Cruising with the Carters: Clamecy to Armes

2 kms, 1 lock, 40 minutes

Two reasons to leave Clamecy, fascinating as it is: it cost us €12 for the night (including electricity and water) and Ian wanted to do lots of grinding, etc, to get rid of the rusty spots that are appearing.

First of all, though, we had to do a laundry run – how exciting!

Another laundry booth outside a supermarket

On the way back we stopped at the museum which has, among other things, an exhibition about the wood rafts that floated wood logs (for heating and cooking) all the way from the Morvan forests in this area down the Yonne and its tributaries to Paris for over 400 years.

So interesting that I need to do a lot more research about it and will write it up tomorrow, because we are not going anywhere and I will need something to write about :)

We had a rather interesting encounter on the dockside with an American lady on a mobile scooter who told me she was on a hotel barge but was wanting to explore more and somehow ended up being given a lift in a private car to Clamecy because she knew the barge would be passing through here. A short while later she asked if she could borrow our phone. Well, yes, as long as you are calling a French number. Yes, she says, but actually I don’t know the number of the barge, do we? Ummmm, no. Oh dear, she said, I have done something really stupid.

Turns out she had not informed anyone on the hotel barge that she was taking off into the blue yonder, and she had no idea when they would be arriving in Clamecy! This was just before the lunch hour ended and Ian recommended that she talk to the lock keeper who could phone the other lock keepers and find out where the barge is, when it would arrive, and let them know that their passenger was here waiting for them (turned out it had not yet left some 2 hours after it should have done – possibly because one if the passengers was missing!)

We moved the grand total of 2 kms (actually even less) to a spot just above the next lock.

Leaving the harbour at Clamecy

Beautiful

A different kind of beautiful, the lock keeper's car

Some years ago (no idea how many) the construction of a brand new Port de Plaisance was started here. It was almost complete when it was stopped because someone in a grand house on the hills on the opposite side of the canal objected. The lovely buildings are still here, all boarded up and full of graffiti, the docks are still here with no bollards or cleats but boats (like us ) still stop here, and the tubes carrying water and electricity lie exposed to the elements instead of being hidden in neat boxes. It makes one wonder what that person who objected actually achieved.

Anyway, it is a great place to stop if you need to do some work on the boat because there is no one else to complain about the noise and dust.