Now that I don’t have a regular job, I wonder how I ever had the time to fit work into my life. Certainly I have a lot to do keeping an 86 year old barge with its motors, pumps, electrics, plumbing and other complex systems working properly, but I don’t seem to have the time to do all the other things I should be doing, such as writing this journal. It’s been more than six weeks since the PC was attacked by the three fingers I use for typing and in that time we have travelled quite a distance and experienced a great deal.

Summer has arrived, but it is a different season from it’s Western Australian counterpart. Hot and humid 30 degree days are interspersed with cool 17 - 20 degree days, while clear sunny vistas are regularly replaced with cloudy, brooding, and even threatening skies which frequently drop quantities of rain on us. We explain to those planning to come to Europe and who ask for the best time of year, to plan for rain whenever they come, since Europe spreads it’s rainfall almost equally though the year, but concentrates it on the days visitors expect clear skies. There is a benefit to it of course - it provides good clean water to wash the decks.

At the end of May we were at the confluence of the Yonne River and the Canal de Bourgogne, heading for Auxerre to pick up a couple who had shared a hire boat here with us some three years earlier. Gary, past CEO of the WA Planning Department, had left Perth for Sydney in 2001 to take up the top planning job there and was scheduled to attend a conference and meetings in Europe at this time. We arranged Auxerre as the meeting point for their three day cruise for old times sake. Tragically, it was not to be. Arriving in Migennes (where you turn into the Yonne to Auxerre), we were informed that a barrage (a sort of dam that guarantees water levels in the canals), had broken apart and the temporary repair allowed only boats under 20 metres in length to pass. With the magic of mobile phones and e-mails, we were able to reschedule to meet for Sens, another cathedral town nearby.

Arriving in Sens, we pulled in to what looked like a rickety walkway / jetty and made fast, just behind a couple of commercial barges that were dressed gaily with flags and bunting for a wedding. Through the rest of that day and night, relatives, friends, bridesmaids, and the bride, groomsmen and the groom, came and went. It seems the boats and an adjacent marquee, were used as a meeting place, while the ceremony was elsewhere. We were not invited but watched and listened with amusement as the young guests formed car-borne cavalcades and drove through the town with their horns blowing.

Gary and Dianne arrived off the Chunnel (channel tunnel train) in their hire car, and so with company from home, we explored this beautiful cathedral town with it’s narrow twisty streets leading up a steep hill from the river, exposing 14^th and 15^th century, timbered houses. Their exposed, thick oak beams, are carved into stories. One shows the genealogy of Christ while another tells the tale of Cain and Able. The cathedral is a magnificent blend of Romanesque and gothic architecture and on the Sunday was alive with organ music at the end of a colourful service, complete with choir and masses of clergy. Outside the cathedral’s doors lies the main town square, surrounded by sidewalk cafes, all basking in the sun, just waiting for thirsty Australian bargees. We took advantage of one brasserie’s 20 Euro menu and dowsed the food liberally with local wines, Crisp Chablis whites and rich but delicate Burgundian reds make excellent partners to local meats and, a favourite, mussels imported from Brittany.

The next morning we set sail for Pont-sur-Yonne, just 20km and several large commercial locks down river, direction Paris. Our guests revelled in the quiet of the cruise mixed with the bustle of locking the boat and steering it through the river traffic of private and commercial boats of all descriptions.. Too soon we arrived at Pont-sur-Yonne to find that the advertised port de plaisance finger jetties, attached to the large mooring pontoon, had all sunk. We found one end of the pontoon serviceable enough and tied Van Nelle securely to it’s floating remnants. Since our guests had another appointment in Nice to get to the next morning, Gary and I set off back to Sens in the local train, a ten minute trip, to recover their car. That done, we explored the town and prepared for a gourmet meal accompanied with Premier Cru (first growth) wines, onboard Van Nelle. Mousse de Canard and Sancerre was followed by Boeuf Bourguignonne and Nuits St George. Dessert was a selection of pastries from the nearby patisserie accompanied by Marcvin, the mixture of wine and grape spirit. Everyone sleeps very well on Van Nelle with no complaints of night borne noises !

We waved goodbye to Gary and Dianne the next morning after a sunny breakfast of fruits, breads and local confitures and as they drove south, we untied and headed for Paris.

