30th April - 1st May, On up the Saône to St-Jean-de-Losne, then on to the Canal de Bourgogne.

There are very few craft on the Saone, but isn't this barge a beauty? Her tonnage capacity is 3034, which makes her the largest barge we have ever seen.

The reflections of the trees and the field of rape are very clear today, seen in the river. It is good to see such calm water for a change!

By 11am we are approaching St-Jean-de-Losne, having made good time this morning. The white cruiser, just to the left of centre, is on the fuel point.

Apologies for the blurry picture, but it does show the fuel jetty. The cruiser was finished, so moved off the jetty as we approached. Having pulled in between the big blue posts, still going upstream, we found that the fuel hose would not stretch to our stern, so had to think again. Moving forward, the bows swung out too far, so we moved off to turn round and face downstream. The bows came in nicely this time, but our engine was not strong enough to fight the stream, which was determined to sweep The Puzzler past the jetty. Turning round yet again to come upstream, I was quicker to get the middle rope off, then the front rope, from the upstream side of the post, came back to the jetty to be tied to a handy sign. Safe at last, refuelling could commence!

It was a relief to leave the River Saone, and come up the lock at St-Jean-de-Losne. The lockkeeper was kind enough to let us through, even though we did not enter the lock until 5 to 12. His lunch hour is 12 until 1, and we were not through until 10 past 12. We found barge Inevitable in the basin, so it was good to catch up with them. After lunch we went to buy more green paint, so that the inside of the cratch can be finished. It has taken us three years to repaint The Puzzler!

Even though the rain was now pouring down, we left the basin of St-Jean-de-Losne, and continued on to the Canal de Bourgogne. Tomorrow is a public holiday, and we have already lost a week at Fragnes, but still hope to be at Montbard by the middle of next week to meet our visitors.

The locks are fairly fierce but, by opening up the cratch, and using only the front rope, together with the engine, it feels very safe. The locks come every kilometre, so it is hard work today, in our wettest day since arriving in France.

We moored after lock 69, ready for our compulsory day off for the May day holiday. Shannon is watching the birds catching flies, very near to the boat,

This bird came into The Puzzler through one of the bedroom porthole windows, then flew through to the galley window.

He flew away while I removed the top window for him to escape, then came back to perch on the edge. He watched us, but was not afraid at all.

After a couple of minutes, he thought that perhaps he would fly up to the roof, and eventually flew away.

17th - 21st April. Down the Méditerranée locks to Santanay, then on to Fragnes.

At lock 1 the mural on the control house fascinated Shannon. “ Are we going along that canal?”

St Julienne-sur-Dheune is a small village, with a small church too, but it was lovely inside. Every hour the church bell rang out, to tell us the time. A few seconds later it rang the hour again, in case we missed it the first time! At midnight this seemed like a lot of ringing! There was no sign of a second church anywhere in the village.

Assuming that the locks closed for lunch between 12 and 1, we set off to find a German couple already in the next lock with their cruiser, just before 1. They had entered the lock at 12.30 and pulled the blue control rope, which duly closed the top gates, allowed about a foot of water out, then stopped! Fortunately Mr Eclusier arrived, refilled the lock, and beckoned us in too. We continued on with them, the only delay being when we both had to pull in to allow this Hotel boat to pass us.

We went down 11 locks together to reach St Léger-sur-Dheune, another pleasant village. These are our first ducklings of the year, which came to greet us. They already knew all about boats being a good source of food!

Moving on we moored at Santenay, in the heart of a wine growing area. This pleasant mooring overlooks the Dheune valley, with Santenay village not too far away.

We found this little lizard sunning himself on the bench there. His fingers are extremely long!

The track to Santenay leads across the River Dheune, which is followed by the Canal du Centre as far as Chagny. There is a lot of water in the river, which does not bode well for our journey up the river Sâone later this week. Santenay has a large town square, with a fountain (dry at present).

The town is surrounded by vineyards. It is really surprising how small the vines are at this time of year, but they are just starting to grow new shoots. Some men were putting plastic sleeves on the smallest shoots, to protect them from frost.

On leaving Santenay the lockkeeper at the first lock wanted to know how far we were going today. "Until we see a nice grassy bank" does not go down too well! We compromised with "5 or perhaps 6 locks". In fact we went down 5 locks before stopping opposite this field of rape. The evening light really deepens its colour. Our eclusier arrived in his van to ask "You stay here tonight!", but seemed happy to leave us to it, with a promise that we would be at the next lock tomorrow morning at 10am.

At 9.45am this working barge, Kendall, came past extremely slowly. They are from Belgium, and are on their way to the south of France, but are suffering from lack of sufficient water for their barge. The locks on this canal are 38.5 metres long, and Kendall is 39 metres long! It was a slow morning, following them!

We arrived at Fragny on Thursday, and had it confirmed that, at present, the river Saône is closed to navigation. The water in the river is the highest that it has been since 2003. Hopefully we will be able to continue up the river from Chalon-sur-Saône to St-Jean-de-Losne, and join the Canal de Bourgogne within a few days.