Backtracking

We entered the Canal du Rhon au Rhin, which would take us to the Rhine and on to Strasboug, arriving at the town of Dole, only to find the Doubs River was in flood after several days of heavy rain, and 80 kilometers of the canal were closed.  Parts of the route are actually on the river, with sections of canal winding in between.  For a major part of this waterway, the locks are controlled by a remote control box given to each boat.  This was our first experience with the remote controls, and had we known better, we would have taken ours back into the VNF office, as ours was not working well.  Normally, the remotes work in a range of about 200 meters from the lock sensor.  Ours was more like 50 meters, so we were nearly on top of the lock before it would recognize our command.  That meant backing up as the lock readied for our entrance.   But we arrived safely at Dole, and it was a great place to get stuck. 

Dole has a lovely medieval section of town with steep, winding streets, a beautiful 12^th century church overlooking the small port, lively indoor and outdoor markets, and a nice quai with room for several barges.  We enjoyed visiting the sights in town, the birthplace of Louis Pasteur, whose father was a tanner.  The tannery canal still runs through the village, but now is home to several outdoor restaurants and gardens.  So this was a pleasant stop over for us.   

Leather Tanning vat

We rode our bikes up the canal to check the condition of the river after the canal reopened , and didn’t like what we were seeing.  Heavy runoff, logs floating down at a brisk clip, so we decided to stay a little longer to see if the current subsided.  We ended up meeting some nice new friends, fellow bargees Jo and Janna on Johanna, a lovely French couple living in Dole, Elizabeth and Joe, and British boaters Frank and Jill on the Cruiser Detante.  Frank and Jill spend 3 or so months a year in the Western United States.  They keep their motorhome stored in Tucson, where we have our home in the states, and work as a chase crew for their friends' hot air balloon each year at the Albuquerque Balloon festival.  Small world!!   

We stayed in town for the Fete de la Musique, the annual free nationwide music festival held on June 21^st each year.  As we came around the corner into a small plaza, we heard a wonderful young French blues pianist doing the kind of stuff we love from the south side of Chicago.  He even played "Sweet Home, Chicago" for us.

Although the scenery along the Doubs looked lovely, we weren’t feeling comfortable with the condition of the river.  Perhaps after living in Colorado during the Big Thompson flood, the high hills around the river, and the continuous rain, made both of us a bit uncomfortable and concerned about flash flooding.  So we both agreed this wasn’t our year to go up the Doubs.  Remembering the sign we had in our kitchen during our sailing years, “You cannot direct the wind, but you can always adjust your sails” we decided to tack and go to our fall back plan.  We turned around, went back to St. Jean de Losne, and yesterday entered the Burgundy Canal.  We will take it up to Auxerre, and then hopefully catch the Nivernais Canal, which is supposed to be the prettiest in all of France.  But we are happy to be on the Burgundy, and are moored along the canal bank in a lovely rural setting, lined by shady trees, serenaded by songbirds.  Yes indeed, it was the right decision!

Tournous to St. Jean de Losne

We had an easy trip up the Saone from Tournous to Verdun sur le Doubs, a town we had visited our first year as we took the boat to dry dock, and then back to Roanne.  We left early in the morning, but made great time against the current, and actually slowed down to arrive in the early afternoon, as the port in Verdun has a spot for one large barge, which we reserved, but we didn't know if there was a barge lingering there from the night before.

After a lovely evening, we retired for the night, only to be awakened at 2 a.m. by the sound of a cat fight . . . in our boat . . . Our cats, Dimitri and Anya, are litter mates, 15-1/2 years old, so we instinctively knew it wasn't them.  We had left one of the windows open, with a screen, and as I rushed out of the master bedroom, I saw a black and white cat desperately trying to jump back up and out that window.  It had pushed in the screen, awakened Dimitri (not Anya, she slept through it all), and the hissing and howling was coming from Dimitri and the intruder.  We ran around chasing the cat, finally getting Dimitri locked in one room, only to have the cat rush into the room where Anya was sleeping.  We managed to chase it out, up into the wheelhouse, and out the door.  It was quite comical, but not as funny as our friends on Tokoloshe, who had a cat fall through the screen on one of their butterfly hatches in the middle of the night. It walked across the control panel in the wheelhouse, stepping on the switch for the horn, waking up everyone for miles.

We left the next morning for St. Jean de Losne, where we began our search for a boat back in 2009, and where Alouette was hauled out in 2010 for her survey and bottom paint.  We had hoped to find a spot along the steps of the town quai, but it was full, so rather than tie off to another boat there, we turned back to tie up to an old penische we had passed on the river on our way into town.  It looked secure, but abandoned, and it turned out to be a quiet, peaceful spot to spend the night.  

