A Big Hole in the Canal

No posts for a while, as we've been a bit stuck for a while.

We left Roanne in the pouring rain, and from there the weather went downhill; seriously downhill. A couple of nights later we had a huge thunderstorm, sheet lightening, forked lightning - the full works. Thankfully Emma slept right through it and Stephen slept through most of it, thinking it lasted about 10 minutes (it actually went on for about 2 hours).

We've had some good weather, but not much. So much rain in fact, that the canal we are on (Canal du Centre) has burst at Montchanin, at the summit of this canal, so we are stuck until it is repaired.

We are at Genelard, which is about 18-20 miles from the burst point, but there is no other way to go round it, so we we're just waiting.

Stephen went for a look at the site and the progress with our neighbours Andrew and Laurel yesterday morning, so if you've ever wondered what an empty canal looked like, here's your chance to find out:

 
The breach occurred when a sluice gate gave way where the worker in the orange jacket is standing. To give you an idea of depth/scale, the distance between the bottom of the canal and the worker is about two metres.
 

 

 

The empty bit of the canal measures about 4km, so you can imagine that is a huge amount of water to lose and to then refill, once the repairs are completed. The picture above shows the last lock on the empty section.

 

 
The above picture shows the boatyard at Montchanin. You can see the boats have been left resting on the side and bottom of the canal; no way of telling how many have been damaged or holed by the rocks on the canal bed.

We are hopeful that the work and refilling will be finished at the end of the week, but whenever we ask the VNF workers (the organisation that runs the inland waterways) we get a lot of Gallic shrugs.

 

But, we have had some fun whilst being stuck; we met two Dutch families who were holidaying at the watermill in the next village, Palinges. They stopped to watch us pass through a lock and we all got chatting. A few days later we cycled to Palinges to visit a vide grenier (French car boot sale) and have a cup of tea with them and arranged for them to come on a trip with us from Genelard back to Paray Le Monial.

 

The weather was pretty good that particular day and we all had a great time. I really enjoyed having Rik to handle all the ropes for me

He did really well; our boat weighs over 12 tonnes, plus fuel and water, so that's a lot of weight to control through just one rope.

Paul, Yaltah and Juul acting as lookouts

Stephen got plenty of help with the steering

 

 

Every car, fisherman, cyclist etc we passed got a big wave

 

 

And Mannon and Roland just went with the flow.............................

 

Our original plan for this summer was to go down the Rhone to the Med, then come back and go north towards Strasburg. However, so many rivers and canals are closed or restricted due to the flooding caused by the enormous amount of rain we've had, so we, and every other boater, are doing a lot of re-planning.

 

Roadtrip!

Well, our time in Spain is now over and we are back in France (Roanne) and will set off on the boat again in a few weeks. don't know where we are going yet, maybe down the Rhone to the Med, maybe back up to the Netherlands. Time to get the map out and do some planning, I think.

Spain was lovely; it was great to have some warm weather and a washing machine (no machine on the boat, we are always on the look out for launderettes), but it was really quiet and we have got used to the social life in the port here in Roanne and also the constant meeting of new people that we have on the move.

Also, we are not missing Spanish drivers. There seem to be special rules for driving in Spain that we don't have in the UK:

1. If at all possible, park on a corner. You should do this even if a space on a nice straight piece of road is available
2. Use of indicators is entirely optional
3. If someone lets you put of a side road, or similar, you should under no circumstances acknowledge this small act of kindness
4. If you are on a dual carriageway and someone is coming down a slip road make sure you speed up to pull alongside them as they try and join the road. Do not allow a gap to exist that they could pull into either in front or behind you
5. Speed limits - These are to be considered a minimum speed, not a maximum

We made the trip back over four days, making stops in Granada, Toledo, Zaragoza and Perpignon.

The Alhambra at Granada is amazing. I took so many photos, as I just love the carvings and the tile patterns. I spent the whole day looking at the tiles and thinking "I could make that pattern into a lovely tapestry cushion.



See what I mean?

The buildings are stunning. The carving is so intricate and in places you can still see the way it was originally painted. I was really luck that the weather was bright and clear for most of the day, so I also got to see the great views from the palace.

