The Circle Volume 11 by John Stretch

THE CIRCLE

VOLUME 11 FEBRUARY 2022

In this issue: 1. The Canal du Nivernais The wine industry attracts tourists, and this canal in Burgundy, France, offers a full selection of vineyards and villages to visit and taste. There are also some good restaurants, and great places to hike. Hot in summer, the canal is best visited in spring and autumn. There are scenic places to moor and the lockkeepers are friendly – except during lunch break.

2. Unclaimed baggage What happens when your airline loses your luggage? The Unclaimed Baggage Store in Alabama, USA, buys lost bags from airlines and bus companies, and sells the contents. Today this family business attracts a million customers a year, selling 7000 items every day.

1. The Canal du Nivernais

Introduction The Nivernais Canal is part of a circular ring of four canals that wind through Burgundy. Less than 2 hours southeast of Paris, the canal traverses some of the loveliest countryside in central France. You can explore medieval villages, centuries-old vineyards and chateaux, and enjoy French food and wine at its best.

The Nivernais canal was once a major transport route, supplying timber to Paris, the logs from local forests floating down the river in rafts. Today the canal is enjoyed by boaters, tourists, hikers and cyclists. There are five companies offering hire boats and many hotel barges that cruise between Auxerre and Clamecy.

Canal du Nivernais

Nivernais The one-week route from Tannay to Migennes covers 100 km with 49 locks and requires only 24 hours of direct cruising. The canal winds through the countryside past small, picturesque villages and hamlets with names like Clamecy, Vezelay, Chatel Censoir, and Vermenton. You have ample time to explore the region, visit the local markets, sample wine and cheese, and admire the beautiful scenery that unfolds round every corner.

The Canal du Nivernais is part river and part canal. You cruise on the River Yonne from Clamecy to Auxerre, and the locks change from rural to industrial.

Nivernais Your boat company will provide you with a detailed guide book, and the route is easy to follow. There are water refill points along the way and you can choose private or communal overnight moorings. The villages don’t charge for mooring and are friendly and welcoming. We had very hot weather so moored in the shade as much as possible. The smaller villages may have only one restaurant which isn’t always open; weekly markets are held on different days in different places. If you are barging it’s important to plan and book ahead. Cell phone reception is good. Village market days and restaurant numbers are in the guide book.

Nivernais The locks were all working well and the lock keepers were mostly friendly, some with a smattering of English, and all grateful to accept help operating the manual locks. Locks in the countryside typically have a small house for the lock-keeper who may be required to cover 3-4 locks using a small car or van. On first contact it is a good idea to chat to the lockkeeper about your plans for the day, to ensure the upcoming locks will be open, always mindful of the lock-keeper’s all-important break for lunch.

Auxerre Many boaters moor up for a night or two in Auxerre, the largest town on the Canal, capital of the Yonne department and the fourth-largest city in Burgundy. Auxerre's population today is about 35,000. The main town centre up on the hill is a good area for shopping, with many bistros and street cafes. Auxerre has several fine monuments including its 13th century cathedral.

Moorings in Auxerre

Chablis

The area is famous for its production of fine Burgundy wines, particularly Chablis, which is a white wine made from Chardonnay grapes. From Auxerre you can visit the village of Chablis by bus or taxi. The town has many wine bars and restaurants and is full of visitors in summer. Budgetconscious boaters can taste the same wine and eat at lower prices in neighbouring villages.

Caves of Bailly Wine lovers cruising on the Canal du Nivernais should make a point of visiting the Caves de Baily Lapierre, well signposted and a short walk from the canal side with easy moorings. In the Middle Ages these caves were quarries tunnelled into the side of a hill, supplying stone for the Notre-Dame de Paris and Chartres Cathedral. Today they are underground caves covering an area of four hectares, and providing unique natural conditions to mature sparkling Crémant de Bourgogne (equivalent to Champagne – delicious!).

Caves of Bailly

The Caves de Bailly Lapierre is run by a co-operative of 71 winegrowers who sell their crémant and many other varieties of wines, on site in the caves. Guided tours and tastings are offered daily in the summer months, and the cool interior provides relief from the midsummer heat.

