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!