Day 4 - Cuisery to Tournus

Just starting out on day 4

We got up and had fried eggs and bread with juice and coffee for breakfast.  Both of us had a great night sleep!  We left Cuisery early and headed for Tournus, a much larger town.  We had two of the manual locks to go through on our way.  The first one I did all by myself but at the second one, there was a man working nearby and he came to help us.  Also, we tied up the boat before we began so David did some of the work as well.

David and local man working the lock 

We got to Tournus in just a couple of hours and found two areas to dock the boat.  The first place, an actual dock, had no room at all for any more boats.  Just past there was a wall where we could also dock and there was some, but not a lot, of room.  Naturally, just as we were getting ready, the wind really picked up.  David managed to maneuver the boat in spite of the wind and we were settled in!

Dave on our boat (just in front of grey pole) 

We walked up the hill and found a beautiful little town!  And there was a street market going on with everything from fresh fish to kitchen utensils to jewelry and clothing was for sale.  We wandered around the market for a while and bought a few things.  By then we were hungry!  There were several restaurants around and we finally settled on one by the river.  We both had quiche lorraine and salad (mostly cause we couldn't understand anything else on the menu!)

Street market in Tournus (above and below) Street market in Tournus (above and below) 

Lunch!!

After lunch we found the tourist office and got a town map.  Then we visited this beautiful abbey.  Afterwards, we wandered through some stores and bought some fruit and veggies to snack on, and of course, some pastries for after dinner.  We also visited the Greuze Museum, which was very interesting.  It used to be a hospital run by nuns for not only the sick, but also for poor people with no where else to live.  And there were many lovely paintings and sculptures.  After that, we headed back to the boat so David could nap and I went to an internet cafe where I am writing this now!

The Abbey

The Garden at the Abbey

Inside the Abbey

Outside the Greuze Museum

Beds for the poor/sick at Greuze Museum 

Our boat!!

After finally leaving the internet café, I made my way back to our boat.  As I was coming down the stairs to the marina, I saw a group of people next to a large barge docked behind us.  They were all getting bicycles from the barge and the man distributing them was giving instructions in English!!  I got on our boat and sat outside and shortly, a man rode past on his bicycle, so I said “Hello”.  He seemed surprised to hear English and came over to chat. Soon after, his wife and several friends also came by.  They were interested in hearing about our trip and we learned that they were on a ‘bike and barge’ vacation.  We talked for a while with this group of friends from New Jersey.  David gave one of them his card and I gave them the address for this blog and we promised to keep in touch.  While we were sitting there, a swan came by.  David got some bread and fed the swan.  Now there are several swans near our boat! 

The bike and barge people

David and a friend

A few minutes after our NJ friends left, a sailboat came in to dock right in front of us.  We got up to help them tie up and it turned out that they were a family living on their boat traveling around and planning to spend a year in France.  The husband, Tom, was English and the wife, Natalia, was from Barcelona.  They had a three year old boy, Owen and a seven year old girl, Paula, and a cat named Pumpkin.  Tom was a boat builder and he got work in France building boats.  They are planning afterwards to fly to Florida and buy a new boat and then sail it across the Atlantic!  In fact, they just crossed the English Channel. They home school the daughter but Natalia wondered how long it would work to live on the boat with children, but felt that it was fine for right now.  They were planning to leave early the next morning. 

The Sailboat Family!

After relaxing on the boat for a while, we got changed for dinner and headed up into town.  We stopped by several restaurants trying to find one with a menu we liked and reasonable prices.  There was a place that we had wanted to eat lunch in but it was too crowded in the afternoon, so we went there first, but, they don’t serve dinner.  We ended up at a restaurant that was practically next to our boat.  We had a lovely dinner there, and David got his escargot (snails).  There was only one other couple in the restaurant and I suddenly realized that they were speaking English to each other.  After they finished, they stopped by our table and we started chatting.  They were British and also traveling by boat, except they owned their own boat.  They had spent many vacations renting boats just as we do but then decided to buy one.  We had a nice conversation about boating, Europe, the USA, and the French before we both said good night and went our separate ways.  It’s been a friendly day!