Trains!

Great Central Station, Loughborough, 1950s

Quorn and Woodhouse, 1940s

Rothley,1920s

Steam trains and jolly station staff!
A great day out!

Loughborough Bells. Les Cloches de Loughborough.

 From Market Harborough to Leicester, then on to Loughborough, but not without a couple of minor problems! John has discovered the weed hatch and  wrapped round the propeller ....several plastic bags. Problem solved, and the sun was shining.



De Market Harborough a Leicester et puis vers Loughborough, mais avec des petits problemes! John a decouvert la trappe contre les mauvaises herbes et autour du propulseur  ..plusiers sacs a plastiques. Pas de probleme, et le soleil brille, magnifique!

By the time we arrived in Loughborough our old friend, the rain, had returned. Oh joy..






En arrivant a Loughborough notre cher ami, la pluie, est revenue. Quel plaisir.

Fortunately there's plenty to do in Loughborough, ding dong! Off to the largest bell foundry in the world, John Taylor's, a closely guarded seceret..

Heureusement il ya pas mal de choseses a faire ici  a Loughborough. On a visiter le plus grand fonderie de cloches dans le monde. C'est un secret bien garder!

Meet George , in the woodwork shop.
Georges dans l'atelier por tous les choses en bois.

And here he is again in the tuning room..


Et encore dans l'atelier de reglage pour le sons des cloches.

Watch the sparks fly as the bell fittings are cast.
Well worth a visit and it was warm and dry!!


Regard comme les etincelles vol pendant la fonte des cloches. Une visite impressionant et de plus c'etait chaud et sec!

Market Harborough in the Rain!

 Mooring at Union Wharf, Market Harborough.
Only 20km from John's home turf!



Market Harborough, Union Wharf. 20km d'ou John etait nee.

 So guess who came to visit?





Donc la famille de John a fait une visite!

 But only the 'young things' were able to clamber aboard out of the rain.



Mais  ce n'etait que les jeunes qui peuvent monter dans la peniche, ou ils ont echappe la pluie!

 The Three Swans Pub, which we didn't go in to in order to appease both Emma and Jean- Charles....


The Three Swans Pub et pour rassurer Emma et Jean- Charles, nous n'avons pas rentre dedans....

This is an Italian restaurant, the significance of which only works if you are French.


Pour nos amis francais...

 The Old Grammar School in the town centre,
now a meetings room.


L'ancien ecole dans le centre ville.

 Frank the Plank sundial erected in 2000 for the Millenium. No use whatsoever this year...


Frank the Plank, une horloge solaire qui etait construit en l'ans 2000 .Inutile cette annee...

Good night!    Bonne Nuit!

Braunston and Foxton and the Day the Sun Came Out!

 The sun was beaming down (briefly!)so what did we do? Hid in the Braunston Tunnel of course.... nearly a mile long, cold, dark wet and definitely NO SUN.

Pendant les moments (bref) quand le soleil brille, qu'est ce que nous avons fait? On se cache dans cet tunnel , Braunston. 2km de longeur, froid, noire, humide et aucun soleil. Bien jouer John!

 But never mind, the end was soon in sight...


C'est pas grave, le fin est la...

.and at least one of the crew thought it was

                                           amazing..

 Tthe sun was still shining so I decided it was MY turn to steer. Brave or what?! Bridges , bends, on-coming boats all negotiated without making contact. Skill.


C'est mon tour! Le soleil est toujours la, hooray!

Relaxing on the towpath at last.

On the towpath towards Foxton Locks.The way things were.

Vers les ecluses a Foxton. Les temps passer...

And here they are, the infamous Foxton Locks.. Two staircases of five locks each. What jolly fun.


Encore des ecluses! Cette fois, dix dans un "escalier", l'un apres l'autre. Encore le travail pour moi, eh bien..

The view from the top was idyllic,and yes! more sun.

Cet photo etait pris pour montrer le ciel BLEU!

Breakfast in the Bridge 61 Cafe at the bottom. This was good too!


A la fin, petit dejeuner dans ce jolie bistro!

And we had more visitors. Hello to Rebecca and Adrian who joined us in The Red lion at Cropredy, Good to see you both!

Banbury et une carte pour Marc!

 This is the canal map we use to track our route.The pink line is where we have been so far, though it must be said we did the bottom bit east to west and back again!

Voici une carte de notre voyage. La ligne rose est tous que nous avons fait depuis notre depart, bien qu'il faut dire nous avons fait la ligne en bas deux fois, aller/ retour ! Londres est situe sur l'est et Bath sur le ouest. A ce moment nous sommes a Banbury.

Moored at Banbury, right in the centre of town. Shopping!!




Amarre a Banbury en centre ville. Bien, shopping!!

" Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross" This beautiful statue by Carl Payne was commissioned in 2003 in celebration of the nursery rhyme.
 Nobody knows who the lady was but one story identifies her as Queen Elizabeth 1. Banbury town is at the top of a hill and a white stallion was on hand to help carriages up the incline. Queen Elizabeth's carriage broke a wheel and she chose to mount the stallion to continue her trip into Banbury. The horse had been decorated with bells and ribbons and so the rhyme was born. Sounds highly suspect to me!!!

"Ride a cock horse to banbury Cross
To see a fine lady upon a white horse.."
Une comptine que tous les enfants connaient bien en angleterre.
Cette statue etait sculpte par Carl Payne en 2003 pour illustre la comptine. " Une belle dame a cheval avec des bagues sur ses doigts et des cloches sur des orteils"
Personne ne connis pas la dame decrit dans la comptine mais c'etait peut-etre la reine Elizabeth 1st. Elle est allee a Banbury pour voir la croix qui etait construit en centre ville. Banbury se trouve a la sommet d'une colline et sa caleche a casser une roue  en essayant de monte la colline. Un cheval blanc, bien decore avec des petis cloches et des rubans etait fourni pour la reine et, voila, elle pourrait continuer.

More food. Banbury cakes. I know they look like squashed Eccles cakes, but don't tell anyone in Banbury! They taste good anyway.



Banbury Cakes. Un petit gateau, specialite de la region.

Ye Olde Reine Deer Inn. Oldest building in banbury dating from 1570.Lots of oak panelling, low beams and interesting nooks and crannies.

Ye Olde Reine Deer Inn. Le plus vieux batiment a Banbury qui date de 1570. Plen d'anciens  poutres et des coins et recoins interessants.

Ironwork and spandrels in Butchers Row depicting all things agricultural.

The Queen's Jubilee everywhere!

Busy boating Banbury.

Market Day.
Jour du Marche

 And friends arrive in Banbury too!!!
Hello to Everil and David and thank you for coming to see us!


Nos amis, Everil et David sont venues a Banbury! Bienvenue et merci pour la visite!!

On the way to Aynho, on the Oxford Canal..

 It's Jubilee weekend and we're back on the boat!
Leaving Oxford and heading for the village of Aynho on the Oxford Canal.

 Very rural, lots of greenery and very narrow...but we arrived safely in Aynho.

And then we had visitors, hooray!
Although Noah wasn't terribly impressed..

Harry wanted to do everything,

 and Zach  was determined to fall in
               ( he didn't!)

 At 82  Uncle Jim had his first trip on a narrowboat. I think he enjoyed it!

                                                                               John and the boys,or, men at work.

                                                                                           

Bridges over the river Cherwell, low, low bridges on the canal, pretty banks and peaceful moorings.We like the Oxford Canal after all. And thanks for your help, the Boynton Boys!! 

See you in Banbury.