The Summer cruise  Part 2
Rivers Yonne & Seine

We passed through Auxonne on Monday 4th August .We didnt stop as we had visited by train a few days earlier.The transition from the smaller locks of the Nivernais to the larger locks of the Yonne was a welcome development but only until we met the locks with sloping sides. These were built to resist floods but were a nightmare if you didnt get onto the floating pontoons. Because we were slower the fancy cruisers usually nipped in ahead taking the pontoons leaving us to scamper around trying to keep off the sloping lock sides. Because of the recent heavy rain the river was running very fast and the current across the lock as we exited was quite substantial. The locks on the Yonne are 96 metres long by 10.5  metres wide . On the Seine the dimensions are 180 Meters long by 11.4 metres wide. This was a big increase from the 38.5 metres long by 5.2 metres wide of the Nivernais.
Another interesting feature on the rivers are the beaches created along their banks. Sometimes we forget how far we are from the sea in this part of France and how the locals improvise.

Because it was holiday time we met very little commercial traffic on the Yonne but substantially more on the Seine. A lot of the smaller barges were tied up for holidays while the monsters continued to ply. A lot of the smaller barges have become uneconomic and are being converted to houseboats.

After Auxonne we stopped at Gurgy ,Joigney ,Villeneuve sur Yonne,Sens and finally Montreau Faut Yonne at the junction with the Seine.There was no place to stop on the Seine until we came to  St Mammes  but as that was chock a block with commercial barges and every shape of a houseboat imaginable we carried on to the Canal Du Long.`