The approach to Auxerre, the major city of the Nivernaise canal. It is at the junction of the canal and the Yonne River and from here on up the Nivernaise there are only small towns with limited supplies – as we are finding out. It is a beautiful old medieval city with 5 major churches. 
The view for 5 days our main cabin window.
The major church in the town. Started in around 1000 it was finished in the mid 1500,s. It was a very tall, light church inside and in excellent condition, also because it was built high on rock it was very dry and fresh inside. Many old building are very damp and musty inside and do not invite a long stay.
Same view from the boat but at night. There were two other churches on the river either side of this one which were also floodlight so the city was quite spectacular at night.
Evening meal time with friends from Oz. Peter and Monica hired bikes and rode along the canals in the Burgundy area and spent some time with us on the boat. They generally covered in one hour what we covered in a day.
Washing day. We stayed 5 days at a small village called Accoulay. It had free water and electricity, a boulangerie (baker), and charcuterie(butcher) and an excellent restaurant where we went for Lynda’s birthday. We did some maintenance on the boat in the mornings and exploring, mainly on bike, in the afternoon.
Afternoon tea by and old laverie (wash house) on an afternoon expedition.
The canal boating community is very small and by now we are meeting lots of people we know or know people we know. Pat and Brian are good friends of some other Oz boaties we know from home. This trip has been extremely social, in fact we decided to stop at Accoulay as there were no other boats there and we felt we could get some work done. The next port was full of Poms,Ozzies and Kiwis and one visit there on the bikes got way laid for several hours
The other end of the barge with Brian and the mini. A small hydraulic crane on the back deck swings the car on to shore. Pat says she likes to be out of sight when this operation is taking place!!!!
We came back to the boat after an afternoons cycling and smelt smoke in the boat. The tomatoes were on fire! We had placed them in a polished stainless steel bowl and the sun light was focused on the stems causing them to ignite. If we had arrived home an hour later we may have had dinner already prepared but no boat to eat it on!!!
A typical charcuterie in a small village. They sell lots of pates and other meat products as well and it is very hard to get out the door without making several unintended purchases.They are more like our delicatessens than a butcher. You will often see the customer and butcher picking up bits of meat and discussing them in detail before a final decision is made. No one is in a hurry and every one in the shop says “bon jour” as you enter the shop and “au revoir” when you leave.
The local watering hole in the same village. Often quite busy by 8.00am
Lace curtains are the thing here. As many of the houses are hard on the street the lace give some privacy while letting in light. I am sure one is judged by the type and quality of these and many are very elaborate. Lynda has taken quite an interest in them and I am rather worried about she may have plans for Lydford Close.
One of the lifting bridges on the Nivernaise. We had to stop and open these ourselves which is not much fun in the rain. Autumn has set in here and the trees are beginning to turn colour and it is getting quite cold at nights. We are off to buy a heater later this morning.
We are wintering the boat in a small village called Baye and plan to be there in 5 days. This will leave around a week to do some maintenance and prepare the boat for winter. Back in Oz on the 26th Sept.
