To Chamioully and Joinville

15th July

Next morning all the boats set off from Orconte about 9am, we waved goodbye to Helmet, Felix and Malcolm and headed to Chamioully. Another lovely day and very uneventful until we got to Chamioully. As we arrived we spotted pretty quay with a couple of pontoons where a small canal boat was moored. We liked the look of it, although it didn't quite correspond with the info from the guide (which tnds to be out of date and inaccurate!!) on where the quay we were expecting to tie up was, however, we tried it for depth which was ok so we tied up. We had just finished and were stood on the dock when a rather purposeful young man (to Alison that's anyone under 40) strode towards us. We both thought we were about to be turfed off the mooring but interestingly the young man greeted us, of course immediately he recognised our perfect French so spoke to us in English!!

He said the pontoon was private so we started to apologise, but he said he owned the pontoon, but we were very welcome to stop there, which was lovely of him. We didn't get his name but he said he was a part-time primary teacher and that he also bought small Dutch motorboats did them up and sold them, hence the pontoon being his and the motorboat that was on the pontoon was in bits (mostly on the grass!!). Anyway he then hurried off to talk to some customers, we had a quick ride around the village and then a pleasant night on the mooring.

17th and 18th July Joinville

Next day pleasant trip to Joinville, a pretty town, mooring looked busy but luckily we found space. Its also serves as a camper van halt which was very busy, the vans were parked extremely close not more than an arms length apart. After a visit to the supermarket, the next day, we had a ride round the town.

We noticed a sign for a Chateau going up a very steep hill, so we locked the bikes up and started to climb the path. On the route we noticed that an old stone wall and steps had been recently renovated, further along we met a group of men working on another section of the stone wall. The foreman spoke to us and told us the route to the Chateau site was circular, we also admired the work the men had done. We carried on and eventually came to a plateau, unfortunately no Chateau just a view.

On the way down be came to the workmen and the foreman, we stopped for a few words and he explained that the chateau was demolished and the stone sold off, this was before the Revolution. The workmen were 'trainee' artisan's who were extending their skills by working on the historical project and employed by the local history society. The foreman invited us to the site office where he showed us pictures of the old Chateau which was very very big and must have really dominated the town below. He also explained the work that was going on, its was really interesting and unusual and we really enjoyed the visit.

Next morning (18th) we got drowned when riding to the shops so spent the afternoon drying off and doing the washing..life has to be lived!