Goodbye Doubs, Hello Saône: Dole to Tournus via St Jean de Losne (SJDL) and Gergy.

113 kilometers, 12 locks.

Sunday 9 July 2017. Dole to St Jean de Losne. 23 kilometers, 9 locks, 4 hours 45 minutes including 30 minute delays at locks 73 and 75.

Our ‘trick’ is to try and reach any given destination between about 10h30 and 11h30 when most waterway users seem to have finally woken from their slumbers, boulangerie’d, breakfasted and are in a fit state to start a day’s journey; in this ‘window’ we usually find otherwise crowded ports empty. So, after having endured a tremendous storm and drenching rain during the night, at seven o’clock we cast off lines, ambled through the first lock and in no time were back on the River Doubs (as opposed to the canalized sections) where the sight of the huge bridge made me reach for the camera to take some shots in the best possible light.

Unfortunately my focus on the bridge distracted me from the passage marker buoys and some five minutes later the sound of gravel against the hull alerted me to the fact – dead slow ahead, sharp turn to starboard and we inched back into the deeper water with hearts in mouths. Fortunately the previous night’s rain had raised the water level quite noticeably otherwise we would surely have grounded fast – a close one!

The bridge across the Doubs - the channel marker buoys are on our extreme right...

Apart from having to call the VNF to reset a lock (we suspect that the previous boat accidentally activated the upcoming beacon) and then having to wait while a newly hired Le Boat skipper made repeated attempts to enter the last lock on the Doubs, the trip was uneventful, faster because of the higher water level

Activating the lock mechanism.

and despite arriving a little out of our ‘window’, we secured prime position and did not stick in the mud.

Tom & Jan's cruiser Zuiderwind - seen at Gray, and SJDL x2

SJDL is a quaint little town with a big Intermarche a short way (by bike) out of town, a delightful waterway museum,

Parquet depiction of a working lock - amazing!

a lovely small church,

an expat run book exchange on the first floor above the museum,

and a marina who, when I said that their open ended quotation for repairing our diesel leak was not really acceptable and that we would make another plan (thanks Tony!) replied “This is the best solution !!! We do not do the repair of injection pump ourselves ; then, iIt is impossible to say in advance how much could cost a repair until the pump is by the specialist who can make the quotation.” – Goodness man, I just wanted the seals replaced, a job which you said you had done on two pumps two weeks ago!

We did treat ourselves to a really good lunch of escargots (snails), fritures (white bait) and cuisses des grenouilles (frogs legs)

The bulging tum belongs to someone else.

We do eat fresh too.

and on our second evening another dramatic storm hit the port sending midnight figures scurrying to make lines fast.

Brewing...

Thursday 13 July 2017. SJDL to Verdun-sur-le-Doubs – 35.8 kilometers, 2 locks, 4 hours 15 minutes.

After filling up early at the waterside pump with 200.1 liters of diesel at €1.264 per liter we set off leisurely downstream

They come out...

...and we go in. A big lock again - not seen for ages.

arriving at Verdun-sur-Doubs after having passed South African flagged Sojourn before we had time to take a photo of them – pretty barge Rob! I’m ambivalent to negative about this largely stern-on port; the captain is helpful, fingers, where you are lucky enough to find one, are short and in need of replacement/repair, it is not cheap at €15 including water and electricity but you must get a key from the captainerie to open the tap, and there is space for possibly one Luxemotor on the other quay.

But it is the start of Bresse chicken country and we indulged ourselves – cuisses will be braaied (shock and horror!) and Lynn will turn her magic on the rest.

That's about R600 a kilo - enough to break a braaier;s heart!

It was lovely being on a big, almost lockless, river again.

"I'm entitled to do 15kph (in German that is flat out irrespective of the speedometer or any damage to the river bank).

Friday 14 July 2017. Verdun-sur-le-Doubs to Gergy – 8 kilometers, 0 locks, 1 hour.

