Don and Cathy Jo

So, it's done.

2012-01-22T16:46:00.000-08:00

Odysseus now belongs to someone else!

In November a very pleasant couple from British Columbia, Georgia and Hugh Humphries, became the new owners of Odysseus. We wish them well on their journeys and hope Odysseus treats them as well as it did us...most of the time!

For the next couple of years we'll be concentrating on putting our lives in order here in Ventura. As retirement looms, we're sure the canals of Europe will call to us again. We can hardly wait!

In the meantime, we'll be using the blog to document our travels. Maybe a road trip through the western US in early summer and Portugal in the fall? Check back occasionally.

Don and Cathy Jo

The River Seille - Aug. 4 - 10

2011-09-30T16:51:00.000-07:00

Just going over the blog, reliving this summers travels, we realized that our trip on the Seille River and visit to the market in Louhans didn't get posted. Because of the way Blogger archives posts things will be out of order but without further ado....

The navigable portion of the River Seille is only 38 kilometers and, except for small villages and the larger market town of Louhans at the end of the navigation, twists and turns through a rural landscape of cornfields, trees and livestock farms. There are only 4 small locks and, in a new twist, only the first lock off the Saone is staffed. Boaters have to operate the other three themselves.
Water traffic on the river was first recorded around 1000 with rock salt being carried down the river to the monks at Tournus. The locks and bridges were installed in the late 1700's. Commercial traffic, never very heavy, dwindled throughout the years and it took serious work in the 1980's to save the canal from dereliction.
Now there are four hire boat companies renting boats along the river and there is quite a bit of traffic.
We left the pontoon at Tournus about 9:30 am and made the 6 k to the entrance to the river in a little less than an hour. We made our way through the first lock and then found a spot on the bank just 6 k up the river. We were tied up in plenty of time for lunch.

On the bank in the trees.
Cathy Jo does a little gardening.

Heading up the river.

We traveled a little further Friday, finding another bank mooring in the trees after negotiating one lock. It seems that since there is so much hireboat (read - inexperienced) traffic on the river, the hireboat companies have hired people to staff the locks so there was an eclusier. Lucky, too, because there was a line of boats waiting for the lock and without help it would have taken much longer than the nearly an hour it took to get through.
The end of day three found us at our ultimate destination and the end of the navigation, the town of Louhans. The home of the only chicken with it's own AOC, the Bresse chicken, and an amazing market.

From David Downie's "Food and Wine" (The Little Bookroom, 2010), "If you visit one market in Burgundy, make it Louhans. It ranks among the top three in France. Held since the 1200's, from dawn to 1 pm Mondays. … Stands mushroom all over this surprisingly charming, little-known farm town of 6,000 inhabitants. You'll find eggs, live chicks, mature birds, the feeds and treatments for them, cages, poultry farmers' tools and chicken theme knicknacks. Live ducks, geese, rabbits, goats, porkers, sheep and other livestock are ranged amid items normally found at other markets, from fruits and vegetables to wines and cheeses, terrines, salamis, pates, candy, chocolate, herbs, plants and seeds." And, he might have added, every type of clothing item known to man (or woman). "Arrive early: tens of thousands attend, the atmosphere is festive, and traffic snarls." He was right on every count. It was MADNESS!!!

Looking down Grand Rue, Louhans' main street. According the the tourist office brochure it is the longest street with arcades in France. 157 arcades, the oldest dating from the 15th century, line both sides. If not for all the people and tents, you might be able to see them!

These girls are headed for somebody's pot.

Fruit and veggie HQ.
Our plan had been to leave after the market on Monday afternoon but it was pretty windy and we'd had a wild morning so we decided to stay put and leave Tuesday morning.
We awoke to the sound of rain on the cabin roof but the shower had passed by departure time so we shoved off.
As before, the last lock up the river was unstaffed so we had to work it ourselves, but the other two had lockkeepers. We tied up in the same spot we enjoyed our first night on the river after a brief lunchtime stop in the village of Loisy to admire the 12th century chateau and the still-working mill.

Wednesday morning we were off again, re-entering the Saone River and tied up in Tournus by 11:15.

