Gray back to Auxonne

With our steering system leaking and increased flutter in our rudder shaking the entire boat at certain rpms, we decided to call this year’s trip over and slowly head back to St. Jean de Losne to get ready for winter.

A bit of French humor - Window painting at dog groomer's storefront

With this decision made we took Sunday to explore the city of Gray. Of course being Sunday everything was closed but it was a beautiful walk around a completely deserted city. While in the church Joan noticed that there was going to be a concert that evening to raise funds for the pipe organ – it seemed like a good way to spend the early evening, so we cut our tour a bit short the grab a bite to eat then return to the Notre Dame Basilica for a concert performed on the pipe organ that was installed in the 1600’s. Accompanying the organ were a hautboise and trompette (oboe and trumpet).

Notre Dame Basillica - where we attended the Organ, hautboise and trompette concert

The acoustics were great as was the entire concert. They did a bit better than they planned, having to enlarge the seating area a couple of times. It looked like they made over 2,000€ toward the maintenance of this amazing instrument.

Monday was predicted to be cold and wet – sounds like a day to stay inside, rather than go boating, so we spent the day reading, a bit of cleaning, taking on water and when the weather cleared walking back into town to tour the Chateau (built in 1777 by the Count of Provence – who later became Louis XVIII) and it’s Museum Baron Martin. The chateau is built to take advantage to castle walls and a single tower left from a castle built in the 1300’s.

Parvis Tower - built as part of a castle in Gray 1200's

The chateau is now an art museum though an effort is made to furnish the rooms with furniture from the 1700’s. A nice dry place to spend a few hours and a chance to get off the boat for a walk.

An old work barge abandoned along the Soâne River

Tuesday was looking like partial sun so it was time to head back downstream. Of course on our return trip the boat is behaving better, but still leaking fluid, plus we still have a window we have to figure out how to retrieve. Tuesday and Wednesday nights we spent in a little marina in the town of Pontailler-sur-Saône. 

The marine at Pontailler-sur-Saône Juniper is the beautiful boat with laundry hanging in the sunshine

The field next to the marina - we're never very far from agriculture along the Saône

The trip down was beautiful and we had time to kick back and do a bit more boat cleaning. There isn’t much to see or do in Pontailler-sur Saône other than getting groceries, a bit of walking and visiting with other boaters at the dock.

On the Saône we have to locate the "Dongle" hanging somewhere before the canal and give it a twist to activate the ecluse.

Wednesday was another sunny day and a short run back to Auxonne where we will spend a few days waiting till it’s time to continue down the Saône to St. Jean de Losne to pull Juniper out of the water and then catch a train for Paris.

Saint Jean de Losne to Gray

We exited the Rhone au Rhîne Canal and turned downstream on the Saône to spend time at our winter storage marina to meet the staff and start scheduling maintenance.  We found an empty slip and tied up to go introduce ourselves, only to be told they had no room for us, we’d have to move marinas. We did find that there was no place to get our window fixed and the company they use would take 3 weeks. Today’s plan is to go back up the Saône tomorrow morning to Auxonne, where the train to Dole runs almost hourly and is a ten minute ride. We did get the OK to have the window shipped to Saint Jean de Losne. 

A quick note to John, the Captainerie at Auxonne, and we were assured there would always be room for Juniper at his marina. The next morning, Thursday, we traveled the 20km upstream to Auxonne, tied up, and walked to the Gare (train station) for the ten minute trip to Dole.

The glass shop was wonderful to work with, and we think we have the proper window ordered. However they can't ship the finished product to us, and by the time it arrives Juniper will be back in Saint Jean de Losne for the winter, and that's an all day round trip to Dole - Still working on how we'll solve this piece of the puzzle. But hey - it's France.

The first time we've shared an ecluse all season - our one ecluse for the day

From Auxonne we continued upstream to Pontailler-sur-Saône, a small town with a quiet marina (not counting the chestnuts dropping on the dock next to us, and occasionally on our deck). The afternoon was perfect for a bike ride and after a busy road start we finally found the local bike path following the Saône then turning off to follow the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne. We managed to put in a bit over 20km of riding, earning us a glass of wine when we returned.

