travel

Au Revoir Voie Verte!

| Mairead

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(Look a little flower on the Voie Verte)

We seem to have finally left the Voie Vert, the greenway on the old railway tracks. I am missing it. We are in a small village surrounded by vineyards now so we haven’t left the countryside but the pleasure of walking and cycling in amongst the trees, vines and vegetables is gone.

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(Saw this funny tractor pruning the vines yesterday morning)

I hadn’t noticed until I travelled on the greenway that my feet wander towards where my eyes are looking. Well that explains why I am such a nervous cyclist in traffic. It’s because I have a knowing about my wandering and I’m concerned the motorist in the fast cars do not. There were no nerves on the greenway. A few cyclists had to ring their bells at me but they’re just not fast enough to kill me and I was out of the way in no time.

(Look! A bench under a tree!)

It’s possible I’m boring you with all this talk about this area and the greenway but I want to be sure you know how lovely it is. It is very lovely. Like, can you imagine, getting a flight to wherever the planes come to in Burgundy? Hang on I’ll google it….Ok there’s a flight on  Saturday 20th October at 1.10pm with Aer Lingus British Airways non stop return Dublin to Lyon, coming back on Wednesday 24th October for €159. Just the one carry on bag in that price so pack light – there was a great laundrette in the Super U in Prisse. Then there’s a train from the airport to Lyon and another from Lyon to Mâcon, takes 1 hour 43 minutes and costs €36. Then you’re on the Voie Verte! Oh hang on they’re still constructing the bit at Mâcon… hmmm, might have to wait until next year for that.

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(Somewhere to stay!)

Ok are you still imagining? The thing is there are loads of these walks, like the one by the Canal du Nivernais, you remember where we met Valerie and Stewart and Laura and Ronan? And there’s one along the Loire, another along the Saône, there are two other canals, there’s one through vineyards and even one for thrill seeking cyclists (I’l be keeping away from that) called GTM. The map says there’s 1,000 Km of cycle routes (cycle means walking is ok too) in Burgundy. There’s a website and I think it’s in English (yes it is) called http://www.burgundy-by-bike.com. Even the pictures are lovely. You’ll have to imagine places to stay too. I’m imagining it for you and it’s really lovely.

I want to come back here… Mairead.

PS Two things: No, I’m not working for the Burgundy tourist board… and Booking.com have been sending me emails about Mâcon since I googled your imaginary flights… how do they know what we’re imagining?

Nice Little Things

| Mairead

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(The market in Saint-Gengoux-le-National)

I love this Voie Verte greenway. Everyone who travels on it seems very happy. All the bonjours are lovely. We have moved on again but we are still on the greenway. About an hour by road south to a little town of Prisse. First things first, I did go to the market this morning. It wasn’t very big but it was big enough to get a tablecloth and some blue cheese for Denis and a picture of the man with a big knife who cut the blue cheese.

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(Here’s the cheese man)

We arrived in this town, Prisse (funny name) just before lunch. The aire itself is on a wine farm at the edge of town and the greenway runs beside the vines! Actually on our way here we saw the TGV (very fast French train) speeding along beside the motorway. Made me think of fast tracks and slow tracks and how we seemed to have found the slow tracks.

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(All the tablecloths)

After lunch I went to visit the town of Prisse (still funny). It was very small and very quiet but I followed a signpost to the post office and there was a bend in the road just ahead. I wondered if there might be something interesting beyond it. There was. A huge new supermarket!

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(The old railway station road… the old railway is the greenway now)

Maybe that doesn’t seem interesting to you but supermarkets can provide a lot of useful things for the traveller. Yes groceries but this one also had diesel and toilets (I’ll say no more) and a surprise… a laundrette. I didn’t have any washing with me but on our way to the next town we’ll be stopping here. They also had great French craft magazines (can’t read them but can follow the pictures…) Then I noticed the greenway ran just around the back of the supermarket, so I returned to the grape farm aire via a new route. I love when that happens – finding a new way.

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(A pink rose on the greenway)

It’s the little things, always the little things. Actually, just yesterday I realised that I love the nice little things but the opposite is true of the little things that are not so nice. I hate them as much as I love the others, if you see what I mean… Like biting insects. Or a stone in my shoe. Such tiny, tiny things but they tend to focus my mind and I somehow forget about the wonderful day I was having. For now though I’m focussed on the nice little things and going for another walk on the greenway tomorrow.

