Let the Cruising Season Begin!

I still haven't gotten around to finishing posts from the 2012 season, and here we are shoving off today.  We had our last minute repairs and maintenance to do, and were ready to go around the 15th of April, when it turned cold and rainy, and continued until yesterday afternoon.  We're getting underway this morning, taking advantage of a break in the weather, but we expect thunderstorms this afternoon, so we will tie off somewhere along this canal, hopefully for a quiet night in a rural setting.  This year's plans are to travel up the Canal du Nivernais, perhaps into the heart of Paris, perhaps along the Marne River into the Champagne region, back down either the Champagne a Bourgogne canal, or the Canal du Bourgogne, part of which we cruised last summer.  That will take us to the Canal du Centre in the late summer, early fall, and back down to the Canal Roanne a Digoin to the Port of Roanne, where we will leave Alouette winterized in her slip, and return to the US for a few months of winter sunshine in Tucson.  We now have smart phones, so I will be able to do some quick posts along the way, with pictures. 

July in Dijon

July and August were bittersweet months for us.  We moved up the Burgundy Canal to the city of Dijon, yes, like the mustard.  There we discovered a small leak in a water hose in our generator, and since we were heading up into very rural, off-the-grid parts of the canal, we decided to order a new hose, but that took all total 3 weeks to track down, order, and wait to receive it. But Dijon is a lovely city, great parks, a beautiful large lake (Lac Kir) with water sports and a swim beach.  We visited a beautiful outdoor art exhibit in a park - paper mache birds made by both professional artists, and children.  They were protected by decorative umbrellas.

The body is an old vacuum cleaner canister, the tongue is an umbrella handle!

One of the days we visited, some of the child artists were visiting the exhibit, proudly posing in front of their work.  That brought back fond memories of posing with my tapestries on exhibit at Denver International Airport and Tohono Chul in Tucson.

The port in Dijon is home to many waterbirds, but we were really excited to see a pair of bar headed geese with two goslings.  Mom and Dad were very protective of the babies, and had the most curious behavior, I described it as "Happy Feet" - reminded me of Steve Martin on SNL when he would break into a dance routine.  The adults would do the happy feet routine both on the ground, and in the water when they swam over to the boat for our leftover baguettes. We had never seen bar headed geese before, so of course we had to google them, and it turns out that they are from Central Asia and actually fly over the Himalayas.  They are considered the world's highest flying bird.  We don't know what this pair was doing in Dijon, but they were beautiful and much loved by the people around the port.  The port is in the center of the city and is linked to lots of paths for cyclists, rollerbladers, and walkers and everyone seems to bring their leftover bread to feed the birds.

July 14th brought the usual round of festivities surrounding Bastille Day.  But we were in for a special treat in the port.  Taraf Goulamas, a band from the south of France, were in the port park for a free concert sponsored by the town as part of the fete.  Their routine was wonderful - the first set of lively music, sounding more like Klezmer to me, was a lead up to their act - cooking esccargot for the crowd, and serving it during the break.  While we waited for them to start, I thought the large kettle looking thing on the stage was a steel drum, but it was actually their wok/grill!  They took turns playing and chopping the onions and garlic, brought an audience member up on stage to help cook. The "presentation" of the escargot, was followed by a New Orleans style funeral procession through the crowd with the live escargot getting the "last rights" and the first set finished with sauteing the critters in the big pan.  They were amazing musicians, and during the break, we talked with one of them. They are accomplished jazz musicians who have this group as well.  By the second set, the stage was mobbed with everyone - including Randy - dancing.  You can check them out on the link posted to the right.

Fancy drumming, and fancy knife skills too!

Taking a break during the long musical intro

 

We finally received our part and resumed cruising up the Canal du Bourgogne.  To be continued . . .

Remembering Anya

My postings abruptly stopped in late June.  The remainder of our cruising season was great, and I will fill in the blanks soon.  We returned to port in late September,  short one crew member.  When we shoved off in the spring, we knew this would probably Anya’s last voyage.  At age 15-1/2, she had developed the renal problems that are so common in older cats.  She was doing fine on some meds and a special diet, but in mid-July, it was apparent she was slowing down, and she took a turn for the worse in late July.  On August 7^th, she crossed over the Rainbow Bridge.  We are so grateful for the years she spent with us, and for the kindness of so many strangers who stepped in to help us as we traveled to the point where we had to say goodbye to her.  Her last days were spent in beautiful Vandenesse-en-Auxois, in the shadow of the magnificent Chateauneuf-en-Auxois.  But what a life she had, from Austin, Texas, to our home in the mountains of Colorado, to Santa Fe, to life in a high rise in downtown Denver, to Tucson, Arizona, she traveled with us roundtrip twice from the US to Geneva, to our home port in Roanne, and she cruised the canals of France for 3 seasons.  She even enjoyed a vacation on the Riviera last January.  We miss her sweet little routines and her mischievous playfulness, and are so thankful to have had her in our lives for such a long time.

Captains Debbie, Randy and Dimitri

Dimitri and Anya

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.