Canal du Loing- lets just carry on!

We tore ourselves away from the dock at Moret -Sur -Long just in time to make the 9 am lock opening. We have not spent three days in one place yet. Anyhow, the locks are taking us up - it means that in most of the locks it is impossible for us to get the lines around the bollards as they are too high. We need to have someone off the boat and doing the lines. A lot of the times the lock keepers will help with this task. But, we found out that for the next two days the locks are all automated....well kind of.  We got instructions on how to work the gizmo she gave us but it did not work very well at the first lock we got to. It seems this whole automation process is new and a work in progress.

Work truck at first lock !

All the tools necessary for the automation!

With the locks being automated we thought we could make good time, as it now meant that we did not have a mandatory 12:30 to 1:30 lunch break.  We planned on getting to Nemours - tying up past the first lock and exploring the town for a few hours before moving on.  The plan in theory worked but no one told us that even the automated locks - unmanned locks - got a one hour lunch break!! OMG....what was it I said about lunch in France being sacrosanct!!!

We rafted up and had our lunch - the red light went on the lock, we pressed our blue button and soon the lock was ready and the green light signaled that we could enter.  I half expected to see a person but no one was around, we had just waited for the automatic lock to have lunch! The book said that Nemours was a nice stop, the chateau and the cathedral worth a visit..... we tied to a wall but it just did not feel right. We could not see the cathedral or the chateau. The area looked a little sketchy so we decided to just carry on  and head directly for Soups.

We arrived in Soups, actually the correct spelling is Souppes-Sur-Loing about 3ish. The book described it as a boat harbour with full services. It describes the town as being the place where the yellow stone used in the construction of some of the most prestigious buildings in Paris, including the Sacre Coeur Basillica came from.  What the booked failed to mention was that the harbour, aka wall, was right beside a humongous factory that was spewing out some pretty toxic smelling chemicals. The fish in the canal had three eyes and the ducks that were racing along side of us had four legs. (just kidding)

 For the second time today we decided to just carry on.  Remember, plans on a boat are written in sand and change at a moment's notice!

We had two options, a picnic area in the forest or a wall in the small village of Nargis. We ended up at the small village. We went for a walk and discovered a walnut tree dropping its fruit, wild blackberries that were delicious, a patisserie, a church and one small general store operated by Mr. Grumpy.

The church was filled with wheat sheafs and religious pictures all made out of seeds or wheat!

As I write this all the men are at  captains meeting over on the Royals boat and Terri is playing CC.  Good thing that even the automated locks do not start until 9 am cause I am thinking this very important meeting could involve some libations of sorts.

Our sand plan for tomorrow is to make it 9 locks and about 18 km to Montargis.