The Map for 2011

2011-09-12T18:31:00.000-07:00

Here is the map for our 2011 trip. As before, you can zoom in to see what we saw, albeit from the air. Some really beautiful country this year. Also, the .kml file will open the map in Google Earth for even more options.

Next year? We'll see.

And we've had a couple of nibbles on the boat. As I said before: Next year? We'll see.

Don

View Voyage 2011 in a larger map

Planes, Trains and Automobiles (well, vans) Sept. 2

2011-09-04T14:52:00.001-07:00

The trip home as planned was to take the Eurostar from Paris to London with an hour to make the tube trip from the train to Heathrow and then time for a leisurely lunch before our flight left at 4, then a shuttle van home.
Things got a little dicey when there was a signal problem on the Eurostar tracks and we ended up sitting in a tunnel in the English countryside for about 1 1/2 hours. Then the 1 hour subway ride ran a little long because of some delays on the tracks so our leisurely lunch turned into wolfing down paninis while on the way to the gate for our flight.
After an on-time departure we headed north.
The trip takes the great circle route from London to Los Angeles; leaving England and crossing Scotland, Iceland and Greenland before heading south just west of Hudson Bay, crossing Montana, Wyoming and Nevada before entering California airspace. Since the flight leaves at 4 and lands at 7 pm heading west, the whole thing is in daylight. Usually it clouds up the minute you head north but this time we were blessed with clear skies over most of the trip and a great view of the western Greenland fjords.

And not a wing shot among 'em!

There was a great swimming pool in this iceberg. Don't know that I'd want to go swimming in there, though.

We landed on time at 7:15 pm. Unfortunately, several oversees flights had landed before us and the customs and immigration hall was full. We couldn't leave the plane for about half an hour, then stood in line for about an hour and a half to get our passports scanned.
After the van made two circles around the airport looking for more passengers we headed up the freeway only to get stuck in traffic caused by a wreck on one of the busiest freeways in Los Angeles.
Finally, at 11 pm we were at our door. Thankfully, Mary, who had stayed in the house while we were gone, left us with a freshly made bed and coffee for the morning. This years trip was over.

Paris - Aug. 30 - Sept. 2

2011-09-04T14:41:00.000-07:00

After getting things settled at our room, off we went into the city up to Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur. Except for a brief stay three years ago on the boat, we've always been in Paris either mid-May or mid-September and we hadn't realized the full impact of tourist-Paris. The butte was jumpin! The small sidewalk cafes were all packed and the narrow streets were full of "yoots," this area being a popular hangout. We had a really good pizza at the local "Pink Flamingo," and after a little stroll around the area, headed back to our room. Tomorrow would be eventful; a trip to Versailles.

Upon good advice, we purchased our entrance tickets to the palace at the train station before departing. That meant we only had to stand in one, 1 hour line for entrance to the chateau itself. Standing in line did give us a great view of the complex.

The old brick and stone chateau of Louis XIII was transformed by his son, Louis XIV beginning in 1661. The work continued until his death in 1715 but there were continual "upgrades" made well into the 18th century under the reigns of Louis' XV and XVI. In 1789 the king and his family were run out of the chateau at the beginning of the French revolution. In the mid 1800's it was officially opened to outsiders.

Some great trompe l'oeils painting on the ceiling in part of the Kings chamber.

The man, himself.

The Hall of Mirrors.

The Latone Fountain and Parterre, then the Grand Canal at the base of the "Green Carpet" and the Apollo Fountain. Unfortunately, they don't turn the water on in the fountains except on special occasions.

There are some pretty specialized jobs required to keep up a place like this. This craftsman was repairing the arm of one of the statues along the Green Carpet.

Everybody needs a lawn ornament like this.

We spent all day wandering about the chateau, the nearby Grand and Petite Trianons and the gardens. It was a beautiful day but we were a little footsore by the time we got back to the room about 6.

Happily, the weather during our stay in Paris was very pleasant. There was a little shower while we were at dinner on Wednesday night but other than that is was sunny and warm.
Thursday we spent just wandering around the city, visiting the area by the Seine, the St. Germaine neighborhood and the Notre Dame cathedral. We didn't go into the church, however. The place was crawling with tourist groups.
Friday morning it was up early. We had a 9 oclock train to catch. We were homeward bound.

