When we arrived in Tanlay yesterday in the cool of the evening, which was just as the cool of the afternoon abated actually, the port was abuzz with activity.
Abuzz in this case is code for "the single person left to guard the hotel barge" shouted that we couldn't moor in front of them as there was another hotel barge coming in shortly. Hotel barges are very large craft which generally cater for very small numbers of passengers who part with enough cash to almost cover the purchase price of our little boat for the privilege of spending a week on the Burgundy Canal. Since the two barges would consume exactly all of the space on the quay in the designated harbour, we took her warning as a sign that we should moor on the opposite bank.
Having spent the night in solitude, we expected that our exploration of the village would be similarly lonely, as indeed it was until we arrived at the chateau where we were joined on our conducted visit by the entire passenger list of one of the hotel barges. All six of them being driven the three hundred metres or so from the boat to the chateau to be returned in the same manner after their visit, presumably lest some ill should befall them en route.
Not for them the quiet amble through winding cobbled lanes with baguette tucked under arm, the conversation with the baker's daughter about exactly which of her sugary treats she thought best suited our morning coffee plans, or for that matter the quiet little sit under the roses covering the old wash house in the next village during a rather pleasant diversion back to base.
I suspect that later in the morning as their ship ghosted past us en route to its next destination, they, cheerily waving amid quiet enjoyment of their "elevensies", watching us sitting there quietly enjoying ours, were to a person thinking; "They don't know what we're missing!"
Which is exactly what we were thinking as it happens.
No comments
Post a Comment