La Petite Saône to the Saône and up the Doubs: Cruising with friends

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Friday 30 June 2017. Auxonne to St Jean de Losne - 18 kilometers, 1 lock. 3 hours.

With friends on board it somehow seemed more difficult to take cruising photographs as one is chatting, showing them the ropes and generally having a good time. Arriving in St Jean de Losne (‘Losne’ is pronounced ‘Lone’ as in Lone Ranger) we were fortunate to be told by the skipper of Drumsara that the portion of quay reserved for the hotel boats was free until Monday – the available days are in small print on the ‘Amarrage Interdit’ sign so if the space is free its worth pulling up to see when the hotel boat will be arriving and if it is not for a few days then you have a lovely mooring.

But with the low water levels we became a bit stuck in the mud…

The day was spent walking down to the Blanquarts marina to see if they could fix the pesky diesel leak but M. Blanquart (“Good day, do you speak English?” “Yes, but I don’t feel like speaking English today” – typical French humour but doubtful business practice) said we needed to send him pictures of the pump before he could comment. So after buying some paint and other goodies (including a Breil Guide of the Canal du Rhône au Rhine including the River Doubs which we have now decided to visit) we retired back to the boat via the little town center.

Saturday 1 July 2017. St Jean de Losne to Dole – 23 kilometers, 9 locks.

Bright and early we set off on the four kilometre cruise up to the first lock (number 75 at Kilometer Point (PK) 1 – why do the lock numbers run from east to west and the PK numbers from west to east?) at the entrance to the Canal du Rhône au Rhine in order to be there at the advertised opening time of 08h30 only to find a board saying that opening times were from 09h00. Nine on the dot the lights started working and soon we were in the deep lock with a lockie reaching down with his long crook to take lines. When the lock had filled I reported to his office with vignette (waterway licence) in hand to be issued with the lock remote controller. When I queried the times he said that the Breil Guide was wrong “…because it is shit – it is not a VNF book.” but just as I was leaving he grinned and said that the lock opening and closing times had been changed in 2017 to 09h00 to 13h00 and from 14h00(?) to 19h00 and our guide was printed before 2017. More Gallic humour.

Although raining in patches the cruise up to Dole was very pleasant and with Darrell relieving me of most of the driving duties and Tess helping Lynn out with lines, we quickly passed the huge Solvay chemical factory,

The faint blue line on the white wall in the background shows the
level of the water during the 1910 floods. Well above the lock wall!

noted the lovely little mooring at Choisey (big shopping mall nearby) and in no time had moored up at the Nicols base in Dole – and what a picturesque town it is and we even had an afternoon of watersports in the port to keep us entertained.

Newfoundland rescue dog and team.

That's a real person being rescued.

Jousting.

Blue team takes a swim.

Revenge!

One odd thing though: We simply could not find an open restaurant on the Sunday for lunch – very strange in a French town.

Isn't this fabulous? A view to the town over the Canal des Tanneurs where Pasteur's father was a tanner.

Louis Pasteur was born here.

The Collegiate Church of Notre-Dame: Big enough to be a cathedral!

Tour de France shirts festooning the main road.

The La Grange's continue to follow us around in abstentia

Another tribute to vaccination and pasteurization.

And to the Tour

Now isn't that just the most beautiful place to spend a couple of days?

Drinks on the Bar barge opposite us.

Tuesday 3 July 2017. Dole to Besançon – 55.8 kilometers, 17 locks, 2 tunnels.

Darrell was keen to do some ‘busy’ boating so after a full day of leisure we decided to do the marathon stint up to Besançon in one day. Fortunately the weather had cleared so after a 30 minute wait at the second lock for a lockie to come and get it working,

Heading north out of Dole

Waiting...

Foraging for berries...

...which are very bitter!

 it was all hands on board and just over eleven hours later,

Tough cruising?

Crystal clear waters.

The enormous Vauban Citadel as we approach Besancon.

with Tessa having clambered up a plethora of high lock ladders to fix lines,

"What took you so long to get up here?"

The Tarragnoz Tunnel entering Besancon

we tied up against the ‘new’ pontoon adjacent to the conservatory. Quite a day but we were not finished yet as who should be moored up there but Paul and Pam on Arjan who came over for sundowners which endured, with much hilarity, until much later!

The following day our visitors took themselves off by train back to Auxonne to collect their car and met us back in town where they treated us to a lovely luncheon; ribs for the girls, jerked pork for the boys, Crème Brulee for the girls and a chocolate mousse for Darrell followed by a much needed walk through the town and back to Elle where bubbles were opened at sundowner time as we toasted our friends farewell – and the next morning they were gone by eight o’clock and an eerie silence descended!

Cheers guys, been lovely having you!

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.