Misc. Pictures - Where Do I Put These?

2011-09-04T11:49:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when you do too many locks!

Cathy Jo's locking tools.

An indestructible ping-pong table near the Auberge du Coney. Even the "net" is cement!

Be careful when driving the car near canals. Especially on the ones that end up at the water.

Dave and Gill Renshaw's beautiful "Avontuur." We met them first two years ago on the Nivernais when they saved us with a hose clamp and this year on the Bourgogne and again on the Centre.

The Petite Rhone in the village of Chanaz on the Lac du Bourget.

Last Days on Odysseus? Aug 24-29

2011-09-04T11:47:00.000-07:00

Maybe our last trip on Odysseus took place on Wednesday as we left the dock for the short trip to the fuel dock, filled up the tank and returned; about an hour in all. We had just a few short days to get the boat cleaned up, ready for winter and ready to be shown to potential new owners.
We intended to leave the boat fully ready for the next owners, "Go to the grocery store, bring your clothes, turn the key and go!" so we wouldn't be taking much more than personal stuff home. But over the years we'd accumulated quite a bit of "extras" that would have to be sorted through and either kept or discarded. France makes a special effort to publish lots of information for tourists and we figured it was our obligation to collect some of it. Didn't seem like we needed to keep a two year old schedule of summer activities in Alsace, though.
We also took the opportunity to do a little visiting. St. Jean de Losne is a central location for many English speaking boaters so we were able to make contact with peopled we'd missed over the last couple of years.

The St. Jean de Losne Gare d'Eau, home of two marinas.
Odysseus is on the left-most very long finger.
To the left is the beginning of the Canal du Bourgogne.

Tuesday the 30th about noon we locked up the boat and dragged our suitcases up the dock. The train from St. Jean to Dijon left at 12:45 and only took about half an hour so there was time for lunch before our 4:50 pm date with the bullet train to Paris.

Up the Saone, Onto the Centre - Aug. 16-23

2011-08-27T00:45:00.000-07:00

Tuesday it was up the river again but not before one last good look at Tournus, a town we really liked.

We still had several days until we were expected at the sales dock in St. Jean de Losne so we decided to revisit one of the places we really enjoyed when we were in this area two years ago.
Tournus to the village of Fragnes, just at the beginning of the Canal du Centre, took up Tuesday. Wednesday we continued up the canal to a bankside mooring a couple of kilometers below the village of Rully. There's another great chateau in Rully although since it's still in private hands, only the gardens were open the day we were there. It's still a very imposing residence.

Some winemakers in Rully specialize in Cremant de Bourgogne, the sparkling wine made in the champagne style. We found one whose output combined the usual chardonnay grape with the sharper aligote grape. Delicious!
The next morning it was off to Santenay.
Santenay is a beautiful village just on the southern end of Burgundy's Cote d'Or and the quay looks out on a beautiful view of the valley of the Dheune River. Once again we found our preferred spot vacant and tied up.

The picture from 2 years ago. Nothing's changed.
Friday we rode the bikes through the countryside to see the reason this is all here.

Pinot on the hoof!
After another great dinner at Du Terroir, a restaurant in town, it was off again Saturday morning.
It had turned punishing hot on the canal so we found a shady spot in Fragnes Saturday afternoon and spent some time seeking shade in the nearby park. Sunday we bicycled to the river, about half an hour away, for a little swimming. Monday after a brief stop at the waterside grocery store, not a supermarche, not a hypermarche, but an Espace Cultural complete with canal bank mooring, we reentered the Saone.
The afternoon found us on the pontoon in the village of Gergy where swimming was in order.
Tuesday was a long day, 45 kilometers but only two locks and another good look at what the French call "fishing."

By 4 pm, Odysseus was in the slip where it would spend the winter and, maybe, find a new owner.

Back to the Medieval - Brancion and Cluny

2011-08-25T11:04:00.000-07:00

Sunday started off clear but by the time we hit the road it had clouded over again. We headed for Brancion anyway; when we visited on Friday we hadn't gone inside the remains of the chateau and it seemed like we really should.
Only residents are allowed to bring their cars into the village, everybody else has to park outside and walk in.
The town is perched on a spur of land between two ravines overlooking the countryside. Its dominated by the remains of the feudal castle which dates back to the 12th century.

