We spent a few days back in St Jean de Losne as our friends Eleanor and June were arriving from England to travel with us. Up to now it had been a pleasantly warm here around 18 to 22 degrees. Next thing we knew we were in the middle of summer up to 35 even at 8pm for four days. We only had winter clothes so it was off to the shops to find shorts and tops. This was no trouble to Kevin but a different story for me the ordinary price for womens tops was around 30 euro so finally I found some in a market cheaper. Alas I don’t think there is anyone in France with a fat derriere so no shorts for me unless I paid 68 euro about $120 dollars in a surf shop. I wore my bathers and sarong instead. Fortunately when my friend arrived from England she brought 2 pairs of shorts (another fat derriere person)and I was saved.
We visited a Annie and Paul who have bought a 40 metre barge to renovate, a giant undertaking, poor Courlis looked like a boat in a bottle alongside
This time we went up the Saone River. At a village called Auxonne we stopped for a day to visit an old castle with a museum about Napoleon Bonaparte who started his military career here.
There were some incredible items on display, the table and chairs he took on campaign and a Sevres dinner set which was used for an important dinner he and Josephine gave in St Claude. Each item right down to delicate cups and saucers had a painting of the bust of the person who was to use it.
This village is very forward for tourists, they had an English translation leaflet to put in their map of the town which made it easy to go around and look at the sights.
Up the river again still going through up locks and stopped at a town to catch a taxi out to a village 15 k away listed as one of the 100 most beautiful towns in France. A very old walled city with pathways through courtyards between houses, an incredible chateau and church all from 11th to 16th century.
Our overnight stops are either in villages or alongside the canal. One night we decided to pull in where we saw a great spot to have put out the table and chairs for dinner that night as our friends were leaving us at the next town. As we came in to moor alongside Kevin jumped off to hammer in a peg to put the rope on and we found out about one of the dangers of the wild in Europe, he had climbed through stinging nettles. Fortunately he had on long pants and only got stung on the arms, our friend fell about laughing and told us we needed to find a dock leaf. Easier said than done when you have no idea what a dock leaf looks like. However a great time was had that night.
We next stopped at a little village which had a great boulangerie and a lovely little church , unfortunately it was not so lovely at night. Each place we had been to the bells were turned off around 9pm, here they rang all night, 1 ding dong 15 min, 2 ding dongs 30 m, 3 ding dongs 45 m then the hour. By 1.30am we were going psycho waiting for the next ding dong.
Along the way we stopped in the town of Gray on a lawn area beside the quay and settled in for the night after dinner by the boat. Gray has many buildings with the Burgundy style roofing tiles.
We have changed out of the River Soane and into the Canal de Vosges and spend our days when travelling going up locks as we are head towards the mountain area. Going up an automatic lock consists of driving into a lock with sides usually 3 metres and throwing the rope like a lasoo over the bollard at the top or climbing the ladder with the rope to attach at the top then attaching the back rope as well. When all is ready you push up a rod which closes the lock doors then water rushes in as you keep the boat from moving too much to bring the boat up to the top. We have spent the last few days going up fast in 30 kilometres we went through 35 locks and up 115 m. Some of these were automatic and some we had a lock keeper who goes along the tow path on a motor bike to open and close the locks by turning a big geared wheel.
We spent a week in a little town in the mountains called Fontenoy le Chateau. The town is at the bottom of a very steep valley with the canal in the middle bottom and hills to walk up which ever way you go. Alas it also had a church with magnificent bells which rang all night.
Most of the buildings are 17th century and a 14th century Donjon tower complete with chains on the walls and doors where food was passed thru to the prisoners while waiting for trial. Each time we walked back from the Bar we passed the tower, it had a very ghostly atmosphere as we walked by.
We spent many happy hours in the Bar Harliquin, a cute little place about as big as a loungeroom, they had Pizza nights on Tuesdays which were brought from a town several miles away. and a music night on Fridays and always someone to chat to. The temperature was around 30 deg while we were there and gets to – 25 in the winter.
We arrived in Epinal which is on the banks of the upper River Moselle and stayed a few days before returning along the Canal Vosges and river Saone calling into towns we missed along the way.
We stopped in Fontenoy le Chateau to catch up with Marion and Monk a lovely couple we met last time who have a house on the canal.
Each year in Fontenoy the people get together and paint proverbs and sayings on boards and attach them to fences around the town, it is very enjoyable to wander around working out what they say.
The weather has been incredibly hot, often up to 36 in the day and very muggy. I have never been surrounded by water when it is so hot without swimming in it to keep cool, but we thought swimming in the canal water wasn’t an option when you know what goes into it.
Ray sur Saone is a village on the upper Petite Saone which is built on a steep hill with a magnificent chateau on top of the hill with the town below beside the river. When we arrived here it was so hot we finally gave in went for a swim with our mouths shut tight. We havn’t suffered any ill effects yet.
I will tell you the story of Kevin’s last adventure while trying to conquer the French language. We went into a little town where we had heard that someone did stainless steel bar work on boats. While I went shopping, Kevin went off on his own to find out where he could find the factory. Unfortunately he tried his French out on a group of Pompiers ( French Firemen and Emergency squads) who were at a convention showing the fire engines from various surrounding towns. Somehow he ended up in a game of chinese whispers as he was passed along through the crowd as they found someone who spoke more Anglais. He was offered a lift in the fire truck and he thought you beaut I am getting somewhere now. When they turned on the sirens of the car he was in and raced through the town arriving at the port he realised that he had some explaining to do to say his boat wasn’t sinking. When he found me and told me what happened I made him walk ten paces ahead and quickly made it back to the boat and left town. Needless to say he wont be trying out any more Francais before we leave for home.
Before going back to St Jean we went back to Dole as we had met up with our Aussie friend Oliver and his Canadian visitors Katherine and John and had a typical Aussie BBQ.
We stayed for a few days moored up the canal under the trees to beat the heat.
We are now back in St Jean de Losne where we are leaving the boat until we come back next year. We need to organise the winterising of the motor and water system as it freezes over here during the winter. There is a lot of coming and going as boat owners arrive to start their holidays and others leaving. The boats all fly their national flag so we have great conversations about where we have all been or where we are going. Next year we will should write Australia on the Flag as it confuses people no end with the Union Jack in corner ( Oh for a republic). We have had an absolutely fabulous time, I see lots more French lessons coming up in the next year.
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