Tuesday, April 25th, 2006 sunrise-07:01 sunset-21:05 low/high temp:8-19C (46.5-66F)
Today is only one of two days with a bit of backtracking. We needed to go back the way we came, from La Roche Bernard toward Redon, and then just prior to arriving at Redon and, via a right turn, connect with the lock for the Eastern half of the Canal de Nantes à Brest.
Translation:
Forbidden to feed the birds!
(Even for a tuppence a bag?)
Too bad Danielle didn't see this one... OOOoops..
The day started out chilly with a VERY dense fog, creating some nice views of
the river in both directions.
Scott and Kate went to the Just after a hot shower!
bakery, bringing back fresh
goodies for the day!
Danielle was VERY pleased!
The mist is starting to burn off, and we've gotten a good early start, at about 8:15am. It was still chilly and a bit damp, so instead of opening the top all the way, I just opened it enough to get my head out and see all the way around the boat while backing out and navigating through the docks. Gilligan loosed the lines and gave us a bit of a push and off we go! We then closed the top again to maintain the warmth for the girls (OK, Cindy and Danielle) until the sun warmed up the day.
Cindy starts breakfast, sausages and such.
Scott jumps in to finish the
morning cooking.
Odd fishing gear. It looked
Thought this was a nice The yacht
moored at the Cindy tries her hand at the
like a crane mechanism with scene.
bottom of the switchbacks. wheel.
a net drop.
Notice the clear reflections.
We had a LOT of Rosie water!
As you can see, by the time we arrived at the little town of Rieux, the mist had burned off and the skies were looking bright and clear. We decided to stop when we saw the steeple on the way down, and while the sights were not a disappointment, the church was, unfortunately, closed. The cemetery, however, was open and remarkable.
The new Chateau.
Not many photos of the 'ancient' Chateau in Rieux. It appears
to be just a tower portion that was left. The wall in the middle
photo above was just completely rebuilt.
Front and side views, as well as a close up of the steeple, of the Church of
Rieux. Unfortunately, this was closed, but we did discover an amazing
cemetery off to the side.
Great statue at the top of The original wall of the
Church. The rear of the Church.
the entrance.
Nice design.
The Abbey courtyard.
I noticed a large crucifix while circling the church and we went on to discover
this cemetery.
The previous cemeteries were very tidy, this one was absolutely immaculate!
The stones and monuments didn;t even have any dust on them, let alone dirt.
A very important person was The view back to the
church from the far end of the cemetery,
buried at the base of this
at the top of the stairs of the monument to the left.
monument, but I forgot to
write down who.
These stones were quite old, ranging from the late 20th
View from the church back at
Century to the early 18th century.
the cemetery.
Snails and Salamanders abound in this region of France. Yes, that's slate
chips for stone walks.
Back toward the boat we go. Everyone makes a pit-stop at
the camp-grounds and then off we go again!
Gilligan goes out to close one side of the lock. He'll then cross behind
the boat, on the cat-walk of the lock behind us, and close the other half of the
forward lock.
Yep, these are full manual, with no one but ourselves to operate the lock.
I thought these were some pretty nature shots.
These 2 shots give a decent idea of how tight some of the bridges were we passed
through.
Our boat was of similar size to the one in the left photo.
The girls play Bunko and Danielle listens to her music and writes in her
journal.
This was a VERY tight fit!
A family just tied off on the More children on the
paths, and
The bridge angled to the left bank of the
canal for lunch. they all got in on the waving
act!
and the canal swung right.
Oh, another steeple in the distance, guess we'll stop!
The girls admire the stone wall Surprisingly enough, the far
part of this thatch wall was recently
reconstruction of this house.
restored as well. I didn't realize thatch was still a viable fencing here.
We thought this was funny, a soccer ball stuck way up there between the
building and the downspout. How to explain that one to the Priest!
Lucky they didn't hit the windows!
The glow from the large rose window was breathtaking The
church was rebuilt from 1944-1951.
even prior to entering the church!
The vertical stained glass on the surrounding walls was like non we'd ever seen
before. Each
of the vertical windows depicted a famous or important Catholic Church
throughout France. The window on the far right photo honors Saint
Bernadette and also depicts the Church of the same name, in stained glass, at
the bottom of the window.
The ceilings, as well as the rest A simple altar for such a
The back and side of the church.
of the structure, were well
beautiful church.
restored. We noticed that
cement was used this time.
Pigeon in the gutters.
2 good shots of the outside of the Church.
The girls in the town square A nice entrance to a home.
I liked the gnarled old tree
pose for a picture.
and church view.
Danielle needed to rest between An odd architecture for the
Scott watches a video on how
stops. She seemed to like
area, don't you think?
to operate the locks. Yep, after
the "I'm on vacation" attitude...
we've already been through several.
While Scott views the video, I took shots of what everyone else was doing.
Here, we go through our first lock with another boat. It looked a lot
closer than it really was...
After several locks, I was more comfortable with the whole operation, and Scott,
with one of the girls helping each time, got the manual locks down to a pretty
good system. Everybody had a job, from ropes, camera, drive and cranking.
Once again, Danielle is our nature photographer. This cat was very cool.
She loved the colors.
She also was constantly distracted by all the flowers, gardens, and blossoms.
Just 3 nature shots that seemed to fit in the page nicely.
On the way, we noticed this chapel and finely manicured
I just liked this photo.
gardens. Later, we read that it was home to a VERY wealthy
family and VERY private chateau that we couldn't even see.
So far, that's the oddest steeple Uh oh! Is that a REAL
CASTLE? oops Chateau!
we've seen on the trip.
Gee, should we stop???
The outside of the church was quite old and interesting, including
I like the painting on the
flying buttresses, but that steeple is SO out of place. We then
left gate, and the copper
learned that the original steeple was destroyed in WWII.
plates on the bottom of the gates.
We had pizza at
La Petite Venise Pizzeria-Grill,
The food was excellent. The crust was
perfectly crisp and the
toppings fresh and hot! The service was warm and
inviting. We obviously had a very fun time here.
Obviously, the girls were also enticed into partaking in more dessert.
Above right is the owner, Olivier Havard, and our lovely server,
Jennifer.
I
highly recommend
La Petite Venise Pizzeria-Grill
as a good quality quick meal.
A nice building on the way back. Danielle in a wooden train at the center
of a Roundabout.
to the boat for the night.
Some shots we took from the other side of the last bridge we past under.
It really is a lovely view.
Nice little port here.
I was a little confused by the Out of order photo, but I
liked the
ramp from the pier up to a
scene and setup on this home.
brick wall.
Scott went back to get some night shots of the Chateau de la Groulais and the small port we moored at (below). I chose to stay behind and work on my French with the folks 2 boats down from us They were quite sociable and he had broken the ice earlier in the day when we arrived. There were 6 older adults and 4 grand children on their large house boat. It turns out the gentleman who reserved/captained their boat is a retired French Navy Nuclear Engineer. We discussed our families and I learned that his two sons are both in law enforcement, 'County' Police and Gendarme and his daughter is a military nurse. I wish I had written down his name, he was a very nice gentleman and patient with my limited French. When Scott and I returned to the boat, all the girls were fast asleep.
