It has been unusually cold and wet here for the past ten days or so. We were waiting for an improvement in the weather in a small town called Coures les Barres and today 1-April-10 was just such a day. It’s still cold but at least the sun came out as we headed south towards the city of Decize. It was a seven hour trip which was a bit more that we had hoped to do.
The temperatures strained to reach double figures but there are signs of spring all around. The swallows arrived from Africa a week ago and we saw our first stork yesterday and the trees are starting to show some buds. Coures les Barres is a lovely quiet typical French village.
Going up in the double lock at Guétin. This is a very deep lock and the lock keeper has to lower down a hook for you to attach your ropes to. We knew that our ropes were way too short for the job.
So when he lowered down the hook we attached a plastic bag containing a bottle of wine instead. Looking quite puzzled he lifted it up and looked in the bag, then down into the lock at us. “lentement Monsieur si’l vous plait” I said. (Slowly please!) He gave me the thumbs up and slowly let the water into the lock to raise us up to the next level.
There is a big rise in this lock at Guétin with a wonderful view when you reach the top of The Allier River spanned by another great aqueduct .
“Driftwood”