moret water mill
We stayed at Moret sur Loing for nearly three weeks. It was an incredibly beautiful walled town with good moorings and everything you could imagine a medieval french town to be.

Front facade Fontainbleau
Fontainbleau is incredible. Only the French could create something so very ornate.

Montargis we moored here for two days. Both the commercial port and the port de plaisance are good stops. Montargis is called the Venice of the Gatinois and has 127 bridges, all beautifully decorated with flowers
Last comment 06/25/07.

Early evening in Montargis

Rogny Sept Ecluses. The Eclusier told us that five commercial barges were coming in the opposite direction here so we moored up for three hours and visited the old locks which are being renovated but not for use.

Chatillion Coligny -We stopped overnight here. The moorings were the best we found so far. Electric, water, showers and toilets and most importantly all FREE When we got to Moncresson a very helpful lady let us use her WIFI (places like this are rare)

This is Fleury Ecluse. We had to include this because of its name. The lockeeper sold vegetables here from his allotment. We called the ecluse legumes

The Port de Plaisance at Briare was just beautiful. We stayed there for the Bastille Day Celebrations which included fireworks to music which were just fantastic. We moored above the last lock outside the Capitainaire's office.

Au Petit Tonneau at Briare. The "menu complet" here costs just 11 euros at midday. As you can see french dining at its best.

You don't need to go to Venice to see the Rialto Bridge - this one of many in Briare by the side of the River Loire

Entrance to Briare Aquaduct

The Briare Aquaduct over the River Loire is quite spectacular. It was designed by Monsieur Eiffel which speaks for itself. Although it looks at first to be very narrow the hotel boats and commercial vessels at 5.5 metres can just squeeze across and as we are 4.4 we did have a little room to spare on each side.

We needed some shade at Chatillion sur Loire so decided to use our gazebo. Looked like the Queen of Sheba. This was not very successful so next year we are going to have to install an outside driving position and some kind of sun shade

Our very good neighbours Mike and Sharon Newman joined us for two weeks this summer and this picture shows Mike tucking into a tarte tatin - one of many naughty cakes he eat during his stay

The staircase lock at Guetin. This was a very steep sided staircase of two locks. Unfortunately our ropes were not really long enough as we were at the front of the lock. Not a very nice position to be in. We had to hastily tie on a bit more rope so that we could reach the bollard. Have to say the Eclusier there was not very helpful.