Well we are late again with the update, so no change there then (we are
so busy you know !!!)
First of all we hope that everyone had a great Christmas and is having a
good and, as we write this, a mild winter.
As last winter, the marina here in St Jean de Losne is generally full with
about the same number of winter "liveaboards". It isn't as lively
as in previous years although the rumour that pontoon D (our pontoon) is the
party pontoon still rings true. That remark was originally made by a member
of the ports Temperance Society and reminds us of a joke about an employee
who was an atheist:
"I used to be an atheist but I wasn't getting any holidays"
We were told when we first arrived here that "if you leave St. Jean
de Losne in the spring saying you have been bored, it is because you wanted
to be". We have never forgotten that comment and it would be easy to
put living on hold for 6 months every winter and just hibernate. But there
aren't that many of them left, so let the show begin!
Our new neighbours on the pontoon, Gaby, Annie and Jimmy, invited us and
our friend Uschi (who lives on a boat called Uschi also on pontoon D) round
for Sunday lunch a few weeks ago and it was a great way to break the ice.
We don't think the ice needed breaking though as Gaby is one of the "happy"
people who doesn't seem to have anything bothering him. He spends lots of
time renovating his boat and is rightly very proud of his achievements.
Gaby and Annie are locals and are a great source of information regarding
the area and its people. So for example, Gaby is arranging for us to visit
one of his friends who has a business in Beaune making oak barrels that are
sent as far afield as Australia.
LUNCH WITH GABY, ANNIE AND USCHI
GABY
We both feel a lot happier with our French language this winter. David has
now progressed on to 1 word sentences and we would like to thank friends old
and new for their encouragement in this area. Perhaps the fact that there
are more French people on boats this year is helping?
Our friend Uschi has the nicest boat in the harbour (as stated by one of
the directors here). Apparently it is a Eurocruiser and is just beautiful.
Even the ships cat "Fips" is beautiful and according to Uschi "he
knows it". Fips is a Norwegian Forest cat and we will try to get a better
picture of him than this one.
FIPS ON PATROL
Our last update had a picture of our favourite street in Saint Jean de Losne.
So this next photo is of our favourite alleyway through an arch/door leading
to the Mairie.
ST JEAN DE LOSNE MAIRIE
Moving swiftly on to a plant we were asked to look after for Yveta and Said
(bateau: Avesol). We started to wonder if it might be a triffid as it seemed
to grow at about an inch a day - scarey! We were very pleased (and relieved)
to see the flowers eventually appear.
AMARYLLIS
If the amaryllis had developed into something that resembled Barrie and
Ann's parsnip, then we would have really panicked.
BARRIE AND ANN'S PARSNIP
Christmas day soon arrived and as we fancied a quiet day on board Lea Crest
we gave our apologies to Ann and Lawrence who had invited us to join them
for dinner. We joined them for aperitifs but have no pictures of that as we
couldn't find a photographer. But we did find one on Boxing day so do have
a record of our visit up to John and Hazel who invited us to dinner on board
"Whistling Mouse" at St. Symphorien. Pamela entertained us by blagging
her way though her rendition of Chopsticks.
MONTY PYTHON OR WHAT?
It was soon time to eat and luckily David spotted that Hazel had pinched
one of his lettuce leaves.
BOXING DAY ON WHISTLING MOUSE
As this is our 3rd winter here in Saint Jean de Losne it may be that some
of our photos could seem a little bit familiar. But we do get some great evening
skies here.
SUNSET OVER SAINT JEAN DE LOSNE
Not being a TV watcher, David often just reads the cook books that we have
on board. So when we bought a fillet of pork he found a recipe for "stuffed
pork" in our very well thumbed Delia Smith cook book. We slit the fillet
into three (along its length), spread the stuffing on each piece, then rolled
and wrapped them separately in bacon. They were tied up with string and hey
presto, a lovely main course for up to 8 people.
A NEW RECIPE
On the subject of food, French cookery programmes are very different to
the ones we see on English TV. It is so frustrating as the French chefs take
lots of care and so much time at every point. We don't know what they would
make of the BBC's "Ready Steady Cook" programme. In the 20 minutes
it takes the chefs on Ready Steady Cook to make at least 3 or 4 different
dishes, a French chef will make just the one. In that one dish vegetables
will be cut with military precision to exact measurements, squares of pastry
will have right angle corners and dead straight sides and ingredients will
only ever be added to the mix one at a time.
So time now for King Gromits's regular chilling out slot.
IT'S A HARD LIFE
Pamela picked the pictures for this update and they are not in the sequence
that they were taken. So to make sense of the order, we now have "Kilt
time" which begins on the 12th of December - the day when St. Nicolas
arrives. He is the patron saint of mariners and of children.
When Danielle, the director of tourism, found out that we had a Bagpiper
in town she asked him to join in the parade. She also asked for as many people
to wear kilts as possible. So here we are stood on the "Quay National"
awaiting the arrival of St. Nicolas.
A ROSS ABROAD
Earlier in the day Tony (the piper) had been asked to pipe people into the
church and afterwards was invited to play at the Mayor's reception. From this
point on we were never sure who was guest of honour, Tony or St Nicolas!
CAN'T SHAKE HIM OFF
News Year's Eve approached and Tony was surprised to hear that last year
was a non event. The only restaurant we knew that was making some sort of
effort charged around 100 euros per person and from memory just one couple
felt that they could afford this. So with lots of enthusiasm from Tony in
particular, and Danielle offering us the use of the Mariner's Museum as a
venue, we had a great night, all for around £4 per ticket.
HOGMANAY
KILTS AHOY
Gromit of course isn't too big a fan of physical activity. So if there is
any chance of some sunshine, he will usually find the "purrfect"
spot.
INDOOR SUNBATHING
On the subject of global warming, who knows what is happening? But out on
our Monday morning walk in early January we noticed these roses still blooming.
That day we had a high of +13 degrees centigrade, where on the same day last
year we had just -8 degrees. That is a difference of 23 degrees!
8TH JANUARY 2007
Back to boaty things now and our next 2 photos are of a "pusher",
which is very much like a tug. Pushers are very powerful and are used to move
very large commercial barges about with ease. This one was in need of some
major plating of the hull.
BEFORE
AND AFTER
Back on board Lea Crest and still looking after plants for other boaters.
We both liked these 2 plants very much and thought that they looked well up
in our wheelhouse. So we will be on the lookout for something similar when
we have to return them.
A MOODY CORNER
Last but not least...
We received this photo from our friends Paul and Val who are due back from
their visit to New Zealand at any moment. It is their new grand-daughter Evie
and is the reason they made the trip. But who is doing an impersonation of
who here?
PAUL DOWN UNDER
Hopefully we should have some good pictures in the next update as we are
about to set off for a couple of weeks "holiday" and will be staying
in some very photogenic spots.