We needed just two overnight stops en route to the City of Light, which we took at a lovely Halte Nautique at St Mammes, a centre of commercial barging, that boasts a beautiful pleasure boat jetty with all facilities, and at Corbeil Essones, where we stopped at a commercial barge loading dock. St Mammes provides it’s facilities free for two nights and then at a moderate rate for additional nights. Power and water are available for each boat, also at moderate rates.

Opposite the port is a fuel depot where the next morning we took on 500 litres of diesel. Since they did not take credit cards, Maureen set off for town to withdraw cash from a distributeur (tin teller). Unfortunately she used the wrong pin number three times and the machine swallowed the card. Fortunately the bank had a technician arriving at 11.00 and they kindly returned the card, which now would not work since the code had been violated. We used our reserve card to get cash and, somewhat later than planned, left St Mammes.

Corbeil Essones promised a Jazz Festival on the day we were there, but try as we did, we could not find any of the performances. On arrival back at our boat, a commercial barge arrived and asked us to move up the quai as they expected to begin loading building materials early the next morning exactly where we had moored. A few minutes of man handling and everyone was happy for the night. The next morning we would arrive in the heart of Paris, so that evening was spent studying the charts to ensure we would make no wrong turns into prohibited or one way channels. We also rang the Arsenal, a marina right in the heart of Paris, to make a booking.

The Arsenal has room for some 200 boats, being an old ‘bassin’ where commercial boats used to wait to enter the Canal St Denis. With the slackening of commercial trade, the area has been made into a very popular marina. We had previously inquired, only to be told our ship was too big, but when you just arrive they often manage to make adjustments. Mind you, at the amount they charge (60 Euros plus another 12 for power and water - about $A 130 per night), their adjustments make good money for them. They encouraged us to turn up and the next day at 1.00pm, we did.

On arrival outside the lock that takes us off the River Seine and into the bassin I got on the VHF radio and requested entry. Some discussion was followed by a long wait - some 25 minutes. During this time we were buzzed continuously by a great number of passing barges and ‘bateau mouches’, the tourist scenic cruisers that are as big as battleships. Manoeuvring Van Nelle against a 4km current in order to stay out of the channel and avoiding ramming the river banks or other boats, poses a moderate challenge since there are no obvious places to moor up while waiting. We finally made another radio call which elicited the information that they had decided there was not room for us, so we would have to go to their other marina, under the feet of the Tour Eiffel. We headed off in that direction only to arrive at the bridge at the end of the Isle St Louis which has traffic lights allowing downstream boats only 15 minutes passing time from 25 minutes to the hour. As it was 5 to the hour, the lights were red. We pulled over to the left bank, on which we now had seen bollards and used this mooring, adjacent to the University park, to secure the boat.

We had a late lunch and discussed the options. The other marina we knew from other travellers to be pleasant but constantly washed by passing traffic, since it is actually on the River Seine. It is also almost as expensive as the Arsenal with few of it’s advantages. Other marinas are much further out of the heart of this magnificent city, so cheaper, but less attractive to those who plan to spend days wandering the streets and boulevardes of this magnificent locale. We figured that where we were was convenient - free, and by the lack of signage indicating otherwise, allowable. We decided to stay put, 5 minutes walk from the Notre Dame cathedral, on the Left Bank, right in the heart of Paris.

(Some six days later and just before the weekend advertising a fishing exhibition at the park, along came the river police and a city official in an inflatable with a stern warning to leave the area. Apparently it was only to be used for boats waiting to pass through the bridge with the traffic lights. They produced a book of rules which did not explicitly support their argument (which became even more flimsy when they admitted that several fishing boats would be there for the exhibition and we were taking their space), but as they pointed to their police badges and started threatening fines, we elected to make a tactical withdrawal with the moral victory. It was only on our way out of Paris a couple of weeks later that we saw one ‘no parking’ sign, some 300 metres up the left bank).

Meanwhile, however, we had front row seats to the magic and marvels of what must be the most beautiful city in the world. Paris was spared bombing during WWII and no other war has approached the town, so it’s fabulous buildings and monuments are all intact. Additionally, since Napoleon gave carte blanche to Colonel Hausseman to eradicate the slums and remodel the boulevardes and central streets, Paris has had every opportunity to become and remain the showplace it is.