One wall of the ruined interior showed an old fireplace with it's flanking windows.

Climbing to the top of the tower gives a great view of the village, with the church on the end of the plateau and the limestone-roofed market hall.

After Brancion, if was off to the abbey town of Cluny, and now it was really raining.
The monastery in Cluny was formed in 910 and it only took a couple of dynamic abbots to build the abbey into a major power. The abbot was very close to the Pope and the abbey church was, until the 1800's second only to St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. All over the region, monks from Cluny built their distinctive, romanesque churches. But, as happens, the power of Cluny declined and in the 1800's the abbey church was mostly dismantled for it's building materials.
We never could figure out why the tower in town is called the Tour des Fromages, the Cheese Tower, but we climbed it for the view.

After Cluny it ws back to the boat. The car had to be turned in Monday morning and after a train ride back to Tournus, we'd be heading back north.
But first, one of the reasons we're here.

Touring the Countryside - Aug. 11-15

2011-08-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

When we were in Tournus before our trip to the Seille, we had moored on a pontoon south of the city's main bridge. Stays there are limited to 2 nights. On the north quay, however, stays of up to three weeks are allowed and, if you know where to look and get there early enough, free power is available. We satisfied both criteria when we arrived Wednesday afternoon so we decided to take advantage of the situation, rent a car for three days and tour the Maconnais, home of the Burgundian white "noble grape," chardonnay.
Since there were no car rentals offered in Tournus, we took the half hour train ride south to Macon and picked up a car at the train station. Off we went in our Peugeot 107.
Our first stop was the Roche de Solutre, what the Michelin Guide calls a "true emblem of southern Maconnais…that can be seen from miles away. The superb limestone escarpment, with its slender outline and sphinx's profile, is one of the major prehistoric sites in France." It positively called out for a climb.

From the top of the rock you look down on the villages of Pouilly and Fuisse, which give their names to very fine white wines.

We wound our way through the vineyards following one part of the Burgundy Wine Road; the villages of Verze, Ige and Aze. We had hoped to find a restaurant for lunch but hadn't had any luck. We did find an open boulangerie, however, and after buying a baguette, asked the woman behind the counter if there was a restaurant nearby. "Ma oui!," was the reply and we were directed to La Dirose in the nearby village of Serrieres.
Those of you longtime readers may remember the 11 euro lunch on the Marne River three years ago. This was another one of those: three courses with wine included for 11 euro 50. The "menu du jour" began with a terrine du mason, a sort of cold homemade meatloaf. Usually your plate arrives with a slice of the terrine, a salad and some cornichons, small, sour dill pickles. At Dirose, we got the whole loaf pan with a knife stuck in the middle; serve yourself! It was followed by a fish stew (it was Friday, after all), and desert, all washed down with a delicious local white wine dispensed into the bottle from a tapped barrel. We waddled back to the car.
The days touring concluded with a stop at Brancion, a feudal market town. The day was gray and overcast, not great for pictures and it had been a pretty long day already. We just wandered through the village, but since it was just 20 minutes from Tournus and the weather was supposed to improve, we decided to come back on Sunday.
Saturday was a beautiful day so we used the opportunity to travel to Lac du Bourgé, France's largest natural freshwater lake. It gave Cathy Jo a chance to dip her toes in some really clear, cool water.

And off in the distance, the Alps.

Sunday morning we used the car for a serious grocery shopping and then headed off again.

Saone Ship Traffic

2011-08-25T10:53:00.000-07:00

While not the biggest or busiest river in France, the Saone does carry a variety of commercial traffic.

Here's a barge with a "pusher" tug.

This is the older "peniche" style commercial boat.
She's about 130 ft. long and 16 ft. wide.

This guy barely made it under the bridge in Tournus.

We saw quite a few of these cruise ships on the river.

Why Young Men Would Enjoy French Canal Cruising

2011-08-08T02:34:00.000-07:00

Tim just emailed us these pictures from our trip.