Joigny The town of Joigny is a quaint place. We enjoyed exploring the narrow streets with their many halftimbered houses, art and craft shops. The bakery provides warm bread and croissants from 7am.

From the mooring point over the bridge across the river, we had a view of the town centre and its three churches before a thunderstorm.

Restaurant du Canal 58 Rue Pierre-et-Marie-Curie, Migennes 89400 France

Our boat company recommended this superb restaurant for our final meal at the end of our canal boat holiday and we were so glad they did. The evening menu offered three choices each for starters, main course and dessert, for 24€ 50 including wine. The food and wine were all locally sourced. The restaurant had just two people in the kitchen and two people serving. The home cooked food was beautifully presented and really delicious - excellent value.

Restaurant du Canal You could choose foie gras with apricot or ravioli as a starter, then steak or fish, followed by a fondant au chocolat or panna cotta and brownie for dessert. I was tempted by the cheese board, the best fromage I have ever tasted. The Internet advises that the restaurant Du Canal in Migennes, run by Nicolas Brelaud , was able to survive during COVID lockdown by offering takeaway meals.

The return journey

The train journey from Migennes to Paris takes 90 minutes.

From Paris Gare de Lyon on Eurostar, you can be in London in two hours

2. The Unclaimed Baggage Store

Introduction Airlines today use sophisticated tracking technology to ensure over 99.5% of bags are collected by their owners soon after landing. But what happens to the other 0.5%, amounting to thousands of bags each year? By law, the airlines must keep unclaimed checked-in bags for 90 days so that their owners can be found. If, after a three-month search, an unclaimed bag is declared “truly lost”, the airlines pay out a claim to the passenger.

However, many passengers never search for their luggage and their baggage is never identified. The lost bags are then termed “unclaimed baggage” and, in effect, confiscated. In practice, less than 0.03% of all checked luggage is actually declared lost.

Unclaimed baggage Fifty years ago, Doyle Owens and his wife opened the Unclaimed Baggage Centre in Scottsboro, Alabama, USA, buying lost luggage bags from airlines and transport companies and selling the contents. Today, this family business occupies an entire city block, attracts a million visitors a year, and is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Alabama. Unclaimed Baggage has purchasing contracts with every major US domestic airline, and with national railroad Amtrak.

Sorting unclaimed baggage The unclaimed lost bags are delivered to a sorting hall in Scottsboro, Alabama, where they are burst open , unpacked, and the contents evaluated under strict security. Anything of an illegal or undesirable nature (drugs, weapons, sex toys, pornography) is immediately turned over to the local authorities under lock and key. With five decades of experience in processing bags , the Unclaimed Baggage staff quickly sort each bag’s contents and decide on each item’s potential for sale. They have found many strange items in lost bags, including a bearskin, an Egyptian burial mask in a Gucci suitcase, a pair of McDonald's Golden Arches, and a live rattlesnake.

Sorting unclaimed baggage In this photograph, a staff member demonstrates to instore customers how a bag’s contents are evaluated and sorted into three categories:

RESELL, DONATE, RECYCLE.

In practice one third of the unpacked baggage contents is donated to charity, a third is thrown away and a third is cleaned and put up for sale.

Resell

Resell For the third of all unclaimed items that are resold, the company sets selling prices based on estimated retail values and the item’s condition. After rigorous cleaning, 7,000 heavily discounted stock items are sold each day on the sales floor. Prices are set 20 to 80 percent below suggested retail. The high-end, designer items are mixed in with lower-priced items on the main floor and customers need to browse item by item for the real bargains.

Unclaimed Baggage is a private, for-profit company. If cash money is found in any of the bags that come into the centre for processing, that money becomes the property of Unclaimed Baggage. Laptops follow US Department of Defence protocol, and are secure-wiped back to their factory settings.

Donate On average, for every item sold, the business donates another item to someone in need. From the earliest days, the goal has been to find a purpose for any item possible. Over the past five decades, the company has established partnerships with dozens of local, national, and global charity organizations so leftover items can be given back to the community for re-use.

Donations include eyeglasses and sunglasses to Lion's Club International; painted luggage for foster children through Luv Luggage; pallets of supplies for medical missions through Samaritan's Purse; stuffed animals and blankets to local animal shelters; clothes to Salvation Army and homeless shelters; and medical supplies like nebulizers, wheelchairs, walkers, and oxygen machines to a Georgia-based non-profit group.

