Nederlandse versieEighth day: At Les Rochers de Saussois and Mailly-le-Château

We are awakened by a radiating sun. We can sleep late because we can't navigate today. It is May 1, a national holiday in France. Two boys are selling lilies of the valley along the road. We have seen the same in other years. It's a ritual in France to give lilies of th vallay to someone you love.

As we drink a cup of coffee on deck we see the first climbers going up Les Rochers de Saussois. That's what I hoped for and that is the reason I choose this place to be moored on this holiday.

We decide to make a walk. First we climb  the rocks again. We look at the mountain-climbers. It's a nice thing of Les Rochers de Saussois that it suitable for experienced climbers but also for amateurs like us. We can climb the rocks easily by footpaths.
From above we have a view at the environment. Close by our boat is a little beach in the river in the shape of half a circle. Around the beach meadows with picnic-tables and play-material. On the field two giant polled willows are situated and behind all this the village Merry-sur-Yonne can be seen. The Yonne and the Canal du Nivernais are coincided here for a few hundred meters. Just in front of our boat the canal is separated again from the river by a narrow channel. The canal is separated just by a wall from the river there.

When we are satisfied by the view, we walk down by a roundabout way. Then we walk along the Canal du Nivernais to Mailly-le-Château. We pass only one lock (Ravereau). Here lives a ceramic sculptor: Bruno Comparet. He invites us to see his work. He works with different materials and from time tot time he has expositions in Holland. My mother buys a pot with a lid. It has a crooked nail as a handle. It looks strange. We walk on. We pass by some other rocks where climbers are practicing with their ropes. We see an other house oat rented by Dutchmen.

At Mailly-le-Château the Yonne, dividing herself her in two branches, and the canal make a sharp turn of 180 degrees. We walk to the village with its castle by a sloping path. From above we have a view over the three half circles of water (2 x Yonne and 1 x Canal du Nivernais). We have a drink in the local café.

It was a tough walk and my mother thinks it too far for her to walk back. We manage to get a lift by two Parisians. When we returned a group of Frenchmen is having a water-fight in the neighborhood of our boat.

My mother, Pepijn and Maarten are going to have a swim. Even to my mothers opinion the water is cold and when she thinks so it is very cold. Usually she calls: "Lovely water!" wherever she splashes in.

There is a lot of communication at the beach. The French of the water-fight has calmed down, another Française is filing all afternoon at a stone. At the opposite side a Dutch woman  is sketching in a garden chair and at the meantime her husband and son are enjoying themselves in a rubber boat on the water. 

Later in the afternoon I go again to the mountain climbers to see how they get up. It seems they are wearing ballet shoes. They go up perpendicular. Every foot and every hand is placed carefully and all the time they ensure themselves with ropes at rings which are placed in the rocks.