Day Two of Patrimoine and a Birthday Party!!

Sunday was another rainy, misty day! Nonetheless, one of the things I had wanted to do was to take a two hour barge trip in Pouilly, which was offered in the Patrimoine brochure. You had to have reservations; I had emailed and left a phone message. This morning, as I was in the car getting ready to head off, I got a call saying I could take the barge trip at 2. The iphone says it is 26.7 miles away; this means an hour more or less given the roads. There was a chateau (or two) I could visit, depending on my arrival, as I needed to be there at 1:30. I was also using the Garmin-probably for the aggravation factor as much as another opinion. IT DOES NOT know one road from the next; it loves picking really narrow roads!
I arrived in Pouilly about 11:30 (late start today!).

Saw this canal before the chateau. Little did I know I'd be going through it!

I had intended-before the call about the barge trip-to see several chateaux. Well, fortunately, the Chateau d'Eguilly was very close, so I went there.

Mercedes(vintage) in foreground is my transport!

Some day this will be a garden; right now all they have are the boxwoods.

Well, all chateaux are not created equal!! Built during the 12th century, it is on a plain, while most chateaux are up high with a good vantage point.  It was sited thus because of its location to the river and its strong position on the commerce route. The original owners had owned twenty chateaux, so at some point, they took many of the treasures of Eguilly to other chateaux. Many of the rooms had various works of art (for sale)-sculptures as well as paintings.

Then I was off to find the barge, La Billebaude! Owned by the town of Pouilly, it was especially built and is solar-powered. Even on such a nasty day, the boat was totally full with families and couples and one English speaking person. I could not catch much of the commentary, so when we were going though the tunnel, I took a short nap! Then the guide gave me an English translation, so I learned about the tunnel (6km long and built from 1825-1832) AND stayed awake. The Canal de Bourgogne (Burgundy) actually connects the Seine (Paris) to the Rhone (Lyon); this system helps to connect the English Channel, the Atlantic, and the Mediterranean. It is impressive to imagine how this could have been built! And then we went through the tunnel...approximately 27 minutes! The speed limit is 3.7mph. We could see the light at the end of the tunnel,

but my pictures do not reflect that well at all! And, of course, because we went through the lock, we could see how the water rose. It was all very cool!

And then it was an hour's trip home to Bussy le Grand.

When Kathy and Diane were here, we took many trips (coming!!), but we stopped into a small museum here in Bussy le Grand. http://translate.google.fr/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http:
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The Gorsline Museum commemorates the works of American Douglas Gorsline, who was from Rochester, NY. He settled here in Bussy le Grand, and his widow Marie established this museum after his death. He was an illustrator as well as an artist; early in his career, he had done alot of work for Sports Illustrated. Our greeter that day was Tscheska (sp! sorry!!) from the Netherlands. She told me that Sunday-today-was Douglas' 100th anniversary, and they were having a birthday party for him. She invited me to come, and, of course, I did! So that was fun, and I was happy to meet some more people and learn more about Douglas and his work!