It was very rainy so we enjoyed a sleep in as there wasn’t much we could do.

It was Wednesday and we had to get to near Corbigny to be able to pick up the canal boat on Friday.

We enjoyed driving through the Morvan National Park.

We came across French and British flags and a memorial. The panels told us that the French resistance and a British SAS group worked together to ambush a German battalion of 500 men. Most of the Germans were killed and very few of the resistence. One of the Frenchmen stayed behind until everyone else got away but was killed and the memorial was to him.

We continued through the countryside until we arrived in Corbigny.

We found the old Abbey where they have many exhibitions.

The first exhibition was photos from an organic farm where they grow wheat, make and sell bread and pasta and also eggs at the local market – a very local business. The products looked very high quality and all the family were involved so very traditional.

We were also given information about the abbey which had been here since the 1200s.

The bottom area was original so looked ancient. An old wine cellar looks like it is the local boules court judging by the scoreboard there.

There was also some modern art.

We went right up to the top and the restored attic roof looked amazing – as were the views of the old town.

This area had a lot of Protestants and ended up with a battle between the Protestant town residents and the catholic abbey with small armies behind each. A lot of buildings were destroyed and the town had to be moved to the other side of the river.

The old halls most used by the monks in the 1700s looked very original.

There was an exhibition about a famous author who lived locally – Jules Renaud. He was very prolific publishing 20 books and around 8 plays in his shirt life to 46 years old.

After seeing all this we drove out to the free aire at the Chaumot canal port – just arriving before a large rainstorm hit. We were glad not to be driving in that!

After it all dried up we went across to the bar to have a beer.

We met up with a full time canal cruiser who was originally from England but had been in France now for 15 years. He had a very interesting life being first in computers and then in journalism – very like our friend Kevin Green. He had worked all around the world but had now settled in France. We enjoyed our discussion and we are sure to see him on the canal in the next week.

It was nice and calm and sunny as we walked back to the van.