Mooch, the Pontailler-sur-Saône swan that swims right up to your door to beg - even hisses at you if you don't pay attention

Saturday was predicted to be quite wet, and the prediction was an understatement. We’ve all always controlled Juniper from her flying bridge. Today we decided it was too miserable so we tried the lower steering station. It was great, we were dry, had a hot cup of coffee and the boat steered better than ever. However since that station had not been used, none of us knew it had a huge leak and we soon had a container under the wheel collecting steering fluid.

Arriving in Gray, in the rain, it seemed like the perfect time to sit back and take it easy, enjoying the weather from indoors – just had to run to the store for a few groceries between storms. Looking forward to exploring Gray when it’s a little less gray and wet.

Ranchot to Dole and beyond

The day before we left Besançon we were sitting in the salon doing nothing when we heard a loud crash near our stern. Going to back to see what the noise was we discovered the tempered glass window in our head had literally exploded. The rest of the day was spent determining that we could not get a replacement in Besançson and then finding plywood to make a patch.

The Nichols charter fleet is in port of Dole with the fall weather

After arriving in Dole we were able to locate a glass shop only to find it will take 10 days for a new window to be produced, not wanting to wait that long we decided to wait and move on to Saint Jean de Losne (our wintering spot for this year).

Peniche fully loaded with a bulk cargo emerges from the ecluse that we are waiting for. Better here than on a turn.

Our trip down the Rhone au Rhíne was going smooth till our third ecluse. We were all lined up ready to enter when the red green lights (meaning the ecluse was working on our request) went to red (in this case, start over), and the now full ecluse began to drain without opening to let us in. It turns out that Peniches (the working barges that fill an entire ecluse with inches to spare) have the ability to override the system. Fortunately there was a reasonable place for us to tie up and wait, plus be out of the way when he finally emerged and passed with little room to spare.

Besançon to Ranchot

A mixture of old and new - part of the old town wall and a modern water sculpture - Besançon photo by Joan

An early start day (for us) as we were shooting for what would normally be a two day run. The sun was out and Besançon was not yet fully awake as we made our way around the cite one last time. Going down is so much easier than going up in the ecluses.

We prepare to lock around a barrage - abandoned factory in the background - photo by Joan

As we motor in the lock wall is easy to reach, instead of trying to lasso a bollard you can hardly see over your head. With at least half of the ecluses up when we arrived and the fact that we were going downstream on the Doubs we made really good time, arriving in Ranchot in the early afternoon and finding we had the entire port to ourselves.

Yet another ecluse to get us around another barrage. - photo by Joan

A few minutes later the first boat arrived - and as is the standard practice aboard Juniper, Joan and I got onto the quay to greet the new arrival and offer to take their lines. Ranchot has a bit more current running through than it looks like and the boat we were greeting was having a difficult time, they were quite happy to have our assistance. Once they were secured we returned to our books, then a bike ride out via the bike trail and back to the boat via back roads.

Our retired French teachers from Campaign - share a bottle of champagne with us.

A few minutes after returning Michael (pronounced Michele), from the hire boat we had helped, came over to invite us to have some Champaign with them in 20 minutes. The hire boat crew were all retired teachers from the Champaign region of France. While we had been cycling so had Jean Marie – but he had noticed the forest we had just gone through plus lots of wet weather and now sun – mushroom conditions. He’d found some of the biggest, greenest fungi I had ever seen. After cleaning them, with his special knife, and cooking them – they also became probably the best mushrooms I have ever had. Food, drink and conversation went on till well after dark. It turns out this was their first time chartering a boat and we were their for their first landing – it was great for all of us.

Jean-Marie showing off a few of the mushrooms he's gathered. Now cleaning them with his special knife.

Last time we were in Ranchot it was a Kiwi boat rescuing us, as there was no room at the quay. When they saw us arrive, they quickly got the boats that were already there to shuffle enough to create a hole for us. That also was a late night.

