Barge Date:  08-30-2021

Summer Reading

Every summer in Europe I read a good bit.  Mostly everyday trash but sometimes I get serious. Remember the biography of U.S. Grant?

So this year I have gone deep with three books about France. A big (1800 pages) biography of N. Bonaparte, a complete history of the French revolution and lastly a biography of C. de Gaulle.

Napoleon by Andrew Roberts seems to cover the subject from beginning to end. I won't bore you with the details since you probably know as much as I did before undertaking this read. From the typical American educational standpoint, most would say Napoleon was a great man. In the sense that Genghis Khan was a great man then so was Napoleon. Did he do some great things? Yes. Did he do them with France in mind? Sometimes.  Was he always putting himself first? Always. 

Europe was a different place than it is today. Countries, empires, duchies, principalities, cities, the church, royalties, titled persons, priests, bishops, popes, sex and intrigue; all of this allowed Europe to be a mess much of the time. From Spain and Turkey to Sweden and Russia, from the seas that England ruled completely to the far east of Moscow, territory changed hands all the time. Wars, marriages and alliances were made and lost. Napoleon was part of that. From cadet to Emperor, he wanted it all.  Perhaps he even asked God to step aside so he could take over.

What do you know about the French revolution? If you are American and a product of the educational system you know you just spent a day on this and no more. They stormed the Bastille, chopped off some heads, killed a king or two and everything was just fine from there on out. Just like America. The head of state probably looked like G. Washington or T. Jefferson, there were elections and life was good.

The book I read was The French Revolution by Ian Davidson.

In fact, the French revolution continued into the 20th century.  New constitutions, new laws, new governments. There was really no settled form of France until de Gaulle. And that was nearly lost in the revolt of 1968.

The Americans were lucky.  Their oppressor was 3,000 miles away.  Had the colonies been located in south Wales or Scotland you might have seen the destruction that took place in France. Ours was a "clean" revolution. The French had a really dirty revolution and it seemed to get worse with each year until finally the head chopping stopped and reason began to take shape. But even this went on for years. New people, new constitutions, new governments, Napoleon. Compared to France, the US had a clean history (if you ignore the Civil War). France's history is very muddled.

And what do you know about de Gaulle? If you are my age you can remember seeing him (very tall) and being told that he was always against the American political position with regards to Europe, NATO and anything else.  A trouble maker. Churchill wanted to like him but the Americans of WWII always thought the worst of him and did a lot to force him out and to ignore his wartime work and ambitions.

If you are younger than 40 you might not even know who de Gaulle was.

I read De Gaulle by Douglas Boyd.  While the writer certainly has pro de Gaulle sentiments that puts the French leader in positive light, I have to say that my opinion of de Gaulle is now very supportive. I believe the man wanted what rightly should be France's. A place on the world stage, a French view that did not support the US in all regards, the ability to make strategic decisions that were in the interest of France. France first.

De Gaulle brought stability to France.

 

Barge Date:  08-24-2021

Where Have We Been

You might think that we had some terrible thing happen to us.  But for you that view Marianne's FB postings of pictures and comments you must know that one of us is alive.  I will need the last blog to know where to begin here.

 We are on our way to Auxerre where we will spend about a week doing work on the barge. But we are in no hurry to get there so a few stops along the way.

We have been watching for canal weeds as we move forward.  Had a lot of this stuff after leaving Dijon but it suddenly stopped at one point.  Been told to expect more but it really has not been bad.  One section between 2 locks was heavy with the stuff but we found this weed harvester tied up to the bank (it was a Sunday) and some weeds dumped on the bank.

In the city of Saint Florentin we were joined by family from Belgium.  They did not want to stay on the barge or have a run down the canal so we spent a good bit of time just relaxing on the boat, exploring the town, eating well and making some runs to stores for boat supplies. This last part was much appreciated. Here are some pictures around town.

The church in Saint Florentin was having some work done on it but we were able to go inside after first requesting the key from the tourist office. If I have it right, the stained  glass windows are somewhat unique in that the small panes tell stories and those with a Catholic background probably could follow along.

The next town was Brienon sur Armancon.  The moment you find one round wash house you find another. Each has its own character so each stands alone just fine. The ladies had to descend a good number of steps to get to work then a walk back up with their load.

We were hoping to have lunch in town but it looked like a dim chance.  The one restaurant we found said it was open for lunch but it was empty and when we called out the owner said sorry. Where could we go?  Didn't seem to want to help but said maybe, just maybe, the place down the street and a right turn is open.

This did not look good either. Not a soul but we did round up the chef/owner and he said he would serve us. So picture this:  we are the only customers. We had no idea what to do so we said surprise us.  And he did. Now here is where you need to get over to Marianne's picture page because she takes pictures of food, not me. But the chef did a wonderful job from beginning to end. The name of the place is El Toreador (because of an earlier girlfriend from Spain when the restaurant was more tapas).  Now it is  more French food. Try telling your next chef to just go for it and surprise you. We did.

