Barge Day Two
Our itinerary today was:
8:00 Breakfast
9:30 Excursion to Chateau de Tanlay, built in the
sixteenth century in the Renaissance style
and situated in the quiet village of Tanlay
Return to the Litote
12:30 Lunch
Enjoy your afternoon cruise to Flogny la Chapelle
19:30 Dinner on board the Litote
First thing this morning was very cold. Janet, Terry and Ginny
Hackney, Ingrid, and Susan ran before breakfast. I walked
around the area and it was cold enough that I zipped up
my jacket and put gloves on. Later in the day it was warm
enough that some of us wore shorts. We broke out the bikes
and had 8 in use at the peak time. Most of the rest of us
walked along the tow path between one or more of the locks.
The way it works is you can only get on or off the boat at
a lock. We are going downstream so we go into the lock
full and then once we are in the lock they close the upstream
doors and empty the water down stream and the boat goes
down inside the lock. We then get on and off the boat
when the side of the boat is level with the side of the lock.
since the water drains pretty fast, getting on and off needs
to happen during a fairly short interval – like 90 seconds.
The locks are fairly close together, but sometimes up to
4Km or so. The barge only goes about 3mph and so you
can keep up with it walking at a normal pace. The barge
has to slow down when it comes into and goes out of a lock
so taking a walk between locks is very reasonable. If you
want to go visit a nearby village it is best to take a bike
so you can have more time in the village and still catch
up with the barge. The barge has a fore deck that is fun to
take pictures from, but when you go into a lock you have to
be careful because Dicke (the deck hand) has to use a large
rope to stop the barge once you get in the lock. You have to
stay out of his way when he is doing this. There is also
The tour of the Chateau de Tanlay was very interesting
and informative. This is one of the few Chateau’s that
is still privately owned and one of the few that were not
destroyed in the revolution. Evidently the family was
well liked by the local people and so during the revolution
they were protected from the destruction of the noble
houses that happened nearly everywhere else. The
furnishings are still as they were in various periods when
some of the rooms were furnished. So there are rooms
that have furnishings from the 17th 18th and 19th
centuries. The estate is still very large, there is still one
of the two original moats. Since the Chateau is still in
active use by the family part of the time, some of the
rooms were not open to visitors, but the rooms that were
open were very interesting. We could not take pictures
in many of the rooms so I only have pictures of the outside
and some of the rooms inside. The father of the current
owner was an ambassador from France to a number of other
countries and some of the furnishings were gifts he got
while working as ambassador in that country. Several
pictures on the wall were of Malta. Neil (the bus driver
guide) was our tour guide and he gave us lots of information
about the Chateau. The entry room was completely filled
with deer antlers and stuffed animal heads to show all
the trophies of animals killed in hunting. The next room
had all sorts of antique furniture including a wig closet.
Many of the walls had nice oil paintings or murals or
even maps hanging or painted on the walls. The beds were
very short and it wasn’t because the people were short but
that they slept sitting up because of a fear of sleeping lying
down (in the “death??? position). This Chateau was a major
location used by the Huguenots in planning the war of
religion in the 18th century.
Our lunch menu was:
Dejeuner
Jambon en croute, sauce chablisienne
Ham on the bone in a pastry crust, chablisienne sauce
Salade de brocoli a la coriandre
Broccoli salad with coriander
Salade de riz au thon et au mais
Rice and tuna salad with corn
Salade de tomates aux herbes
Tomato salad with herbs
Salade et plateau de fromages
Salad and cheese platter
Cafe au bar
Coffee at the bar
Sauvignon
Cotes du Rhone
Dinner Menu
Dîner
Feuilleté d’excargots a ka crème d’ail
Snails with creamy garlic sauce
Gigot d’agneau, ratatouille
Gigot of lamb with ratatouille
Salade et plateau de fromages
Salad and cheese platter
Clafoutis aux pommes
Apple clafoutis
Café au bar
Coffee at the bar
Muscadet
Côtes de Bourg
Breakfast is always buffet style
View of the Litote from the tow path (front view)
Getting ready to bike. Bikes and people are loaded and unloaded
while the barge is level with the side of the lock – i.e. the lock
is partially drained.
Lounging on the sun deck amidships on the Litote
Outside view of the Chateau de Tanlay