We all slept pretty well last night. It's been chilly, so we were glad to have the heat on. When we woke up, our new friend Yves stopped by with a baguette and four croissants for us! Such a nice man! After scrambled eggs and a baguette we were off, immediately entering a lock behind another boat. Unfortunately we were stuck behind them for the whole day. They were three couples and the three women kept getting off the boat and walking, getting back on in a lock. The scenery along the way was beautiful.
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| Yves |
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| Along the Canal du Nivernais |
At one of the locks, we saw what at first we thought was a dog, but turned out as we got closer, to be two small goats. I really wanted to bring them with us! So cute!!
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| Sue in a lock |
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| Passing a barge |
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| Some more "diverse" cows |
We got to one lock and there wasn't any lockeeper there. We waited for a while, and then remembered that the locks close for lunch from noon to one and it was 12:30. So, we pulled out our baguettes, cheese, prosciutto and potato chips and had lunch while we waited.
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| This amazing chateau was our view while we were eating lunch while the locks were closed. |
Soon we were on our way to Chatel-Censoir, our destination for today. We arrived and found a spot in a marina near to the boat we'd been following all day. But when we went to plug in our boat, we had no power. We tried everything with no success. The people we'd been following, three German couples, said they had power. They even switched outlets with us but nothing worked. So, we called LeBoat and they said they'd send someone out around 6pm. At this point we walked into the town, which, it being Sunday, had nothing open. We found one restaurant that opens from 7-8:30 (according to their sign). After wandering around, we came back to the boat to find two new boats on either side of us, and they had no power either. A few minutes later, the manager of the marina did something with the power outlets and suddenly - power! I called LeBoat back and told them not to come. The weather had become quite nice and sunny so we sat on top of our boat and had some cocktails and pretzels!
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| Sights around Chatel-Sensoir (this and next 5 pictures) |
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| Adele chatting with the marina manager who got the electric working |
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| Evening cocktails and pretzels |
While we were relaxing, two women walked by. One of them said she was diabetic and her sugar was too low and asked if we had any sweets she could have. We offered her sugar and pastries, but she said sugar was best, so we gave her some, and then gave her a croissant cause the carbs will make sugar. She thanked us profusely and we all chatted for quite a while. The first woman, Marlene, was originally from California but now lives part time here in France and the rest of the time in New Zealand. The other lady, Viv, was visiting from New Zealand. A little later, we started chatting with a young couple from South Africa. They are on the boat to our left, traveling with her family, and his family is on the boat to our right! People are so nice!!
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| Viv (left) and Marlene (right) |
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| South African couple |
Fortunately, we were able to call the only restaurant in town and get a reservation for tonight! We went to the restaurant where we saw everyone from our marina! Food was delicious!
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| An old building on the way to the restaurant |
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| Salad |
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| Adele's mahi mahi |
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| David's burger with goat cheese, honey and a potato pancake |
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| Sue's chicken with roasted vegetables |
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| The view from our boat this evening |
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| Another view from our boat |