On the Burgundy Canal all of the locks must be operated manually (check out the "Lock Game" in the sidebar and you can see the principals by which the locks operate if you don't already know). During the summer when things are busy, teams of lockkeepers, usually one professional VNF (Voies Navigables de France, the French waterways authority) employee with a student or two hired for the summer, operate a string of 2, 3, or 4 locks and then pass you on to the next team. When we left Vandenesse, the VNF guy seemed very happy, whistling while he worked and greeting us with a hearty "Bonjour!" when we approached the first lock. Then we got a look at his team. Oh, la la!

Nobody else was moving yet so we got these three for three locks.

The lock doors open with long levers and the doors can be pretty hard to open when the water is still pressing against them. Ms. Ducret and her "friend" were putting their backs into this door.

And then there were these happy boaters getting ready to go up a lock. The photographer had abandoned his post!

Thanks for the pics, Tim!

Tournus - August 2-4

2011-08-07T10:43:00.000-07:00

Hugh McNight calls Tournus "one of the most pleasing towns on the entire river," and we would have to agree. Just big enough to have all of the necessities (grocery, a good selection of boulangeries and specialty shops), but small enough to easily navigate on foot; great old buildings and some narrow twisting streets. It also has a two day free mooring pontoon with water and electricity (if you can fight off the hireboats for a spot!).
The centerpiece of the old town in the abbey church of St. Philibert, a romanesque construction from the 11th and 12th centuries, although the crypt (which is open to the public) dates from the 6th.

The interior has been tastefully restored.

Here's one of those narrow alleyways from the middle ages.
Wednesday morning we visited the 17th century Hotel-Dieu which the town has maintained in magnificent fashion.
We visited the Hospices of Beaune several years ago and this facility is right up there. The hospitals for the poor and destitute were constructed with donated funds; the nobles providing the money to fulfill their "Christian charity." The Beaune facility was willed several very prosperous vineyards to provide it's endowment; the Hotel-Dieu in Tournus wasn't so lucky. But because of this, little upgrading was performed over the years and when the hospital finally closed in 1982, little had to be done to restore it to it's original state.
Just like in Beaune, the patients had a curtained bed (with a stool to reach it) that had a door in the back allowing entrance to a passageway for the nursing nuns to use for access.

There were three wards, one for women, one for men and one for soldiers, all radiating from a central chapel that was visible from all the wards so the patients could join in the celebration of religious services.

The view from above; men's ward in the foreground, women's ward on the other side of the central altar and the soldiers ward to the left, out of the picture.

Another part of the building housed the Apothecary with its cabinets holding all of the elixirs required for medicine in the 17th century.

Hand-blown glass jars held these two "medicines."
Tournus is in the "Maconnaise" region, home of France's finest white wines and there's a great cave just outside of town that features the local cooperatives wines. On the site of an old gas station, it's only been open for three months and they've really gone all out to provide a first-class facility. It turned out to be a little more of a walk than we thought but, luckily for us, after our tasting and purchases, the owner provided us with a ride back to the boat in his car. Service with a smile!

Thursday morning it was off again. Just 6 kilometers down the Saone we turned left and though a lock into our next navigation, the Seille River.

Down the Saone - July 31 to Aug 3

2011-08-07T10:38:00.000-07:00

After the Canal du Centre two years ago, we entered the Saone and headed north to St. Jean with a stop in Verdun sur le Doubs. This time we would make the trip in the opposite direction, stoping at Verdun again.

This time we were along the quay instead of tied up to a short pontoon, a situation we liked better.
We were tied up a little after 2 pm and made the short walk into town to take care of our principal task this time, eating the local specialty dish, pochouse, a very garlicky and rich freshwater fish stew. We had our fill for dinner and headed out further down the Saone Monday morning.
Chalone sur Saone was our next stop.
An important town in even pre-Roman times, Chalone was the capital of the Kingdom of Burgundy in the 6th century and a leading city when the Ducs of Burgundy ruled in the 15th and 16th centuries. Unfortunately, little is left of these old building but some artifacts in museums. It does boast the very impressive Cathedral of St. Vincent, founded in the 5th century and built mainly in the 12th and 15th century with towers added in the 1800's.

It is also the turn-around point for most of the river cruise ships that travel up and down the Rhone and Saone Rivers. This was one of the two that were tied up when we arrived.

What it also boasts is one of the most expensive marinas we've stayed in while in France, approaching Paris' prices. We didn't think the town compared much with Paris so we just stayed one night.

