overture - late summer and autumn 2010

So the decision was made, and all that was needed was to complete and register the purchase agreement and to transfer the money to the sellers. Of course this all takes time, however willing both parties may be. So we spent an impatient, but very pleasant eight days staying in a gite over the restaurant "L'Auberge du Paradis" in the next door village Maison Dieu




GITE (UPSTAIRS) AUBERGE DU PARADIS

This was much better than staying in an hotel as it was equipped with a working kitchen, a living room as well as bedroom and bathroom and therefore gave us our first insight into the cost of living in France.

CHARLYN AT "OUR" FRONT DOOR

 Despite dire warnings from Simon's elder daughter Lulu we found it firstly a very great deal cheaper than living in the Turks and Caicos Islands and secondly (and much more importantly) to be within our budget. Early morning visits to the bakery in Losne (and on Wednesdays to its competitor over the river in St Jean de Losne) , both bakeries strangely enough run by ladies called Severine, proved that in the long run a baguette, which will last all day, is a much better investment than a croissant which is only good for breakfast and in any case costs twice as much!

THE LIVING ROOM LOOKING FORWARD

THE LIVING ROOM LOOKING AFT

Fortunately for us Joli Coeur came into our possession very well equipped and furnished, needing only to have our own personality impressed on the living room and bedrooms plus THE BIG PROJECT a brand new kitchen. As you can see from the "before and after" photos there wasn't really all that much wrong with the old one - except that is was old - 30 years old to be exact. We debated whether to live with it for a year or so, but decided that it would be better to get all the major work done before setting off on our travels. A good thing too as the kitchen rebuild turned out to be rather more of a challenge (as well as rather a larger investment) than we had expected. (OK so who's surprised???!!).

THE "OLD" KITCHEN

 First we had to select a contractor to do the work and were lucky enough to come across David, an Englishman living a couple of villages away. His main specialty was painting and varnishing (on which subject we had originally contacted him - see more later) and found that he also did kitchen installations, tiling etc.
With David's help we found a good kitchen fittings and equipment supplier in Dijon and had little difficulty in choosing a design that we really liked. Charlyn had even less trouble in picking out a wall tile insert which was not only very striking, but almost doubled the cost of the whole thing ... not really! After choosing the cabinets, cooker, fridge etc David was able to provide us with an estimate for the job which appeared to be quite reasonable. He did however point out that the estimate for his work was based on a certain number of hours, and if that was exceeded we would be charged more at the appropriate rate per hour which, including tax, amounted to about 45 euros.

THE "NEW" KITCHEN (SAME VIEW)



It would of course be denying "normal practice" to suggest that the job was done within the budgeted hours. Indeed it was not, far from it! Various snags arose as the work progressed, the  most notable of which was the discovery of a large hydraulic fluid leak (from the steering mechanism) which had contaminated about half of one wall of the kitchen as well as a large area of the floor. To deal with this required the employment of an extra carpenter and caused considerable delay. We also discovered that David was not able to do certain specialised work, such as plumbing and electricity which also involved employing others and caused further delays.

Here we ran into an interesting bit of creative French accounting. The electrician who did the work was a charming retired gentleman by the name of Claude (Monsieur Claude to me in view of his seniority - as I was Monsieur Simon to him). He came and went much as needed and often brought us presents - a selection of herbs for drying and later on a huge bag of freshly picked walnuts. In all Claude probably put in somewhere between 20 and 25 hours. When we received the bill - which came from his son Alain who was the one who held the licence, we found that the labour charge was for 52 hours. On consultation with Claude we discovered that his son had not even bothered to find out how many hours had been worked, but had simply put in for what he thought the market could stand. It couldn't and we settled at the proper figure without coming to blows. The Entente Cordiale luckily remained intact.

A further setback concerned our beautiful brand new fridge/freezer which we had specified to the largest capacity and greatest height that we calculated could be fitted. Those of you who are better at geometry than I will spot straight away that a cube standing on its corner is taller than the same one standing straight up. Need I say more? The solution was to dig a hole in the kitchen floor, right the fridge, slide it away, mend the hole and then slide it back. Oh dear!

During all of these operations we were living in pretty acute discomfort (having resolved, quite rightly as it turned out) that we needed to be on hand at every stage to avoid even worse disasters than those above. At one stage we had almost all of the kitchen fittings and equipment (including the big fridge) stacked up in the living room, leaving almost no space for sitting or eating and were reduced to cooking on a two ring burner, temporarily installed in the pilot house, the outside Weber grill and a microwave at the far end of the living area. we ate surprisingly well.

