Snickers in a twist (or not quite the marathon man)

Decize to Digoin

64.5 km

15 locks

13 hours

Eight weeks later and we were back next to the water tap at Decize, only this time it didn’t work. We knocked on the double doors to the VNF and asked if the tap, that protruded from their building, could be turned on momentarily so we could fill with water. “Non, c’est kaput” came the reply, (yeah right - I’m not even sure kaput is a French word). “You will have to go down into the marina, maybe they can help”

As it happens, the chaps at the marina spoke perfect English and were more than willing to give us water for free. Pulling up manholes and crawling under dry-docked boats, nothing seemed too much trouble. Anyone interested in hiring a boat check out www.leboat.fr , they are next to the beautiful Canal de Nivernais.

The marina at Decize

Getting water from 'Le Boat'

We would ask the VNF men fishing next to our boat on a daily basis if the tap had been fixed yet, “non” would be their reply, perhaps if they spent less time fishing and more time working it may possibly be functioning. Besides they were all supping coffee, why not let us run our hose to a different tap? This gang were a sharp contrast to the VNF at Nevers who were terrific, and couldn’t be more obliging.

The automatic lock down to the marina controlled by VNF

We were keen to get underway once more, but I needed to see a dentist to look at a tooth. It had been a little sensitive over the Christmas period and, having suffered an abscess in the past, thought better of just ignoring it.

There were four dentists in Decize, three of whom refused to see me. The one that did we found on the recommendation of a lady named Brigit who was having a fag break when we met her in the town centre.

The dentist herself looked like an auntie of mine with a beehive you had to crane your neck to see the top of. After a bit of a wait, I was led to a room and seated in a dental chair with a view through two double patio doors of the most unkempt garden I’d seen in a long time, surely you would draw the curtains?

This gave me food for thought and, as I began to look around, I realised it was more like being in a back street garage that needed a tidy up than a dentist. There were bits of matted plastic bags stuck on the ends of the equipment as a replacement for end caps that were missing. This didn’t concern me too much as none of the dental equipment came near my mouth. Instead, she started hitting my teeth with what looked like a screwdriver, no doubt from the tool box used for the car brought in the night before. She kept shouting, to what sounded to my ears like “Is it safe”, but Tracy translated this as “does that hurt” and as she knocked the posidrive from tooth to tooth, It’s safe, It’s safe I indicated not being able to speak as my tonsils were being unscrewed.

Eventually, she hit the right note, that’s the one I nodded. At this she then handed me a toothbrush with a soft head and suggested I chew with the other side in future. She then requested we follow her back to the reception, where she wrote me a note to hand to the next dentist I should come across on my travels that loosely translated as:

“To whom it may concern. You deal with him, I can’t be arsed. I’ve had a look in the inspection pit and would rather polish the headlights than give a full service. I have kicked the tyres and poked at the air filter. This one’s a bit of a mard arse if you ask me”.

She then held out her hand and said “that will be €23”.

Three days later, half the filling fell out of the tooth in question. At this rate, I feel I’m going to be left with one tooth in my head, but I will be a dab hand at chewing polos without breaking them.

My €23 toothbrush

Whilst waiting for the dentist we got on with a few housekeeping things that needed doing. I topped up the diesel and was surprised at how much we had used since Sens (140 litres) but we had been pushing against the current for most of the way.

One day we decided to take a walk back up to the Nivernais as it wasn’t far from where we were staying. We bumped into an English man named Tony living on a boat there and he struck up a conversation about English mooring hoggers.  He told us about one couple overstaying on a mooring with free facilities for three years before the VNF drained the canal in a desperate act to get rid of them. Come on you English boaters stop taking the pish, your making us all look bad.

Before leaving we decided to tackle the laundry mountain. As it turned out, the launderette was the most expensive and inefficient we had been in. For the grand sum of €30 we left with jumpers and towels still wet. The launderette was packed and waiting for our clothes in the dryer, we noticed a chap transfixed by a pair of Tracy’s knickers stuck to the dryer door like Garfield on the back of a car window. Red in the face, Tracy nudged me to say something as she found his behavior both odd and a little disturbing. As I gestured to him to stop looking at my wife’s knickers, I realised it was Tony we had met on the Nivernais a few days earlier. 

