St Jean de Losne is at the junction of the Canal de Bourgogne & the River Saone, with a connection just up river with the Canal de la Marne au Rhin, so it used to play a very important part in the lives of the commercial boaters.
On arrival we met up for drinks with Dave & Pamela. We first saw them 2 years ago in Huddersfield when they were getting ready to come out to France then met again on the Canal de Bourgogne this Summer- its surprising how small the waterways world is.
We went back to England for Christmas & on our return everything was frozen solid. Despite trying everything we could think of to thaw the pipes -including a hairdryer- we had to give up & fetch water by container for the next 3 days. Next time we went away we didn't fully drain the water tank!!!
Our friendly resident Coypu wasn't very happy with the ice, completely ignoring us as he walked slowly past.
We were invited to take part in the local St Nicolas procession as part of the guard of honour complete with flaming torches. As it was freezing cold the warmth of the torches was very welcome.
Today, even with the reduction in working boats, it is still a busy place.
Hotel boats stop with their passengers in the Summer then return in the Winter for painting & other maintainance and there are still huge commercial barges to be seen loading up at the grain store. In the Gare d'Eau over 200 boats find moorings & there is a busy hire boat company so there is always plenty of activity.
The 'River Rats' held their Christmas party in the local Mariner's museum which was decorated for the occasion. Everyone brought food & a good time was had by all despite being a bit chilly as the heater wasn't working properly.
In January we went to Switzerland for a week exploring by train. The weather was glorious & we even made it up to the top of the Jungfrau with clear visibility.We met up with Guy, Helen, Jacob & Rose at Grindlewald to help Guy celebrate his birthday.
Val thought toboganning would be less of a risk than ski-ing but was sadly mistaken. By the time we go back to the hotel - 4 hours later- she was black & blue.
David's boat was called Snor which means 'Moustache' so he decided to rename it. We managed to get 17 on board for the party as he did an official unaming ceremony followed by the christening with lots of champagne.
Paul was worried about being cold so covered the boat with logs.
