We are currently battened-down with the Burgundian version of the Mistral howling about us and Riverdance heaving at her moorings. 3 degrees outside and bits of snow flying by the windows as we snuggled down. The furnace is performing yeoman service (all these nautical terms!). We were going to wash the boat today but instead have opted for reading a book. This afternoon we plan to have a meal at the local Routier (French truck-stop) for a Boeuf Bourguignon and a pichet of Claret. Tomorrow we head off to Milan via the Mont Blanc tunnel to keep be near Milan when Becky and Guido's baby makes his grand entrance. We like to travel on Sundays as that is a prohibited day for transport trucks and that is important when one is slogging through the switchbacks in the Alps. We will be at the big house in Osnago where Angel can have free-rein on the grounds. Becky is in a state of euphoria over the baby and seems to be doing extremely well at the pregnancy business. She was rehearsing a children's choir on Thursday.

Since traveling to Montchanin we have done nothing but sleep being totally exhausted after our house-sale and moving all our goods into storage. Our new house doesn't close until 30 May and we have put it into the hands of a Royal Lepage property manager for rental. So for these few months interregnum we have unusual looking balance-sheets with no debts and no bills!! Interesting. One could get used to this but we need to hang onto a chunk of real estate in the surging West Coast market.

This part of France is truly beautiful. We have taken several drives through the countryside since arriving on the 30th and are once again captivated by the glory of Burgundy. Rolling hills, ancient monuments, Roman churches and the history of Roman times, vignards, Charolais cattle, spring lambs and the mallards looking for their femmes fatale all over the canals and rivers. This region is also on the edge of Vichy, the beginning of the region where the French collaborators controlled the country during the last war and from where a lot of the Resistance fighters operated. Consequently, there are many, many memorials to Resistance fighters murdered by the Germans alongside canals and country roads. A sad legacy and one that continually brings into focus the reality of life and death and sacrifice that occurred here in France. Part of the dark soul that makes France so interesting to study.

MAY 23, 2005:  St. Jean de Losnes at the junction of the Burgundy Canal, the River Saone and the Rhone to the Rhine Canal

We've just finished our first week of cruising with our first guests of the season. They were a fun and experienced crew as he is a retired captain of the naval ship 'Provider' as well as of the naval sailing vessel Oriole. We did 19 locks the first day in cool but sunny weather! The Canal du Centre was bursting with life as ducks and goslings, swans and cygnets and leggy herons fed beneath the overhanging chestnut trees laden with blossoms. We enjoyed a degustation at a wine cellar beside the canal and learned more about wine production in Burgundy. By Friday we were ready to replenish our stores in Chalons-sur-Saone at the huge market in the cobblestone square in front of the church of St. Vincent - the patron saint of the vineyards and all who work therein. Saturday we reached St. Jean just ahead of the lightning which foretold a rain storm that lasted for 36 hours without a break - Angel was not amused.

Riverdance is looking very spiffy as Bruce painted her while I returned to Milan in early May to help Becky with the new baby,Giovanni Battista who will be baptised on Sun the 29th so we're off to Milan again. Since our arrival in France in late March we've done more travelling by train and car than we have by barge with trips to Milan for GB's birth, to the Vendee to visit Marie Penichon and her lively little twins and then back to Milan for a week where I celebrated my birthday for the second year in a row. This weekend visit will be another interesting Italian experience as the patron saint of Milan is St. Ambrose so GB will be baptised according to the Ambrosian rite which requires full immersion.

Our new townhouse in Victoria closes this weekend as well so here's hoping our communication systems don't let us down.

AUGUST 10, 2005:  Vireux-Wallerand:

Our summer has been quite busy and we have traveled from Montchanin to Mulhouse, on the Rhine River (quite near Lahr actually) via the Doub River and then down the Rhine to Strasbourg, across to Nancy, then north to Namur Belgium via the Moselle and the Meuse Rivers. Right now we are in the small town of Vireux-Wallerand about 15 kms south of the Belgium border where we have met up with friends Bill and Clementien Wolferstan, fellow Victorians whose boat has broken down. We expect his new engine to arrive tomorrow and we will all pitch in and hopefully get it installed without too much trouble. In fact, we will be traveling in company with Bill and Clem all next year in the south.

Our plans for the remainder of the summer/fall have changed considerably because we are not going to winter over in Paris as planned as there is no room for us there. So we will be retracing our steps at a much slower pace back south on the Meuse to the Moselle and across to the Rhine and then up it to Mulhouse where we have made arrangements to winter in their very safe, secure and comfortable harbour. Mulhouse is just 30 kms from Basel, Switzerland. It is also an easy drive to Milan and Osnago from there taking just 5 hours through the St Goddard tunnel. It is a remarkable town/city with 10 museums, enormous parks, open squares - and a Protestant Cathedral. And the TGV train goes there as well.