attractive village, with many large properties.

Balesmes tunnel lies ahead of us. This tunnel, like most in France, is one way only. It is 4820 metres long.

There are lights throughout the length of the tunnel. Fifteen seconds after passing each green light, all the white lights behind us go out, so then that looks very black!

It was raining before the tunnel, but this end is quite dry.

This heron sat quietly, watching us pass by close to him. He does not see us as any threat.

29th April - 6th May 2017. On to Fragnes, then up the Saône to Saint-Jean-de-Losne, before moving on to Auxonne, meeting our friends at every port.

We caught up with other boats at Fragnes, joining (from the left) Caroline, Andy, Peter, Rachel, Bill, Jane and Jake there. Another late evening, with some people dancing the night away!

Shannon will accept Trigger if she is safe on Andy's knee.

We moved off early on Tuesday with Quaintrelle, to stop at the shopping mooring for Leclerc, on the outskirts of Chalons-sur-Saône. Where the metal edging of the mooring here leans out towards the canal, it has been infilled with concrete, so at least there is no gap!

The rain started just as we went out on to the Saône, but Shannon didn't want to be inside. The rain is too heavy for some of our plants.

Once the rain cleared, the river looked more inviting.

We moored at Gergy, then on to a rural spot at Chazelle, which we found last year.

Walking round this small village, I thought this wall needed a helping hand!

On Thursday we moved on to Saint-Jean-de-Losne. Beyond the trip boat, the next five boats all overwintered in Roanne!

The Puzzler can be seen outside Catherine Clark, where Jake and Rachel have all three dogs near at hand.

We are leaving Aileen and Mike here too, with Quaintrelle, though we will no doubt see them again, later this year.

Dare I go any nearer? Most boats have dogs.

Friday was a lovely day, with all the trees looking really green.

Mooring outside Lumacona at Auxonne, there was a superb sunset.

6th - 11th October. On down the Petite Saône, then the River Saône, stopping at Auxonne and St.-Jean-de-Losne, before joining the Canal du Centre at Chalon-sur-Saône.

The Petite Saône becomes navigable below Corre lock, meandering across its floodplain.

This dérivation (lockcut) meanders round the village of Ormoy, lying parallel to the river.

However, most of the dérivations are straight, like this one in Port-sur-Saône.

All along the waterfront here, there are mounted prints, showing the town as it was in 1900, then progressively through the last century. A by-pass is planned, so the last set of prints anticipate the town as it will be in 2020. We will have to come back to see if their predictions are true!

This is a typical dérivation, straight and not very exciting! Between Corre and Châlons-sur-Saône, these dérivations cut over 40 kilometres off the distance as measured, and marked, on the river.

Shannon was fascinated by the donkey by a lock.

The tunnel of Savoyeux leads on to lock 13. We had just left this narrow section when our alternator belt broke, so the lockkeeper had to wait while The Puzzler floated gently, until Andy fixed it. Luckily no-one else was waiting for us, though he only took ten minutes to have it working again, with a new belt in place.

On Friday we did over 40 kilometres, so were pleased to find this sheltered bankside mooring, near to Autet. Shannon enjoyed the small beach nearby.

The river Petite Saône is getting bigger!

At Mantoche Andy found a friendly duck.

Sally is taking her turn at steering on the river. We are covering long distances each day as we head for our winter mooring in Roanne, so it is turn and turn about on the tiller.

We spent a very pleasant afternoon in Auxonne on barge Inevitable, with Carole and David, before the rain created this rainbow.

The evening light, too, was very pretty.

Thick fog delayed our departure on Monday, but we still had time to reach St-Jean-de-Losne, where there were several boats moored. We were delighted to meet Boris in the chandlery there.

Our longest day yet was on Tuesday, leaving as the sun rose at 8am. It was a record distance for us of just over 58 kilometres!

We saw over 20 of these white herons, or are they egrets? They are heron size, and have white legs.

The Petite Saône is now the River Saône, and is a much bigger river.

Shannon continues to sleep her days away.

We are now sharing the big lock at the start of the Canal du Centre.

It is a relief to be back on to the canal.

22nd - 29th April. A week spent at Fragnes, waiting for the flooded Saône to go down, then up the Saône to Chazelle, which lies to the south of Seurre.

We have enjoyed our week at Fragnes, doing all those little jobs that always need doing. The boulangerie is closed for annual holidays, but Celine, our helpful capitaine, sells bread every day. Fragnes is a very pleasant village, with a good restaurant, and many lovely houses. We found a table tennis table in the park too, so put it to good use!

Holes have been dug for new mooring bollards to be fixed in place. The metal bollard, currently lying on the grass behind the hole, will be held in place by the wooden pole, once the concrete fills the hole.

This man is levelling the concrete, but there is not quite enough around this bollard, so he has called for more.

The tipper truck is full of concrete for the next hole, but stops here so that our man can take a few more shovels full, to level off the base of his bollard. However, the ground is too soft to take the weight of the full truck, and the front wheel slowly sinks up to its axle! At this we thought that we should leave them to it!

Our last painting job this year is the roof. We had thought that this was a task too far, but our enforced stop at Fragnes has made it possible. After washing the roof, we started the painting with grey gloss around the edges. Two days later, having masked this, Andy is now adding the nonslip surface by roller, while my job is to keep the tray full of paint of the right consistency. This seemed to work, apart from a break for rain, half way along the roof!

On Thursday 28th April we set off from Fragnes at last, to go 3km and stop for shopping at Le Clerc at Crissey, which is very near to Chalon-sur-Saône. This mooring, with its own garden, is very convenient for the supermarket. The lock can be seen at the end of the canal, but we stayed here overnight. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time!

We had planned to be at the lock for a 9am descent, but were foiled by two Le Boat hireboats, which shot past us to take the lock. They too had been stuck at Fragnes, while their hirers had to taxi back to the hire base for their cars. Obviously the hire company had sent crew out to bring them home! This lock at Chalon-sur-Saône has a drop of 10.76 metres, being the deepest on the Canal du Centre.

The water in the Saône is still flowing quite fast, and we have to look out for obstacles, like this log which was held across a marker by the flow of the water.

We paused briefly at Gergy, beside barge Eendje. The water level here has been halfway up the fencing above the jetty.

There are a lot of floating logs, wedged to the right hand end of the jetty, here at Gergy.

This fine house overlooks the river, upstream of Gergy.

Spring has suddenly arrived, and all the trees are green!

Ecuelles lock would hold about 50 narrowboats, but we are the only one today!

After 36km on the river, we had had enough, and found a friendly bank for the night, near to the hamlet of Chazelle, just to the south of Seurre.