Saône and the River Seille

Cuisery - the village of books.

August 23 Friday – Back to the Saône for another 9km to the La Seille River and another right turn to explore 39km of river and a couple of towns that look interesting. Our first town was Cuisery, built high above the flood plain. After a toast to Poseidon we walked down the river to an old mill (wasn’t photogenic) then up a trail to town. It’s getting late so we take a few photos of l’Eglise Notre Dame dating from the 16^th century. Back aboard it was time to break out the barbeque for dinner on the sun deck.

The next morning we walked back into town and after wandering around town picked up info (in Anglais) for the town tour from the tourist information office. We began with a treat from the boulangerie and a nice sit in the shade. Cuisery is known as a book town. There is an entire street of almost nothing but book stores AND the Gutenberg center, where we watched and learned about the early days of printing. The gentleman that talked with us had four of us come in about the same time. He was very fluent in French and German but had to work a bit on describing things in English. Between the four of us in our group (two young women that spoke French plus Joan and me, we were able to all communicate with plenty of laughter and smiles at all of our attempts.

Our printing lesson - from hand setting type to inking (using the leather "inkers" in his hands.
All shown on a Gutenburg era press

Sunday – We knew that Louhans (our next destination and a major market town) would be crowded as there is a weekly market each Monday. We decided to leave Cuisery early in the morning to beat the crowd. The early morning cruise was peaceful and the morning light amazing (we will repeat this early morning stuff again). Our route passed châteaux, open agricultural land and even a Bressen chicken farm, where the chickens ran wild in the fields. Arriving at Louhans the dock was nearly empty (by dark that night, it was completely full) our plan worked.

The main street of Louhans - Arcades run the full length of the street, on both sides.

St. Pierre - with its varnished tile roof.

We wandered Louhans a city known for its arcaded main street, forgetting Sunday in France means almost nothing is open. Being unable to shop for groceries meant we were forced to go out for dinner (gee bummer – no cooking and no dishes)

Market day. We arose early, hit the boulangerie for our morning croissants then off to see what this was all about. The market stretched the entire length of the arcaded main street, then filled the side streets and spilled over the main road for the livestock section. There was everything from household goods to clothing, produce, cheeses, butchers and fresh fruit to live chickens, turkeys, rabbits and even pet birds, cats and dogs. With such a big layout you’d think there might be room to wander – nope, the whole town was packed shoulder to shoulder with people shopping. Spent the afternoon aboard Juniper relaxing and reading.

Shopping for anything you might need

Mirabelles - mini plums. We bought a kilogram and feasted on them for days.

Chickens - buy them for pets, laying eggs, or dinner tonight. Your choice.

The early start was pretty going up – let’s try it going down. Another beautiful morning of cruising back to Cuisery where we got on our bikes to search for the elusive château we had seen the towers of going upstream. A fair amount of riding got us right next to the château, but unable to through the wall and vegetation that surrounded it – still nothing but the six towers we were able to see.

Joan closing the écluse door as we start our decent of the Seille River

Our trip up and back on the Seille was an area with no éclusiers – we had to do all the work in the écluse. We would stop at the pontoon (floating dock) before the écluse and Joan would hike up to the écluse. If the last boat through was going the same direction as us she would have to close the doors, close the valves, open the valves on the other end to bring the water to the level we needed, then open the gates again by hand to let Juniper and I in. Then close the gates, open the valves to take us up or down and finally open the gates again to let us out.

Mill next to the écluse gate Joan was closing

Château de Loisy, Just below the écluse. Beautiful early mornings

The next morning - you guessed it, another early departure (we’d heard Chalon-sur-Saône was always overcrowded and we wanted a spot for sure. We arrived to a nearly empty dock yet again – and again that didn’t last long.