I went down the local bar last night to watch the footy, a good night and a good result. We are 1 hour ahead of the UK so it was 01.30 by the time I got back to the boat. Elaine stayed up till 03.30 reading and checking on Geoffrey to see if he was going to make it through the night.
We carried on driving west trying to get out of this awful weather. Elaine had the autoroute on and noticed we were going to pass The Canal Du Centre, so we turned off the main road and drove into Digoin, wohoo a canal again!
A rather large basin compared to the UK equivalent ...
We parked up and went for a walk down the towpath, checking out some rather nice barges ...
A bit further down there was a very nice aqueduct crossing the River Loire ...
The river is flowing very fast because of all the bloody rain ...
There was a boat parked up in the lock with no sign of life aboard. It passed us later up the canal going through the marina at a right old speed. To be fair it is quite deep so there is very little wash ...
So there you go we have had our fix ...
Elaine wants to know what this is,I told her its a flower but apparently that's not enough info ...
A very wet, cold and miserable Bombo posing by a well ...
And off we went again in search of the sun….. as you can see the rain hadn't stopped ...
We stopped for the night at an Aire in a little town called Jarnages. We went for a walk down to the centre tonight, it was absolutely deserted. Lovely little village but oh so quiet! We had a look through the local real estate window, you can buy a lovely farmhouse for £100,000. We then found a little bar, it was like sitting in someone's front room, me and Elaine (and Bombo and Sam) were the only customers.
I forgot to mention yesterday that we pulled up for lunch by a nice lake, opposite was a very flash looking restaurant. We were in the middle of our lunch when the maître d from the restaurant knocked on the door and asked us if we would move as his diners couldn't see the lake! As we are guests in this fine country and so as not to damage Anglo/French relations we moved up the road!
Where we stayed:
Aire at Jarnages - click for info.
Latitude (North) 46.18434 ° Decimal Longitude (East) 2.0812 °
Nice little spot by a lake - has all services available. We made sure to not park on the grass in case we got bogged but another van came in and drove around on the grass with a trailer in tow, so it must have been OK! Lovely little town close by with friendly locals. Lovely little supermarket and patisserie in the town square.
the flowers/plant are a hydrangea. Hydrangeas change colour (except for the white ones) based on the pH level of your soil. The more alkaline the soil, the pinker the flowers. To make pink hydrangeas turn blue (or to keep blue ones from turning pink), increase the acidity of the soil.
ReplyDeleteYour flower is a hydrangea, although I can't tell you exactly which kind.
ReplyDeleteThanks
DeleteIt looks like a lace-cap hydrangea.
ReplyDeleteWe thought it was a Hydrangea, but have never seen them with flowers around the head.
DeleteHi, We are following your travels with interest, a great blog keep it up. We too have an elderly cat. Our Muffy is not quite as old as Geoffrey at 19 but we are taking things day by day. Muffy has what is called Senile Vocalisation which can be annoying in the night. However we will look after her, just like you with Geoffrey, for as long as she is comfortable.
ReplyDeleteLets face it they have given us enjoyment for the whole of their lives, it would not be right to not look after them in their old age. Keep us posted on how Geoffrey gets on.
Robin & Jenny
Hi Guys
DeleteOur other cat in the van (William) is also 19 and cries in the night, We think he is suffering from dementia, he is also badly arthritic, but once again seems to be a very happy cat.
Paul