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| 46.3 kilometers, 3 locks! |
Saturday 23 June. Gray to Mantoche. 7 kilometers, 1 hour.
An uneventful slide down the short distance to the lovely
halte at Mantoche where we were lucky to find a place on the upstream side of
the quay where the water is deeper apparently but with the low water levels we
still grounded our stern about a meter from the side which is not a problem as,
with the bow pointed a bit shoreside, we can easily jump on and off.
Apart from the somewhat dilapidated but very imposing chateau which overlooks the mooring
there is not much to Mantoche and a cycle trip to Apremont
and Germigny conjured up nothing much apart from the stunning little Church of the Navtivité Notre-Dame in Germigny.
Guess what these crops are.
But the fun part was simply sitting in the shade of the willow trees in much cooler but still warm weather and watching the passing boat traffic.
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| Pretty garden. |
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| Pretty mooring |
Apart from the somewhat dilapidated but very imposing chateau which overlooks the mooring
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| An old Mantoche home. |
there is not much to Mantoche and a cycle trip to Apremont
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| Apremont wash house |
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| Garden sculpture |
and Germigny conjured up nothing much apart from the stunning little Church of the Navtivité Notre-Dame in Germigny.
Guess what these crops are.
But the fun part was simply sitting in the shade of the willow trees in much cooler but still warm weather and watching the passing boat traffic.
By chance we bumped into the Kiwi (and Americas Cup besotted) owners of a boat which I recognised from the day we took delivery of Elle – they were busy negotiating the purchase of their boat on the same day and from the same broker.
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| Goodbye Mantoche (we were moored in front of the blue barge) |
(PS: We have no idea what the crop in the first picture is but after dissecting a pod Lynn established that the crop in the second pic is mustard - makes sense being so close to Dijon.)
Sunday
25 June 2017. Mantoche to Pontailler-sur-Saône. 22.3 kilometers, 3 locks, 3 hours
10 minutes.
Another
gorgeous cruising day as we passed by many hireboats tucked into the riverside
greenery
and the junction with the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne which we hope to explore next year
until we arrived at the stone steps of the village of Pontailler-sur-Saône where I once again grounded us on a rock, part of the protruding ledge of the quayside. A bit of pushing and shoving and assistance from our French neighbours and we were free and moored up on another blistering hot day – even too hot to do any exploring. The French cruiser left and we were joined by Piper barge Drumsarah and Luxemoter Histoire d’eau and the mooring was now full!
There is not much to the town apart from a large hireboat base and a restaurant, apparently very good and packed for Sunday lunch – but a pretty place nevertheless.
Warning! A note in the Cruising Association’s publication Cruising the Inland Waterways of France & Belgium (17th Edition) says “…water skiers may disturb especially at weekends.” And disturb they did, racing just meters past the quayside with their wake having us rocking and rolling – fortunately we had moored with the stern well out otherwise we would have taken a thumping on the rocks. Inconsiderate people.
and the junction with the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne which we hope to explore next year
until we arrived at the stone steps of the village of Pontailler-sur-Saône where I once again grounded us on a rock, part of the protruding ledge of the quayside. A bit of pushing and shoving and assistance from our French neighbours and we were free and moored up on another blistering hot day – even too hot to do any exploring. The French cruiser left and we were joined by Piper barge Drumsarah and Luxemoter Histoire d’eau and the mooring was now full!
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| A commercial ducking through the wrong side of the bridge. |
There is not much to the town apart from a large hireboat base and a restaurant, apparently very good and packed for Sunday lunch – but a pretty place nevertheless.
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| The main road early in the morning |
Warning! A note in the Cruising Association’s publication Cruising the Inland Waterways of France & Belgium (17th Edition) says “…water skiers may disturb especially at weekends.” And disturb they did, racing just meters past the quayside with their wake having us rocking and rolling – fortunately we had moored with the stern well out otherwise we would have taken a thumping on the rocks. Inconsiderate people.
Monday 26 June 2017. Pontailler-sur-Saône to Auxonne. 16.5 kilometers, 1 lock, 3 hours.
Under the bluest of skies
we set off for the ‘Napoleon City’ of Auxonne where we tied up at the lovely set of pontoons at the municipal mooring only to discover that the water and electricity had been cut off for the unforeseeable future (I forgot to ask at the Tourism office what the problem was) and as we were expecting visitors on the Thursday coming, we needed these facilities. So off we went into the Port Royale where we were given permission to moor at one of the ‘side on’ places normally reserved for big long-stayers – so much easier to lift bikes on and off.
Auxonne seemed smaller than I remembered and unfortunately the Napoleon Museum was closed as was the excellent restaurant where we first tasted cuisses de grenouilles (frogs legs) in 2012. Auxonne is home to the 511th Transport Regiment and like many military towns seems to place function above form.
Darrell
and Tessa Lansdell, friends from Durban but now living in the lovely Spanish
town of Javea/Xavia arrived with a carload of provisions and cool, wet conditions and we spent some time
exploring the town with them but my camera's battery went flat and Lynn had left her phone aboard hence the paucity of pictures.
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| The miserly morning market. |
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| Darrell and Tessa - waiting for a downpour to pass. |
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