TALK
Introduction
I’ll
present you my holiday experience of the last autumn holidays. We were in
France, in the Burgundy. We made holidays on a boat of Connoisseur. Connoisseur
is supplier, which offers boats to drive on the channel of Burgundy. This
channel starts in Pouilly-en-auxois and ends in Laroche-Migennes. Everybody
which is 18 is allowed to drive such a
houseboat.
The
Trip
We started early in the morning,
because we had to be there punctual to get the boat. We drove by car to
Venarey-les-Laumes were the base of Connoisseur is. We got there our boat. It
was a terrible small one, but each boat is compared with a flat very small. We
met our luggage into the boat. This is an acrobatic sensation, because you
aren’t really able to walk on the ship, naturally because of the space
which you haven’t got there. The weather was fine... I mean it was to
fine, no, it was too hot. The thermometer climbed at about 28 degrees. After a
long journey by car and an acrobatic action, you really feel
death.
After a few instructions of the
mechanic and the war of papers, our voyage
began...
The
Voyage
Our ship had two steering
wheels, once in the living room in front of the ship, and the other one was a
flying bridge. We decided to start our voyage on the flying bridge. We drove in
the direction of Joigny, the little town in the end of the channel of Burgundy.
When the weather is as fine as our weather was, is this a very nice experience.
The water is as flat as a mirror, the sky is blue, the sun was shining and the
water was splashing in front of the bow. But the work is waiting, then after the
first 17 hundred kilometres we entered the first lock of this voyage. Entering a
lock is a very difficult thing, if you don’t know how to drive a ship or
if the wind is blowing very hard. But it was no problem for us, then we got
already used to it, because of our several voyages we made other times. The most
impressing lock was the last lock. It was morning and a really stupid swan took
his shower in the lock. When the water raised, the swan swam between the wall
and the ship. The ship almost crushed the animal. I’m happy that it did
not happen, then I don’t think, that a splattered swan is a nice thing
see.
The Channel And His
Locks
The channel of Burgundy is a
standing water. But this channel is not a natural work, it has been made of the
humans work, better said of slaves. These channels of all the France were very
useful for the professional skippers some hundred years ago. But today, the road
and rail have detached the almost all channels in France. Because the terrain
wasn’t flat, they had to build locks. A lock lift and lowers boats without
any energy. The ship enters the pool and the man of the lock closes the doors.
This is a very stranger work, because you have to close them by a simple
mechanism. When the doors are closed, the man opens the slide and the water
raises or lowers. When the water level is equal to this outside the lock, you
are able to open the doors. The ship is raised or lowered and leaves the lock.
In Burgundy exists a stupid rule which says, that all the locks have to be
emptied, this was our great chance, then we wanted to pass all the locks from
the higher side!!!
Sometimes there are
a lot of locks in the same section of the channel. I mean, there are always a
lot of locks in the channel of Burgundy. But this has his positives aspects:
Every day, I took my bike to drive along the channel. I drove about 20
kilometres a day. This holidays were some fitness holidays
too.
The
Burgundy
The Burgundy is famous for it
wins and the food, like “living as god in France.” But this saying
is absolutely nonsense! In all our voyage we ate in only one restaurant.
Compared with the Brittany is the Burgundy nothing. But this fact takes care of
the purse an the body... And the wines, we did not even see one vine in our
trip!
Autumn isn’t a touristic
season. We remarked this on the closed museums and stores. Most of the
attractions were closed. So the holidays were very silent and we were able to
enjoy our trip.
You know, that
photographing is my hobby. Because of that I’d like to show you some
slides, to show how our holidays were...
SLIDES
Ship
kitchen
surroundings
captain
channel
lock with mountains
trees
castle of Tanlay
entry
entry
entry
the place inside
iron door
inside
view of the helicopter
view of a window
living room
kitchen
lock
door of a lock
door of a lock
sortie of a lock
driving on channel
driving on channel
driving on channel
driving on channel
entry of a lock
last great ship
town
experience of Burgundy
Joigny
Joigny by night
Joigny by night END