Prisse, Prisse, Prisse, Mairead.

Peaceful Day on the Greenway

| Mairead

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(A grey day in the town at the top of the hill)

We’re still here beside the Voie Verte (Greenway) and it’s so peaceful. Just a few cyclist, some walkers and two other motorhomes here today. Monday is always a quiet day in France. I went for a walk up to the town this morning. Fortunately it was overcast and a little chilly so climbing (walking, really) the big hill was very pleasant. Not too many people around there either but tomorrow will be different… there’s a market!

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(Strange wooden bridge joining the clock tower and bell tower)

Already there are signs around the center telling motorists not to park from 6am on Tuesday. I don’t think I’ll be there that early. At this time of year the market takes place only on the first Tuesday of the month so I suppose it’s a big deal for the town. I’m imagining crowds of people and lots of nice things for sale… but it might be just groceries. I suppose groceries can be nice.

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(Can you imagine the train going under that bridge?)

Yesterday afternoon when it got a bit cooler we took the bikes down and went for a cycle along the path. For some reason we have been very active on the bikes this trip – go us! It’s very flat along the greenway because the train tracks needed to be on the flat or at the most only a slight incline or decline. Trains don’t like steep hills. I have a lot in common with the trains…

(View from the bench)

Just outside the station the vista opened up onto a huge plain with vineyards, wheat fields forests and hills. We stopped at a bench, there’s always a bench near where you want to sit everywhere in France. There was an oak tree nearby and all we were missing was a picnic and a tablecloth. We have noticed the French people always have tablecloths when they sit outside to eat. It’s such a lovely idea and it looks adorable. I think I’ll look out for one in the market tomorrow.

Sending peace, Mairead.

This is Burgundy…

| Mairead

(Tourist map of Burgundy – Bourgogne in French)

My trip on Valerie and Stewart’s boat has definitely affected our travel distances over the past week. (By the way, the boat is for sale!) It’s possible to fit our last seven days of travel onto a tourist map (see picture above) of Burgundy.

(The beautiful city of Auxerre. Lots of old buildings, churches and half-timbered houses. Can you see the boats moored on the right? The motorhome parking is to the right of the boats)

Ok, last Sunday we were in Cravant where we had coffee on the houseboat. On the Monday the boat left for Auxerre with me on board. I got off after four kilometers and cycled back to Cravant. The following day Denis and I drove to Auxerre, even though it was in the wrong direction – northwards – because Valerie and Laura made it sound so beautiful. It was very beautiful. And honest… that’s where Denis lost and found his phone.

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(Entrance to one of the cathedrals in Auxerre)

Next day we moved to Arnay-Le-Duc where we met Marc whose battery was on the blink and where we got a great lunch. After that, Autun, a very old and very pretty large town where we parked between a huge graveyard, a Roman Amphitheatre and a lake. We did get bitten by bugs but the neighbours were very quiet.

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(Covered walkway between the old part of town and the very old part of town in Autun)

On Saturday morning we drove to the small town of Givry where they are especially proud of the fact that Henry the fourth’s favourite wine was Givry. He’s dead now but they still produce the wine. We saw a bottle in the supermarket and it must be good because it costs the same as a bottle of wine in Ireland.

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(That’s the paved greenway path along the disused railway line. Can you see the giant water tap? For steam trains?)

That’s where we found the Voie Verte, the Greenway. Like the ones we have in Ireland, where the old disused railway line is converted into a cycle and walking path. Here in France they also provide aires for motorhomes to park at the old disused stations. We had breakfast at a lovely shaded one in the town of Buxy – unfortunately shade isn’t our friend when we are generating solar energy, so we moved on.

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(Just as I was reading that the greenway was for biking, walking and rollerblading along comes someone on roller blades! It look like fun!)

Now we are beside one in a town called Saint-Gengoux-le-National. We haven’t visited the town yet but the brochure I found at the station here looks very interesting. It’s a 25 minute walk uphill and 26 degrees so maybe I’ll go for a walk when it’s cooler, in the morning.

