Tuesday 27 August 2013

Messing about in a boat 2 - Segré

We picked up the boat at Grez-Neuville, the hire place is right next to a thriving crêperie where we had a beer and ice cream while we waited for the boat to be ready. Paperwork signed off, we set off about 4PM towards Segré on the Oudon. The boat will do about 10kph flat out but it didn't seem worth the effort - the diesel made more noise and there was more wash, and - well, what's the hurry? So we throttled back to a steady chug and nosed our way gently upstream.


The river Oudon is small, wide enough without being excessive, and with enough bends to keep it interesting. The locks (three off) were operated by friendly lock-keepers who chatted away, asking about the trip, where we were from, and so on. We had tthe idea of asking the lady at the last lock, where to eat in Segré but she said the only place she knew about had closed down.

We have done a few canal boating holidays in the UK in the past, and I noticed on some of these French locks a feature I hadn't spotted before on English ones: the metal framework on the right of the lock is a swing bridge so you can drive vehicles across it too.  I don't know if they're still in use but it struck me as a useful addition to a lock.



We got to Segré in just under 4 hours.  The town by the river is pretty, the bridges and roadsides decorated with flowers.  But I'm not sure where the relaxing duck came from...


We ended the day with an excellent dinner at the Jardin d'Asie, a Cambodian restaurant where I can recommend the samosa starters in particular. Very nice.

There was one peculiarity that we spotted on the street and that we hadn't seen before - this is a dustbin. I tried to open it to see how it works, but failed - you need a special card to use it. They don't just take any old rubbish at Segré, apparently. However, the recycling bins, of the same design, were open to everyone, presumably because there is money to be made from the contents. So let's imagine I have some rubbish to dispose of, and the normal bin is locked, but the recycling bins are open. What to do, what to do....?


1 comment:

James Higham said...

Exactly how I wish to do it - only on my own boat of course.

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