And here is an example of the carving:

 
Next stop was Toledo and a Fawlty Towers style hotel. It took about 10 minutes to find a staff member who could check us in (staff members kept arriving, looking at my booking confirmation, shrugging and wandering off), had a tiny rainwater filled swimming pool (so, think pond water) in the car park - which made reversing out fun, as there where no barriers around it! - but funniest of all was definitely the shower.

It was brand new and very clean and shiny, which is great. But soooo tiny! Stephen had to bend down to use it - and he's 5'4". Good job we are a family of midgets!

Toledo Cathedral

That apart, Toledo is a lovely city, we spent ages walking around, so much time in fact that we never actually made it to Madrid - something for another day.

 

On again, this time to Zaragoza. Sunday morning was bright and warm, so off for a walk where we encountered this colourful character at the local junk market.

 
Approaching Zaragoza's second best cathedral (their own description, not mine!) we realised it was Palm Sunday. I have to say their Palm Sunday services are like none I ever went to as a child.

Everyone packs into the Cathedral, chatting and laughing, with the children holding their intricately woven palm fronds, which are hung with sweets (like corn dollies on acid). Then the Bishop charges around splashing water on everyone whilst his assistants run around after him trying to keep up.

 
It all got a little bit more stately later on, as they all paraded up the road.

 
Last stop was Perpignon, but no pictures from there as we arrived in the dark, stayed on the outskirts and left first thing in the morning.

Our final drive was carefully timed so we could be sure of crossing the Millau Viaduct in daylight. It really is an astonishing piece of engineering; taller than the Eiffel Tower and finished in just three years.

The Rain In Spain ........

The rain in Spain is raining mainly on us this afternoon, so time for another update.

My sister, brother-in-law and niece Lily came to stay last week and it was great to see them all. We hadn't seen Darren since we left the UK and hadn't seen Helen and Lily since they came to Paris by bus to visit back last September. (By bus! With a five year old! How brave/stupid (delete as appropriate) is my sister!)

A fine time was had by all with Emma making the most of having someone "proper" to play with (Stephen and I don't count, I think she is pretty bored with us now). Lily had been counting down since the flights were booked and had even made her own boarding card weeks in advance.

The weather was, well, changeable. We had a couple of days when we could sit outside in the sun and then some rain. However, Lily and Emma don't let a thing like rain stop them, and decided that an outdoor mud bath was the order of the day.

 
Oh yes, you can take these two anywhere. So long as you go back and apologise afterwards.

Thankfully, the weather improved, the washing machine did its stuff and the day after we were off the Puerto Banus to look at the super-yachts.

Wow! is all I can say. Pershilla (our boat) would not have felt at home in this marina. She's a lovely boat and fairly long (12 metres / 40 feet) but would have looked like a scruffy midget amongst this lot:

It was like Bond Street-on-Sea, but with more ice-cream parlours.

Yes, those tee-shirts did wash up well. Top marks to Lidl own-brand washing liquid!



Out and About

We haven't really been doing a huge amount here is Spain, as it's nice just to laze around at home on sunny days or go and walk on the beach (we have an impressive and ever-growing collection of shells, stone and sea-glass), hence, not much blogging.

There's just something wonderful about sea-glass, IMHO

But, we have been out and about, our biggest trips so far being to Gibraltar, Mijas and Ronda.

The Rock of Gibraltar



Gibraltar - well, that was a little strange. I'm not sure what exactly I was expecting, but it wasn't what I got!

I thought Gibraltar, being a tax-free/tax-exile sort of place would be shiny, tidy, wealthy - Bond Street-on-Sea sort of place. Errrrr, no. It's like most English seaside towns, but without the charity shops. Tatty, but not quite quaint. And it's shut on Saturdays. I have no idea why.

It was interesting, don't get me wrong, but one afternoon visiting was enough.

Emma thought it was great, but this was mainly because she got to go on two buses. We had been advised not to drive into Gibraltar, since there was no telling how arsey thorough the Spainish Border Control staff will be on any given day. Also, when driving you have to follow the signs to the next-door Spanish town (La Linea) as Gibraltar isn't on the majority of the roadsigns in Spain, as they don't accept its existance.

The queue into Gibraltar

So, we parked in La Linea, right by the boarder, walked across, and got on a bus to the town centre. The town is quite interesting in parts, being so hilly, but not great for walking around with a grumpy four-year old.