Maybe I should get some rollerblades? Mairead.

Paying it Backwards…

| Mairead

(Look! It’s Camille’s house!)

About 28 years ago we visited France with our two-year old daughter. We took the ferry from Cork to Roscoff and drove our car due south. We stayed in small hotels all along the Loire and loved every minute of it. One afternoon as we were driving in the middle of the countryside steam started coming out from under the bonnet. We were overheating. Fortunately, we had about half a dozen small bottles of water with us, we emptied them into the radiator and carried on down the road. Within a few miles we were steaming again. This time we came to a stop right beside a farmhouse. The farmer saw our problem, brought us into his house and explained to his wife. She cooked us a meal and because the garage was closed until the next morning, she moved her children out of their bedroom and made up their beds for us! Next morning she gave us breakfast, the farmer contacted the garage, she gave us lunch and when the car was fixed all the children lined up for kisses and we kissed everyone and drove off.

(Old tower in the pretty town)

Yesterday we had an opportunity to return some kindness but we only remembered afterwards. We had arrived in a very pretty town with a lovely modern aire complete with payment collection by machine and a personal code for the electricity. As usual now we don’t need the electricity so we just paid for the parking, €7. We went off for a walk at lunchtime and had a very nice “plât du jour” sitting outside on a flower-filled terrace. When we returned to the aire, Denis went to work and I started writing. It’s very unusual for anyone to approach the van so when a man approached we assumed he was another motorhome person. He wasn’t. He had broken down on the edge of town and he wondered if we could help him to charge his battery by plugging in his charger. Of course we said yes so off he went to collect his car. By the way he had great English, he’d been to Ireland and he was often mistaken for Irish because of his hair – he has red hair.

(Church in the pretty town)

He arrived back in 30 minutes with the car and proceeded to take the battery out. He explained to Denis that he was coming from a funeral in Paris (300 Km away) and his battery had died on the way and the garage he found didn’t have a replacement battery but sold him a battery charger and charged his battery. That was an hour ago, he still had another 300km to travel and the car had started spluttering just outside this pretty town. On his way into town he had noticed the aire and thought that’s a good place to plug-in the battery charger. That’s why he was approaching us.

(The charging arrangement)

While the aire had electricity, the only way to avail of the electricity is with a motorhome. He could plug-in his charger to our sockets inside the van but… we only had solar power and it was not up to the power requirement of his battery charger. On top of that because we hadn’t chosen electricity at the modern pay by credit card entrance there was no way for us to get the high power electricity now. Not a problem… he would temporarily become a motorhome and pay the parking and electricity at the entrance, then plug-in the electricity he had paid for into our van and then plug-in his charger to our socket in the van. Are you keeping up? No problems so far… until Denis explained what a trickle charger was… it’s a cute name for slow charger. It’s very slow. We had run out of conversation within an hour and the meter barely registered a charge. When three hours had passed it was dark and no one was talking. I made a cup of tea. That’s when we realised his English wasn’t as good as we had thought. Or maybe we don’t understand English as well as we had thought…

(A terrace built around the tree, Auxere)

It would take at least four more hours to charge the battery, he was staying… overnight. Oh. Ok. Long story short, he slept in his car we slept beside him in our motorhome with the door locked and the electrical cord of the charger squeezed underneath and in the morning the battery was charged. He was a lovely man and very grateful to us. There was no kissing, though. When he was gone we both remembered the farmer and his family in the Loire. How amazing were they to take us into their home and share everything with us, even their kisses.

You just have to love the French! Mairead.

I can’t wait for it to be… right now

| Mairead

(Smelling the flowers)

I’ve been thinking again… not always to be recommended, about how I help myself feel better when I feel down. I’ve read a lot of books about this and talked to a lot of wise friends and I am now convinced that we have a choice of ways to help ourselves but we tend to go for the same things every time. Even when those things don’t work. So, for example, I head to the kitchen. A biscuit or a two or maybe a packet. Something sweet always makes me feel better… while I’m eating it. But then I feel bad again and in fact worse because now I feel guilty about those carbs. A glass of wine has less carbs but I have to wait until the afternoon and one glass isn’t working as well as it used to…

(Appreciating the lichen)

