Montbard

Sunday 4th October 2015

Overnight rain, cloudy and damp morning, clouds breaking up and sunshine by mid-afternoon (21C).

Fortunately for Kathleen, she had done "the church bit", Saturday evening, so, no need to walk to church in the rain this morning!

We manage to have a pleasant 4.5 mile stroll and explore of Montbard.

The Canal de Bourgogne, runs through the town, with a manually operated lock.

By chance, there is a boat passing through the lock, what appears to be a lot of hard work for the female lock keeper, first closing one set of lock gates by hand, by operating a huge lever (Archimedes would have been proud), then manually opening the sluices to allow the lock to flood, then manually opening the other set of lock gates, to allow the boat out.


In the town, we come across this antique (?) shop, which appears to specialise in nothing but fireman's helmets.













Monday, 5th October 2015.

Overnight rain. The weather forecast says, cloud with sunshine 20C in the morning, showers from 15:00, turning to steady rain by 16:00. That is almost exactly what happens, except, showers started at 14:00, and turned to steady rain almost immediately after that..

Time enough to fit in our 13 mile cycle ride, along the Canal de Bourgogne. 

The plan was to cycle to Abbe Fontaines, but, the cycle track in that direction is being resurfaced. The temporary surface is loose gravel, which made hard work for bicycling. 

We did not quite make the Abbe, next year perhaps?

Back to the van for lunch, followed by the most critical task of the whole trip.

I am "on duty" to dye Kathleen's hair.

Kathleen is the most impatient person imaginable, so, the part of the hair dying process I enjoy the most, is the part where the lotion has been applied and you have to wait for 15 minutes!