We revisited our favourite gallery, the Musee d’Orsay (once a bustling railway station) which is now the home of the Louvres’ fabulous collection of Impressionist art and statuary. We discovered Rue Mouffetard, a narrow market street with wonderful food and wine shops, and its intersecting streets filled with small, inexpensive restaurants. We wandered through the Tuilleries Gardens and up and down the Champs Elysee. We climbed the hundreds of steps to the top of the Arc de Triumph and took innumerable metro trains through the underground labyrinths, to sections of Paris we had not had the time to explore on previous trips. The sun shone and, as we took the open topped double decker bus (L’Opentour) through Paris to discover even more of it’s secrets, we enjoyed the freedom of not being on a timetable and having the time available to just sit and watch the world (and their dogs), walk by.

Free Jazz concerts were advertised in the Parc Floral on every Saturday and Sunday afternoon during June so we jumped on the metro and headed out to Vincennes where one of Frances’ King Louis had built a huge Chateau (which we wandered through). It’s parklands are now the Parc Floral which houses a large stage and audience seating area, used extensively for free concerts. Saturday saw an American male jazz singer followed by a very experimental trio and Sunday, a fabulous double bass player (shades of Tommy Emmanuel) followed by a Django Reinhardt type ensemble, complete with electric violin. All the performers were world class and the production marvellous. We took picnics, enjoying the expansive lawn areas and then took our places in great free seats in the open air auditorium for the three hours of entertainment. We were accompanied by up to 10,000 others.

Before we were asked so graciously to leave our free mooring, we had decided to go through the Arsenal bassin and it’s locks, onto the Canal St Denis. We had heard that there were places for big boats in another bassin some 3km up that channel. The Canal St Denis runs through busy Parisian streets - quite a novelty, and emerges at the Isle St Denis, downstream of Paris centre. We radioed the Arsenal requesting passage and they opened up the lock for us. Through the 200 boats crowded on both sides of the narrow bassin we crept, heading for the lock at the other end that was immediately followed by a long tunnel under the streets of the neighbourhood, including the Place de la Revolution where many heads rolled after the storming of the Bastille. They say that even oxen would not pass through the Place during that time, since the smell of spilt human blood was so strong.

7 locks up the canal we entered a huge bassin with almost no boats. We were directed to the far end where there were bollards and shady trees and so spent another three nights in Paris centre.

Paris boasts a Science City that is situated right next to the Bassin de Villette where we spent out last three nights in Paris. This is no single building but a complex of huge buildings and other exhibits including a submarine and a 360 degree geodesic cinema. The exhibition buildings house space labs, whole aeroplanes and collections of cars, with many mini theatres and computer based interactive displays to keep adults and kids busy. It could take days to go through, but we tired after 4 hours and wandered back to the boat to spend the afternoon wandering through Montmartre.

Our third night there was unfortunately interrupted by drama as Maureen, who had stayed up reading, heard what she thought was noise on the deck. People were still wandering about at midnight and we had occasions where young people would jump on board to get their friends attention of to get a photo taken. On this night however it was our stack of four mountain bikes the local kids were after and had already cut through three of the four safety chains we had securing them ! Maureen yelled at them and they walked nonchalantly off the boat and away into the night, watched by more than half a dozen onlookers in the park. We moved the bikes into the wheelhouse and the next morning bought a huge chain which now secures them. We decided to depart for the balance of the Canal St Denis and ports north of Paris after ten days in the capital.

Departing at 9.00am, we travelled through the mostly industrial canal to the Seine where we turned right to head downstream towards the sea, to the port of Conflans St Honorine, centre of commercial barging in France and a place that houses the premier museum of water life. We arrived there a day or so later to find it was the first day of the Annual National Grand Pardon de Bataillers - their Blessing of the Fleet festival weekend. We had finally arrived somewhere in time to take part in a major festival.

As we cruised past the hundreds of commercial barges tied four and five deep on both sides of the river, we despaired at being able to find a mooring anywhere near the action. As it happened, the boats had been arranged in such a way that they had left a 30 metre gap right at the town centre. Since commercial boats are 38 metres and need about 40 to fit, it was a spare space that was perfect for our 27 metre length. We quietly slipped in to the space and no one blinked. For three days we were right in the centre of the festival.

That Friday night saw all the restaurants alive with music, from French folk and busker performers to slick rock and roll bands. Saturday was taken up with ceremonies and grand lunches while we explored the museum. That night the grand spectacle was promised in the town park at 10,30pm. (They start such things late since it is light until 10.30). We took low folding chairs to the park and had centre seats, just in front of the sound technicians (always the best place to be as they arrange the sound to suit themselves). Shortly after we arrived, the spectacle began.

