A Swan Delay and a Serial Killer

It was lovely to be greeted by the sun on Tuesday morning. We haven't had a lot of uninterrupted sunshine, so we were hopeful that we wouldn't have to dodge raindrops on our relatively short (8 kilometers and 3 locks) cruise to Joigny. 

We were slightly delayed on our departure from Migennes on May 28 due to the fact that the Migennes lock had to fill and was bringing up some "passengers" as it did so. Throughout our boating history, in all of our "CARIBs", we've been delayed at locks by everything from huge barges to very small motorboats, but waiting for a swan convoy was a first for us.

Although they displayed no cruising permit, to their credit, the swans were polite and considerate. They waited at the lock gates, ready to vacate quickly when the gates opened, and kept the children in line.

An early arrival in Joigny gave us lots of time after lunch to finish the city walking tour that we'd started during our stop there last July.

The eastern portion of the Joigny skyline, our destination for exploration. 

The umbrellas were back on the street that winds
uphill from the waterfront to Place Jean de Joigny.
It was a very quiet afternoon, with hardly a
pedestrian in sight.

A hard right turn at Place Jean de Joigny brought us further uphill to a new (to us) neighborhood, the oldest in Joigny. A castle for Count Reynard the Old was built there as early as the late 10th century, displacing a monastery. This became the core for subsequent expansions of the city in the 12th and 13th centuries. Unfortunately, thanks to a massive fire in 1530, very little remains of the structures from those earliest years.

Now converted to residential use, a marker on a nearby wall
dates this "Prison Tower"--a remnant of the old fortress--to 
the 11th century.

After the great fire, the Chateau de Gondi was rebuilt, as was the adjacent Church of St. Jean (which served as the chapel for the Counts until the French Revolution). There was also a post-fire construction boom in timbered buildings, of which Joigny still retains many.

Photos of St. Jean's Gate, which formerly guarded
the entrance to the Count's chateau. The bell tower
of St. Jean's (St. John's) church is visible behind the gate. 
Aerial bombardment on June 15, 1940 caused great 
destruction in the neighborhood. The top photo shows
the current appearance, the bottom is from a time
prior to 1940.

Church of St. Jean at left, Chateau de Gondi at right. 

One perspective of the church interior, with its unusual
and beautiful Renaissance barrel vaulted ceiling.

Upper: a 16th C sculpture of the entombment
Lower: a 13th C tomb of Adelais, countess of Joigny

And then there was this somewhat jarring notice from the portion of the church behind the altar.

It was more like falling bricks or concrete, but in
any case, it was a stark reminder of how much is
required to keep old buildings in top form and what
can happen if the money isn't there.

The front facade of the oldest timbered building in Joigny was
destroyed during the 1940 bombardment, and rebuilt as shown
at left. It is currently an exhibition center.

One of the downsides of Joigny is that it doesn't have a great deal of mooring space for boats our size. We found quay space just downstream from a marina that houses a "Locaboat" hire base and tucked in for the night. No power or water services were available, but that's not usually an issue because of our large water tank and the solar panels. Unfortunately, the cloudy weather didn't allow our solar panels to replenish the batteries after the overnight hours, and although our generator was working to power the electrics on the boat, it didn't seem to be recharging the house batteries the way it should. To leave in the rain or not to leave? We ultimately decided that it would be best to get to our next stop of Villaneuve-sur-Yonne, with its quay where we would be able to plug into power.  Either there or further downriver in Sens (also a mooring with electricity) would be better places to try to troubleshoot the generator issue.

Although there was some rain on the way to Villaneuve,
 by heading north, we moved away from the heaviest rain cells.
Lon drove mostly from inside and my rain gear kept me
 comfortable in the locks. 

Our mooring in Villaneuve.

We had a bit of a rain break after lunch, enough so that we felt comfortable wandering into the center of town. We'd seen most of what we wanted to see when we were in Villaneuve last July--on a much brighter and warmer day--so the walk was primarily meant to escape the boat for a bit, stretch our legs, and have a wee walk down memory lane.

The roses were blooming, but sadly, the house
seemed abandoned.

The north gate of the former medieval fortress, the Porte de
Sens, is still as impressive as it was last year.

Much as I love the really old stuff, the forensic scientist in me is fascinated by the macabre. One of the "claims to fame" of Villaneuve is that, from 1926-1933, it was the home of Dr. Marcel Petiot, a French medical doctor and serial killer. Besides using dubious medical practices, his political career as mayor  of Villaneuve was filled with financial mischief. His transformation into serial killer probably began during his time in Villaneuve. 

The House at No. 56 Rue Carnot, the former
residence of Dr. Petiot.

Petiot was convicted of the murder of 23 people whose remains were found in the basement of his Paris home during WWII. It is suspected that the actual number of victims was at least 60, and possibly as high as 200. The majority of his victims came from a fraudulent escape network that he operated from 1942-1944. Petiot's associates would direct would-be escapees to him for assistance in getting out of France and into Argentina. Instead, Petiot "inoculated" them with cyanide, stole their valuables, and disposed of their bodies. In 1946 Petiot was executed via guillotine. There are a number of fascinating and detailed accounts about "Doctor Satan" on the internet.

In contemporary news, the European Parliament elections are being held on Tuesday, June 9. Coming from the U.S., the land of seemingly never-ending campaigns and in-your-face advertising for such, it is refreshing to see the limited campaigning here in France. 

Right: Outside of the covered market was a numbered display area
for campaign posters. We also saw a similar display area (but without
any posters) at a local park.
Left: The Cuteness Award goes to the Animaliste Party poster,
which claims that "Animals Matter, So Does Your Voice."

On May 30 our planned 9:15 a.m. departure from Villaneuve via the downstream lock adjacent to the mooring quay turned into a 10:45 passage because of vnf staffing issues and lock malfunctions elsewhere in the system. Despite the late start, the cruise to Sens went smoothly and quickly, and we were in Sens prior to the predicted afternoon rains.

Our boating buddies for the day were Swiss couple Serge
and Jenny on their barge "Tammy."

After 5 days in a row of cruising, 3 nights/2 days in Sens will be a nice change of pace and, hopefully, Lon will be able to diagnose the generator issue. Now if it would just warm up!