Boating in Burgundy, France

We were going to spend 7 nights sailing a 52ft cabin cruiser on a one way rental from Branges to Gray. The base was quite easy to locate, the formalities and instructions dealt with efficiently and we were off.

Our cabin cruiser had 3 double bedrooms with bijoux en-suites, a well equipped kitchen and a light airy lounge with a dining table. There was access to the roof area with some more seating; we lived up here most of the time.

The first part of the journey was along the river Seille; it was beautiful, surrounded by fields and woods, and the first lock!!! I jumped off first on to a pontoon narrowly missing the water, followed by daughter Laura and son Chris, whilst Matthew tried to slow right down, during which time, we ran along the river bank, and without too much arguing, we opened the lock. It was an experience which was to be repeated a number of times that week, some more successful than others.

Day two and leaving the river Seille, we joined the river Saone, a considerably larger river with sailing channels, commercial boats and waves. Quite a shock. The next challenge was to navigate through 2 gigantic automated locks, these are so large. Taking several vessels, both leisure crafts and commercial, the high walls and the volume of water, it was very difficult and frightening, we were very relieved to leave them behind and find much nicer waters to cruise through.

During the week we stopped in the towns of Tournus, Chalon, and St. Jean de Losne and in the middle of nowhere, just surrounded by fields, mostly full of sunflowers or maize. This was the time when the bikes we had hired came into use.

We all took turns at the wheel (even Grandma).

Matthew and Chris discovered a love for fishing, while I caught up on some reading matter.

Over the week we experience some lovely French towns with narrow cobbled streets, medieval buildings, large squares and many good restaurants. We practiced our “O” Level French in small grocery shops and enjoyed the excellent help of the doctors and nurses in the hospital in Gray after Laura fell off her bike and broke her elbow.

One week later we arrived in Gray, where we left the boat and were reunited with our car for the journey home, which took us through the Eurotunnel, around London heading north.