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.