La Petite Saône: Gray to Auxonne

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.

Pretty garden.

Pretty mooring

Apart from the somewhat dilapidated but very imposing chateau which overlooks the mooring

An old Mantoche home.

there is not much to Mantoche and a cycle trip to Apremont

Apremont wash house

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.

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!

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.

The main road early in the morning

Warning! A note in the Cruising Association’s publication Cruising the Inland Waterways of France & Belgium (17^th 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 511^th 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.

The miserly morning market.

Darrell and Tessa - waiting for a downpour to pass.

5 Days in Gray

Founded in the 7thC Grey grew to prominence in the 12thC as the principal commercial port of the self-governing state of Compte as Franche-Compte was known then.

Try as hard as we could we were unable to find the hotel we had stayed in in 2012 and to tell the truth, not much of the city was familiar which, for me, is unusual as I normally have a pretty good memory for places we have been to. After wandering around the fascinating old town we eventually popped into the incredibly efficient and friendly tourist office (the one young lady even came to the boat to take a picture of us and the South African flag) and emerged with a map and brochures and had booked a walking tour for Friday, one which we were advised was somewhat unique as the guide was allowed access into many buildings not open to the public.

The rest of the week was spent

- panting in the heat with 37C being recorded inside the boat on two of the days. The others were not much cooler.

- provisioning up at the enormous Intermarche almost across the road from the mooring – there is also a big brico (hardware shop) in the same complex and we came away with spare tubes for the eBikes as well as a new front tyre for mine

- helping boaters out with electricity ‘splitters’ and extension cords for which I was ‘rewarded’ by a Hungarian group to a tasting of their homemade schnapps…

- having the battery in my watch replaced and in the process learning that luminescent watch faces are no longer allowed in the EU because “…the radium is unhealthy”.And cigarettes are still allowed?!

- listening to some drumming and guitar music at a café on National Music Day, June 21^st.

Municipal police in summer uniform.

- on the recommendation of the British couple who have stopped over in Gray many times (their over-winter port is Savoyeaux) we had a delicious lunch at Le Crato which we found out subsequently is the Trip Advisor top rated restaurant in Gray!

Not to say that Lynn's cooking isn't just as good!

- cycling around the suburbs and generally having fun.

We are moored on the wall top left of picture near the trees.

The British restaurant adviser couple's boat

Part of the city from the fortress.

The stunning 16thC Town Hall

Church of Our Lady of Gray in the background.

13thC Keep.

The 18thC Chateau built for the Govenor

 

We even had some commercial traffic.

This was the booat which was being used as a dive platform in Epinal.

Probably the highlight of our visit was the tour of some of the landmarks of the city conducted by retired teacher and volunteer Ria, a Dutch lady who settled in Gray sixteen years previously and fell into the role by accident. At €3.40 per person (plus whatever you feel like tipping) it is a bargain and Ria opened our eyes to many small details that we had walked past and never even noticed like the alcoves above house doors where statues of saints were placed before street numbering became the norm.

A couple of notables of the tour were

- the Cathedral of Notre Dame De Gray

A seat for the priest who was tired of standing

The heat of St Pierre Fourier is
inside this piece

-         - visiting the manuscript library of the city library (which was closed but Ria organised us entry),

-          - a tour of the 19thC theatre,

-          - and the Gauthiot D’Ancier mansion with its revolving staircase hiding the room where Pierre Fourier, later Saint Pierre Fourier, hid from Cardinal Richelieu’s persecution.

The revolving staircase

The hidden room

Neither of the latter two  sights can be viewed without a guide.

The motto of Gray is ‘Triplex Victoria Flammis’ or ‘Three times victorious over the flames’ as the then wooden town was accidentally burned down in 1324 and then by mercenaries in 1440 and finally by troops of the invading French in 1479 after which the construction of buildings in wood was banned and many of the houses in the town date from the late 15^th and early 16^th century. A really fascinating place!