Roanne

We are now settled into Roanne port for the Winter. We have a very nice place in the port and are getting to know the residents of the other winter liveaboards.After a journey from Holland of 1240km and 295 locks as well as lifting bridges and tunnels it is nice to be in port for a while. There is a  nice social life with different organised events. Every Thursday evening  there is a get together for drinks in L”Authentique a bar/restaurant in the port which we all enjoy .

Roanne is a town of approximately 40k people and if you count the outlying areas approximately 70k. It is well services with many supermarkets and shops. The port is 1 km long and has about 140 vessels moored for the winter a large proportion of which are barges.

River Loire

Port

River Loire

Trip to Madrid

Every winter the Heritage Boat Association of Ireland organise a trip abroad for a long weekend. This year it was Madrid and saw most of the usual participants show up.It happened over the last weekend in November. This year we travelled from Roanne . Others travelled from Ireland ,Malta and Vietnam. It was a great success with some highlights being the visit to the Maritime museum  and watching a great game of rugby between Ireland and the All Blacks in an Irish bar as well as participating in a very vibrant social scene in Madrid.

Canal du Centre --- Canal Roanne a Digoin

On 5th Sept we locked up into the Canal Du Centre. The approach to the very large lock is very forbidding with no mooring place and old wrecks sunken alongside. Once we were on the canal however we felt that at last we could relax as we were nearing our ultimate destination Roanne . We spent four nights at Fragnes where we experienced our first serious rainfall since beginning the journey. After this we stopped Chagny ,St Berain sur Dheune, les 7 Ecluses ,Blansey. Monceau les Mines  and then to Genelard where we spent four weeks .While there we returned to Ireland to collect our car and bring it to France for a few months. The journey from Ireland consisted of a 3 hour drive to Rosslare an 18 hour ferry to Cherbourg followed by an 8 hour drive to Genelard.I can tell you a few days rest were needed after that. Following that adventure we continued on to Paray Le Monial ,Digoin and then onto the Canal Roanne a Digoin for our journey to Roanne.We stopped at Artaix and Brennon and finally arrived in Roanne on Thursday 24th October just in time for the Port welcoming party which we thoroughly enjoyed after our adventure. We met several people who will be our neighbours until next May and everyone was very welcoming. We are really looking forward to the next six month in Roanne.

On 26th August we locked down from the Canal des Vosges at Corre to the Saone river or the Petit Saone as it is known as at this point .This is the first time we have been on a south flowing river on our trip from Holland and it made us feel somehow that we were getting nearer our destination. The Saone is navigable from this point for a distance of 407 Km to Lyon where it joins the Rhone . Following on from Corre we stopped at Montureux-les –Baulay , Port -sur-Saone , Soing , Gray , Lamarche –sur- Soane , St Jean de Losne , and Gergy  before entering the Canal du Centre at Chalon-sur-Soane.

     It was interesting at the village of Soing to see what appears to be an Irish name being commemorated on a war memorial to the First world war . One wonders how a Paul Brady got there and appears to have been regarded as a villager.

For those interested in barges  St Jean de Losne is the place to go. It is regarded as the centre of the barge world by many people and certainly the barge museum is worth a visit as is the Gare d,Eau where there are hundreds of cruisers and barges moored many of them for sale.

We are now on what we regard as the final  leg of our journey with approx  170 km to go to our winter quarters at Roanne. We will slow down now to enjoy the rest of the journey .