There was to be a Bastille day fireworks display in Verdun-sur-le-Doubs and, on a balance of probabilities, we do not ‘do’ fireworks displays as they terrify all animals and that is truly nasty. From what we could garner, Gergy had no illuminated noise happening, so after topping up with water we departed Verdun-sur-le-Doubs at 09h30 (remember the window?) only to be called back by the captain who wanted his tap key back – when we showed him that we had used our own key it was many desolé’s and bowing and we continued on our way arriving at an almost deserted Gergy pontoon where we made a reservation for lunch at the same restaurant where we had had our second ever meal of cuisses des grenouilles almost exactly five years and one month ago on our first Le Boat trip.

Sirloin steak and frogs legs.

What frogs legs leftovers look like.

Merangue flottant and a cottage
cheese-like dish dribbled with honey.

By evening the pontoon was packed

This was before the Dutch yacht arrived.

and we had a Dutch yacht breasted up against us – last to offer but first to ask the Dutch – but they were very nice people and when I said that we wanted to leave around 07h00 the next morning they left by 07h20 which is not usual (except when the Dutch and Germans are on a mission) allowing us to cast off unimpeded by 07h30.

And our Bastille Day entertainment was a brass band playing in the park which ended their stint with a rousing rendering of the French national anthem La Marseillaise and that evening we had lovely Cuban band playing tropical music from the restaurant above us.

A 110m commercial slides under the Gergy bridge at dawn.

Saturday 15 July 2017. Gergy to Tournus – 48 kilometers, 2 locks, 6 hours.

More sedate downstream cruising. Passing through Chalon-sur-Saône brought back other 2012 memories although I did not remember the big hotel boats being around – I think we would have been terrified.

Chalon-sur-Saone hoves into sight

There has been a lot of low level military jet activity around and just before the Ormes lock we were almost ‘buzzed’ by some or other delta wing. Great flying but almost impossible to photograph!

This was going slowly enough.

The lockkeeper reminding the occupants of the boats behind us to do lifejackets.

The boat on the left exited the lock behind us, overtook at top speed (we were doing 10kph)
within two meters of us on the wrong side and about a kilometer further
did an about turn and dropped anchor for lunch - idiot!

Arriving in Tournus at lunchtime on a Saturday is not the thing to do. Firstly, everone seems to stop for lunch so available mooring spaces are taken and secondly, it is hire-boat handover day so the places available at the Saône-Plaisance potion of the small boat pontoon was full. A long story short, after moving from the ‘big boat’ northern quay we eventually tied up on the ‘small boat’ pontoon after five and where South African owned Shangri La 2 headed up the row of boats.

Tournus is an ancient town and its recently restored Church of St Philibery dating from the 11thC is worth popping into. But the charm of Tournus lies in its small streets lined with restaurants (there are three Michelin starred establishments), cafes, art and antique shops and of course the obligatory tabacs, boulangeries and banks – the antiquity of the place envelops one. The French flag bedecked Mairie (town hall) with its statue of French painter Jean-Baptiste Greuze is also eyecatching and there is a small grocery store (Vival, an offshoot of the Casino chain) opposite the ‘small boat’ pontoon and a large Carrefour and Brico just over a kilometre away.

In future, and we will visit here again, we will try not to be here over the weekend as there is a ‘bicycle gang’ of youths who prowl the quayside; the mess they threw over the quay wall on Saturday night was disgusting and they were hurtling up and down our pontoon on Sunday evening, ‘stealing’ one boats rubbish bag (it was in a normal shopping bag so I wonder if they realised it was rubbish or whether they thought it was booty) and when reaching road level and discovering what it was, simply threw it into the air scattering its contents before departing. Over the past thirty years psychologists and sociologists have burdened the youth with too many rights and not enlightened them with their obligations to society. Perhaps they will not be around midweek.

But the maximum two night stay with water and electricity and water included, was free!

(I will insert the remaining pictures of Tournus when we have better Internet signal)

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