Our next stop we enjoyed much more, Tournus.

End of an Era? Well Maybe - July 30

2011-08-07T10:37:00.000-07:00

We returned to the St. Jean de Losne waterfront on Friday morning and commenced our chores. There's a laundromat right across the street from the mooring so it was a good time to take care of the huge bag that had been growing in the forward locker. There's also one of the few waterfront fuel stations in France so we would fill up before leaving town. And it was time to make a momentous decision we've been pondering all summer.

It's becoming increasingly difficult to take three or four months off in the summer and we have a house in Ventura that is crying out for tasks to be completed. We are going to have to put Odysseus up for sale after this summer's cruise. Our hope is that in a few years when retirement is a little closer we'll be able to return to France and the barging life on a more permanent basis but for now we'll have to take a break.

We had planned to place the boat for sale with Christophe at Bourgogne Marine, where we spent the winter two years ago, but a business dispute ended that plan. Odysseus will be offered for sale at the H2O sale marina in St. Jean de Losne. If it doesn't sell before next spring we will be back, but for now we're planning on making this month our last on Europe's canals for awhile.

After papers were signed and pictures for H2O's website were taken, Sunday morning we were off down the Saone River, retracing a route we took two years ago.

Back Down the Bourgogne - July 22-28

2011-07-30T02:15:00.000-07:00

More rain but less wind was on the agenda as we headed back down the canal toward Dijon. Luckily the scenery is very nice.

By Sunday we had returned to Dijon. On Monday after making Tim's train reservations for his Tuesday morning departure, we hit the town.
Since the weather was some better, we decided now was the time to make a trip up the Tour Philippe Le Bon. Built between 1450 and 1460, it was constructed on the site of another tower from the 12th century that had itself been built on the ruins of a Roman tower. It's 46 meters (about 150 feet) tall and gives a commanding view of Dijon's old quarter.

Looking East. St. Jean on the left and St. Philibert to it's right.

Place de Liberte. If it weren't raining this place would be jumpin'! The buildings facing it were the seat of the Ducs of Bourgogne government of old.

Dijon has many architecturally interesting buildings but we were especially taken by this Art Nouveau wonder.

And here, Tim demands satisfaction at the Palais de Justice.

They're building a tram system in Dijon. When it's done in 2013 it will be great. The current 20 minute walk from the marina to the train station will be cut to a 1 or 2 minute tram ride and you'll be able to cross the whole city in just minutes. In the meantime, since they decided to build both lines at once, major portions of Dijon are a mess. The area around the train station is especially bad with all the streets torn up. We thought this piece of construction belonged in an art museum.

Tuesday morning Tim left for Frankfurt and we did some shopping. Wednesday was museum day as all the museums in Dijon are free. Did you hear that? Free! Still no bike riding as the weather was still icky. Thursday we made the first lock at 9 am headed down the boring stretch. This time a big boat got to the front of the line somewhere along the way and delayed everybody but the only major rainstorm happened during lunch. Luckily we hadn't planned to get to the St. Jean town quay (now reopened) because we wouldn't have made it in any case. We staked ourselves to the bank just before the last lock on the Canal de Bourgogne at 6:50 pm. The last lock would wait until the morning. By 9:30 am Friday we were through the last lock, back onto the Saone River and secure at St. Jean's town quay.

Vandenesse and the Chateauneuf-en-Auxois - July 20

2011-07-30T02:02:00.000-07:00

Who doesn't love a castle? We certainly do.
We entered the first lock on Wednesday at 9:30 all by ourselves. Up we went. While in the lock at St. Sabine we could get a view of our objective.

Chateauneuf-en-Auxois is a nearly intact 12th century stronghold originally built by Guy de Chaudenay. It was strengthened and extended over the next 300 years. It's now owned by the state and portions are open to the public. It's surrounded by a very quaint, picturesque village.
A little after 4 pm we were tied up in the port at Vandenesse, a little village about 5 k from the castle. Tomorrow we would make the hike.
In the meantime, we had an amazing view out our main cabin window.

Thursday morning was overcast with a few showers but we put on our raincoats, grabbed our umbrella and headed up the hill.

