Ouzouer-sur-Trezee/Briare

Had a tricky situation with a rope in a lock on the way here. We were descending and my rope got caught on itself around the bollard on the boat and David had to cut it with the axe. The boat did hang a little, but fortunately we were near the bottom of the lock. I had taken my eyes off the rope and was watching the water draining out of the walls of the lock. Inland waterway travel is not without its risks, you do have to be vigilant all the time you're travelling. A positive outcome of losing part of the rope is that I have learnt to splice and have tidied up several of our lines which were just tied.
Visited 2 interesting museums in Briare - one which covered the history of the canal, the Loire and the aqueduct and the museum of tiles and mosaics. There were some amazing, modern quilted hangings in the waterways museum - made by locals, I think. They depicted river/canal scenes and have inspired me. I had already been thinking of making some sort of needlework picture of Johanne and have now decided on a quilted collage.
Our first view of the Loire was breathtaking. A tourist brochure describes it a Europe's last wild river and you can see what they mean. Here, it's wide enough to have small beaches along the banks, backed by sheep pasture. I saw a huge flock of cormorants, ducking and diving, following the fish. Then, almost as one, they took off. The divers emerged one by one and looked around to find themselves abandoned.