Then there’s planning. Planning is another of my choices. I love planning. I plan a new trip or a new pair of shoes or a new project. The problem with the planning is as soon as I’ve planned something the down feeling returns, because I have to wait until I get what I was planning. Shoes are a great plan because as long as the money is available they can arrive straight away. Great, I feel better. Until I feel guilty about buying the shoes and how could I think shoes would make me feel better? And now I feel bad about the money and the cause of my feeling down is getting more complicated. A trip, planning a trip is much better… go away, forget everything. I can’t wait. But I have to wait. I can’t wait to feel better, only four weeks to go and I’ll feel better. Yaa! I can’t wait. Pity I have to wait so long to feel better. I feel down. Life is hard.

(Can’t have too many flowers!)

A big project, a big project is probably my favourite choice to feel better. It’s grand. It promises wealth, purpose, meaning. Yes a project always makes me feel better. I’ll plan a project. I’ll write another book and it’ll be great, it’ll say exactly what I want to say and it’ll be really easy to understand. I can’t wait until it’s written and published and bought and… oh, it’ll be great when I feel good about having accomplished that. I’ll have plenty of money and I’ll be able to buy those shoes I was thinking about… oh, I can go on a permanent holiday so I’ll never have to wait to go away. I can’t wait… to feel good about writing a book… It’s a pity I have to wait so long and what if it doesn’t sell or what if no one understands it? Oh, I feel a bit poorly and purposeless and meaningless and down. Life is very hard. I’ll have biscuit. What time is it?

Boy, this is complicated.

(Or too much lichen!)

I mentioned earlier about the books and the friends and the more choices for me which all led me to finding a new and very simple way of feeling better. I just have to choose it. Why wouldn’t I choose it? It’s simple! It works! Well, although the old ways don’t work they are very familiar and they’ve become a bit of a habit. Not to mention biscuits taste so good, wine is so much fun, shoes are so pretty and having purpose is so attractive… But they’re complications plastered on to cover up a feeling. Biscuits don’t change the feeling. Wine doesn’t change the feeling, it even makes it worse. Shoes don’t change the feeling. Concocting a purpose doesn’t change the feeling. The simple solution to feeling better… is to feel. Just feel. It won’t last long, about 90 seconds. Then I’ll go back to doing what I do, writing or making. The feeling will come back, so there’ll be plenty of opportunity to turn this new simple choice into a habit. But I won’t have complicated it, I won’t have plastered stuff onto it, I won’t have forgotten that it’s just a feeling and feelings pass.

Feeling the feeling, Mairead.

Lost and Found

| Mairead

(One of the lock-keeper houses)

A couple of days ago we walked to a big shopping center in town. It was further away than I thought, it was lunchtime, it was 26 degrees and it was uphill. By the time we arrived I was gasping and cranky and needed a drink. I got my drink, Denis got what he came for but as they had free wifi, he sat down to update some software on his laptop and I went off to find a comfy seat and read my book. Within minutes Denis phoned, he had just realised he was supposed to be on a client call. Fortunately, there was wifi and he could use his laptop but unfortunately there was loud music everywhere (except outside) and he had no headphones. He went outside to start the call and I went in search of cheap headphones.

(From the animal park in Cléres)

When I came back, Denis was frantically using sign language to ask me for his phone. I didn’t have his phone… he didn’t have his phone… Meanwhile the call was going on in the background and he had to pay attention. I searched my rucksack and his rucksack for the phone. No phone. The call finished. We replayed his steps and realised he had put the phone down on a bench in the car park and walked away from it with his laptop to better hear the call… We approached the bench. It was completely empty.

(This guy is also from Cléres. Can you see he has his beak out through the fence?)

Now if you’ve ever lost your phone you will know there’s an option to find it with your laptop so he began to do that while I decided the best place for me and my opinions about leaving a phone on a bench in a car park, was somewhere else. So I tried the old-fashioned method of finding lost property and went to the security guard. The security guard didn’t speak English so he sent me to the lady at the customer desk. She didn’t speak English either but she rang someone. They didn’t speak English either but they used their phone to tell me… we have your husband’s phone here but we need the owner to come and verify that it is theirs. In that short period of time, ten or fifteen minutes, someone had handed in his phone.

You just have to love France, don’t you? Mairead.