Recycle The company tries to minimize waste through reuse. Damaged, broken and unusable items - shoes, clothes, electronics and sporting goods - are sent to partner firms for recycling or repair. Used personal products and paper items have to be discarded. Journals, photo albums, credit cards and camera memory cards are destroyed. In these cases, all personal information is shredded and the items are responsibly recycled. Two years ago, Unclaimed Baggage went online, bringing discounted items to shoppers around the USA. .

Popular items 1 Luggage As you would expect, the Unclaimed Baggage store sells all types of suitcases, and other travel essentials like neck pillows and passport holders. Electronics and accessories You can find Apple Macs, unlocked iPhones and iPads with cases, chargers and Air Pods, fitness trackers, camera lenses and noisecancelling headphones at bargain prices.

Sporting goods Hundreds of different items including running shoes, golf clubs, tennis racquets, fly-fishing rods, surfboards and wetsuits.

Popular items 2 Perfume Customers have no qualms about buying other people's lost half-used perfume. Half-bottles of Chanel No. 5 are snapped up whenever they're available. Wedding dresses A large collection of wedding dresses and wedding accessories is housed in a separate room. One wonders how a stunning, pristine Vera Wang gown could get lost. Most of the town’s brides and company staff buy their wedding dresses and flower girls' dresses here.

Popular items 3 Fashion dreams. • A pair of black velvet, gold-soled, peep-toe platforms by Prada with a retail price of $650 sells at Unclaimed Baggage for $299.99. • A Hermès black lambskin blanket-scarf, not available in Hermès stores or online at the moment, sells at Unclaimed for $749.99. • A showpiece 18-karat gold-roped, diamondencrusted bracelet with an appraised value of $42,000 is on sale at $21,797.99.

Popular items 4 Watches. • An 18-karat gold Ralph Lauren watch with a brown leather strap and an engraving on the back: "With gratitude — RL 2009," a personal gift from Ralph Lauren, is priced at $15,000. • A men's platinum Rolex that retails for $64,000, was sold last year for $32,000. "Someone was probably pretty sad he lost that," a staff member said. The genuine Rolex was originally thought to be fake before it was appraised. • A diamond crested Gucci watch sells for $2,887.99.

The ski sale Unclaimed Baggage holds an annual Ski Sale on "Black Friday" each year, before the start of the ski season. Customers camp outside the store overnight to score major deals on snow and ski equipment, as well as high-quality outerwear. Last year between 3,000 and 4,000 customers attended the sale.

Finders keepers The company won’t disclose sales figures, margins or bottom line profits. It won’t talk about its “salvage agreements” with airlines and won’t divulge who it partners with, or how much it pays for lost luggage. Usually, though, it pays a set price per bag or by weight. Like storage unit sales, these purchases are “blind”- the company doesn’t know what’s inside the bags. Some might say the store has an ethical duty to reunite people with their lost luggage — especially highly personal items, like inscribed jewelry with names and dates, or electronics with identifiable information. But the store says it has a business to run. “Look, we’re a retailer,” founder Owens told a Wall Street Journal reporter. “We aren’t set up to find your Aunt Jane’s blue Samsonite suitcase.” As the adage says, finders keepers.

Finders keepers The Unclaimed Baggage Store is an interesting business. The donations help the community, the recycling helps fight climate change, and the company makes money. The owners of the unusual lost items in the picture below, surely wanted to keep them? Do the airlines, and the people at the Lost Baggage Store, try hard enough to find the owners? But then, why should they? There's a system in place to deal with lost bags and they have to end up somewhere. If you're a US consumer looking for a bargain, you can buy from the online store at Unclaimed Baggage.com. I hope you don’t run into your own belongings there.

The Circle is a private limited edition magazine produced as a retirement hobby for family and friends, and fellow Midstreamers. The magazine is distributed at no charge. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author.

This month we stayed for two nights at Shrewsbury Flower Market, UK

Photographs in this issue have been sourced from my personal collection, Google images, and various Unclaimed Baggage websites. Information collated from Wikipedia, the Rough Guide to France, Le Boat canal guides, Forbes magazine and the Wall Street Journal.