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Narrowboat 'Idling By No.2' cruising the waterways of France.

News for January 2007

It has been a good start to 2007. The month started off with mild weather and plenty of people jogging, strolling and walking around the port enjoying some sunny days. Amongst the visitors to the port was a journalist from the regional newspaper and a photographer. They took a lot of interest in the boat, in our lifestyle aboard and some of the history of British narrow boats. We had a pleasant half hour together and the journalist asking about our activities with the boat asked if we would adopt him! There was a lovely article, together with a photograph, in the paper a couple of days later. This is the fourth article since we arrived in France almost 2 years ago, the time has flown.

Early in the month we had some worries about availability of water, especially as we were expecting visitors. Because of the danger of the water points freezing with consequential damage to the plumbing, the water is turned on as required if possible. Our water tank holds 540 litres of water and we have learned that, with careful use, the water will last us 8 to 9 days and that includes daily showers and the use of the washing machine on the rapid programme. The main concern surrounded the outdoor temperature and how long it would stay below freezing and dropping to minus 10 C. or even lower. We have been fortunate. We have gone through a cold spell which started with night time temperatures of minus 10 C. and then waking up one morning to around 20 centimetres of snow. It looked very pretty but does make finding and opening stop cocks on the quay a little difficult. A determined effort between boaters did mean that during this period we found a source that was not frozen and we were all able to fill the water tanks of our boats by connecting our hoses together to reach the distant tap. The snow has now virtually disappeared, not good for the local skiing resorts but does make our life a little easier. Family who visited over the weekend were pleased to see the white world and the youngest member, Vicki who is 14 years old, enjoyed being able to make a snowman! We hired a car to collect them from, and to take them to. the Mulhouse / Basel airport. We drove through some really spectacular mountain scenery on winding roads and hairpin bends. Huge icicles had formed on the rocks alongside the road and there was a covering of snow on the fir trees in the forest areas stretching as far as the eyes could see, beautiful. It was a wonderful opportunity to see some of the countryside and we have also continued to learn more about our immediate surroundings of Epinal thanks to a charming woman, Jeanne Cressanges.

Madame Cressanges is an acquaintance of French friends, Alain and Suzanne, and she lives in Epinal. We made contact with each other and Madame Cressanges very kindly invited us to have Sunday lunch with her, particularly kind as we had only met on one occasion many years ago and did not really have a memory of that meeting. The afternoon was delightful. Madame Cressanges is an author of 19 books, many of them set in around Epinal, and having done a great deal of research for her writing had a lot of interesting information which gave us further background to where we are spending winter. We have also learned a little more about the indoor market which is one of our main shopping areas.

Whilst relaxing over a cup of coffee in the market, having completed our purchases, we were given an A4 sheet to commemorate the official opening of the refurbished covered market one year ago, February 2006. The work took 11 months, less than anticipated. It would appear that the deputy mayor of Epinal played a major part in driving the project forward. On the sheet given to us there were also drawings of people who have, or still do sell in the market. It is a local artist who prepared the material and, dressed in traditional Lorraine costume was distributing the sheets as a celebratory act. The previous weekend there had been a man and woman, again traditionally dressed, with him playing a sort of barrel organ and she was carrying a case holding the music. It was the first time that we had seen them, perhaps that was for the same cause. There was certainly a lovely atmosphere.

We have eaten at La Capiatainerie, the restaurant in the port, a couple of times. The food and service has been good. We know our way around the town and look forward to a chat with people in the market and shops. We still have plenty of other things to explore though and as we are hoping to start boating again beginning of April we had better start doing some planning to make the most of our time especially as we intend to be in the South for a couple of weeks end February, beginning March. More of that next month.