Life’s Little Locks

| Mairead

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(Here’s Ronan coiling rope)

So, yesterday we had just arrived at the first lock. Locks are like steps for getting up-stream or down-stream on a canal. Or maybe they’re more like a lift because you have to wait until the gate opens, get in, close the gate and then wait while the lift (water) rises or lowers at your floor. (With locks there’s only one floor.) Then you wait for the gate to open on the other side and you move forward on your journey. I might be making this more complicate than it needs to be but I like it.

I’ll use pictures to explain the steps we took, but all the rope coiling was in preparation for this moment of reaching the lock. Here goes…

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1. So here was are approaching the first lock. Valerie is out front ready with a rope. Can you see the white car on the left hand side? That’s the lock-keeper’s transport, sometimes they have mopeds or even bicycles. They are employed by the canal system to drive up and down opening and closing the locks (like a lift attendant.) The locks are open from 7am to 7pm. This lock-keeper is probably working for the summer on the canal, can you see her standing between her car and the water? She has already opened the gate for us to sail in. By the way, the house on the left is no longer in use but in the past when canals were used for the transport of logs and other goods to Paris there was a lock-keeper and his family living in these houses beside each lock.

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2. Here we are inside the lock and there’s Laura closing one side of the gate behind us. The lock-keeper has closed the other. Notice the level of the water. Notice how much higher we are than the bank.

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3. In this one Laura has jumped back on the boat. This is important, if you ever find yourself going downstream on a boat in a lock and you’ve got off to help with the gates, jump back on the boat quickly. Because the boat is about to be well below the level of the bank and you might have a long jump! Notice the level of the water in this picture and the position of the bank. Also notice the gate in front of us is still closed.

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4. This is the gate behind us again, notice the level of the water now. Lift going down.

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5. Sorry about the quality of this photo but it tells a story so I’m ignoring it’s imperfections… That’s the gate we will be going through. You can see the level of the water in the lock has dropped, that brown mark on the gates and on both walls shows the level when we arrived. There’s the lock-keeper on the left and Stuart on the right. They are waiting for the level of the water inside the lock to go down to the level of the water on the far side of the gate. Valerie and Laura are chatting. Everyone (including Ronan who’s not in the picture) looks relaxed but they are actually wide awake and ready for what needs to be done next.

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6. Here’s what’s happening with the ropes from earlier. Ronan is holding one end of this rope at the back of the boat. You saw Valerie at the front chatting with Laura – she’s holding another rope. Both ropes are attached to mooring bollards on the bank. When we got into the lock their job was to lasso a mooring bollard with the rope. Then as the water level slowly went down to stay awake and ease out the tension on the rope.

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7. And the gate is open. The ropes are rolled up into coils again. Stuart is signalling back to Ronan who is manoeuvring the boat through the lock and the gate. Notice the height of the bank now.

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8. Here’s the lock-keeper going back to her car. She then drove on to the next lock…

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9. And there she is on the right this time with Stuart on the left. By the way, we were going downstream. The boat in the distance under the bridge in this picture was going upstream, so they will enter this lock as we exit and the lock keeper will close those gates that she and Stuart have just opened. Then she will slowly open the opposite gates to let the water fill the lock. Lift going up. Their boat will rise up until the level of the water in the lock is at the same level as the canal on the upstream side and the lock-keeper will open the gates and the boat will sail on upstream.

It was time for me to get off with my bicycle. In an hour we had travelled nearly 5Km and now I was going to cycle back to the motorhome along the tow-path. It was a glorious day, not too hot and the tow-path is level all the way. Laura came back with me, to make sure I didn’t get lost! On the boat every moment counts, the world slows down, 5km takes ages. No wonder there’s time to chat and to spot birds and to notice how life works in a different country and to stay awake to what needs to be done. Ronan says, there’s a surprise around every corner and there is. The difference is when you’re travelling like this you see all the surprises. Don’t miss the surprises…

Thank you to Valerie and Stuart and to Laura and Ronan, for the experience, the kindness, the insights and the surprises, Mairead.

