Decize - Pannacot, Day 1 - Saturday 11/8/12

We left Decize at 11.15am this morning for our 2 weeks holiday on the Canal du Nivernais. The weather was very hot, reaching 35 degrees with no breeze at all, a great start! We headed through the first lock and then stopped for lunch on board as the locks all close between 12-1pm every day. After lunch, we headed through the rest of the 9 locks and a total of 30km arriving at Pannecot at 4pm and tied up alongside with our iron stakes that Louis had made for us. The mooring had excellent facilities with a charge of 8e for an overnight stop which included electricity, water and showers. There was also La Rustique restaurant on site which had no menu as such, but guaranteed you a traditional regional experience for dinner, so we booked for 7.30pm and after lovely hot showers, enjoyed an excellent meal of regional ham, charolais beef meat, salad and baked potatoes, followed by some traditional cheeses and dessert. Great value for 12 euros per person. We had coffee on board GG II and met Tony & Lindsay from the next boat HARICOT who had a lovely wee grumpy dog called Rosie. Their boat was absolutely beautiful, tiny, but well laid out and so cute. They stick it on a trailer and drive to France every year for their 4 weeks on the canals. Great night's sleep after watching Tommy Cooper DVD.