One of the many sets of steps in Gibraltar

However, she cheered up considerably when presented with a chocolate covered waffle in a cafe.

Ronda was another "must do" on our list, and, unlike Gibraltar, did not disappoint. An amazing white-painted hill-top town (and not closed at the weekend) with wonderful buildings, doorways (we love a good doorway) and views.

A side street in Ronda

 


A Good Doorway

Some of the views are not for the faint hearted, to take the picture below I had to step out onto an overhanging ledge (with a nice high rail up, thank goodness) which was suspended over this crevass in the rocks.

 
And, even better, we had some visitors staying, Chris and Sarah, who were escaping the wet, cold and snow in the UK.

Spain & Sunshine

When we originally planned our trip we had intended to take our boat down the Rhone, into the Mediterranean, down the coast of Spain and spend the winter on the southern coast of Spain.

Then we crossed the English Channel and remembered (a) how seasick Stephen and I both get (not Emma, she is the best sailor on the boat) and (b) how boring we find sailing at sea - there's nothing to look at, apart from your sick-bowl.

So, that plan was altered and we moored in Roanne for the winter.

However, the cold weather meant the return of Stephen's chest infection (he had pneumonia earlier in the year) and the damp air seemed to be causing Emma's eczema to worsen so, after a particularly cold spell (ice on the inside wall of Emma's cabin one morning), we returned to our plan to go south for the winter.

Pershilla with a sprinkling of snow

 

The view along our quay

After a bit of searching we found a lovely apartment just outside Marbella in an area called either Las Chapas or Elviria, depending on who you ask. We are a five minute walk from the beach which is sandy and virtually empty at this time of year.

The apartment is wonderful and we are still enjoying the novelty of having baths (there are two! What luxury!) and being able to use a washing machine whenever we want, instead of having to haul all our clothes to a launderette every couple of weeks.

The view from our patio - I just love the colour of the sky!

We drove down over four days, stopping at Beziers on the first night, then in Barcelona, followed by a night with my cousin Zack, his wife Inga and daughter Dayana and then a last stop in Granada. It was wonderful to see Zack and his family, we hadn't seen them all since Zack and Inga's wedding party, which must have been about 6 years ago.

In Barcelona, only having a short time available we decided we'd visit the Sagrada Familia. Our hotel was near an underground station, so off we went.

Thirty minutes later we were no near being able to understand how to make the underground ticket machine give us the correct tickets (even using the English language version of instructions) and since the station was deserted we admitted defeat, decided it was time for Emma's tea and went next door to Ikea for Swedish meatballs and chips.

Next morning we deciding that driving into central Barcelona and parking near Sagrada Familia would be easier than fighting with the ticket machine again, and so it proved. The building is absolutely amazing and is currently scheduled to be finished in 2025.

Sagrada Familia

Christmas in Spain was very quiet, partly because the apartment complex is pretty empty and partly because the main celebration in Spain is Three Kings Day, which takes place on Twelfth Night (aka Epiphany, January 6). In the evening of 5 January children leave their shoes out to either be filled by the Kings with presents or a piece of coal, depending on their behaviour.

Stephen took part in the celebrations by eating most of the Three Kings Cake which we bought. The cake was an enormous ring made of enriched dough (like a brioche or pannatone), split horizontally and filled with whipped cream and topped with candied fruits and sugar. Way too sweet and sticky for my taste, but he declared it to be delicious.

Our cake got eaten before I could get a photo of it, but looked a bit like this, but with cream in

In a similar way to our hiding coins in Christmas Puddings, two prizes are also hidden in Three Kings Cakes, a bean seed (it looks like a runner bean seed to me) and a small china figure of the Christ Child.

We have been taking things pretty easy here in Spain, enjoying the sunshine, walking on the beach, trying Spanish wine and exploring the area.

We have also enrolled Emma in swimming lessons; the first lesson was last week and was not an enormous success. The lesson is 30 minutes long, she spent 25 minutes shouting and screaming and the last 5 minutes having fun. However, every day since she has been asking to go swimming again, so I am hopeful her second lesson will be much better!

New Skills

We have aquired quite a lot of new skills on this trip, some more fun to learn than others (Stephen is now quite proficient at sorting out problems with the on-board loo's, for example. Essential & useful, but not much fun), and having spent most of yesterday killing my fingers mending the boat's canvas cover, I thought I'd blog about something much more fun that I have finally mastered - crochet.