Isn't is nice to say that all's well that ends well, and it did. We are absolutely delighted with our ultra modern and very user friendly kitchen. It is a pleasure to work in and the standard of meals has improved dramatically!

The kitchen, although by far the major project, was not the only one. We also needed to replace the upholstery in the wheelhouse, completely re varnish and repaint that inside and out, and do a certain amount of work in the bowels of the ship - notably update and replace the battery system, the water supply system and generally bring the barge up to the standard required for European waterway certification. Here we were enormously helped by Steve Jones (Stevejonesboats.co.uk) who not only is our neighbour in the marina, but is also a highly qualified electrician, plumber and general expert on all things to do with barges. Steve goes backwards and forwards to England on a regular basis and is therefore able to purchase much of the equipment over there at prices well below the equivalent in France. We cannot speak highly enough of Steve, both as a very experienced, efficient, knowledgeable, competent and cost conscious technician, but also as a delightful and friendly person. Thank you Steve.

CHARLYN AT BEAUNE MARKET

BREAD!!!

...AND OLIVES!!

During our four month stay on Joli Coeur in 2010 we had the chance to get to know our part of Burgundy well; to discover the best supermarkets (sadly usually rather better value than the weekend town markets - although these are such a joy to visit, particularly the one in Beaune);to decide on our favourite restaurants; to find the best vineyard (Jean Francois and Ana in Rully) from which to purchase Cremant de Burgoyne which is in our opinion just as good as Champagne at a third of the price; to realise that there are at least ten different ways to get to Dijon from St Symphorien - courtesy of the ever inventive Tom Tom, now affectionately known as Tilly; to confirm our opinion that both Cotes de Rhone and Bordeaux red wines are definitely superior to the local Burgundy reds - although of course the same cannot be said of the whites, where the Chablis, Mersault and Montrachet wines (all of them from close to us) remain supreme; to take
time to visit Lulu and Cosmo in the Luberon;



         LULU, SIMON AND COSMO

LE GRAND BANC LULU AND COSMO

but also our friends Robin and Di (ex cruisers, of course) who live just outside Geneva and in the course of that to enjoy a spectacular drive through the Jura mountains; to take the decision to exchange Charlie's Mercedes for a French registered (although purchased in England) Peugeot Partner; and finally (most important of all) to agree that living in France is a GOOD THING!

CRUISING WITH JIM AND JUDI

What about the cruising? With all that was going on we had almost no time to enjoy what we had, after all, bought Joli Coeur to do. We were lucky enough to have Jim and Judy Guiske (the previous owners) spend some 3 days with us in August, before the main works commenced and to make with them a short learning cruise up the Rhone au Rhin Canal as far, and in fact just through, Dole.

This, I have to say, was a humbling experience. During the past 25 years or so I have driven or sailed quite a variety of boats, ranging from a 32 ft mini trawler on the Thames in England, through our 43 ft large trawler that we had on the East Coast of USA, based in Beaufort,SC, our original blue water cruiser the 49ft centre cockpit cutter Lily Mae and ending with our present 46ft Island Trader Lily May, which is still in Turks and Caicos. Nothing was remotely like trying to handle the 80ft long Joli Coeur!

The first thing to note is that, with her beam of just on 16ft there is very little room either side, not only as you enter locks (of which there are many) but also and somewhat surprisingly as you pass under the low bridges. In fact there is just about 3 inches spare on either side, which calls for some quite accurate handling!

VIEW FROM THE STERN OF JOLI COEUR

We left our berth at the Marina and travelled "upstream" on the Canal du Rhone au Rhin towards Dole. There is a lock between the lower and upper sections of the marina, so the very first manoeuvre was to pass through this. First we obtained  a "zapper" from the lock keeper below us. This is a similar device to a TV controller and causes the lock gates to open automatically when activated by the controller. Jim was understandably anxious that we should not make a mess almost before we started and conned JC safely through the first lock, pointing out to me the effect of the spillway coming back into the canal just as we were about to enter the lock. These quite strong currents can throw you off course at the vital moment and need watching carefully.

Safely through, Jim handed over to me and we proceeded on our way without too much trouble and with only minor scrapes as we passed under bridges and into locks. Charlyn and Judi, meantime, were looking after the bow and making a great job of handling the lines needed to tie us up once in the locks. All in all the first day went quite well. We tied up on the quay at Dole, had some well earned cocktails and went out to dinner.

