18/8/2013
Our pine tree here at the port drips resin and drops needles, and I don't know if we ever get the Freshwater clean again. But we love sitting under the green umbrella.
Today the Sunday market was on. The location of the market is at the outskirt of town, and both, location and the market stalls were rather disappointing. So we returned to explore the town center. As usual, the small streets lead all to the Church, in this case the romano-byzantin Église Notre-Dame. If you look closely, you can see a big stork-nest on one of it's towers.
Visiting the Digion Canal Museum situated on the Loire promenade, we found many references to the storks of Digoin (see below).
The canal museum is well worth while visiting, especially with children. There are boat replicas, interactive sections like a simulated lock which can be opened and closed by the touch of your fingers and binoculars to observe the birdlife on the bank of the river while listening to the individual chirps in the background. We spend some time with our noses at the "smelling boxes" to identify spices former barges transported from Nantes to Digion.
There is also an interesting video with English under titles and information cards in diverse languages at every station.
After lunch and a nap we celebrated our last day with Eva and Mario with a bottle of Champagne and Coffee Ice cream- not an obvious combination, but it worked for us!
We ended the day with a night-time stroll through town and along the canal bridge.