We spent a couple of hours inside the castle with it's tapestries and great rooms. Cathy Jo and Tim liked their new digs.

We also got some great views of the surrounding Burgundian countryside. That's the port at Vandenesse in the center of the picture.

Following yet another great French lunch at the Hostellerie du Chateau, we rolled down the hill. Dinner would be light tonite.
By afternoon the sun was breaking through the clouds and we got the "keeper" shot not too long before sundown.

Now if somebody would just photoshop out that electrical tower in the foreground.

Tomorrow we would turn around an head back down to Dijon.

The Canal de Bourgogne, Part Une - July 16-19

2011-07-30T01:56:00.000-07:00

Serious planning for the Canal de Bourgogne, which connects the Yonne/Seine Rivers with the Saone, began in 1676 but work didn't begin on the section between the summit tunnel and the Saone until 1783. The Revolution and other turmoil caused extensive delays and the first through trip Paris/Dijon didn't occur until the end of 1832. Because there are so many locks and a 3.3 km summit tunnel there is no longer any commercial traffic, other than hotel barges, on the canal. But it's well known for it's beauty, especially the valley of the Ouche River (the part we would be navigating) so there is quite a bit of pleasure traffic.
Despite it's beauty further up, the first 25 k is boring; not a single turn as you cross the plain to Dijon, and 22 locks, all of them up on this leg of the trip. The locks are all manual, which means they all have to be operated by canal staff and they work from 9 am to 7 pm with 12-1 off for lunch. If we were going to do this in one day, which was our plan, everything had to work out just right.
We arrived at the first lock, but no one had passed along the word that we would be there so we had a wait for a lock keeper, and then a second wait while another boat joined us. Water levels are very low this year due to France's drought, so the canal staff tries to group boats whenever possible. Usually no problem except this put us in the front of the lock (not a great place to be when going up) in front of a cruiser operated by a couple that didn't seem to quite have a handle on this lock thing.

Going up!
Despite all that, including the stinky weather (occasional rain and very windy), we managed to pull into Dijon with about a half hour to spare.
Sunday the weather continued rainy (get used to this, you're going to hear it alot!) so we just wandered around town and indulged in one of our favorite French customs, Sunday lunch. After a particularly heavy shower we got a good demonstration of the French saying "Apres la pluie, le soleil" (after the rain, sun).

Since we would have to be back in Dijon on the 26th for Tim's train connection, we decided to get on with our journey up the Bourgogne. Our ultimate destination was Vandeness, just a couple of kilometers short of the summit tunnel, with Chateauneuf-en-Auxois nearby.
Monday morning it was up-and-at-em to make that first 9 o'clock lock and who should pull up behind us but the couple that had bedeviled our trip up from Dijon. They had once again cleverly managed to place themselves in the back of the lock.
We traveled about 15 k and cleared 13 locks, stopping for the day a little before 3 in the village of Fleury-sur-Ouche, while our "friends" carried on further. We didn't recognize it at the time because of all the new construction but we had stayed in this village with John and Patti Harman on their Capri during our very first barge trip. More rain ensued.
Tuesday was another 15 k, 13 locks and occasional rain to the village of St. Victor. Luckily we were securely tied up because it proceeded to get really windy in the evening. If we were going to make Vandenesse on Wednesday, it was going to be a little more work.

Hello Tim and To Dijon - July 11-15

2011-07-30T01:51:00.000-07:00

Our original plan had been to stay at Bourgogne Marine, where we left Odysseus for the winter two years ago, just one day, organizing winter storage for this year. When we told Peter (last year's canal tractor; you remember him!) we were heading off to the Quay at St. Jean de Losne he said he thought the quay was closed for two weeks. A bike ride to St. Jean confirmed that the quay was being converted to bleachers for an upcoming canoe/kayak race and would be closed until the 24th. As it was the 12th and Tim would be arriving at the St. Jean train station on the 15th, we decided to stay put. Unfortunately, Christophe, who owns Bourgogne Marine, had decided to take an unscheduled vacation so the winter storage plans would have to be put on hold until our return the end of the month.

The St. Jean waterfront as it should be.

Bleachers under construction.