The ‘Commandos of Percussion’ entered from behind the thousands of people crammed into the audience area and from the start of the show we knew something very special was going to happen. It was electric. Six semi naked men with science fiction electric drum kits secured to their waists and played as they made their way to the stage. Fantastic rhythms from loud and frantic to soft and dreamlike. As the tempo increased, one of their number shed his drums and set to work at a keyboard mounted on the stage. It was an electronic firing mechanism for spectacular fireworks.

In perfect timing with the complex rhythms, the multi coloured jets of fire erupted from just behind the stage to explode immediately over the heads of the audience. It was so close, so immediate and so well coordinated that it was absolutely thrilling. An hour and a half flew by as if seconds and then they were finished. The crowd had other ideas however and as the band tried to play themselves back to their dressing room through the crowd, they were mobbed, surrounded and forced to a standstill - so they just kept on playing. Eventually they stopped, exhausted and soaked with sweat, as was the crowd which had danced itself to a standstill. Tired but still excited, people trooped down the hill from the park to fill up the cafes and brasseries, to sing and dance into the small hours of the morning.

We were up early enough the next morning, Sunday, to bicycle along the riverside to the confluence of the River Seine and the Oise, for which the town was partly named. ‘St Honorine’ being added in remembrance of the saint who came from the district, and who had rescued mariners from drowning in an ancient legend of the area. This was the site of the Grand Pardon Mass and the beginning of the Blessing, which took the Bishop and the officials by boat down the river, past all the barges, to sprinkle the route with holy water as part of the ceremony.

By Tuesday, June 18 it was time to depart Conflans for Paris again and then to head south to pick up two more sets of guests, booked to cruise on the upper Seine and Canal de Briare. But first, we planned to cruise slowly through Paris itself, under the famous bridges and by the landmarks of the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Musee d’Orsay, Notre Dame and the city’s islands - Isle de la Cite and Isle St Louis, and then to turn right at the confluence of the Seine and the River Marne, to head back to St Mammes for our rendezvous.

En route to St Mammes we took a left turn into the Petite Seine to visit Meaux, a town with a ‘Spectacle’ that takes place every Friday and Saturday night. The production features 500 actors, 3,600 costumes, horses, special effects and fireworks.

The town’s marina is free, including power and water, so on arrival we attacked the pile of washing that had accumulated over a couple of weeks. We were no sooner into the first load when the power dropped out. While we were accused by the Dutch couple alongside of having caused the problem, my investigation showed that our circuit breaker was intact. I went to the tourism office where the officials arranged an electrician. After a brief investigation he discovered that the Dutchman’s mate on another boat was using defective power tools which had taken out the electricity for the whole marina. No-one apologised to us and in fact one guy suggested we should leave, since our boat was too big. I pointed out that the rules of the marina did not exclude us but stated that the maximum stay was two days, and since they had all been there a week, perhaps it was they who should move on. At that the Dutch community shut up and left us alone. The next day a few more Dutch boats arrived and were denied private jetties, having to share several with their mates who now had to make room for them. Obviously it was an arranged holiday for a group who resented the Brits and Aussies at the harbour. This was an unusual occurrence since most of the boating crowd are very open and welcoming. As it happened, it didn’t phase us as we just turned on our generator and completed the washing.

The next night we attended the Spectacle, which was spectacular, and just shows what a town can do when it works together. The script, scenery., seating, lighting, sound effects and acting were all first rate and the whole production bigger than Ben Hur. It was conceived, written, recorded and directed, fully within the town’s artistic community.

A couple of days at Meaux were enough to enjoy the Spectacle, visit the ‘American Monument’ (a huge statue for the dead of the first world war, paid for by Americans) and to farewell two English friends we had followed into Paris and Meaux and with whom we had many adventures in St Jean de Losne. They headed east towards Strasbourg and we headed south.

