Taken by Stephen on the 31st December.
Me, Sophie and Lucie with the Loire in the background, just 500 yards from our mooring in Briare.
We're on the way to a bar by Le Pont Canal for a snifter before lunch, always puts a grin on my face! 
Sophie, the seven month old bump and Stephen on the same day taken by Lucie with the famous Pont Canal stretching out towards the South behind them.
This aquaduct was designed by Eiffel and built 1890/94, to enable waterbourne traffic to cross the west flowing Loire, on its way to the South.
Below, Sophie and I, comparing notes. ?..taken byLucie and .
Least said about this the better but it is the 1st of January 2007. I think Teddy had a hangover. 
I don't for a minute think this particular vessel is some kind of traditional craft peculiar to the Loire but it is very similar to others you see tied up for the winter along her banks. The engine, as you can see, is in the bow, but the paddle wheels are at the stern. Quite how this works, or what it is for, is yet for me to discover. If it is primarily a fishing vessel, it is very difficult to see how it can manage the great currents flowing from left to right, unless perhaps it just slings an anchor out to, as it were, put the breaks on.... more about this later. the "garden shed" in the middle is presumably full of fishing tackle and sundry creature comforts.