Morning fog greeted us the next morning as we head back to Dole - photo by Joan

Montbéliard to Deluze – Mom and Megan are aboard.

Our computer decided to no longer talk to our camera so it’s been a couple of weeks since we have been able to post anything. During that time our friends, Dick and Jenny, spent a week aboard with us traveling from Besançson to Montbéliard. From there the four of us rented a car and explored the Alsace region, took a one day cruise on the Rhine through the castle section then spent three days in Germany. I’ll attempt to get some posts about these adventures soon.

We now have Michael’s mother, who happens to be a spry 95 years old, and his niece who is her traveling partner, on break from being a wife and mother of three for ten days (thanks to my sister and brother-in-law).

Megan, mom and Joan heading for Montbéliard to explore town

Joan and Michael had spent the week between Dick and Jenny’s departure and Mom and Megan’s arrival kicking back, then battling the flu for a few days before having a couple of days to check out the French train museum in Mulhouse and the Eco Musee de Alsace before picking our guests up at the Basel airport and driving them to Montbéliard.

Once aboard Juniper we served them our house special: wine, an assortment of local cheeses, fresh bread and Dutch chocolate before turning out the lights.

Mom's portable backrest, or why grand daughters are special.

Our day in Montbéliard began with croissants, fresh from the boulangerie, and good strong coffee. We did a walking tour of the old town including the Catholic church built in the 1840’s, St. Martin’s Lutheran church, the oldest Lutheran church in France (built in the 1600’s) and of course a stop for a late morning café au lait. Mom took the afternoon to kick back aboard the boat while we took Megan back out to explore the local parks and walk the back streets of the old part of Montbéliard.

Saturday morning it was time to get back on the canal. Joan, Mom and Megan hit the local market, for local cheese and fresh veggies, while Michael got the boat ready to go. With the whole crew aboard we were able to shove off and cross the canal before tying up to exchange our empty butane cylinder. Chores done we got our new crew members up to speed handling ecluse lines and lassoing bollards. As a hold over from previous trips mom had been on with us we stopped for lunch, even though the ecluses being automatic don’t take an hour break.

Mom handling the bow line and Megan making Kodak memories. photo by Joan

Megan takes over the bow line from the housetop as the water drops

Our first day ended in l’Isle-sur-le-Doubs where we completed one more chore; filling gas cans and carrying them across the street from the closest gas station to the water on the entire canal to Juniper then gently pouring them into the tank using a funnel.

Sunday started with a pleasant surprise – the local boulangerie was open and we had fresh croissants with breakfast before traveling 31km and operating 14 ecluse to end up at Baume-les-Dames. Joan and Megan made the trip to town while Michael and Mom stayed on the boat.

Colorfully tiled bell tower in Deluze - one of the things unique to the French Compte region.

Monday was a bit shorter day getting us to Deluze in time to do a bit of exploring.

Megan, Michael and Joan found the trail leading to a small chapel overlooking the river and town, while mom spent the afternoon aboard Juniper reading and journaling before all getting together for dinner, wine and lots of talking and teasing.

The rewards of driving in the rain - the rainbow when the sun finally comes out. photo by Joan

Tuesday Deluze lived up to its Juniper nickname of deluge – again we got soaked with pouring down rain for most of the day. The sun finally popped out just in time to show Besançon off in all its glory as we took the tunnel under the town, then followed the river back through town to our moorage.

Besançon is beautiful from the water - photo by Joan

The harbor - right in the middle of the old city

Ranchot to Besançon

Dinner for two - tomorrow it's time to leave Ranchot for Besançon

Having taken an extra day in Ranchot we were ready to be on the water early as we headed for Besançon. We woke up at seven and by eight had made the mandatory trip to the boulangerie for croisannts and the day’s fresh bread, made coffee (and had a first cup, topped off the water, checked the engine and had most of our necessary gear on deck for the day’s travel.

As we approach each ecluse we use our remote at about 200 metres to activate the lock

Once the lock is ready and the doors are open we enter then lift the blue lever when we are ready to the lock to close and fill with water.

