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.

First day on the water: Auxonne to Dole

Early morning on the Saône - We have the river to ourselves

Our first day has the possibility of being a fairly long one, with a busy harbor at the end of the day. Following recommendations of our partners, who had just returned from these waters, we set off early. Our goal was to be the first to the ecluse we had to go through on the Saône. The ecluse opened at 0700 and we were the only boat in sight. The early start gave us the river to ourselves as we enjoyed our coffee underway, watching the birds and fishermen along the shore.

We arrive at Ecluse 75 a bit before the 0900 opening. This is the first (or last) ecluse of the Canal du Rhône au Rhine, our primary cruising grounds for this year.

Juniper, on the Saône, waiting to enter the Canal du Rhône au Rhine

Being early we tied up at the waiting pontoon and Joan went up to see what the process would be. She was told that they open at 0900. The first ecluse on this canal is a bit more of an ordeal than other ecluses. Our papers are checked, and we are issued a remote control device that will open most of the next 74 ecluse we encounter. Along with that there is a safety talk and finally small talk.

Michael handling the bow line, while Joan handles the camera and stern line as we transit Ecluse 75; St-Symphorien-sur-Saône 

Peniche and town of St-Symphorien-sur-Saône

With a good chart and excellent markings, following the canal is usually pretty straight forward. Here we are told to take the left channel, or follow the right bank in French river terms.

While most of our time on the canals is post card beautiful - occasionally we are reminded of these waterways roots. Here we are passing through a couple kilometers of chemical plants. Not pretty and all kinds of warning signs about the dangers.

But then at the end of the day you reach a beautiful town like Dole, where we'll be spending a few days soaking up the history, riding our bikes in the country, buying wonderful food at the market and taking time to smell the roses. And, by the way we made it in time to find a great pace to moor.

Our next post will be about our stay in this beautiful spot.

Canal des Tanneurs - the oldest part of Dole and birthplace of Louis Pasteur.

2017 - Auxonne on the River Pettit Saône

After nearly 12 hours of flight and transfer time we made it from Seattle to Paris and picked up our luggage then off to the car rental location. An hour later had us driving to Auxonne, a three hour drive. We only sleep bonked once and after a 1/2 hour nap were back on the road.

Driving on the French toll roads has a culture all on its own, and once we figured it out it was probably the nicest freeway driving I've ever done. The speed limit is a moderate 130, with truck limited to 90 (and they all follow the speed limit). No one will pass you on the right - if you forget to get out of the center lane a car will come up on your right, swerve around you, then cut very close to let you know you're not following the rules as he returns to the right lane. You quickly learn to drive only in the right lane, unless passing. And only use the left lane if passing cars in the two right lanes at the same time. Another nice feature was rest stops every 10 or 12 miles, many with gas and food.

Arrived at our AirBnB which was about a 2 minute drive or bike ride from "Juniper" and then down to the boat for dinner with our Seattle partners.

Our living room at the AirBandB - also had a kitchen, bedroom, toilet room and bathroom. Great hosts - we didn't speak a common language but with the aid of a translation program and a cell phone all went well.

The next day was spent taking advantage of having a car to move things about and get our basic provisioning ready to load. Returned the car to Dole and spent some time exploring the town before catching a train back to Auxonne for dinner with our Seattle partners, Tom and Mary,

Friday we will begin this season's adventure by going down the Saône River to the Canal Rhone au Rhine  then up the canal to Dole.

Thursday we were able to spend the day exploring the town of Auxonne as well as finalizing our provisioning before taking off early the Friday morning (an important date, as we want to be in Dole for the Saturday market).

 Michael with a box on the back of his bike and a pack on his back, hauling groceries back to the boat

 Notre-Dame Church in Auxonne - dominates the skyline of this beautiful small French town

One of the remaining town gates from a time when Auxonne was a walled city. Tomorrow we begin our trip. Auxonne is known for its military presence as it is where Napoleon did his training as a young officer.