The River Doubs: Besançon to Dole – The Tour de France is in town!

Thursday 5 July 2017. 55.8 kilometers, 18 locks, 2 tunnels, 9 hours 15 minutes.

Expecting the port at Dole to be full for the Saturday start of Stage 8 of the Tour de France which we wanted to watch, and knowing that going ‘downhill’ would be much easier that the upstream cruise, we decided to set off again for Dole on the Thursday to be two days early to hopefully secure a place as the Port does not take reservations.

But first it was a bit of Besançon exploring: Testing the eBikes to the limit we visited the lovely Cathedral with its marvelous Astronomical Clock  which we somehow contrived to miss completely!

A clock but not the Clock

then it was up the steep hill to the World Heritage Site Citadelle de Besançon with its Vauban fortifications perched one hundred and twenty vertical metres above the city

Water wheel which drew water up from 100 meters below.

The Courtyard which houses inter alia the Museum to the Resistance Movement

And aquarium - there is also a zoo and other incongruities.

Our mooring is between the two top bridges.

and after a couple of fascinating hours we whizzed back into town to slake our thirst at the closest café, the plat de jour of which looked so inviting and inexpensive that we stayed for a very tasty lunch.

Part of the afternoon was spent fruitlessly looking for an Intermarche Hyper but in the end we stocked up at the small Intermarche on the ‘new’ side of town.

Knowing that the lock system on the Doubs operates from 07h00 to 19h00 we set off at five to seven the next morning only to find the lights at the tunnel were red – a call to the ‘out of cruising hours’ VNF number revealed that the tunnel only operates from 09h00… So we decided to do the big loop around the city and approach the lock leading downriver from the other side only to find our way barred just downstream of our mooring by a floodgate. The morale of the story is that if you want to leave Besançon from the conservatory mooring (the ‘Halte de la Cité des Arts’) early in the morning you need to be through the tunnel the night before your planned departure – there is a very nice waiting pontoon positioned there precisely for this purpose I would imagine.

The nine o'clock tunnel

The water level is low - normal level is at the top of the white stain.

The lovely Thoraise tunnel with fairy lights and a curtain of water.

A 'derivation' cutting out a section of river.

The pretty lead into Dole.

Anyway, just over nine hours later (compared to a total of eleven hours on the up-run albeit this included a thirty minute lock delay) we arrived back in Dole where there was ample space and where we tethered to our neighbour to prevent our stern swinging in the fresh breeze.

Neighbour Stephan's bollard lassoing device - this will be brought back from SA next year.

Friday was spent riding all over town under the guidance of Waze until we eventually found the Intermarche Hyper and filled our backpacks, saddlebags and a large packet with provisions, mainly of the liquid variety to replenish what had been consumed over the past week.

Back at Elle the temperatures were on the rise so we rigged our misting system to give ourselves a welcome respite from the heat and enjoyed a Maryland braai in rain-forest conditions – very cool!

Chilling!

That afternoon the Tour advance party started arriving; huge pantechnicons queueing up to offload who knows what before disappearing to who knows where – fascinating! Early on Saturday morning the car park opposite started filling and by ten o’clock the place was packed – and it was hot! First it was a parade of sponsors, then the teams arrive and after two hours of crowds and dust

Preparation

Sponsors parade.

Spectators - bottom left picture was taken two hours before the start and people
were still streaming in.

The teams arrive.

No bikes on top - Mark Cavendish's support vehicle?

we wandered into town, another dress was purchased at a market

and we eventually settled at The Pub opposite the tourist office for a most welcome Bitburger beer before adjourning back to Elle to toast the Tour riders with a bottle of Cremant and to watch the clean-up operation and by four o’clock you would hardly have known that an event had even taken place in town. What a wonderful experience and another privilege of waterway travel!