Last Days Part 1, July 19-25

H2O, the brokers who sold us the boat, have three marinas.  The Gare d’ Eau, where we have spent most of our time and Oldtimer would spend the winter, the “Old Lock,” a big disused river lock converted into mooring spaces for big boats, and a new one in Auxonne, about 20k up the Saone River from St. Jean de Losne.  It was dug out of a space just up the river from the town’s pontoons on the river and opened in 2011. Since we paid for a slip in the Gare for a year, we have reciprocal privileges in Auxonne. We could stick around for a few days to do a little touch up painting.  The pontoons in St. Jean are very short so it’s hard to get to the whole side of the boat. In Auxonne, we could lay alongside a dock and get to the whole boat side.  After a couple of days, we turned the boat around and touched up the other side.

Auxonne is a pretty quiet town, dominated by facilities reserved for the military contained in an old Vauban-designed fort and the Marie features the typical glazed tile Burgundian roof.

Wednesday when I went into town for the daily bread, I discovered that another famous American institution had come to France. Le Cascadeurs had come to town for a Monster Truck Rally!

They set up an enclosure with truck trailers and containers just up the road from the marina. Thursday the loudspeaker truck traveled around town followed by the above pictured vehicle; “Attention, attention!  Vendredi et Samedi, Le Monster Trucks!” Friday night there was about an hour and a half of engine revving, sirens and loud, enthusiastic loudspeaker announcements.

Saturday morning we were off down the river in the direction of St. Jean to another great bankside spot.  The temps had climbed again; not to 100 but still well into the 90’s and we needed some shade.  We weren’t going to stay long, however. The plane and train ride home was coming up soon and we were going to have to get the boat ready for winter.