August 27, 2011
A very short ride to St Jean de Losne: A wonderful welcome from Rosemary and John
Our meal was great and I had one of my favourites - Moules with lots of herbs. The amount of the activity in the hotel was amazing, it was full I think as there was a big motor boat competition and madam was one of the busiest ladies I have seen. She in about her mid sixties, dressed in flambouyant clothes and never stopped either moving or talking. Single handed, she had the whole busy place under complete control. When I told her how busy she was she looked very pleased, out came a mass of French and she gave me some special yoghurt for breakfast.
The rain had stopped but there was still a very strong wind. Today it was in exactly the correct direction for us, we have never ridden so fast as we did on the !6km to St Jean de Losne. It was easy to find Petronella and Rosemary and John who were tied up at the main quay. What a lovely warm welcome we got - we will stay tonight and travel on Petronella with them to Dole tomorrow. Petronella is a beautiful Dutch barge built in 1908. Originally she would have been a commercial sailing vessel probably carrying agricultural produce. It is charming inside with lots of wood and great little places to keep things and very comfortable.
The weather was pretty terrible all day but after our very French lunch that Rosemary had prepared we walked around the little town. There was a huge marina with lots and lots of boats for sale. I could see how very easy it would be to get into this life style and I picked out a beautiful little Dutch Barge with stained glass windows for Ken to buy for me.
By the time we got back to Petronella the weather had cleared so we sat on the afterdeck drinking sparkling wine from Alscace then across the road to the Café National for a delicious meal of Escargots, Coq au Vine and crème Bruele
Today's ride: 16 km (10 miles)
Total: 1,117 km (694 miles)
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