Sunday 18th September - Chalon sur Saone

Skips' first words to Crew this morning were 'I have some bad news'.  On enquiry, it appears that the fridge is no longer working......catastrophe!!!  No wonder Crew got her feet wet whilst cooking dinner!  Henk took our duck breasts to put in his fridge but we had pork too.....looks like Crew is cooking again tonight!  The forecast for today is very bad - rain all day.......it didn't let us down!!  After several hours the noise of the constant rain on our canopy was rather wearying and after doing a few chores and all his puzzles, Skip got a bit edgy!  Around six o'clock there was a it of a lull so he took the opportunity to take himself for a walk to the centre of town.  Again Chalon was occupied by the Romans and first began to prosper in about 250 BC.  In the Middle Ages it was famous for its'  game fairs, selling foxes, badgers, polecats, mink and otters.....presumably to eat!!  There are many beautiful old buildings to be seen and a good number of churches and museums, including a museum celebrating the famous Nicephore Niepce, the father of photography, exhibiting an important collection of photographs, cameras and picture post cards.  We were unable to visit, sadly as by the time there was a break in the weather, it was closed!  This year the beautiful sculpted garden, welcoming boaters to the port was indeed celebrating Niepce (forgot to take a picture on arrival unfortunately).  The rain had finally stopped whilst we enjoyed our pork dinner and we chatted a while afterwards with a digestif - we played another DVD after Henk returned to his boat.  Better weather tomorrow so we are travelling the short distance to Gergy - can't afford to stay here any longer!