Rogny is a very small village with 7 Ancient Staircase Locks (Les 7 Ecluses) at the centre of it. These date back to the 1600’s and are a spectacular attraction, especially at night when they are lit.
The 42eme Nuit de Feu on Saturday was excellent and everything kicked off at 6pm with Jazz Bands, French Accordionists, Balloons and Cannon Firing. There were a huge number of people there, all with their picnics and carry outs, seats and rugs, including us! There were stalls serving Champagne, Sangria, Sausage & Chips, Crepes and everyone enjoyed the sunshine late into the evening. At 10.45pm there was a magnificent Fireworks Display at Les 7 Ecluses followed by a show of Flames and more Fireworks to music, finishing at midnight. Tres Superbe!
We made another duck ‘friend’, an extremely talkative little bugger who woke us up most mornings and came to visit us every evening, for du pain! We nicknamed him Louis, and if there had been a gun on board, he would definitely have been target practice and that would have shut him up, he was so cheeky….Perhaps then I could have made the Orange Sauce that Stan thinks I don’t know how to make!
On Sunday, we relaxed and caught up with the washing, before leaving at 8.30am on Monday morning, heading for Briare, with 14 locks to tackle plus a further 3 into the Porte De Plaisance! - an early start for the hard day’s work ahead, although we are only travelling 10.15 miles, there is a huge amount of work involved!
The locks are automatic all the way from Rogny to Briare with the first 6 having 4.15m rises then the next 8 are descending locks with drops between 4m and 2.34m. We were first in the queue for the first lock with another 4 boats behind us. The locks are small, therefore there was room only for GG and Enterprise, the next yacht.
15 minutes saw us lock through the first and then onto the next, with the gates being ready for us and a lock-keeper who travelled with us on his moped to take up our lines. After we finished the first 6, it was 11.15am, pretty good going! Now, we were on our own, and then we went on to the descending locks which went well up to the one just after lunch, which seemed to be jammed. I had to go ashore and talk through an intercom in French to get them to fix it, this wasted half an hour, just as we were doing so well!
After that it was plain sailing, as they say, but really exhausting, in the 80 degrees heat. By the time we reached Briare, at 3.30pm, we were both knackered, and so were the guys on Enterprise. A lovely Port de Plaisance awaited us with cold showers and cold beers, it is amazing how you forget how knackered you are after a cold shower!
We will recover here for 2-3 days before moving on towards Sancerre.
Briare is 47’38’.365N 002’44’.161E and we have travelled 1252 nm up to this point.
The 42eme Nuit de Feu on Saturday was excellent and everything kicked off at 6pm with Jazz Bands, French Accordionists, Balloons and Cannon Firing. There were a huge number of people there, all with their picnics and carry outs, seats and rugs, including us! There were stalls serving Champagne, Sangria, Sausage & Chips, Crepes and everyone enjoyed the sunshine late into the evening. At 10.45pm there was a magnificent Fireworks Display at Les 7 Ecluses followed by a show of Flames and more Fireworks to music, finishing at midnight. Tres Superbe!
We made another duck ‘friend’, an extremely talkative little bugger who woke us up most mornings and came to visit us every evening, for du pain! We nicknamed him Louis, and if there had been a gun on board, he would definitely have been target practice and that would have shut him up, he was so cheeky….Perhaps then I could have made the Orange Sauce that Stan thinks I don’t know how to make!
On Sunday, we relaxed and caught up with the washing, before leaving at 8.30am on Monday morning, heading for Briare, with 14 locks to tackle plus a further 3 into the Porte De Plaisance! - an early start for the hard day’s work ahead, although we are only travelling 10.15 miles, there is a huge amount of work involved!
The locks are automatic all the way from Rogny to Briare with the first 6 having 4.15m rises then the next 8 are descending locks with drops between 4m and 2.34m. We were first in the queue for the first lock with another 4 boats behind us. The locks are small, therefore there was room only for GG and Enterprise, the next yacht.
15 minutes saw us lock through the first and then onto the next, with the gates being ready for us and a lock-keeper who travelled with us on his moped to take up our lines. After we finished the first 6, it was 11.15am, pretty good going! Now, we were on our own, and then we went on to the descending locks which went well up to the one just after lunch, which seemed to be jammed. I had to go ashore and talk through an intercom in French to get them to fix it, this wasted half an hour, just as we were doing so well!
After that it was plain sailing, as they say, but really exhausting, in the 80 degrees heat. By the time we reached Briare, at 3.30pm, we were both knackered, and so were the guys on Enterprise. A lovely Port de Plaisance awaited us with cold showers and cold beers, it is amazing how you forget how knackered you are after a cold shower!
We will recover here for 2-3 days before moving on towards Sancerre.
Briare is 47’38’.365N 002’44’.161E and we have travelled 1252 nm up to this point.
No comments:
Post a Comment