Disaster in the Old Lock

The ice and the biting grey cold have long gone. Spring has arrived and the days are warm and blue again. You can sense a communal sigh of relief. Gardeners are rejoicing and rotivators are revving. Bargees are hosing down their boats and dusting off the paint tins.
However, this morning the residents of the Old Lock had a bit of a shock : silently in the dead of night a barge had sunk. Fortunately there was nobody onboard.

River Saone closed

The continued cold spell has cast its magic on the River Saone and large sections of the river have frozen over and are impassable. The VNF (French rivers and canal authority) have closed the river to all traffic for the first time since 1956.

And now it has started snowing too...

Champagne on Ice

The extreme cold weather hitting Europe at the moment has made its mark at the Old Lock. The Lock is frozen solid and the ice incredibly thick. Andy drilled a hole and estimated that the ice is about 25cm (10 inches) thick. The boats are fine but the noise that the ice makes, as it flexes and cracks, resonates through the boats' hulls and makes you fear for your life.
However, it is not all bad. On Sunday our madder than mad French neighbour invited us for a drink on the ice. In the middle of the lock.

News got round rather quickly and a crowd gathered.

Even the cat's curiosity got the better of her.

That sinking feeling

Lots of drama on the towpath between the Old Lock and town. A 2,500 ton commercial barge laden with grain began to sink. Fire crews, divers and local Police gathered and did what they could to help in the freezing weather.
Opportunistic ducks and swans gorged on the jettisoned grain.

The drama continued for several days until another vessel arrived and the grain could be unloaded.

And in the same week Andy had to jump into action and help our neighbours whose barge had sprung an alarming leak late at night. Let's hope this isn't a run of three!

Allez Callum et Les Petits Tangos

Couldn't resist putting this photo on the blog. Great action shot of Cal with the ball en route to scoring a try against Dijon.

Man jumps off mountain

Fitted in some great skiing days this winter at Les Rousses in the Jura. However this year we invested in day passes for both the French and the Swiss sides of the resort. The boys thought it was cool to start the day in France and ski over to Switzerland for hot chocolate before skiing back to France for lunch! However the cool factor was even higher when we saw this guy jump off the top of the mountain...

It took a lot of reinforced persuasion to convince Callum that it was not a good idea to copy him!

Dessert Victory

Dan decreed that the next River Rats' Pudding Club theme would promote healthier eating, especially as he knew that many (if not all) of the Rats had enjoyed too much wine and rich food over Christmas. The competition theme was to produce a cake containing a vegetable.
Plenty of entries : parsnip scones with cream and honey, beetroot chocolate brownies, beetroot banana loaf and many many unusual others!
Dan was bowled over when it was announced that he had won with his delicious sweet potato and vanilla sponge. Well done Dan.

The Judges announce the winner.