CHARLYN AT REST BEFORE THE TRAUMA

The second day was a complete disaster. Having "learned it all" on day one, I was much too confident and went steaming up the canal hitting everything in sight - and sometimes quite hard. I could see Jim wincing and becoming more and more tight lipped as the day went by and I seemed incapable of doing anything to improve matters. At last the day came to an end and we tied up in a very pleasant spot in the countryside, just outside what appeared to be a prison. I thought perhaps I would be better inside. Everyone was ominously polite and rather too quiet. Clearly I was not the flavour of the month and although Jim kindly said that days like that happen to everyone, I knew that inside he was thinking that I would never learn how to handle JC in a seaman like manner. Charlyn and I discussed the disaster at length in bed that night and she even recommended that I should let Jim drive the barge on the third and last day. That of course was not the point, and I resolved to do much better with a fresh start.

Thank goodness the third day was a huge improvement. It had finally come home to me that Joli Coeur (unlike most regular boats) steered very well at almost a standstill and could be manoeuvred easily and accurately with the aid of the enormous rudder (going forward) and the effect of "prop walk"  in reverse. Provided that I approached the hazards at really low speed ( and then halved that to almost nothing) I could slide quietly and almost without touching the walls into the locks and through the bridges. Confidence returned and we got back to the marina - even completing quite a complicated turn round and wiggle to get into our berth - in good shape.

All in all an extremely valuable lesson and one I hope will carry forward to next season when we will be cruising seriously! Thank you Jim and Judi for your help, patience and extremely good manners in the face of  great difficulties!

Our last excitement was the (temporary) acquisition of an extra crew member, Pepita the cat. She had been abandoned by her (French) owner and left to fend for herself on the admittedly plentiful supply of mice and voles to be found along the canal banks. Softees as ever, we adopted her (or she us) and we enjoyed her company greatly for a couple of months - just as much as she enjoyed the better rations.

And so our summer and autumn sojourn on Joli Coeur came gradually to an end, with the leaves falling from the trees and the first signs of ice on our foredeck. We stayed warm and cosy, our central heating doing a great job. Finally, at the end of November, we packed ourselves up, left Joli Coeur and Pepita in the capable hands of Doug and Sut San, who would baby sit JC for an unspecified length of time while their new barge was getting ready, and set off for England (and later USA and Turks and Caicos) in our little Peugeot Partner.

Roll on next season!!!

prelude

JOLI COEUR AS A WORKING BARGE - 1920




       



JOLI COEUR ORIGINAL CONVERSION 1979


The idea of owning a Dutch Barge and cruising the French Canals (and maybe even wider afield) came to us slowly and as a result of our years of cruising the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and the Caribbean Sea, first on our CT 49 Sailing Cruiser "Lily Mae", later on our Island Trader "Lily May" and finally during our three years of managing South Side Marina on Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Viewing the rapid approach of Simon's 71st birthday, not to mention Charlyn's somewhat lesser one, we decided that we should, for the second time, give some serious thought to retirement.

In spite of the ravages of Anno Domini we were still not ready to settle in one place and simply grow old (gracefully or not!) and having heard tales of the pleasures of barging from many sources - in fact as soon as we mentioned the idea to anyone, they invariably had either done a barge holiday, were contemplating one, knew people who lived permanently on barges, or knew people who knew people...... and all the reports were good, we decided that this might well be the way for us to go - but where to start???

Clearly there were major questons that needed to be answered before committing ourselves:
What type of barge should we buy, how long, how wide, how much living space?
Having decided that, could we afford it?
Where do we even begin to look?
Should we use a broker to help?
How do we "test the water" without plunging in and finding that we don't like it after all?
And, finally, how do we explain to Bob, Simon's boss, that we think it's time to move on?

As ever, many of the answers can be found on the Internet. We discovered several useful sites: Apollo Duck, which is a sort of "For sale by owner" site, but also used by most of the major brokers; Bourgogne Marine and H2O both situated near the centre of the French canal system at St Jean de Losne; Sander Doeve, probably the leading broker based in Holland and finally Bowcrest Marine, run by Tony Charman in England - the largest UK broker and in fact the one we eventually worked with. There are others, including a site run by the Dutch Barge Association (a "must" join club for all potential or aspiring bargees) or simply entering "Dutch barges for sale" on Google will find virtually everything that is on the market.

