5th - 6th May On up the valley of the river Ouche with a visit to Châteauneuf, then on through France's highest canal tunnel.

As we move on up the valley of the River Ouche, it is noticeable how slow the trees are to become green. We are not sure whether this is because we are higher, or because there are more ash trees, which are slower to come into leaf.

There have been a lot of cyclists all the way up the canal de Bourgogne, but this must be a tandem club, out for the day.

This is a really scenic canal, as we pass through various villages, but this view has to be the best, with Châteauneuf high up behind The Puzzler.

 

Looking closer, it really is a castle up there! Most of it was rebuilt in the 15th century by Philippe Pot, Seneschal of Burgundy. Can't you imagine the knights of old, charging up the hill to attack the castle!

We arrived at the port of Vandenesse-en-Auxois and were allowed to moor on a trip boat mooring, near to the lock. This is due to three hotel boats which are here, taking most of the mooring. Tomorrow they have priority at the locks, so we will not be allowed to go until 4 pm.

We spent Friday morning climbing up the steep road to the village of Châteauneuf, which gave us a splendid view over the Auxois plains.

We were hoping that Shannon would be allowed to view the castle from our rucksack. However, she wasn't, so we didn't either! This is as close as we got.

The village centre was very picturesque.

This tree was on the outskirts of the village, and looked as though it would speak to us at any moment!

Andy and Shannon went right inside the tree from behind. Shannon found a different exit!

Back at the port, the hotel boat, L'Impressionniste, is squeezing under the bridge into the lock. He even has to remove his steering wheel to get under the bridge!

He absolutely fills the lock.

At 3.30pm, earlier than promised, we set off to complete the last 8 locks to the summit level. The front of the lock house at lock 4 is worth seeing! There are so many farm implements fixed to the walls!

We leave lock 1, having had our lifejackets and headlight checked before we were allowed to continue on to Pouilly tunnel. Our checker even reported one dog with a lifejacket on board too! This is the highest point on the French Waterways. We are at a height of 378 metres (1241 feet) so is nearly twice as high as Standedge Tunnel on the Huddersfield narrow canal in the UK.

Crossing the top pound, there is then a long cutting before the tunnel. Having been given our time, and told to go, we decided to ignore the red lights, and continued.  Luckily we were right, and no-one was coming!

The first half of the tunnel is well lit from the roof, creating eerie circles of light as we go. The second half has lights, but they are not working, so the boat headlight is needed there. The tunnel is just over two miles long.

It is always good to see the light at the end of the tunnel, leading us here into another deep cutting, and then on to Pouilly-en-Auxois.
 We now have flowers on the roof, thanks to the garden centre in Pouilly, and SuperU is very handy too, for shopping.

2nd - 4th May 2016. On to Dijon for a town visit. Next we travel on along the Canal De Bourgogne to La Bussiere-sur-Ouche.

Shannon and I walked on to lock 68 in the morning. It is nice to see The Puzzler from the towpath for a change!

In Dijon we went behind the island to moor in the park. We expected to have to pay for mooring here, but no-one came to ask us, so we kept our heads down.

On our first afternoon in town we visited the Roman Catholic cathedral of Notre Dame de Dijon. It was built between 1220 and 1240 on the site of an 11th Century chapel. The front façade is unique in French Architecture, as the rectangular surface has no buttresses and is enhanced by many false gargoyles.

Next morning it was off to see the Cathedral of St Beningus, which was rebuilt between 1280 and 1314, on the site of a former Romanesque basilica.

We found this mini Arc de Triomphe in Place Darcy, but it is not mentioned anywhere.

This interesting building was to be found facing Grangier Place.

Maison Maillard was built for Jean Maillard, who was the mayor of Dijon in 1560. It has a fascinating façade.

Having had our spot of culture, we headed out of Dijon, passing the technical college on our way.

This crocodile guarded his part of town from any passing boats. We kept going!

This is to show that Sally does occasionally take the tiller! The sides of the valley are quite close to the canal here at Crucifix rock.

Sadly we did not see any trains passing on the Viaduct de Fain. There are plenty of cyclists about though.

We moored above lock 42 in Fleury-sur-Ouche, in front of Calypso, another English cruiser. It was a lovely evening for a walk.

The valley of the river Ouche is opening out now, though the wooded hills are not too far away. This stand of trees has a serious attack of mistletoe to contend with.

We moored at La Bussiere-sur-Ouche and went for a walk. We started by climbing up through the village, then off to the left across a field, and on into the woods. This view is across the Ouche valley, just before we went into the woods. The canal, far below us, is mostly hidden by the trees, but the red arrow pinpoints The Puzzler.

We carried on, and on, through the woods, but met a nice lady who reassured us that we would eventually rejoin the canal. Shannon was getting quite thirsty, so this waterfall was a welcome find. She enjoyed a swim too.

We found the canal again at St Victor-sur-Ouche, by lock 29, so we were then about 3 kilometres from The Puzzler. It was a really good walk, if a little long!

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.

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.