The trip to Besançon is a bit long for one day so our goal was to be on the water early enough to get one of the two spots above the ecluse at Thoraise. This would not only give us a prime moorage spot but allow us to see the wildlife along the river that is all in hiding by our usual ten o’clock start.

Our moorage spot at Thoraise - looking into the tunnel. On the far side you can see the waterfall coming down over the opening. The water stops just before you are about to get wet (or at least it's supposed to.

It’s been a dry hot season in this part of France and water levels are quite low, in fact so low that we had to cut our speed significantly in order to not leave a wake that was braking in the shallows while on the canal portions of the day (a breaking wake does more erosional damage to the canal).

Arriving at Thoraise the mooring pontoon was empty, we tied up leaving room for a second boat and had lunch. By the time we had finished the wind was blowing fairly strong and when the second boat arrived for the night it took all hands to get them safely secured.

Formations in the limestone caves of Grott de Oreselle

That afternoon Joan and I rode our bikes to the limestone grotto in Orselle to take the tour of Grott de Oreselle. While the explanation was all in French, the formations were beyond words. A nice ride uphill (but down wind) brought us back to “Juniper” in time for dinner and wine.

The citadel overlooking our entry to Besançon via the river Doubs

The city of Besançon from the river as we work our way around to our marina for the night.

The day to Besançon was again hot, and a bit later start. Like the day before we were back and forth between the River Doubs and the canal Rhone au Rhîne. The arrival to Besançon is amazing. As you approach the city you have the citadel  overlooking your every move. The old city is in the middle of a river curve making it almost an island. Our moorage was right in the middle of the old town, next to the last manually operated ecluse and we believe to be the last with wooden gates, at least on this canal.

Dole to Ranchot

While we had good intentions of leaving Dole early, we had to make a final trip to Monsieur Bricolage (the French version of Home Depot) and to the Giant Casino (not for gambling but for groceries). In France Casino runs a chain of stores that range from small town shops to super and hyper marches. While we try to do most of our shopping in the open markets and small town grocers, boulangeries, butcheries and charcuteries – there comes a time that finding everything in one place at a great price just appears to be the natural thing to do.

The Port of Dole is pretty empty by the time we get underway - Hopefully we'll be able to find a place to tie up for the night

Today’s run wound its way back and forth from the canal Rhone au Rhîne to Le Doubs and back again. The amount of work over the years to create the series of weirs, barrages, locks and flood gates needed to keep this body navigable is amazing. And to think much of it is 200 year old technology, still working as designed.

We're in the canal on the left side of the wall, with the Rive Doubs a few feet below us. Ahead you can see our next ecluse.

Our entire day’s travel was 21km with only 5 ecluse, or locks to deal with. The ecluse on this stretch of water are operated with a long range remote control (think TV remote). When we get within 200 metres of a lock we zap it with the remote which starts the cycle for us. When our ecluse water level equals that of the body of water we are on, the doors automatically open for us to enter and lasso bollards with our bow and stern lines. We activate the ecluse by lifting a lever within the lock chamber, then exiting when the doors are both open.

We sight our first bell tower with the colorful tiled roof that is representative to the Franche Comté area, just outside Dole.

Arriving at Ranchot it appears the moorage is all taken, except for a spot too small for us. Lucky for us our  NZ friends on "Wairua II" are there and have us raft to them while they organize the boats on the quay to all move enough to enlarge the small spot, to a “Juniper” size hole (with a metre to spare).

Dinner is a potluck sausage Barbeque aboard "Wairua II". As we enjoy wine and stories we all decide to bicycle to Arc et Senans and La Saline, the Royal Salt Works that are about 16km away, most of it on EuroVelo 6.

The entrance to La Saline. This is where high salinity water was evaporated away till only the salt was left. It's pretty clear from the buildings just how valuable and important salt was at that time.

The administrative building, complete with a chapel for the employees to attend mass. The eye in the roof line symbolizes the watchfulness over the facility.