This was an old working boat, the owners, oftentimes a couple, hauling cargo up and down the canals and rivers, and living on board.  Sometimes the owners retire on board, or the boat is sold and turned into a liveaboard floating home.  This one had been their for a while, but the lace curtains were still in the pretty brass porthole window.  Who were they, I wondered.

Alouette, tethered to an old penische, Saone River

Our overnight spot provided the perfect place to watch for an opening on the steps in St. Jean de Losne and as soon a charter boat pulled out, we fired up the engine and pulled up to the quai on the steps.  It was the first time we were able to tie up there, and we had spent many times sitting at one of the waterfront restaurants looking at boats, so it was quite a treat for us.

Pizza boat

We tied off earlier this after noon  in the town of Dole in front of the pizza boat...wood fired stove on a boat in the harbor ... Yum - Oh!  Delicious!!!!

Fragnes to Tournous

We ended up spending a week in Fragnes, near the end, or beginning, of the Canal du Centre, primarily because the Saone River was running high with water and there were lots of trees and branches being carried downstream.  That gave us the chance to do a little more cycling, enjoy a concert of Celtic music with Christophe Morvan, visit with friends, and have some lazy time on the boat.

Christophe Morvan, Celtic Voyage

Afternoon Shadows in Fragnes

Captain Randy, as we reach the bottom of the lock

Doors to the lock lift up to open onto the Saone River

River Lounge Lizard on the back deck, Tournous

Yesterday morning, we set off for the Saone River, clearing the big 10 meter lock between the Centre and the River.  Although we are heading northeast towards Strasbourg, we decided to hang a right and head south to the medieval town of Tournous, about 35 kilometers south, but worth the detour.  The beautiful Abbaye St. Philibert, surrounded by ramparts, dominates the town.  It is the only surviving group of 12th century monastic buildings in Europe.  There is a distinct Mediterranean feel to the architecture.  Here are a few photos:

Old building, new mailbox, shoes drying

Ancient Village Water Pump

In the cloister of the Abbaye

 Tomorrow we'll head north, to Verdun sur le Doubs.

Swans

a pair of swans came into the canal today as the Saone river is in flood

Cabottes, Soupapes and Chateaus...Part I

This morning we will shove off heading towards the end of this canal, and onto the Saone River, perhaps by the end of this week.  Its been a great week with friends Eric and Sudi on Oldtimer, who have shared their great local knowledge of this section of Burgundy with us.

Early last week, we set out by car for a little wine tasting in the villages of the Cote de Beaune, followed by lunch and shopping in the town of Beaune.  We took the back roads through the hills and vineyards.  Eric pulled off onto a tiny road in the middle of the vineyards to show us this cabotte:

We had seen small structures like this dotting the vineyards, they were originally built to provide shelter for the vineyard workers during lightening storms, or de pause casse-croute . . . snack breaks.  This one is a recent build, beautifully constructed of stacked stone from the surrounding fields.

The sun was out and so were the vineyard workers.  We saw many of the specialized tractors, which to me look like something out of Star Wars, very high off the ground in order to drive over the rows of vines on tall stakes. We were not prepared for this sight  . . .

Tilling the old fashioned way.  We watched as the horse responded to commands, going forward only a few feet, to be told to stop, as the worker repositioned the tiller.  It looked like a lot of vines were being damaged in the process, but later that day we saw two horses out working the fields.  There are many agricultural festivals around France, and often we see demonstrations of traditional methods at those events, so perhaps this was a practice session.  Hard work!  Great bicep/ tricep workout for the guy!

As we passed through the town of Cheilly-les-Marangues, we spotted signs for a Fete (festival) de Soupapes.  Having lived here for a while, you never travel anywhere without an Enlish/French dictionary.  Sudi even keeps one in the car; I have two on my Ipod and one on my new smart phone.  "Valves" said Randy as he checked Sudi's dictionary.  What was a festival of valves? Eric guessed something to do with cars, perhaps old cars.  More on that later.

We stopped at two wine villages, Volnay,  and Nuits-Saint-Georges, to taste wines:

And after shopping and lunch, headed home to the boats with a full trunk!

The next day was Thursday, the feast day of the Ascension, somewhat of a holiday here, and the Festival of Soupapes.  We rode over on our bikes to the town to see what it was about.  Eric was right, antique cars, motorcycles, electric bicycles, and a vide grenier sale of all sorts of parts for all of the above, and more:

Pas a vendre - Not for sale electric bikes

My favorite classic Citroen

A cute little Karmann Ghia, with a faux California plates, surfing stickers on the windows and a Hawaiian Lei hanging from the rear view mirror

I regret not taking a picture of the Volkswagon camper van, pop-top open, with the owners sitting out front in lawn chairs, grilling!  It even had flower stickers on it.

For the motorcycles fans, there were all sorts of antique bikes from the 30's and 40's, but I had to take a couple of pictures of the Harley, and the Indian on display:

Harley!

Indian!

More later, we are on our way to Santenay ....