Our New Boat!

| Mairead

France 2018 13 of 16

(I can drive* a boat! (*Might not be the technical term))

Surprise! We found a new method of travel! A house boat! A bit of a story… Sunday was a wet day in France, we left the beautiful green fields, trees and cows and went in search of our next aire. The first one we tried was full and the second was not for overnighting, we moved on. The wind was rising when we arrived in the village and drove towards the tourist office beside the canal. There was a space and we could stay overnight. We both got out to find the perfect spot and that was when I spotted the Irish flag.

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(There’s Valerie and Stuart and their boat, talking to Denis. Can you see the scary plank? and the Irish flag?)

It was attached to our new house boat! Well, when I say our house boat, I mean Valerie and Stuart’s house boat but we’re all friends now. Our new friends spend their time between their boat in France, winter warmth in Spain and home in Ireland. And they are very generous people, not only did they invite us onboard (very first time on a canal boat!) for a coffee but they already had their friends Laura and Ronan from… you’ll never guess! From Greystones (yes!) visiting for the week. No, we didn’t know Laura and Ronan or even recognise them from the supermarket, we will in the future.

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(Bye, Denis!)

I should really have written down all the terminology before waving goodbye to our new friends, I didn’t, you’ll have to forgive my mistakes… Getting onto the boat for the coffee turned out not to be as simple as you might think. Or at least I didn’t make it look simple. Imagine if you will a very narrow (slight exaggeration..) metal plank one end on the land and the other at a slight incline up to the level of the vessel. Then imagine me, arms outstretched like a tightrope walker taking teeny tiny steps. My method was very successful though because each of the sailors (what I will be calling the boat people) seeing me approach in this manner shot out a steadying hand. Perfect really, because my main concern was falling into the water and drowning, much more difficult to do while holding tight to someone who knows how to swim. (I learned later swimming wasn’t entirely necessary and I am prepared to share a tip with you, in case you have occasion to fall into this canal – stand up it’s not that deep.)

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(Look, they have flowers!)

I made it onto the boat and we had a lovely coffee and a little look around and compare and contrast houseboat -ing and motorhome -ing. They have two en-suite bedrooms, a kitchen dining room, two fridges, two steering wheels (probably not called that) one inside and one outside, a deck with table and chairs under awning (that’s called something else too) and a little path all around for the rope work (more on that later.) So, we have half the bedrooms, bathrooms, fridges and steering wheels. We have no ropes except for the clothes line. Speaking of the clothes line… they have luxury of luxuries, a washing machine! They also have air-conditioning which is pretty amazing but cannot top the washing machine… I’ll say no more about the washing machine. They probably have a clothes line too but I didn’t see it.

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(Here’s one of the pages in the map. The numbers, PK 34 etc. refer to a distance of one kilometre)

I was having a little day-dream about washing machines (yes I’m sorry for mentioning it again) when Valerie showed us the book of maps they use to navigate the canals of Europe, each page covers probably 20km. I love maps, always have so when I saw this map I was intrigued. It covered such a small area, with so much detail. I don’t know if I mentioned it previously but generally I’m not very focussed, I quite like to flit from one thing to another. Lately I realise if I’m to get my wish about completing things I will need to focus. I wondered if travelling with a canal map might tend to focus my mind. So when Valerie offered an experience of this way of travelling, I nearly took her hand off. Denis of course would have to work but I was definitely coming along!

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(Do I need to duck?)

So at 9am this morning I was all set with my rucksack and my bike asking permission to come aboard! The bike? I tell you in a minute. I did the whole tightrope walking again and took one last picture of Denis onshore and we were off. At this point I didn’t realise there were two steering wheels so I was a bit surprised to notice everyone was outside and I was the only one at the wheel. Laura guided me out to a very sturdy looking handle that ran all along the side of the boat and I held on tight all the way up to the deck where I arrived at the other steering wheel. Already, Ronan and Valerie were coiling ropes and Stuart was steering. So I sat down and I was floating (not technically, as they have a diesel engine but it goes at a floating pace) down the river… Laura pointed out vineyards and caves in the hills and recommended a very good museum, Stewart pointed out the walnut trees and the lady picking windfalls from yesterday’s storm, Valerie knew the names of the birds paddling in the distance. It was so peaceful.

Then we came to the first lock. Locks are really interesting. I think I could write a whole post about locks…

I’ll have to tell you about the bike tomorrow, Mairead.