Michael on the throne (not that one) in a garden with a South American theme.

Next morning finds us all on our bikes for the 16km ride to Arc et Senans. La Salines has to be one of the most beautiful pieces of industrial architecture from the 1800s. Designed by visionary architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux. We spend the entire day exploring the site, its museums and the gardens that surround it.

Road art on our ride back to Ranchot

Then we quick ride into the town of Arc en Senans before riding back to the boat for a cold Perrier, followed by a cold beer.

Our planning wasn’t perfect for the next day – we realized we would be spending our next couple of days without shore power and more importantly no stores or boulangeries.  So we did the logical thing and stayed one more day – riding into a nearby town to stock up on groceries and wine, then relaxing and reading the afternoon away and ending with a dinner for the two of us.

Dinner in the forward cockpit garden (shade and a breeze) with a well cooled glass of wine, good food and the love of my life.

Dole on Le Doubs

We spent three entire days exploring Dole and some of the surrounding area and were making a list of things we want to see on our trip back down the canal next month.

Our first day was market day – time to stock up on the really good stuff to eat. We found great cheeses from the area, tortellini to die for (yum, can’t wait for a repeat of that dinner), farm fresh veggies and meats from the butcherie.

"Juniper" moored on Le Doubs in the Port of Dole. We are the second from the right. As nearly everywhere in Dole the Collegite Church of Notre-Dame overlooks our home

Dole harbor is a very international place with boats flying flags from: France, Germany, Switzerland, New Zealand and the UK on the nights we were there. “Juniper” has an American crew but is French flagged – so the US wasn’t counted.

Walking around most French towns the impact of the two world wars is almost always prominent, no matter the size of village, town or city - especially the effects of the Great War. Along with that are continued thank yous to the countries that came to their aid. Dole also was on this year's Tour de France which showed up in windows and signs throughout the area.

A poster for this year's upcoming Liberation Anniversary. Please note the US Flag. And we try calling Pom Frits, Freedom Fries. Guess we better reread our history books, and remember a thanks now and then to those that came to our aid.

The tour is always good for some creative graphics - this one in a pub window.

We also spent a day doing the “Perched Cat” walk around the city.  ‘Chat perche’ is a reference to one of Dole’s famous writers, Marcel Aymé. We’re not to be surprised if a cat offers to show us the hidden corners and secret places of Dole (as an aside, Michael had a cat meet him in the same place most mornings on his way to the boulangerie, a cat who craved interacting). This is a self guided walk that takes most of a day and takes you to over 30 historic and important locations within the city of Dole. The route is marked by bronze plaques in the sidewalk showing you the direction to go and accompanied by a map with info about each site.

The Chat perché marks we followed on our tour.

Hôtel Dieu - The 17th century hospital for the poor, that is now the city's library

A proper place to leave your gum - before entering historic sites in town. Not quite Seattle's gum wall but a friendly reminder to take care of history.

Porte Arans - an old town gate still standing from the old city wall

Collegiate church of Notre Dame over the artistically placed roof line of the old town of Dole

High overhead - the massive pipe organ

The alter at Notre-Dame

Michael, becoming part of the local art scene while walking the Chat perché.

Having been in town for a couple of days it was time to get the bikes down and take them for a ride. We started out of town on EuroVelo Route 6, which extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the Black Sea. A few kilometers out of town we switched to back roads through small towns till we ended up on a dirt road that took us into the Forêt de Chaux, one of the largest forests in France.

Joan at the Fontaine de la Belle Nanette - Part of a 17th century legend about a young girl, Nanette saving her village.

Beyond the dirt road we found this beautiful stretch of single lane road and, no cars. What a wonderful way to end a 25km ride.

After our ride to the Forêt de Chaux it was time to check out our new barbeque with some curried chicken skewers. We had a bit of a time getting started as we couldn't see flame as we kept trying to get it lit. Luckily the boat next to us, that was from New Zealand, told us they could see the heat waves rising. Seems it started right off the bat.

Dinner is being served on the sun deck.