The weather continues to be clear, sunny and very warm as we continue our slow canal glide towards Dijon. After a hardy breakfast of croissants, cheese, ham, eggs, juice and coffee we had the option of working off a few calories by hiking between the Locks, sounds good. Almost all of us passengers opted for the stroll right along side the canal, very walkable dirt road, tree lined to keep us in and out of the sun. Go to the next lock for a 2 klm walk or continue to next for 3 klm. Most of us opted for the 2 klm as we knew we had a scheduled 10 klm walk planned for the afternoon. Very nice stroll with no concern that our barge was going to pass us, she moves slow especially when you take the Lock transition timing into consideration.
After our nice stroll, back on board some opted to watch the scenery go by by enjoying the hot tub with a glass of bubbly of course. Time for lunch is announced and we all retreat into the air conditioned restaurant, what does Pascal have for us this time ( I may have not had a chance to clear up my name error from a prior post, naming our chef Pierre, must pay more attention to this, my bad). Out of Pascal’s tiny kitchen comes another amazing gourmet lunch, yes, wine is perfectly paired and is always included. Time for our 10 klm walk.
We visit a Count, yes a real Count, Count Roland at his Château de Longecourt, a 17th Century well lived in and beautiful home. Roland was true gentleman, very well spoken as he toured us around his home. He and his brother are the only ones maintaining this home and property which is amazing for its size. Over the centuries it was occupied by the French, Germans and the Americans. There are some fun and interesting pictures drawn by some American pilots in one of the garages from the Second World War. After our hour or so visit it was time for our trek back to the Barge.
We start at Lock about 70 and need to get to number 62. This began as a beautiful relaxing walk turned hike as the heat was becoming a factor as the kilometres and Lock numbers ticked by, 66, 65, 64, should have worn some socks with my sandals, oops. Very happy to see our Barge in the Lock at number 62. We are in the middle of nowhere, well one building occupied by the Lock keeper but other than that not much. This looked like a great place to celebrate the two birthdays on board, Sunny and Patty’s birthdays. Sarah says we can make as much noise as we like.
Pascal, once again produces his gourmet meal from his closet kitchen, including two birthday cakes, amazing. Tonight we are getting a Tango demo from Jesse and Dorian. With Happy Birthday sung, birthday meal with matching wines all comfortably in our bellies, the gang all retreated to the upper deck for the 3 song demo of Tango. Now when packing for this trip I threw in my little Bose speaker and iPod, tonight was the night that I was glad I did. The onboard speaker system was okay at best, so I asked Sarah about bringing mine up, absolutely, was the response. So with speaker in hand, I gave everyone a chance to deejay with synching their iPods and phones to the volume at full on my little speaker. A good time was held by all, calling it a night just before midnight. We did have a 40 klm bike ride in the morning, you know.
A few pics of our day, hope you enjoy...
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