Decize to Les Vanneaux

It was cool grey start to the day. I went to the Intermarché supermarket to buy a baguette (just 5 minutes away) and Ian went to the VNF office close by to book our passage through the lock at 9.00.

16 kms, 4 locks, 3.25 hours

As we passed the lock we exited yesterday, with the Porte de Plaisance immediately downstream, we noticed a hire boat entering the lock.  Would they be heading in the same direction as we were?  We hoped not.  When we arrived at the first lock they were nowhere in sight but the lock keeper told us to move to the front of the lock and we had to wait 15 minutes until they appeared.  It was a hire boat of course (there is a Le Boat base in Decize) but they have obviously done this before and thereafter did not hold us up at all.

Aaahh.

Leo, we met this barge on the Meuse two years ago, Swiss registered.

Early morning mist still hanging over the water

Rural as rural can be

The last lockie worked overtime into her lunch hour and we exited the lock at 12.10.  We have tied up at the Halte Nautique of Les Vanneaux, 1 km from the village Gannay-sur-Loire. It is free, there is free electricity and water, and it is a very popular stop.  When we arrive there were no other boats here, but by the end of the afternoon it was choco.

A toilet and shower, very popular with cycle tourists.  In this area, where tourism is big on the agenda, the halte nautiques cater for campervans and cyclists as well as boats. Clever, but I'd rather shower on board.

A pleasant halte nautique with trees and picnic tables

I walked into the village, Gannay.  Not the most exciting place we have seen.  Although it has a history stretching back to the Gallo-Roman period there are few ancient buildings remaining and the church dates from the 17th century.

Passed a field with a cereal crop and lots of lovely wild flowers

I think, in my ignorance, that it is field of barley

Loved this garden decoration, the house was called "The Wombles".

The main claim to fame is a tree, or the remnants of a tree, which was planted in 1497? by the Duke of Sully, a minister of Henry lV, who travelled widely throughout the country in the course of his duties. If my translation is correct he planted trees to mark main routes and this was one of them.  It is now petrified, been shored up by concrete and has a "hat" to protect if from the rain. Somehow, a bit sad.

France in one frame: a Deux Cheveux and a boulangerie

We have decided to spend the day here tomorrow because Mr Weatherman tells us it is going to pour with rain and blow a hooley.