Auxerre to Vincelles

We hadn’t been on board long before we cast off, the crew were taking us just out of town for the night. We looked back and waved Auxerre goodbye. The water was like a mill pond with little wind, just  it would be most of the week when the temperatures hit that magic 100°F. The Americans didn’t do Centigrade.

We would be returning to visit the Cathedral later in Auxerre later in the week
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After a good nights sleep we were ready for breakfast at 8am.
Today we were cruising in the morning and were away a little earlier than planned, because the crew had heard that the hire boats behind saying they we're going to set off early and that would have put us behind them at the first and every other lock of the day, so we left about ten past eight and had to wait the first lock at 9AM, This mean we were first through the lock and no waiting at any of them all day. One of the crew members would hop off at the locks and give the éclusier a hand. The barge is a very close fit in the locks with  probably only 150mm clearance. One thing that struck me with these locks, unlike the UK and other locks I have encountered in France, here you wind the paddles down to open them and up to close.  

 

 

There is a good reason why there are signs on the boat telling you to be seated while passing under bridges, some of them are quite low and if you were standing could make it a contact sport.

      
We passed this lovely old mill, I suspect its now a private home. The reflections on the mirror like surface were wonderful.

We were able to walk along the tow path between locks on the canal section as the boat moved quite slowly on the confined narrow channel, but you had to board and alight when the deck was level with the lock side, my idea of level and theirs differed by about 6”.The river has short canal section bypassing the shallow parts, only maybe a foot of water  and at one point only a wall separate the river from the canal. where we did travel on the river in places less than half was navigable and marked

       off with Buoys. The bank side was very shallow so the crew had to be handy with the mooring lines lassoing the bollards.
Most of the properties we saw looked shut up, but we have seen this before where they close everything down to keep the heat of the day out
We moored up just before lunch at Vincelles and had our first lunch onboard.

   In the afternoon we setting off on our first excursion to visit a quarry, this is normally closed on a Monday and is opened exclusively for European Waterways.I suspect this was originally a Roman road as its unlike the others we have come across in the river valley. This was not a large hole in the ground but a very large cave I've never seen anything like it. The blocks of lime stone they took out where about two meters by one meter by one , they were cut by hand using hammer drills and saws, then were pulled out first by horses and later hand winches. On the roof you can still see the soot marks from the candles the workers used to light their works.

After the quarry closed it was used as a school for apprentices and some of their works are still on display from when they became highly skilled masons standard. 

After that we visited yet another quarry, although it was still a cave we drove straight in in our mini bus and parked in the underground carpark before going to the underground winery for wine tasting. The whole operation is in the disused quarry from making the wine , bottling and storage to tasting and selling.

This was the end of our adventures for the day and we returned to the L’Art de Vivre for cocktails and nibbles, a bit of relaxation before getting changed for diner.

The Barge L’Art de Vivre

The barge has 4 passenger cabins, all ensuite two with double beds and two with twins. This week there were only 6 of us so we had more room for the deck and meals.

She is the oldest boat in the European Waterways fleet and was originally a Thames Lighter, she was commandeered by the Government during the first war and in the second world was was towed to Dunkirk to evacuate troops. Later she was fitted with a Kelvin engine and this was later changed to an air start Baudouin DK6 engine which she still has today. She was shortened to 100 foot to work the Canal Du Midi. Lots more information about her can bee seen here. https://www.europeanwaterways.com/blog/hotel-barge-l-art-de-vivre/ 

 

The barge has a crew of 5 to look after us and they have a minibus that moves with the barge for the excursions. As well as taking us on excursions every evening when they mover the mini bus to the next location they also had to reserve the next Mooring.
The cruise followed the normal pattern, half a day excursion and half day cruising.
Life on board was breakfast 8-10, lunch around mid day and dinner in the evening around 7-30pm. Each day the menu was put out on a chalk board and all meals included good wine, the evening meal a cheese course with three different cheeses each night. Unlimited drinks all day plus a cocktail and nibbles.   I failed to photograph one lunch menu.   

The food was as good as it looked, here are a few of the dishes we enjoyed with good wine  

		This is the result of the cookery demonstration

As well as the chef coming out and describing each dish our hostess also told us about the cheese and the wine showing us exactly where it came from, she was also skilled in napkin folding

The chef did a short cookery demonstration in the galley one afternoon.

Many a time I have watched barge crews man handle gang plank, lowering them off the top of the deck. swinging them down on ropes and sometimes doing all sorts of gymnastics with them, but this crew had it sorted. A light weight aluminium frame with removable deck panels, all easily handled and giving a wide walkway.