March 2014 (original title, eh?)

So back in Briare the weather was hot, so a Boules-based picnic was suggested by our friends there, as several had cars, so we went up-canal to Rogny-les-sept-ecluses (the seven locks) although it only has 6 now, but the old staircase cluster of 7 can be seen, built by Henry IV, well, not by him as such:

Briare was still looking good:

Then in a moment of madness we'd booked a ski chalet for a family holiday & get together;  it was lovely:

We had a log fire, but it was such a warm house, and not cold in the village, so we'd roast a bit when I lit it!  I'll not show you skiing, but a snap of us in a Yurt after a long and quite demanding (we fell down!)snowshoe walk up in the snowline;  the humidity plus alcohol makes the image here a bit hazy !

While we were away, the daffodils had really gone crazy on Archangel:

Then we had the last trip back to UK before we were due to set of travelling, this time by ferry:

Caption reads "Oh yes, I could manage one of these!"

February 2014

I've just ten pix for you, so bear with....  Firstly, who could forget Chinese New Year, well, it made a good theme for when we had some friends come to dinner.  The 'tablecloth' was Nik's design, with do-it-yourself speech bubbles for us and guests to complete:

Now a couple of nice pix of our mooring, end of day ones:

 

Oh and I'll sneak in a view looking the other way:

Then we took ourselves off for a week down to see some best friends in Barcelona, and en route we cheekily invited ourselves to break the journey (i.e. spend a night, it's a long way!) aboard their boat in Toulouse.  They were very hospitable and cooked us dinner, and breakfast too, and we just talked and talked !  I'm sure they won't mind a picture of them:

Gosh, doesn't my tummy stick out, and my hair!  The rest of the drive was really lovely, basically head for Andorra and turn left just at the entrance, here we are lunching just after the turn:

So the day after we arrived in Barcelona, our best friends re-jigged their schedule and we had some nice outings, first a picnic in the hills:

Then visiting a very pretty village:

So when we're left to our own devices, away from the boat, what do we do?  Well:

I won't bore you with our visit to the fabulous and fantastical cathedral in Barcelona, Gaudi's Segrada Famiglia, but here is a little thing he put together that our friends showed us:

We took a slightly shorter route back to Briare (550 miles in one day!)
I bet you can't wait for March ?!

January 2014

I debated a long time about this, and decided to show a few pix that covered the first 3 months of this year, before we did any real boating.  This is partly to show we don't hibernate, and in fact are pretty busy;  if you only want to learn about where to moor, etc., then start in April !  Or better still, use the dba website!
New Year's Day meal, in the restaurant opposite us the Petit Saint Trop, was expensive but took all day!

 

 

 

 

Just be pleased I missed out two of the courses!  We dined with friends, which is a great feature of life afloat, always meeting with friends for drinks and/or food, as you will see!  Nice walks:

Mistletoe freely available (the French don't know about its powers!):

Our Pom-pom ducks (I know, I'll look them up!) are still there (we thought we'd lost one):

And some other bird:

Oops!

The winter weather was mild and really lovely:

Then there was this fridge/freezer that needed to go in, and out, of a friends boat.  Oh well, good to know:

Some lovely friends came all the way down to stay just two nights with us:

That's the Loire, and as we now had a merchant navy captain on board, we did a day trip across the Pont Canal, across said, very wide river above:

Then there was the un-missable (incontournable in French!) Burns Night - them's real tartans on the table, and that's my attempt at haggish, hagiography if you like, with Tatties and Swede (no neeps), and other dear friends billeted at Briare the winter:

Plus a wee dram of course.
That's all for January.  I've something similar for Feb & March, but don't hold your breath.