Milk To Go: Canal de Bourgogne / The Burgundy Canal

This morning we said goodbye to our one-night, spacious room in Joigny, France. We took bikes and backpacks down the road to the Intermarche (French Safeway) and loaded up on groceries. The girls where in HEAVEN! After being at restaurants and with family, they were ready to decide for themselves what they wanted to eat!! Not surprisingly they spent the whole time in the produce department: peaches, apricots, plums, apples, watermelon (that was interesting on the bike), artichoke, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, potatoes…. On and on. Peter stayed in produce with them and I walked around the rest of the store getting other items we needed. I LOVE grocery shopping in a foreign country. So fascinating and fun. A couple days later I was able to do it all by myself. I walked slowly down the isles and took in everything…

So third leg of this trip has begun! We have boarded our small barge which we will live on and drive down Canal de Bourgogne (The Burgundy Canal) exploring small villages along the way. We will be motoring from Joigny, France to Montbard, France for one week. The boat has one bedroom, a bunk bed, kitchen/dining room and bathroom on board. We also have three bikes.One with a child’s seat attached for Phia and a child’s bike for MJ.

photo from burgundy-canal.com

Team Wow-We're-Driving-A-Boat.

After we moved into our Penichette 935 (i.e. putting everything away in drawers and closets and leaving our luggage at the Locaboat office to be picked up on the way back), we received the 4-1-1 on how to actually drive the thing. No, neither Peter or I HAVE EVER really driven a boat before. But, this is a canal (hardly any water movement) and we go at a snails pace. Bikes are faster than us. And we're almost 40, somewhat intelligent and ready for adventure. We can do it! Right?!

We took off from Joigny at about 5pm and muddled our way through the first couple locks (they open at 9am and close at 7pm). We will be traveling through 51 locks on this week long journey. We moored that first evening in a tiny little town with one mooring station and one restaurant. After dinner, the girls and I went for a walk with the canal on our left and the tiny town on the right. Peter did the dishes.

First you drive into the lock. Then you throw up your line to the lock keeper, or jump onto the ladder with your line, or you hook your line with a long pole to the moorings. (I did not know any of this until we did it).

This is what it looks like as the lock begins to fill.

After the lock is filled and your boat raises up (or down) you drive on out.

All but four of the locks we went through were manually operated and held a maximum of three small boats, two medium boats or one large boat.

A boat coming out as we waited to go in.

Do I look like a Pro? Na, I look like a tourist.

The second night we arrived in St Florentin around 6:30pm and immediately did dinner and bed.

Madelyn has her side of the bunk organized just so with decorations from her coloring booked placed for viewing upon waking in the morning.

Sophia is more of an all over the place sleeper with things strown about.

They slept foot to foot in the single bunk.

First thing in the morning… which this vacation seems to be up at 8:30am and breakfast 9am (life is tough)...

...we headed up via bikes to the beautiful, old gothic church we could see from our boat. Here was the view:

This church is literally sandwiched in the middle of an ancient old town; roof lines from stores in the city center were connected to the church. Wow. Ya, so, history literally dripping off every corner. The only thing that indicated it was 2012 was the Citron, Peugot and Volvo cars racing at top speed. Bike riding with Madelyn was… worrisome… to say the least. We managed to find a meandering way to the top of the hill through old narrow streets.

Here we are looking at the canal bridge. So this bridge is the Burgundy Canal going over a river. How crazy, cool is that!!!

We had a very specific and complicated discussion with MJ and Phia about how and why these buildings were so much older than we were used to seeing at home. It was a little confusing for them :) We went to an old public bathhouse and the concept of not bathing at home was another long and interesting conversation.

After sitting in on a catholic service we wandered over to the Boulangerie and stood in line with the locals for our baguette’s and treats. After our éclairs, we were able to explore the church more before a baptism. This church in St Florentin was truly magical. It was beautiful and crumbling, but also still in full use. It’s amazing to be in a building where people have worship continuously for over 500 years. The girls were in awe too. Regardless of their fully understanding, they totally got that mystical nature of history.

"Mommy, stop taking pictures! We are playing Mini-Mouse goes to Church right now."

Here are some scenes from the "road":

Heading into a lock.

Each lock or Ecluse had a little house with it. As we rose up, we waited to see what scene awaited us. Some where occupied, some were not. Some where "decked out", some were abandoned. Some sold wine :)