Rangali Adventures: Canal Lateral a la Loire continued....

Friday 30^th August

Chatillon-sur-Loire to Bannay

33km and 5 locks

Last evening we went for another walk around Chatillon and realised we’d missed a big chunk of the small town out on our first walk around but we'd been primarily looking for somewhere for lunch it was understandable! So last night we walked up to the old church and the buildings around it were amazing, so old and rickety, but many of them had been done up so although they were all mismatched, and higgledy piggetty, they looked fantastic. I wish I’d taken my camera with me. Its well worth a stopover at this lovely town, the moorings are great and the restaurant Le Vieux Port is certainly is worth a visit. Lunch maybe better than dinner as it was closing pretty early when we walked past at around 8.30pm but it was really busy at lunchtime.

We left Chatillon around 9.30am this morning and had a great trip to Bannay. There are lots of great moorings along the way, it seems very much set up for the hire boats and we’ve seen quite a few of those today.

A Piper barge (sister to a boat called Dorchester that is kept on The Thames)

We bought a bottle of Sancerre and Pouilly Fume from the lock keeper
at Lock 36 Les Houards. The Sancerre was good, yet to try the Pouilly

Unusual church at Bannay

Just an ok mooring at Bannay

Saturday 31^st August

Bannay to Menetreol-sous-Sancerre 8km no locks (we are really slowing down now, very relaxing)

As we've been to Sancerre quite a few times we didn't feel the need to go again. So we went a short trip to Menetreol-sous-Sancerre and stopped at a lovely mooring right in front of a restaurant where we had lunch and dinner!! The boulangerie is closed for holidays!

A good mooring at Menetreol-sous-Sancerre, sloping sides though

Sunday 1st September

Menetreol-sous-Sancerre to Herry 14km 3 locks

In the morning we walked a short distance from our mooring in Menetreol-sous-Sancerre to a local wine producer in the town, and purchased 12 bottles of Sancerre after a tasting, (only small sips, as it was only 9.30am and we’d not yet had breakfast!)

Ringing bell at wine producer at Menetreol-sous-Sancerre, not a word of english spoken
but we came away with some very nice bottles of Sancerre around 7 euros each

We went back to the restaurant in the town for coffee and a croissant, and then went on our way. The first lock was 1km away and we had to wait 40 mins as the lock keeper wasn’t there. He left a phone number, which we rang to let him know we were waiting, he has to look after three locks so is a busy man. A Norwegian boat turned up that we’d met in Nemours and we shared the next three locks with them.

We have moored at Herry, in the guidebook it says it has a restaurant (closed and up for sale) a boulangerie (closed on holiday!) there is a small 1 pump petrol station (closed today as its Sunday!) so we are having a quiet afternoon/evening on the boat.

We'd only gone 1km and we had to wait for lock,
you can see Sancerre behind up on the hill

Sharing the lock with the Norwegian boat, quite a tight fit
Its lunch time so we are waiting for 1pm for the lock keeper to return

Herry- This was on a Sunday evening, it looks like Monday is a collection day for household rubbish.
There were lots of people driving around the town stopping at all the different piles of clutter around the village
taking what they deemed worth saving.

Monday 2^nd September

Herry to La Chapelle-Montlinard 6km 1 lock

We are really slowing down now, only 6 km today! We moored up and took our bikes into La Charite-sur-Loire, as its Monday, most of the shops were closed but we enjoyed looking around the town, we’ve been here before, it’s a lovley old town, very old church over 900 years old. It’s a beautiful sunny day, we have come back to our mooring after a nice lunch in town to sit and read and fish. Kev has caught a catfish already, so he’s happy.

The moorings here are ok, nice and close to the town, only 2.5km. There were two moorings with facilities, but we have just moored up on the bank as we don’t need water or electric, so it’s a free mooring.