Crochet seems to be having a bit of a "moment", lots of fun and interesting patterns on ravelry and some really excellent blogs too. My current favourites are Attic24, which is UK based and LeMondeDuSucrette, which is Lebanese.

I had wanted to learn this for ages and had taken a one-day class about a year ago, back in the UK. But, I didn't practice enough and forgot a lot of what I had learnt. So, when packing for the trip I added some yarn, crochet hooks and a "how-to" book to the pile of stuff to go on the boat.

I ignored it all for a long time, as I was worried I'd never grasp it, but a combination of remembering enough from my course, my "how-to" book and some YouTube video's, I have finally cracked it and am now totally addicted.

So addicted infact, that I have even been brave enough to go to a charity knit/crochet along in Roanne, where I was the only English speaker and also to write my own pattern for a hat for Emma. If you'd like to try out the pattern, it's at the bottom of this blog post and I will also post it on ravelry shortly.

If you are interested, here are some of the things I have managed to make so far:

A Granny Square cushion cover - the first thing I made. Unfortunatly, Stephen hates the colours, so not sure when it will be on display!

 

 A poncho & hat set for Emma. I got Stephen to choose the colours for these, so no repeat of Granny Square cushion colours problem

 

 

A dress and hat for Emma's doll Annabell. Sadly, Annabell is a pretty ugly doll with a weird shaped head, so a large hat was very important, as she spooks me when she's hatless

A hat for Emma. The first thing I've made to my own pattern.

 

 

If you would like to try my hat pattern, here it is:

 

Child’s Flower-Topped Crochet Hat

I made this is three colours, red (main), yellow (turn-up brim) and white (two rows, to highlight). It used about 2/3 ball of red (colour A), ¼ ball of yellow (colour B) and a few metres of white (colour C). I also used a button for the centre of the flower on the top of the hat.

It was made using charity shop wool which didn’t have a label, but I would guess it was DK wool. I used a 3.5mm hook

I made it for Emma, who is just 4. It fits her, but is fairly loose and will stretch enough to fit me too (although not very well!). It’s easy to keep trying it on as you add rows and, if you need to, either add more or drop some to make it fit properly.

Hat

1. COLOUR A: Ch4, sl st to form a ring
2. Row 1: Ch2, htr 9, sl st to join
3. Row 2: Ch2, htr in same st, then 2htr in each st, sl st to join
4. Row 3: Ch2, htr in same st, then *1htr in next st, 2htr in following st* repeat to end of row and sl st to join
5. Row 4: Ch2, htr in same st, then *1htr in next st, 2htr in following st* repeat to end of row and sl st to join
6. Row 5: Ch2, htr in same st, then *1htr in next 2 sts, 2htr in following st* repeat to end of row and sl st to join
7. Row 6: Ch2, htr in same st, then *1htr in next 3 sts, 2htr in following st* repeat to end of row and sl st to join
8. Row 7: Ch2, htr in same st, then *1htr in next 4 sts, 2htr in following st* repeat to end of row and sl st to join
9. Rows 8 – 16: 9 rows with 1htr in each st (or until the hat is the correct length). Fasten off
10. COLOUR C: Row 17: Turn hat inside out and work on the wrong side from now on. 1 row with 1ht in each st. Fasten off
11. COLOUR B: Rows 18 – 22: 4 rows with 1htr in each st (may need more rows, if you made the hat with more rows than in this pattern). Fasten off.
12. COLOUR C: Row 23: 1 row with 1ht in each st. Fasten off & weave in all ends

Three-Layered Flower Decoration

1. COLOUR C: ch3 and sl st to form a ring (or made a magic loop, if you are more clever than me)
2. Row 1: Ch3 then 11 tr. Sl st to top of ch to join. Fasten off
3. COLOUR A: Row 2: Join into top of any tr of row 1. *(ch2, tr) into tr st, then (tr, ch2, sl st) into next tr st*. Repeat from * to * 6 times. This forms 6 small petals. Fasten off.
4. COLOUR C: Row 3: Working behind row 2 make a sl st into one of the loops between two of the small petals. *Ch4, then sl st into a loop between the next two small petals*. Repeat from * to * 5 times, so you have a loop behind each of the small petals
5. Row 4: Sl st into 1^st ch space. *ch2, 3tr, ch2* over the loop to make a medium petal. Repeat from * to * 5 times to make 6 medium sized petals. Fasten off
6. COLOUR B: Row 5: Working behind rows 3 & 4 make a sl st between two of the medium petals. *ch5 then sl st into a loop between the next 2 medium petals*. Repeat from * to * 5 times, so you have a loop behind each of the medium petals
7. Row 6: sl st into 1^st ch space. *ch2, 4tr, ch2* over the loop to make a large petal. Repeat from * to * 5 more times to make 6 large petals. Fasten off.
8. Add a button to the centre of the flower for added decoration, weave in ends and sew the flower onto the hat.



