Louhans to La Truchère – 37 km

As threatened, today was market day in Louhans, which means the famous marché de volaille, or poultry market.

There were live chickens of every conceivable shape, colour, breed and age, plus ducks, geese, turkeys, rabbits, song birds, even a peacock! Quite an experience. It wasn’t quite clear to us whether this was really a farmer-to-farmer event or a producer-to-consumer one. Certainly, we concluded, the animal rights people might not be very happy.

So we moved on to the regular food market, finding a genial cheese man on the way.

After that we felt it was time to leave Louhans, so off we set. The Seille is supposed to be a haven for endangered species, but we have really seen very little birdlife. This white stork (?) was an exception.

This flock of geese following their gander down to the river had avoided the market – this time. Though they may be endangered in due course.

We went through three self-service locks today ... closing the gates ...

And the upper sluices.

Going down – crew in full control.

We lunched on the pontoon at Loisy – plenty of space today, unlike last week. It was the same story at La Truchère, where we had trouble getting in last week, but found only one other boat on the pontoon this afternoon. The harbour master agreed that the river has an end-of-season feel about it.

Tomorrow we will get back onto the Saône, heading for Chalon-sur-Saône for the night.