Up the River, Back to Gray, July 10-13

After a quick trip to the supermarket we pushed off from the pier in Gray about 10:30 Friday morning.  We’d head up the river a ways, find a shady spot and hang out for a couple of days, then head back to Gray for France’s Fete National, Bastille Day, the 14th.

After about 20k , 3 locks and 3 1/2 hours, we were snug in the trees just a little way from the village of Autet.  The weather had moderated a bit; it was still into the 90’s F in the afternoon but the mornings were pleasant. Saturday we rode our bikes up the riverside bike path (Veloroute 50.  It starts in Chalone sur Saone and generally follows the Saone River. It ends at the Luxembourg border several hundred kilometers away.) to Ray-sur-Saone, about 18k away and a village we had visited in 2011.  When we visited before they had a half dozen very nice platforms into an arm of the river.  Half of them have now deteriorated beyond use. There were no boats there. It was sad.

Sunday we took a short ride to Dampierre, on the river Salon.  

The best thing about the spot we were tied up in, however, was the plage (beach) that had been set up just a five minute walk downriver. A nice beach was marked off for swimming, there was a camping and picnic area with tables and a buvette, a snack bar, that opened at 4 pm each day and featured live music on Friday nights.  Being a French snack bar, of course, they had fresh made waffles, beer, wine and other liquid refreshments, and an assortment of huge sandwiches that came with piles of frites.  We wandered over for the music Friday night and had our aperitifs there.  It was busy with families and a very pleasant spot.

Oldtimer in the trees

We also discovered a new use for life rings, normally used when people fall overboard…..wait, maybe this is falling overboard! 

Monday morning we shoved off.  We’d gone as far up the river as we would this year.  It was time to head back south and we wanted to be in Gray for the celebrations happening on the 13th and 14th.

For John

As we were leaving Gray on the 15th we passed a fancy cruiser with a Swiss flag.  I just had time to grab the phone and take a picture as we went by.  Looks like Buford's brother is their mascot!

Rollin’ On The River

Finally a break from the heat!  We found a great spot on the bank of the river in the trees Tuesday night.  Wednesday the daytime temps peaked in the high 20’s, mid 70’s in Fahrenheit land.  We celebrated with a bike ride to the village of Pesmes, about and hour away.  A big deal in it’s day (the first settlement was in the 11th century) the town straddles the Ognon River at a very strategic point and guarded the Gray-Dole Road. As is the case with all of these fortified towns, additions and subtractions were made over the years; the church was built in the mid 1100’s and the chateau was rebuilt in the 1600’s.  Standing at the river and looking up, however, you can see why this place endured.

Eglise Saint Hilaire

The bridge over the river from the ramparts.

Thursday morning it was off to Gray.  Looking back at our last trip on Odysseus, we realized we had been in Gray exactly 4 years ago.  That was the site of the burning building next to the canal.  Arriving just a little after noon, we visited the canal-side grocery store to stock up and took a stroll around town. Friday morning we shoved off about 10:30, hoping to find another backside mooring about 20 k up the river.  The temps were climbing again, although not to last weeks heights.  We’d find a nice spot, settle in for a couple of day, do some bike riding and then turn around a head slowly back to St. Jean with another stop in Gray for France’s Fete National, July 14.

Hot, Hot, Hot!!!

We’re havin’ a heat wave.  Temperatures well over 100 for several days running.  Switching from one side of the canal to the other in search of shade.  All necessary chores completed in the morning so the afternoon can be spent in the river.  We stayed bankside on the canal just before the last lock to the river.  There are trees on both sides so the sun only got to the boat in the middle of the afternoon but there’s really no cooling anything down much when the air is so hot.

Oh, and that beer festival.  We bicycled the 5 k up the canal just before noon to find that the fete didn’t start until 3 pm. We had our 4th dinner to prepare. The woman running the cafe we stopped at to get a beer before the hot trip back to the boat rushed out with a pitcher of water with ice cubes (!) in it when we sat down. Then she brought us the beer. We must have looked pretty bad.

So, 4th of July. In St. Jean is Fournier, a real live butcher shop.  It’s quite big and always very busy. We stopped in on Friday to pick up some hamburger; haché to the French.  They plop a piece of meat in the grinder and prepare it just for you.  We found some hamburger buns, tomato and lettuce in the market, Cathy Jo made some potato salad and, voila, Fourth of July!

By Sunday, though, we decided we should get the boat on the river.  We’ve paid for a year’s mooring with H2O and they have another marina right on the river in Auxonne, about 20 k away.  We shoved off at about 9:30 am, stopped at the H2O boatyard long enough to fill our water tank and then headed up the Saone.  The river locks are much farther apart.  We only had to go through one right before Auxonne.  We can also go much faster in the river.  Oldtimer does 9 k without any strain. We were tied up the the Port Royal Marina about 1 pm.  More swimming!  Monday we tackled the laundry beast and spent the afternoon swimming in the river.

