Slowly we have come to realise that the VNF map books are no longer up to date concerning moorings and facilities. So now in lock keepers, we trust! Our madame éclusière from Fleurey discouraged us from moving on to La Bussiére and suggested lock 34 écluse du Banet instead. 

On arrival, we recognised the lock house as the former restaurant and art shop run by a Swiss couple. Urs Gysin, the owner, unfortunately, had to give up on the restaurant, but still caters for the hotel boats and also runs a floating gîte. It turned out to be a perfect stop to meet up with my brother and sister-in-law who were going to inspect our new “home” on their way down to the Provence the next day.

Not long after we tied up we had an unexpected visitor, the owner’s cheeky black tom cat. He went straight for our laps and made himself at home on the Lodi. By 8 pm the summer temperature of 27 degrees had cooled down enough for us to take a walk to the previous village and back on the other canal side along paddocks and fields of flowering peas.

We woke up refreshed the next day and scrubbed the deck in preparation for our high visit. They came bearing gifts of plates, bowls and homemade strawberry-rhubarb jam. Just finishing a cup of tea with our guests, there was excitement as the first one, then a second huge hotel barge arrived, both booked to dock at the bank of lock 34. So our visitors were put to work as we cast off to make room for those giants. 

Hovering at a safe distance, we watched in utter amazement as the second barge squeezed into a very tight spot between the floating gîte and the first barge.

Eventually, it was safe to moor the Lodi a little further towards the lock. 

We ended the day with a nice dinner at “O’ p'tit repére du goût” in Fleurey-sur-Ouche and said "au revoir" to our visitors.

We weren’t comfortable with the amount of weed in the canal, which required emptying of the cooling filter after every third lock. So we had decided to return to Saint Jean de Losne, and the boat shuffling had allowed us to turn the Lodi around. With the hot weather looking to continue, a worry was also the low water level as the VNF had already started to conserve water. Initially disappointed we are now excited to go back to square one and plan a new route.