Raviéres jolie maison

Raviéres is a village with a very old church, beautiful houses and a grocery store. There is a boulangerie but it looked like it had been closed for a while. I asked a passerby if there was a boulangerie. Of course! it’s just around the corner! Great I said. Is it actually open? No, of course not, they are on their congé (annual holiday). Bonus though, they had an ATM so we have cash money again. Hurray.

We decided to stay two nights in Raviéres. We were tired after the long day before. It’s a great spot although it’s beside a road which links the neighbouring farms to the grain silo so many large tractors and harvesting machines passed by. Also some road working machines. Quite noisy at times.

We had drinks on the barge Izula one night amidst the gorgeous potted garden. The temperatures have been very hot so sitting in a garden setting while the sun was setting was a treat.

Tuesday morning we headed off again having told the lockeeper we wanted to depart at 9am and sure enough the lock was ready and the guy waiting for us. All that day we had at least one, sometimes three lockeepers setting each lock up for us. Excellent service. We stopped for lunch by the Buffon lock near the Armançon river, hoping for a swim but there wasn’t anywhere to access the river. Shame, it was extremely hot on the deck when we had to lower the top to get under most of the bridges.

The scenery along this part of the canal is very pretty. Rural with lots of trees. In the afternoon we moved from flat farm land (including fields of sunflowers) to treed hills on either side.

Getting a bit arty.

We arrived in Montbard at 2.15pm with plenty of places to moor. We chose under the trees on the right bank by the power and water supply. There is a Locaboat hire base on the left bank.

As soon as we were moored securely we took the bikes off (it’s a long job as they are now secured like Fort Knox) and headed to the railway station to check in timetables for Dijon.

Later that evening we walked into town for the ‘night’ market, arriving at 8pm just as the stalls were being dismantled. Bad timing. Oh well, it’s France. There’s always the Friday covered market!

Raviéres to Montbard – 20kms, 11 locks, 5 hours

Full moon in Montbard. View from Silver fern