Sunday night one of the other tenants in the marina had some kind of party on their boat.  They had a bunch of food left over so they got in touch with Roy and Carol, the harbormasters, and offered to provide it for a marina get together Monday evening. It was another one of those United Nations moments.  French, German, Swiss, Aussies, Kiwis, Brits, South Africans, (the Russians on the hire boat didn’t show up) and yes, a couple of Americans (we were not the only ones.  There was an American women there with her British boyfriend although she hardly counts as she’s been living in Paris for many years!)

Tuesday morning we were off up the river. The forecast said the heat was supposed to break on Wednesday.  We were hopeful!

Back Down Again, June 28-July 2

In 2011 we had traveled all the way up to the basin at Vandeness en Auxois to tie up.  This time we stopped a couple of locks short so we would be right under the chateau walls.We had already toured the chateau and had a great lunch at one of the restaurants in town so we didn’t need to duplicate that experience. We did make the hike up the hill.

 Pretty imposing from right under the walls.

The village that surrounds the chateau at the top of the hill is very pretty and there are several properties for sale but it’s a long hike to the grocery store.  And that is a problem here.  All of the villages along the canal are very small and there’s really only one market close to the canal the first day out of Dijon. Boulangeries are very scarce.  We lack bread!  All the other stores are a pretty good bike ride away so it’s best to stock up before leaving the big city. We did find one market about 9k away.  The ride to Creancey was uphill all the way.  Downhill with panniers full of groceries on the way back was kind of fun!

We just spent the one day (two nights) at a very nice bankside mooring, thus another bankside shot, this time with the lock in the background!

Also, like all great buildings in Europe, they light the buildings at night for drama’s sake.

When it was time to go we realized one of the drawbacks of having a larger barge.  We are too long to turn around in the canal so we would have to make the two up locks to the Vandeness basin where there was room to spin and then head back down the canal.  We planned the move for Sunday since the hotel barges would be headed back to Dijon on Monday and that way we could be one day ahead of them. Fewer big boats make a quicker trip.  It took us two long days, one 7 hours and 23 locks, the next almost 9 hours and 25 locks but we made it back to Dijon by 6:30 pm on Monday.  Tuesday was shopping day as the wine and grocery supply had gotten dangerously low and Wednesday it was off again for the long straight trip to the river. 

Rather that try to make it in one day, we decided to stop again at the Longecourt bankside mooring as France was having a major heat wave (over 100 F in the afternoon)  and we could find some afternoon shade there. Metal boats get really hot in full sun!

We got the first scheduled lock out of Dijon at 9 am and were tied up about 3:45.  9 am Tuesday morning we were off again, arriving along the bank just before the canal auction with the Saone River in the trees.  Shade morning and afternoon and just a 5 minute bike ride from the cooling waters of the river. Swimming was called for!  We’d stick around here for a couple of days.  Internet was available, groceries are a five minute bike ride from the boat and there’s a beer festival about 5 k back up the canal on Saturday, the 4th.  Bonne Fete Nacional!

Off We Go Some More, Monday, June 22

One big difference between this year and the last time we were on this canal is the presence of big hotel barges.  In 2011, with the sputtering economy, there were none.  This year, we contended with three leaving Dijon at the same time as we did, headed uptake canal.  Since they take precedence and each one fills the lock completely, we were given a 10:30 start time, instead of the usual 9 am.  Even when we appeared at the first lock, it took another 45 minutes for the lockkeeper to arrive.  It was going to be a long day and we weren’t going to get very far at that.

14 kilometers, 13 locks and 6 1/2 hours later, we found a bankside spot just above a village we’d stayed in several times before, Fleury.

The next day it was off with a little less traffic to a stop at the lock called Moulin Banet.  A Swiss/French couple have taken over the lock house, put in some moorings with water and electricity and opened a little restaurant and shop.  Unfortunately for us, the restaurant and shop are closed Tuesday thru Thursday and we were there Tuesday and Wednesday.  With available power and water, though, we could catch up on the laundry, top up the batteries and on Wednesday, visit the Jardin du Barbirey.  The gardens of the chateau are a reimagining of what the grounds would have been like in the 1700’s.

Rooms at the chateau are now available for your stay in France!

Friday the 26th was 14 kilometers and 11 locks to Veuvey sur Ouche and Friday was the final part of the journey up the canal to a bankside mooring underneath the chateau at Chateauneuf, where we spent a couple of days in 2011.  From here we would turn around and head back down to the river Saone.  The weather forecast called for a major heat wave and we wanted to be on the river when the temps got over 100.

Where’s My Tram? (cont.)

When we were last in Dijon, 2011, the city was a mess.  They were putting in two new tram lines and they decided to bite the bullet and do it all at once rather than a little at a time, figuring to get the pain of construction over quicker.  And painful it was.  But it’s done now; two shiny new tram lines, one running from the suburb of Chenove in the south, through the middle of town by the train station and ending in the northern suburbs, the other running from the train station to the east. What was once and long half-hour walk from the port to the train station (dragging your bags behind you)  or a 45 minute walk to the big marchè is now a €1.50, 5 minute tram ride. That fare is good for an hour. Two tram stops are less than 5 minutes from the port.  And if you take the northern line out past the University there’s a giant shopping mall with all the stuff you really can’t fit on a canal barge.