Barge Holiday on Le Cher France Day Five 1/7/2015

This morning we had a very quick rain shower, there was one lone fishermen in his boat out in the river and as you can see the rain didn’t bother him at all. 

The hot water boiler had been playing up and Leigh managed to get a local plumber to pop out to fix it. The boiler is several years old but luckily he had a thermocouple in his old bits box so we were not delayed at all.

A short way above the lock there is an island with a mill on it.  This is part of the Chenonceau estate. 

A view from the towpath

The only sign of life

Looking downstream to the mill

The next place we came to was chissay Lock, we had bit of a problem getting in here as the channel is not only very narrow but its also close to the bank and quite shallow so we spent a bit of time on the bottom. This and the next lock should both be automatic with the boater using a radio transmitter to operate the lock as he arrives.

Approaching the lock	Leigh and Alain struggle with the gates	Leigh closing the bottom gate
Nymphea’s hydraulic pack	Attaching the hydraulics
Alain running lines to open the bottom gate	It took tree of us to shift the gates	Once moving it needed the two of us to open it.

The system has completely failed and to draw the paddles the crew has to attach its own hydraulic power pack on the end of a long electrical extension lead. The gate should also open and close hydraulically but the rams have been disconnected so they have to be pulled and pushed manually.

After lunch we went back to The château Chenonceau by minibus to see it from the top.              

Approaching the château on foot	The pattern on the floor worn by visitors, only the edge remains.	The old mill, this is what started the construction of the château
		The Moated garden
The old farm buildings	A pond that was used for cooling the horses on their return home
The château has a collection of old carts	The château has a collection of old carts
	The trip boat turning after coming under the château

Returning to the boat we moved up to Montrichard lock for the night, again the channel is close to the bank, a bit closer than this bush that we brushed along. Again the power system doesn’t work so its out with the power pack, The rams for the top gates are still connected so by Teeing in the hydraulics it was possible to swing the gates, but this meant getting the power pack to the offside with no walkways on the gates.

The barrage at Montrichard

Alain with the power lead

No walkway so Leigh balances on top of the gate

While we were here the lock keeper adjusted some of the finger in the barrage by drawing them out and resetting them.

That evening we were taken into town for a meal at a local restaurant to give Jenny and Erell the evening off. The waiter had quite an interesting hair style and we got this photograph of him a few days later when we returned to the town to visit the market. Although they had out door seating we sat just inside the restaurant with all the front open. After diner Diana and I decided to walk along the river back to the boat as it was such a nice night and only about quarter of a mile. When we returned to the boat this was the view from the bows. In case you hadn’t realised it we are moored in the lock overnight.