And just like that, the canal cruising season for 2023 is over. The weather is colder and the locks are closing for their winter maintenance. So what does that mean for Ivan and I and our boat Laura? It means spending the winter in Roanne. We arrived here a week or so ago but of course getting here was a lot of fun and we saw plenty of amazing things.
An update on the three legged cat
Before I tell you about our travels I’ll share with you something amazing. Back in August I wrote a post about a three legged cat with a deformed ear that I fell in love with. Click here to read the post. She was homeless, skinny but oh so affectionate. We named her Laura after our boat and she absolutely stole my heart.
I contacted a cat refuge that was nearby called Chadaba and they came and picked Laura up to look after her and find her a new home. Chadaba scanned her for a microchip but she had none, so there was no way to find out if Laura had a home or not.
I never stopped thinking about Laura and kept in contact with Chadaba. One day they emailed me to say that they had taken Laura to a vet for a check up and the vet’s device had found a microchip! The microchip indicated that Laura’s real name was Voyou. Sadly, the owners details were not up to date so they could not be located. The vet also discovered that Voyou was a he and not a she (oops, must have missed that).
Now that Chadaba had the owner’s name, they did a full-on search and one day they located Voyou’s owner. It turns out Voyou had been missing for 9 years! He had gone missing as a young cat when the owner had taken him on holiday to Lamarche-sur-Saone, and that was where we found him. The owner was overjoyed to see him again. I’m so happy that Voyou has found his home again and will live out the remainder of his years with someone who loves him.
Something you don’t see every day
One day as we were cruising along in the boat we saw an interesting sight. A couple walking their dogs and their donkey. And why not?
Digoin
On our journey to Roanne we stopped at Digoin which is a cute little town with a lot of history located in the Burgundy region. The old part of the town is very beautiful and was built on the banks of the Loire River.
We had the absolute pleasure of crossing the Loire River using the Pont Canal de Digoin, which is an aqueduct. The pont has been in use since 1838 and as you can see, it’s a beautiful structure. The engineering in this country never ceases to amaze me.
What’s that in the water?
Whilst cruising along we saw something strange in the water. It was a deer! Our second one that we’ve seen so far. I’m not sure what it was doing – having a bath maybe?
Another deep lock
The last few weeks we’ve been through a number of deep locks. They felt a bit daunting at first but they are actually very easy. Here’s a video to show you what a 7 metre lock looks like from inside.
Heading into the Canal de Roanne a Digoin
What a gorgeous day it was, heading into our final canal for the season. Both Ivan and I have a problem pronouncing Roanne – hopefully by the end of winter we’ll be able to say it properly so that French people can understand us. So far, that hasn’t happened but we live in hope.
Our final day of cruising for 2023
We’re so glad that on our final day of cruising for the season we had beautiful weather. It’s certainly been getting colder and a bit rainy at times. So what a joy it was to have a nice warm day.
Roanne
So now we’re in the Port of Roanne and we’re loving it so far. We chose Roanne because the marina is large with a lot of people living aboard over the winter (which means people to hang out with). Roanne itself is a decent sized town with plenty of things to see and do. And it’s located near Lyon which is a big city with a big airport where we can fly to other parts of Europe. Roanne is also known for its gastronomy with plenty of amazing restaurants for us to discover. Looking forward to that!
The markets of Roanne
We love buying our food from farmers markets and Roanne has one just about every day. The Friday market is the biggest and it’s right in the centre of town. You can buy just about every type of food that is in season. It’s a real community outing and a very enjoyable way of shopping.
A huge vide grenier
Speaking of markets, every second Saturday Roanne holds a huge vide grenier. It’s a second-hand bargain-hunters dream with everything imaginable on sale. It’s called Emmaus and is a little way out of town so I got a lift with Marc and Mary, a lovely Canadian couple who have a boat in the marina. It was excellent. If you get a chance to visit Roanne, make sure you time your visit so that you can experience Emmaus.
I bought a great quality saucepan for only €1.20 that suits the colour scheme of Laura. It’s retro and very heavy. I never thought I’d fall in love with a saucepan, but it’s happened. I never thought I’d fall in love with a three legged cat either so I’m not sure what’s going on! Anyway, get along to Emmaus if you can. PS if the photo below of the kitchen looks staged – it was.
What are we going to do for the next five months?
We’re going to use Laura and the port of Roanne as our base to do lots of travel. We want to see as much of France as we can as well as other European countries.
We’re hiring a car and heading to Bordeaux next week. We’ve booked a trip to Italy and Germany to catch up with my brother and his family over Christmas. And we’ve booked some skiing in Bulgaria in February. These are all things that are so easy to do when you have a base in France. Everything is close and you can get cheap flights, bus and train tickets if you shop around.
We’re also going to spend time getting to know Roanne. Apparently there are 12 museums in Roanne. 12! And there’s wineries, chateaus, restaurants and plenty of other delights nearby. The boaties in the marina are super friendly and there’s drinks every Thursday night, dinners and plenty of social activity, starting with the rugby world cup grand final this Saturday night. We won’t be bored. That’s for sure.
And next year’s cruising season – who knows? We’ve only seen a tiny fraction of the canals, as the map below shows. The dark blue heavy line is where we’ve been. Hopefully you can zoom in and see where we are in Roanne, which is at the most southern point on the blue lines. Life has definitely changed, now that Laura is more like an apartment rather than a boat. But regardless, we’re certainly loving our break from work.
English 
French
very very cool saucepan!