Barge Date:  05-01-20222

Winter of 2022

 It has been a long autumn/winter and now in the spring our thoughts can finally return to France and  the barge. We have tried to stay busy and safe; we have had two booster shots since we returned, the second one just a few days ago. So we feel safe to travel and we will be leaving for France at the end of May.

I certainly stayed busy over most of this break in the US. Although I have to admit that when we returned I was in somewhat in a funk for several months and can’t say I accomplished much. But since Christmas and the visits from Andrew and Christina, LiQiong, and Jinglei, I have been going full speed. I undertook to paint the house and I always tend to underestimate how long it is going to take and in this case how many cans of stain are needed to complete the job (12). Unlike paint, stain is more liquid and the moment you turn the brush somewhat upside down it wants to run up to your elbow. So I was always smelling like a paint can and this went on for weeks. 

It was also my intention to have the kitchen redone this year and I can report that it is 99.9% completed. We had the cabinets made elsewhere and installed but I had to manage the job with electricians, plumbers and the guy that knew how to hook up the gas line. I volunteered to remove the old tile floor and install the new engineered floor. I was able to get this done in about four days and the floor looks good.

We had the cabinets made from rustic hickory so it has a light wood look with a lot of dark streaks and knots. It really makes the kitchen more open and seem larger. Of course we had to remove the old cabinets and take all the contents out and we were successful in throwing away a lot of things. So now we have cabinets and drawers that have just the right amount of things that we actually use. For the lower cabinets and the drawers we opted to have drawer pulls rather than actual doors. Because the pulls allow for full extension it is very easy to see what is inside and to keep things organized.

But enough of this dull stuff. We’re going back to the boat.

I will be taking a new iPhone and an iPad with me when we return. Marianne gets to keep the old iPhone (plus her iPad) and I get my first iPad. While on the boat I have read many books using an iPad and I really like the format. So I expect that will continue this year. Also, this iPad allows me to dictate, so comma for example comma I am dictating this blog rather than trying to type it.  

This year there will be a good amount of painting of the boat. White, green, red, and a little black. I have a few other fix-it-up, improve-it, types of projects and I’ve got a suitcase with a good number of dedicated boat parts ready to be packed. 

From our current location in Auxerre we will be going north on the Yonne River to a short run on the Seine then the following canals:  du Loing, de Briare, the Lateral a la Loire and then finally de Roanne a Digoin. We may move on to Auxonne to stay the winter.  2023 south to the Midi??