In Part 7 of this video series about traveling the waterways of France on a tug boat, Richard Goodwin takes us to his favourite place on his favourite river in France, the Saone. Some film from an earlier trip illustrates the great charms of this river. In this area there are three great abbeys, Cluny in the south which had a bigger church than St Peter's in Rome until it was destroyed in the French Revolution because the abbey had become too big and too corrupt to be allowed to continue. Vezelay where many of the crusaders mounted their horses for their struggle to restore Jerusalem to the Christian faith. In this amazing abbey, there many beautifully carved capitols on the top of the columns. They are made of marble and each must weigh more than a man can lift but they look as though they are as light as a feather, so skilfully have they been carved. The last abbey in this area is Autun which has many treasures the best being the carved capitols which depict the Nativity story. Not far away we visit the abbey of Fontenay which had been founded by St. Bernard. Here the monks had made everything that they needed. They specialised in metalwork and became famous for it. Sadly the British sacked the abbey but the Mongolfier family who had done so much to promote the hot air balloon restored it to its former glory. Short of food on a Monday I went to an old abbey where they ran a communal table. On this Monday, there was a group of women who had gone on a retreat there. The noise in the stone hall was unbelievable with all these women talking at the tops of their voices. The best argument for the vow of silence! We then meet a monk who shows us his cheese which he sells to the public. I asked him whether the good Lord had had a hand in its manufacture. The monk replied very sharply that the Lord made the grass grow and the monks did the rest. We gaze at a pillar dedicated to St. Nicolas the patron saint of mariners. On the top of the column is a statue of a weeping wolf. The wolf is weeping for all the children that he has eaten. Then my daughter, Sabine and her husband Caspar came to have a meal with some barge people by the side of the canal. Sabine made a good sauce from the rests in the galley which was good. A luxury barge passes and we see how the very rich live. I visited next Louisa Besson, a woman of considerable confidence in her own prowess. Like Anne Baxter, I am sure she had stamped on her passport in the profession section the word 'Star'. She makes edible decorations for cakes etc, turtles, dogs, mother and child tableaux. She blows up a ball of green sugar which she confidently assures us that very few people in world besides herself can do. Through the tunnel by boat at Pouilly en Auxois, which when it was built was considered to be an enormous achievement lies the town. In that little town is one of the most remarkable emporiums I have ever been into. Mr. Daird is the ancient proprietor and since it is clear that he has been in charge of this shop for many a year, there is a variety of goods, ancient and modern that defy description. Everything is done by hand and done by Mr. Daird himself so patience is essential. No computer bugs here. We take a passage with some British tourists on a boat they have hired from one of the many boat hire companies along the canal. We tour some of the luscious markets of Burgundy. At Chez Meme I have a wonderful meal for $10 and do a bit of eavesdropping. At the table next door which has 5 men and one 80 year old woman who says loudly that she likes to eat with men (Godbless her) and that when she puts her makeup on she looks twenty years younger. I go dancing at another riverside café and go off to the famous jambon persille competition. The first prize goes to an entry weighing 227.5 kgs of ham in aspic and parsley. Good luck to anyone who tries to eat it. Then Monique shows me her riverside shop and how she dries her sausages in cinders. Finally Regina and I tie up for a blessing in the Grand Pardon at St Jean de Losne. An amazing annual ceremony, where the boat people are blessed by the river padre who arrives on his church barge.

• published: 31 Jan 2011
• views: 4382