We accessed all these sites on a daily basis and gradually began to create a "template" of what we thought would suit. With so many barges on the market, it is important to set some parameters in order to avoid wasting a lot of time and effort. In the end our "ideal" specification came down to this:
Type of barge: (there are about 20 different varieties) - but for us, immaterial.
Size: There are 4 critical dimensions for canal barges: length, width, draft and air draft (the height of the highest point of the barge above water level). As we were intending to make the barge our permanent home, we wanted to have as much living space as possible, consistent with being able to handle and manoeuvre the vessel, so our specs were: length: max 25 metres (approx 80ft), width: min 4.25 metres (anything less we felt would feel claustrophobic), max 5m to allow (just!!!) passage through canal locks and narrow bridges, draft: max 1.5 metres, air draft: 3.5 metres, preferably with a demountable wheel house to allow passage through low tunnels and bridges and to make the entire canal network accessible.
Accomodation:
2 bedrooms (Master suite with walk round Queen size bed)
2 bathrooms
Good size living room with large windows for maximum light, with modern kitchen
Large wheelhouse to accomodate 4 or more people in comfort
Walk out aft deck with space for table and chairs

With a budget of around 200,000 euros (USD 270,000) and the above specs we were able to "manage" our trawling of the net quite effectively, so that by the time we were ready to go to Europe and start looking in earnest we had created a short list of some fourteen barges, scattered over Holland, Belgium and France. These were all discussed in detail at a meeting with Tony Charman of Bowcrest, who agreed that our stated basic requirements would be right for us, and we started to make appointments to view.
It was at this moment that disaster (or at least apparent disaster) struck. There had been virtually no movement in the barge market for several months, but suddenly four of our chosen fourteen (and high on the list too) were found to be sold, reducing our options considerably.

Somewhat daunted, we took the overnight ferry from Harwich to Hook of Holland and started our tour of discovery in that country, driving around in an old Mercedes estate car that Charlie (Simon's son) had very kindly given to us. The first day was somewhat frustrating, due largely to Simon's refusal to invest in a "TOM TOM" GPS device and resulting in Charlyn having her head buried in imaps covered with incomprhensibe and totally unpronouncable names. The barges we visited that day gave us no cause for excitement. Even the following day we had no better luck, and with our remaining list dwindling to a very few we began to despair of finding anything that we could remotely consider as a possibility.

After those two days of considerable disappointment, we were due to take a weekend break in Nice, in the south of France, to stay with Johnnie Stephens, Simon's long time friend and who was generous enough to put up with a regular annual visit. On our way south (and still consulting the map) we discovered that we were due to pass within a few miles of St Jean de Losne, in Burgundy, near where there was a barge that we were due to view the following Tuesday. A quick telephone call to the owners resulted in an early visit and a very happy result.

Joli Coeur, for this was the barge we visited that day, turned out not only to be just about perfect for us, but strangely enough was almost the first one that we had seen on the internet and which very largely formed the basis for our specification. Happily we were able to come to an agreement with the owners, Jim and Judy Gieske, that satisfied us all and we set off to enjoy our weekend with Johnnie in a very much better frame of mind.

In case any of you may wonder what happened to our plan to "test the water", I should add that as soon as we returned from Nice  (and had a second look at Joli Coeur which only confirmed our previous delight) we spent a wonderful week on the Charter Barge "The Jubilant" owned by David and Juliet Webb and in company with our very good friends Roger and Mary Ann White and John and Susan Hauge, having met both couples during our time at South Side Marina. David and Juliet gave us a great time - not to say including plenty to drink and eat - and introduced us to the enormous pleasure of travelling the rivers and canals of Burgundy, as well as exploring the surrounding countryside and local markets. Now we were well and truly convinced that this would be the life style for us, and what is more that we had found the right travelling home to enjoy it all from. I would thoroughly recommend to anyone who is either looking for a barge holiday or who, like us, wishes to "test the water" to contact David at theJubilant.com.

JUBILANT ON THE CANAL DU CENTRE

THE ANDERSONS, WHITES AND HAUGES

DAVID AND JULIET



Finally, what about Bob, who over the years of our association had become much more than just a boss. In many ways he made the whole thing possible (and affordable) by offering us the opportunity to return to South Side Marina for the main part of the winter season, which for 2010/2011 turned out to be a four month contract. Not only does this arrangement help considerably to spread the pension income, but also gets us out of the cold European winter into the very best of the Caribbean weather.