Barge Holiday on Le Cher France Day Seven 3/7/15

We left our mooring in the lock and headed down to Montrichard passing under the multi arch bridge before mooring alongside the town quay. From here we visited the town market, if only the UK had markets like this.

We then wandered around the town for a bit before being picked up by Leigh in the

Minibus to take us to our next venue, another wine tasting, this time at Saint-Julien-de-Chédon which is only a few hundred yards from the river but lower down than we were able to travel. This time the building was on the front of a traditional cave.  

Back to the boat and we were off downstream, This time Alain was alone, Leigh taking the minibus ahead, so Alain enlisted the help of some willing locals to work the lock. I think they earned their cans of Coke.

Just after leaving the lock we were aground, the same place as coming up, but this time we were carrying a bit more water in the tanks so were a little deeper. It probably took ¾ hour to get free.

The reasons our cruise had not started in the right place was low water levels in the river between some of the Barrages (see blog on Barrages) due to them not holding water. While we had been travelling upstream the canal company had been draining a couple of section to repair one of the barrages and the river was still refilling. For this reason we had to stop in Chisseaux as there was insufficient water to go any further. You can see from these ladies and also how the water tumbles over the end of the weir just how shallow the river is so we had to stay in the lock for the evening.

  The lock keeper was concerned how slowly the next section of river was making up so he pulled a selection of fingers to speed things up a bit. They can be seen lying on the walkway. As it was our last night onboard it was the Captains Dinner and a large table was set up in what would often be the wheel house, but of course on this boat its just a seating area. After dinner the level in the river had risen sufficiently for us to continue so we boated on under a full moon passing under the illuminated Château de Chenonceau to return to the same moorings as we had started the week.

To read about our last day click HERE

Barge Holiday on Le Cher France The last day 4/7/15

It was our last day and after breakfast we said goodbye to Judy and Geoff who had their car waiting for them and were driving home to the UK. Alain and Leigh loaded our bags and took us to Tours. officially it was supposed to be the railway station where we were picked up, but they dropped us in the old town by the river. This was near the end of the long straight pedestrianised road that only the trams can use. We stopped for a cool beer at one of the tram side cafes and then walked to the centre of town to find somewhere for lunch.

After a leisurely lunch we walked to the railway/bus station to check the time of the only bus to the airport and then found a bit of shade to sit and wait. While waiting we decided to take a taxi out to the airport, that way we would be checked in before the crowd arrived and it turned out the taxi fare was only 2 Euros more than the bus would have cost and we had air con thrown in.

The airport is not the largest of establishments and the baggage book in opened about 5 minutes after we arrived so we got shot of them and went for coffee and cake. Once through passport and security there are no facilities other than a toilet.

We had our passports checked 5 times before we boarded the plane, first at baggage check in, then as we went to security with our hand baggage. At security before we could put our hand baggage through, the person who put the bags through, these three can actually see each other and then again before we could board the plane. but those four checks were 50 times as fast as the single check at Stansted when we arrived. The automated passport control seems to reject about 20% of the people using it and I was one of them. By the time I got through Diana had collected the bags and was waiting to go.

Barge Holiday on Le Cher France Day Two 28/6/2015

Sunday morning and breakfast outside, what could be better. Following our checking out we were able to leave our cases at the hotel for the day, as we were being picked up late afternoon to be taken to the boat.
Its only a short train ride from here to town and coats 1 euro 60 each. Access to the platform is via a tunnel with steps coming up on to the platform. The don’t have graffiti in their tunnels they have murals  like this.

 

 

Its only one stop into town and when we arrived we found the roads in the centre closed off, I was expecting to find a bike race, but what it actually was, was the Grand Prix de Tours spending the day in town with classic cars and bikes. There was everything from E type Jags to 2CVs

        From Honda monkey bikes to Norton Dominators

They spent all day going round and round the town centre behind a race safety car, at times the safety car was just behind the last car going round. Of course they all had to stop and the barriers moved when a tram wanted to cross the circuit.
The tram lines run up a dead straight car free road and the road is made of polished stone slabs. There is no overhead pickup the cars are powered by a clever third rail APS system. this rail is in very short sections and only the sections under the tram cars are live.

We visited the old town where there are the remains of a very large church called The Collegiate Church of Saint Martin. This church use to cover quite a large area at one time as can be seen from the plan below.  The tower was turned first into a shot tower and workshops, however  later someone decided it would be a good idea to dig an Artesian well  to supply them with water which lead to it becoming unstable.

 

We stopped for lunch in one of the small cafes in the old town, it was a set meal and unfortunately I didn’t make the best choices from the menu so didn’t enjoy my meal that much.

A walk down by the river Loire which surprised me as to how shallow it was in the summer months compared to the winter floods. Today you wouldn’t get under the bridge with a rowing boat, but there are mooring rings 10 foot up the second part of the wall.

After lunch we wandered back to the town centre station to catch the train back to Gare St Pierre des Corps. After a coffee we returned to the hotel to retrieve our cases and wait beside the large yellow post box outside the front of the station to be picked up and taken to our boat.
At this point  Déjà vu strikes. The boat is not where it should be, but about 20 Km upstream above Civray due to low water levels below the lock, so our mini bus ride was a bit longer than planned and our cruise shorter.

The black section is the actual cruise and the red is what we missed out

On the way Alain, or driver and skipper for the week informed us that there would only be 4 guests on board for the week and that Leigh the boat owner was picking up the other couple from where the boat should have been.

We got our first view of Nymphea moored on the lock moorings just above the lock. the lock itself was full of canoes.

Then it was drinks on the top deck to meet the rest of the crew, Leigh the owner, Erell our House Keeper and Jenny our chef. Alain who had picked us up was the Captain as Leigh was leaving the following week for Paris.

 

For day three click HEREHERE