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.