Several days later we were back in St Mammes and ready to take our next set of guests aboard for a four day cruise to Montargis on the Canal de Briare. Penny and Rob are leaders in the computer industry in Perth and were looking forward to a relaxing break from kids and work on the way to Italy for the main part of their holiday. They arrived off the train after Rob had flown direct from Australia to be met by Penny and taken immediately to the Eurostar train to Paris then a change of trains to get to Montargis - about a 36 hour trip. We welcomed him with the traditional glass of Champagne and set about relaxing them both with some light cruising, some excellent meals and top shelf wines. Interspersed in that routine came the bicycle expeditions ashore to suss out the ancient villages and churches and several games of Boules on the banks of the canals. Boules are small steel balls which are thrown underarm at a smaller wooden ‘jack’. The nearest boule to the jack wins. Very simple but endlessly entertaining.

While we often stay in the excellent little ports and marinas built and maintained by the villages along the canals, we prefer when possible to just stop in seclude and shady areas along the sides of the canals. A couple of 2 inch water pipes form our bollards and the sounds of the birds twittering and the fish plopping in the water are not drowned out by the sound of cars and commerce.

Canal-side stops or ‘wild moorings’ as we call them, are usually accompanied by barbecued meals of Saumon Atlantique, Carre d"Agneau, Charolais Boeuf and accompanied by the white wines of Chablis, Sancerre or Pouilly and the reds of Burgundy (Vosne Romanee, Nuits St George) or Chateau bottled Bordeaux. There is also of course Champagne in it’s many forms and the excellent Cremant de Bourgogne, a cheaper and very good substitute. Champagnes range from $A25 to $50 while Cremants start at about $7. Throughout the centre of France, cheeses proliferate in many forms from soft white Brie and Camemberts to the strong blues of Roquefort and the goat’s cheeses or Crottins. They smell like hell and taste of heaven and are best washed down with a good strong red wine.

Our arrival in Montargis saw the re-emergence of a couple of rested humans who had spent sun dappled afternoons snoozing on the banks of the canals in big easy chairs and the mornings helping with locks or driving the 27m (88 feet) of Van Nelle through the quiet waterways. They headed off in a hire car for a couple of days of slow exploration towards Dijon and then an overnight train to Florence and their villa in Tuscany.

We had a couple of days to do the washing, vacuuming and restocking of the wine cellar and food pantry before welcoming well known RFBYC identities Ian and Helen Palmer, known to us as the Admiral and Lady Helen. They were to spend eleven days aboard, learning to become experts at big boat barging through Europe.

Our itinerary was to depart Montargis for Chateauneuf, Rogny, Briare, Sancerre and eventually, Nevers where they would take the train back to Paris and the Qantas 747 to Perth. We spent the first day acclimatising them to the boat and the town of Montargis and set off the next morning for the first of some nine days of morning or afternoon cruises, midday stops for a resupply of fresh bread when the locks closed and then completion of the days travelling to our planned destination for the evening - be that a canal side wild mooring or a small port in a town.

The first couple of days saw us visit a number of small villages and while travelling between then, Ian took long hours at the wheel, experiencing the effect of canal suction on the boat and fighting the resultant swing off course with the huge wheel that is attached to the rudder by chain and steel rope - no power assist here. From basic steering in the canal channels our new helmsman graduated to passing other boats, entering and leaving locks and setting the boat up for long waits at the threshold of closed locks. The deck work of handling ropes, arranging them correctly for the position of the boat in locks and especially controlling the boat when we shared the locks with another boat, were also parts of the experience gained on Van Nelle. Narrow bridges and locks set on angles to the approach channel are also challenges that are faced several times an hour by our helms-persons. Time drifts past and hours seem like minutes while the long passages of quiet reflection are interrupted by short bursts of activity.

Briare was not the first town on the trip but with it’s Pont Canal designed by Gustav Eiffel, probably the most spectacular. Arriving here brings the boat into a wide bassin with a fully serviced port on one side and a bank suitable for mooring Van Nelle on the other. At the exit to the bassin is a bridge over a wide river bed, some 600 metres long, containing the canal. It’s a weird feeling to be piloting a big boat across this suspended canal, which is exactly what we did the second day after arrival. First though was the need to investigate the extensive and very pretty town and find a suitable restaurant to celebrate Ian and Helen’s wedding anniversary - no specifics but well over 30 years. We could not find a better place than the Café de Marine, right by our mooring, so that’s where we went. An excellent French meal, brilliant wines, obsequious service (including leaving the wine pouring to ourselves). A perfect place for a great evening of provincial food and wine.

