A New Castle – and more

Vandenesse to La Bussiere, locks 9-27
La Bussiere to Fleury, locks 28-41

Sorry about the lack of a post yesterday, but it seems that much of the Ouche valley is an internet-free zone – or at least lacks 3G phone connections, which we need to turn our smart phone into a WiFi hotspot. We just got the occasional message or headline, so we did hear about the dreadful earthquake in Italy this morning.

We set off quite early by taxi up the hill to Chateauneuf en Auxois. More energetic visitors walk or even bicycle, but we chose the easy way. The castle is basically 15th century and reckoned to be one of the finest of its period in Burgundy. Its position, looking out over the Auxois plains, is also sensational. Here we are heading for the entrance:

The courtyard is very fine:

The main defensive tower was apparently the south one, where we came across this mediaeval artillery piece:

The great hall was a little more accommodating and less military:

And in the dining room next door, there was a rather good model showing how the castle would have been in its prime:

The views were as good as advertised:

It is not just the castle that is worth exploring. The village attracted wealthy merchants who built substantial houses for themselves, many of which remain. It rather reminded us of Le Castellet, though not quite so touristy.

This detail above a doorway caught our attention:

Another view from the edge of the village, looking down on the Burgundy Canal:

After exploring, we called the taxi to return to the port, and relaxed in a cafe meanwhile. Once back, Diana went off, still full of energy, to look at the village church, where she found this rather pleasing representation of St George and the Dragon:

Also, rather movingly, the gravestones of two young RAF flyers killed during WWII and buried here:

We departed Vandenesse at 1 p.m. sharp, after the compulsory lunch break. We were lucky to have got on well with the Australian captain of a hotel barge moored next to us who could have pulled rank and insisted on going ahead of us. The hotel barges go very slowly, take up the entire lock, and it is purgatorial getting stuck behind one.

From the canal, we got some fantastic final views of Chateauneuf – too many photos to include here.

On the advice of the lock-keepers, we pushed on past Pont d'Ouche, and also past La Bussiere, to get ahead of all the hotel barges navigating this part of the canal. It worked, even though our lock-keeper this morning was half an hour late, and the first barge was heaving into view as we descended our first lock. Our morning run was smooth, but this afternoon a rather elderly lock-keeper, working on his own, was very slow in getting locks ready, and our pace diminished. So we decided to stop here at Fleury, which is just a dozen locks short of Dijon, where we will arrive tomorrow – barring problems!