Barging in Burgundy
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Day Thirty-Three – 30th July 2017
Paray le Monial
My friend was up early – packed and ready to go. Her time with us went so fast. We had brekka together and then walked with her to the train station (gare). She was taking a bus to Le Creusot. My husband and I get used to an extra person around us on the boat, when they go it’s a bit sad for us. She had brought over some wonderful gifts and also bought a few lovely things for us while she was with us. As the bus was about to depart, the heavens opened rain came pouring down. We waited for it to pass then went back to the boat.
Our mooring in Paray le Monial
Sundays, not much happens in rural France. It was going to be a day of rain and thunder. We were a bit ahead of schedule, hence no great rush to go anywhere. We caught up on reading, tidying, labeling photos and writing our blogs. With a bit of a siesta in-between.
A particularly large Dutch barge arrived early evening and parked in front of us. They looked like a family who live on board and home-school their children. Fabulous life. Behind us was a charming elderly French couple. They helped us with ropes when we tied up. Every evening they went walking hand-in-hand with their little dog. Always greeted me – “Bonjour Madame”. A person can become fond of temporary neighbours on the waterways. Something we have noticed is couples who travel on the waterways together tend to be happy loving couples.
Basilica in Paray le Monial
Much as trees provided welcome shade, with the rain and storms, they had dumped a pile of leaves on our boat. My other half hadn’t polished the boat in quite a while so the paint was becoming porous. The leaves left speckled stains that no amount of washing and scrubbing would shift. C’est la vie.
Day Thirty-Four – 31st July 2017
Paray le Monial
There was a lovely laundry (laverie) in Paray le Monial. Big machines and industrial size dryers. Everything worked. We had been hand-washing in the shower but a chance to wash and dry properly was most welcome. I also got stuck in and did a bit of a clean-up inside the boat. One drawback with staying in marinas is everyone is pumping from their toilets into the water. If it’s a shallow marina with not much current, unfortunately that water gets rather smelly. Most boat toilets have a simultaneous in and out pump action. They pump in water to flush. It’s not ideal. I would never swim in a marina. Or eat fish caught there but since I don’t eat fish i’s not a problem. Although plenty French people come to fish at the marinas.
Paray le Monial
With so much to see and do in Paray le Monial, we could easily have stayed another day. Apart from the basilica and religious sights, there are museums relating to ceramics, pottery and mosaics that I would have been interested in. They have an interesting city walking tour and their leaflet is free. We kind of lost the urge to do anything after getting on top of our laundry. We decided to push on to Digoin for three reasons. My other half broke his back some years back and has to be very careful twisting and turning. Unfortunately he pulled his back out again mopping down the boat in Montceau-les-Mines. It wasn’t getting better and we needed to be near a physiotherapist. Also my work was slipping so far behind due to not having wifi. I desperately needed to take a day in a place with wifi and get on top of things. Maybe Digoin would have such a place? And lastly we had no water or electricity at the mooring in Paray le Monial. Our boat has two large tanks but we had gone three days without filling up.
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