We spent a day exploring the town’s ceramics museum and maritime museum, then wandering through the regional photographic competition exhibition. The next day we headed off across the pont canal. We had originally planned to make Sancerre the end of this cruise but having found out at Briare that Sancerre did not have a major rail station, we extended the itinerary to finish at Nevers. That required a fair bit more daily mileage so the next morning we were off to Sancerre early.

Sancerre is actually some distance away from the canal and two towns on the canal are suitable for stopping at as jumping off places to visit this famous wine centre. We passed the first, St Satur, which was crowded, and so continued on to Menetreol which had a suitable port. This is a very picturesque town with a huge rail viaduct, now disused, overlooking the town. It has many tiny, twisted houses and some very friendly and helpful inhabitants who gave us the contact number of the local taxi service. The next morning we arranged for Christophe and his taxi to take us on a tour of the local chateau, Bue - a nearby village, the best hilltop lookouts and then into the ancient hilltop town of Sancerre, surrounded by its famous vineyards.

Sancerre has a subsoil similar to that found in Champagne. It is made up of a chalk base which holds in the warmth and moisture during the winter months, thereby protecting and nurturing the fragile vines. The product of these valuable plants is a flinty dry white wine of great character which can be kept for 10 years. Nearby the wines of Pouilly are created on a flinty subsoil and these also have become world famous. We bought a number of the regular vintage and some of the aged specimens to try much later.

All too soon it was time to start the big Baudouin DK6 diesel and head off towards Nevers, with a stop en-route at a wild mooring. Dinner that night was succulent chicken pieces, long marinated in lemon, wine, herbs grown on the back deck, and oil, and slow roasted in the covered barbecue. We put the stereo speakers on the deck and danced as the sun slid behind the trees.

The short distance to Nevers was quickly covered the next morning and a suitable mooring place found adjacent to the Café de la Marine, opposite the small jetties of the Port de Plaisance. Nevers is up a trunk canal off the major route and it was a welcome sight to see a large bassin, suitable for turning the boat. We would not have enjoyed the challenge of reversing several kilometres and through two locks to get back onto the Canal de Briare !

On the way to Nevers a flight of two locks is encountered. Rather than each lock being separated by a space of canal, these two adjoin each other with the upstream doors to the first admitting you directly into the chamber of the second. This is no more of a challenge than going through two separate locks but it does restrict the traffic as boats heading in the opposite direction cannot pass between the locks and therefore have to wait until you complete both. To add to the challenge however, the locks raise you 10 metres each and are followed by another Pont Canal. Quite an experience. Fortunately the lock keepers here are very experienced and take your lines via a rope with a hook, dangled over the wall of the lock. Ingress of water is controlled to ensure boats do not thrash about causing damage to themselves and the lock walls.

So, we arrived in Nevers. Sad farewells to Ian and Helen were preceded by the arranging of their trip to Paris and some shopping for last minute gifts for folks back home, an excursion to the Palace of the Ducs de Nevers and the large church that dominates the skyline. The church was half destroyed by allied bombing during WWII but restored following peace. It now boasts very modern stained glass with only two panels of ‘old’ glass and those were re-created from photographs of the originals.

As Ian and Helen left on July 11, we decided to stay in Nevers for Bastille Day on July 14. This promised to be entertaining with a free symphony concert at 6.00pm and fireworks at 10.45pm. Two other Australian boats and crews were there, an Albany couple Geoff and Lorna Steer and a Melbourne couple, John Doughty and his wife Jan. All of us have a connection, as St Jean de Losne was our common wintering port. And thereby hangs other tales, since John did not reach that safe harbour before ice overtook their travels, forcing them to leave their boat next to a lock some 30km distance from St Jean during the whole winter. On the other hand, the Steers had their boat craned out of the canal at St Jean and left it on shore as they went back to Albany.

This had indeed been a busy time with some 600 litres of fuel consumed in some 120 hours of engine use (the fuel also powers the water heater and generator) at a rate somewhat less than 5 litres per hour. During the time we had covered more than 800 kilometres at an average speed of around 6kmh. I have not counted the number of locks but it would be over 200 !

During the next month we will cruise south to Roanne, a busy port for many expatriates, back to St Jean de Losne for a visit and an engine service (after some 400 hours since leaving there), and then head south towards the Mediterranean and the Canal du Midi via the mighty Rhone River. We look forward to another raft of friends from the UK, Australia and Canada joining us and many more confrontations with beautiful foods, wines and scenery.