Tranquillity and a Force 8 Gale

The Canal linking Digoin and Roanne is known as “The Tranquil Canal” and is certainly lives up to its name. The majority of the canal passes through countryside and farm land taking in a few small towns and villages along the way.

There were very few other boats, which we put down to it being towards the end of the season, but have since discovered is due to various French governmental departments ignoring each other.

The lack of boats, particularly hire boats, is apparently due to the large amount of weed in the canal. In France the navigable rivers and canals are managed by VNF – they operate the locks, maintain the canals and keep everyone moving, and the non-navigable rivers are the responsibility of the state.

At Roanne the Loire (non-navigable, therefore a state responsibility) is linked to the end of the canal (navigable, therefore a VNF responsibility). The Loire is full of weed and some of this passes into the canal. Well, quite a lot of it. So much so that the hire boat operators have all told their clients that if they want to go to Roanne and their propeller gets full of weed, the boater must pay for the repair.

So, they don’t come. VNF seem to spend a lot of time pulling weed out, but every day more comes in and the state apparently is unwilling to spend any money on a barrier which would allow water through but stop the weed.

And due to this a really nice marina is nearly empty in the summer, small towns and villages along the way have no tourist traffic and it contributes to the shops and cafes closing, which is very sad.

Roanne marina is full all winter; it’s a very popular winter mooring place and we are really enjoying being here. Some residents are year-round on big converted peniches and some, like us, just moor up in the winter.

The view from our boat looking back towards the canal

The weather has mainly been very good, still in the mid-20’s until the middle of last week, but we did have two nights with force 8 gales, which were less fun. We are tightly tied up, but the boat still moves around a bit, plus you have the sound of the water slapping again the steel hull, which didn’t make for a very restful night. Emma didn’t notice a thing and slept right through!

The view from our boat looking towards the end of the marina

There is a lot to do and see in Roanne, plus the marina social life, so there is no time to be bored, despite being in the same place for longer than at any time since we left home in the late spring. So far we have been to two parties, had guests from other boats visit us, visited the annual food festival, the Charolais Cow Fair and been to the circus, amongst other things.

The circus set up at the end of the marina last weekend and we decided to go, hoping that Emma would be able to sit still all the way through (which she pretty much did; only getting fidgety towards the end of the second half). I’m not a big fan of circuses myself; I don’t like clowns and don’t enjoy performing animals, which they still have here.

However, I did enjoy quite a lot of this show, particularly the acrobatic displays. Some of the animal performances made me uncomfortable, particularly the elephants, but the animals did appear to be in good health and well cared for. Oddly, the animals which didn’t worry me were the tigers, I just found myself thinking “Oh well, if they get fed up they can always eat their keeper”. Probably not the response the ring-master was hoping for.

Amar's Circus, picture taken from our boat

The Charolais Cow Fair was a very big hit with Emma, partly because going there meant a trip on the bus each way, and she loves buses.

A prize winning Charolais

As you’d expect, there were lots of cows (the clue is in the name) but also local food stalls an excellent mini-farm for children and some very, very placid miniature ponies taking children for rides in a pony-cart.



Emma on a pony cart

When not pulling children around the ponies stood patiently whilst hoards of very inexpert children attempted to groom them. From Emma’s point of view it was a top day out – two bus rides, lots of cows, ponies to play with and funny geese in the mini-farm. A pretty good day from my point of view too – E2.50 for the buses and E3.00 for the fair

Emma making a goose chase her hand through the glass

The weather is now getting much colder, so we will start looking for somewhere in Spain for a few months very soon. It will be a shame to leave Roanne and all our new neighbours, but some winter sun will be welcome.