Intermarche behind the moorings where we managed to get diesel and also do the washing

The week soon passed and we were keen to move off again. Spotting the VNF fishing over lunch and establishing that there was a greater chance of me giving birth than extracting water from the tap next to the boat, we arranged for them to turn the automatic lock back on for us after lunch, so we could get our water from the hire company one last time.

1pm struck and we were moving the boat into position. As we did, we noticed two things. Firstly, the VNF taking one last look at us before speeding off in their van and secondly, the lights indicating that the lock was good to go was still off, we still pulled the rope just in case (as you would). VNF at Decize, the masters of awkwardness, but you do get a smile with it.

This left only one option, Tracy hopped off the boat and went for help. This in itself came as a bit of a challenge as it was a windy day and, without bow thrusters, we were pushed to the side with a sill so wide Tracy would have needed legs like a giraffe to attempt the jump. I gave a few toots on the horn to try to get their attention but nothing happened.

After a few strategic maneuvers against the wind, I managed to get the boat back to where we had started. Eventually somebody from the office came to our aid.

Decize town centre

The next day we were off to Gannay. As we exited the final lock the eclusier indicated to Tracy that the place to stop was around the corner. In fact it was actually right next to the lock, but taking him at his word we cruised right past the pins and the marina, mooring as we did back in England with stakes in the mud.

We eventually settled on the lock mooring at Gannay

It was wet and miserable.  There was one road in and out of Gannay and a 2km walk led us to what seemed like a ghost town with every shop shut except a small general store. Almost every house we passed had a large wet dog barking and straining at the end of a chain, needless to say we couldn’t get out of Gannay fast enough.

The war memorial in Gannay, the most attractive part of the town

It was a Friday morning when we set off for Beaulon and, not wanting to move over the weekend, informed the eclusier that we would be staying until Monday.

Beaulon town centre was completely the opposite of our experience in Gannay. There was a defined town square with shops, bars and restaurants around it and it was full of life with the locals chatting and shopping or just out enjoying the fresh air but more importantly there was not one dog on a chain.

The moorings in Beaulon doubled up as a picnic area and contained a communal barbecue.  As the weather was sunny and warm we decided to have a barbie and then go for a pub crawl around the town square. 

Our mooring in Beaulon

The communal barbecue

Our plan was foiled, the only cash machine was faulty. After mining the sofa and breaking open the centime jar we managed to scrape enough money together to buy a loaf and a couple of cakes.

Disappointed, Tracy rustled together a fennel nut crumble and found a bottle of red wine we had squirreled away, whilst I tuned the telly in.  After weeks of rural France, ‘Take Me Out’ and ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ was like a car crash to the senses.

Sunset at Beaulon

A wee feature in Beaulon

By Monday morning we were almost out of water as well as having no money, so needless to say we were keen to move on and get to Digoin the next major town on our route. What lay ahead of us was a long cold day of cruising. 

The River Loire was flooded in places on our journey to Digoin

We spoke to the eclusier about our water situation, but shrugging his shoulders he informed us that all the taps had now been turned off until March. This was indeed the case. There were many eclusier cottages situated right next to the locks with chimneys smoking, we asked if it would be possible to get water from one of these “Non” came the answer, actually every time we got a different eclusier with his chimney smoking cottage next to the lock, we would ask the same question only to be denied the basic element for survival.

Cold and disheartened we waved the final eclusier off and moored up in Digoin, penniless and with an empty water tank.  

The pont du aqueduc at the entrance to Digoin

Our mooring in Digoin

            

Moorings in Gannay sur Loire

Cost: Free

Facilities: None.

Location: 2km to town centre where there is a boulangerie, butcher, tabac and general store.

Moorings in Beaulon

Cost: Free

Facilities: Water (not turned on for us) and electricity both free.

Location: 1km to town centre where there is a couple of restaurants/bars, two general stores, post office, boulangerie and butchers

Moorings in Digoin

There is a capitainerie in Digoin and there is a charge for mooring and facilities. We moored just outside and our moorings were free but there were no facilities.

Cost: Free

Facilities: None.

Location: 5 minute walk to large town centre with a good selection of shops, bars and restaurants.  E. Leclerc supermarket is a 15 minute walk away.