 We asked about the empty restaurant.  He said that when the French COVID rules changed that require diners to show their health pass his patrons just stopped coming. Perhaps the noon crowd more than evenings, but none the less he was hoping he was past the grim days of no income. We helped him out.

Stayed a couple of days in Migennes which is at the very north end of the Burgundy Canal.  Nice large basin and easy tie-up. Here is the one picture I took.

Now it is out on the Yonne River and heading south.  With the river the speed limit changes to 15kph and I opened it up.  This was suggested as a way to loosen the engine and turbocharge up.  Even up stream we could make good speed, but not 15. We are headed to Auxerre but we made a half way stop for the evening in Gurgy then on to Auxerre.

A busy port so we elected to moor opposite the marina but we found it much more convenient for shopping and eating.  I spent a good deal of time on board so I don't have a lot to say about the city; we will be back in five weeks and again next Spring.  But here are some pics around town.

So I did some grinding and painting on the deck of the boat. Actually not too bad.  What does not look good is the peeling paint job on the deck. It has been some time since proper boat paint has been used on Lionel. Talked to some Kiwis off of Petronella who were  in M igennes about to take their barge in to a yard to have deck and cabin steel stripped with a high pressure system.  Not your garden version of a pressure washer; this baby will knock you off your feet if treated poorly. John said it did the trick and was fast.  Made a big mess too.  Next it will be painted and when he is done they will be coming our way and I want to inspect.  May have the same done next year.

 

Barge Date:  08-08-2021

Where Have The Days Gone?

Where are we?  What have we been doing?  Going to look at the pictures to figure this out.

Stopped in Montbard, home of Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, the father of all thoughts on natural history in the second half of the 18th century.  He wrote 36 volumes on this and was one of the first to think about evolving life.  But he was also a mathematician, astronomer and had many other interests. He probably did not have enough time in each day to do what he wanted to do. He should be someone that is mentioned in the history of science. He had a colleague that did a lot of drawings of animals and would be Europe's Audubon. At one point he purchased a nearby town and named it Buffon.

Many of the following pictures are of a park called Parc Buffon in Montbard.

On to Ancy-le-Franc. Big chateau here. A number of owners over time. See one of the gardens from Google Earth. The fancy garden can only be best seen from above rather than walking around it.

Room after room of interesting styles, floors, ceilings, woodworking and art work of various sorts. Take a look. Or skip if bored. But you will miss the exhibition of Lego Star Wars works that were on display in some of the rooms. Remember, if you click on a picture you can have a slide show of all pictures.

 

The gardens were interesting to walk through. Not much to the town but had a nice meal up the rue from the chateau.

And if one chateau is not enough the next village of Tanlay had its version of a get away place. The village was interesting for its upkeep. Road, sidewalks, building, etc. all seemed to be well taken care of. Often you walk a village and you wonder why the outside of homes and other buildings are not "fresh looking". Tanlay looked gentrified. So you will see more pictures of the town plus the chateau. A note on the Chateau: most of the walls were painted so not a lot of hung art.

This little work of iron is placed so no one can jump or climb from the wall to the bridge to get around the large metal gate.  Everything rotates so no good hold.

 

A production of Cyrano de Bergerac was going to be played at night.

YouTube is not playing nice and will not let me put this video up in a normal manner. Click the link to see it.   The video is of a ceiling in the chateau that tells a story about the conflicts between Catholic and Protestants. Why the people are mostly naked I don't know why. The Catholics are depicted as warriors and the Protestants as peaceful. The faces were known to be of  persons in history. The mural was hidden in the chateau for years until discovered in the 19th century.

Have started to see some traffic on the water. Hire boats, some cruisers and some barges. Gets you excited to have to pass some traffic coming at you.

Working our way north and will soon get to visit with some family members.  That will happen on August 9 in Saint-Florentin. So we are taking some small legs of the Bourgogne odyssey. The last town we were in is Tonnerre. 

No castles here. But two very interesting sites. The first is the laundry.  We have seen this in other towns and have posted pictures. Normally the water is taken from a stream that is diverted though the laundry. In Tonnerre the water is from an underground spring such as you see a lot in Florida. Very clean.  It has some depth but very little opportunity to explore under water. So take a look.

Water from the large pool would be diverted along a washing channel under the overhang.

 

The second site is called Hotel Dieu.  It was built in the 12th century as a hospital/church. Huge. You might come here to die close to God.

This structure was the work of Marguerite de Bourgogne, Countess of Tonnerre, queen of Sicily and Jerusalem and widow of the king of several properties. It was constructed in two years, 1293-1295. She became a servant of the poor. Important people and commoners are buried under the floor. 

The building was used mostly as a religious site and hospital but notably also as a warehouse by the Americans during WWI  and bombed by the Americans during WWII. This bombing destroyed part of the building. The roof is the original put on in the 12th century (less the bombed part).  Try to get that guarantee for your next roof. The pictures may not show it well but this roof is very steep.

 

This gnomon was added to the floor some time after construction.  It gives indication of astronomic time.

 

 So this is an off day.  I get to do the blog.