Kerr Barging Blogs

We have spent a fair bit of time cruising in the South Pacific aboard our 33 years young 11.1metre yacht, Pastime of Sydney. We are now cruising through the canals and rivers of France on our old barge, "Anja", which was built in the North of the Netherlands in 1903. Anja was 110 years old in May 2013 and we celebrated with good French Champagne- but the boat did not get any! In 2014, for Anja's 111th, we took her back to where she was built in the North of the Netherlands.

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Guedelon

Barging 2015

Penelope and David Kerr

Tuesday, 14 April 2015

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Guedelon- building the Chateau FortWe have managed to pack a lot of things into the time since we arrived.

As well as performing maintenance work on Anja and getting things out for this year's adventures, we have attended two Vide Greniers, three Markets, done lots of provisioning and taken the boat down and up the river in order to show Tess (daughter #4) and Frank (new son-in-law) something of barge and river life in France. We had an excellent dinner at Paris-Nice in Joigny (what an excellent restaurant!). On Sunday, Tess and Frank caught the train to Paris and then onto Barcelona. There was an accident on one line (delaying that train 2hrs) so they needed to catch a later train with tight connections at Bercy-Gare de Lyon. But, they made it okay.

We had an excellent time visiting Guedelon. This is a Chateau-Fort which is being built using 14th Century techniques. They started in 1995, so construction has been going 20 years with another 20-25yrs until it is finished. It is self-funded by visitors such as ourselves (300,000 per year).

Cutting and dressing the stone

The workers mostly wear the costumes of the time and use all the old techniques. The only concessions to modernity are hard hats (worn under period felt hats) and some safety equipment. Sheep are shorn and the wool spun to make rope. The Blacksmith hand forges the tools and repairs the worn and broken ones. The trees of the forest are felled and cut. Horses and carts and people are used to transport the materials. The clay, chalk and cement are all hand made. The stone is quarried on the site and cut/trimmed by hand. So, work proceeds at a slow but steady pace.

Construction is in an old quarry and there was careful archeological checking to ensure no prehistoric site was being disturbed. We spent a thoroughly enjoyable and educational morning at Guedelon- something we have wanted to do since 2010.

Best Regards,

David and Penny

The happy couple- on Anja at Migennes