Rogny Ecluses and heading to Briare

Sunday September 7th

The parking lot above the lock was humming when we got up - turns out there was a Renault Road Rally and I believe we were at the starting point.

We had a very short day ahead of us in theory and as it turned out in reality.  Six locks and ten kilometers.  A very pretty journey and as you can see some beautiful locks and interesting wildlife.

  

We could hear quacking as we were coming up in the lock and as soon as we could see over the ledge this lovely pair of geese were there to meet us. Handouts were welcomed by them and they waddled to the edge of the lock to bid us adieu.

I thought the goat was a statue but no it was real.

Some beautiful locks along the way:

We arrived in Rogny-les-Sept-Ecluses, a sleepy little town, especially on a Sunday. We docked in front of a restaurant, a tabac, a pizza emporter and as luck would have it the rotisserie chicken truck. Garth rode the bike over to the capitaineries office but there was no one around.

Our home in Rogny

  When we finished tying up we decided to walk into the town - right across the bridge - to see what we could see. We stopped at the tourist office and she told us that there was laundry available right where we were but that we needed to get the key from the capitainerie. The MIA capitainerie. Previously we had been told that the key to the laundry was at the boulangerie, so we tried in there and she told us to go to the restaurant across the street. We went over there but she had no clue as to what we were talking about. . .. thank goodness it is a very small place. We walked up to see the seven locks of Rogny,

This ladder of locks was a built during the reign of Henry IV . Actually, it started in 1604 and the first logs went through as an experiment in 1641. Between 1604 and 1641 there was a lot of political stuff going on - the King was stabbed in 1610, the thirty years war, King Louis XIII enabled vandals to steal construction materials ... it was just a real messy time!   After 1641 it functioned for nearly 200 years , stopping only for maintenance and repairs. It has now been replaced by a more efficient but much less interesting chain of six non-contiguous locks.

When Garth & I  got back to the boats we witnessed a frenzy of activity- all the women except Judy and I were off to Briare to do laundry.  Later we went for another walk and when we returned the trees were lined with laundry - the one dryer at the lavorie automatique was just not  sufficient to handle this crowd.

Monday September 8th:

Our destination today was Briare - the laundry ladies said it was a cute place and I could do laundry so we thought that we should give it a whirl. We had seven locks to get through and our timing would have been perfect except we had to wait for two barges to lock up. They messed up our timing and we ended up having lunch on the bank just short of Ouzouer-sur-Trezee.  We did make it to Briare in good time but decided to go to the commercial harbour as opposed to the pleasure harbour. The pleasure harbour had an additional three locks to get through and there was no guarantee that they had room. We thought we would go back there if we did not find place at the commercial harbour. As luck would have it we found a long wall with power and water that the three of us fit on just right. We called the captainierre and she - Dorothy, from the Netherlands- rode her bike up from the pleasure harbour and turned on the pedestal. She made the receipts out for Tilstra 1, Tilstra 2 and Tilstra 3 - those Dutch all stick together!!  

Along the way:

The Captain!

Once that was all settled we went downtown - it was too far to lug laundry so that will have to wait for another day!

  There was a fabulous patisserie with ice cream and chocolate, a really nice cathedral and of course the pleasure harbour. Garth and I walked the harbour because that is what boaters do. We meet a Canadian couple who use this as their home port and spend seven months here then return home for winter! To each his own - thinking I would be doing the opposite.

We returned to the boat just in time to witness a newbie trying to dock a boat. He was definitely overmatched by the task at hand.  Eventually Carrie yelled over "do you need help" and Doug and Garth jumped on the bikes and rode over to assist them.  Garth tied up the stern as the four of them watched, not one person went to the bow to throw a line to Doug until I yelled over  - someone needs to throw a bow line! Anyhow, no harm was done, they put on a great show and they are headed the same way we are tomorrow. We all decided to get up and outta here as early as possible and hopefully we will be well ahead of them. I am thinking that tonight may just be the start of the show and that there is more to come down the way. They have yet to do their first lock!

I love these guys!

After dinner we walked over to Le Point Canal to get a few night shots as we will be crossing over it tomorrow morning.