The morning of the 15th we left Bourgogne Marine, re-entered the Saone River for the brief trip to the entrance of the Canal de Bourgogne, just 5 kilometers away. We cleared the first lock into the canal and then staked ourselves to the bank. This was as close as we could get to the train station where Tim was supposed to arrive from Germany around 5 pm. A German train snafu ensued and he couldn't get his Skype connection working to let us know. The 5, 6 and 6:30pm trains arrived with no Tim. We walked back to the boat (about 20 minutes) and Cathy Jo started dinner while a note with directions to the boat was prepared for taping to the wall at the station for later trains. Luckily, the note, being delivered by bicycle, arrived just about the same time as Tim and all was well.
The next day would be long and tough so everything was made ready for departure.

From Gray to the Completion of the Circle June 8 - 11

2011-07-14T09:07:00.000-07:00

We left Ray sur Saone about 8 am; we had a little over 30 k to make before our next stop and it helps to be tied up early in the day so a spot is assured. However, when we reached Gray, we realized that wasn't necessary; there's lots of room on the quay and, if you're positioned where your cord will reach, free electricity. Ours is very long. It reached.
The weather had improved and Gray is a pretty big town with another of those cherished cruising items, a supermarket close enough to push the grocery cart right to the boat; no lugging all those heavy bottles of wine! We decided to spend a day.
After visiting the tourist office for a chat with a very enthusiastic, English-speaking tourist office lady, we made a brief walking tour of the town admiring it's 15th century church

and gazing over the red roofs of Gray.

The river runs right through the middle of town with a lock and weir combination (the weir is a sort of dam that keeps the river at the necessary depth for navigation) under a bridge that spans the river.

The lock is just to the left (follow the arrow) and the Quay Malvia,
where we were tied up, is just right of the picture.

Now that we were starting to get closer the St. Jean de Losne, central France's boating center, we were starting to meet more English speakers, a rarity until now. In Gray we met a New Zealand couple and their 16 year old son who had left Kiwi-land three years ago on their sailboat. To reach Gray they had traveled through and spent time in the US, Argentina, Brazil, Portugal and were now working their way up the rivers and canals to spend the winter in Amsterdam. Tough with their deep draft sailboat and a hugh wooden mast strapped to the cabin top, but they seemed to be having fun.
Sunday morning about 7 we were awakened by a crackling sound that we originally thought might be kids playing with firecrackers as France's Fete National is just a few days away. It got louder and continued so we got up to see what was going on. The roof of a large apartment building across the river was on fire and we were hearing the sound of the roof tiles exploding!

When we left two hours later they were still pouring water on the structure with two ladder trucks and pompiers (firefighter) inside the building with hoses.

Our last couple of days on the river would take us to a stop in Pontailler sur Saone and then to St. Symphorien's Bourgogne Marine where we began last years journey.
Another circle complete.

The Petite Saone July 5 - 8

2011-07-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

The Saone River, the navigable portion from Corre in the north to it's confluence with the Rhone in Lyon, is divided into two parts, the Petite, above St. Jean de Losne, and the Basse, or Lower. For this portion of the summer, we would be on the Petite. The locks are the smaller "freycinet" size, 39 meters by 5, so the huge commercial barges can't come up it, and the river itself is smaller, narrower, twistier and very calm.
The other big difference between river and canal cruising is the amount of work involved. On the Canal des Vosges, you are lucky if there are a couple of kilometers between locks. On the Petite Saone, some of the pounds (the water between locks) are 10 or 12 kilometers long and the rise/fall of the lock is only 1 1/2 to 2 meters as opposed to 3+ on the Canal.
Since we got a late start on Tuesday, we only traveled 23 k to the town of Baulay, stopping a little before 5. It was pretty hot but, since we were on the river now, swimming was in order! After cleaning the t-shirt out from around the propeller (don't know how long we'd been spinning that thing down the canal), We had a lovely dinner at the picnic table just above the pontoon with a view of the the village across the field.

Bon Appetit!
Wednesday night we had wanted to moor below the town of Rupt sur Saone to visit the ruins of a chateau and tower but there was no place to tie up so we had to be satisfied with the view from the river.

Our next stop was Ray sur Saone, a stronghold since Roman times and the site of another big chateau, parts of which go back to medieval times. It was nearly destroyed during the 17th century's Ten Years War but then rebuilt and expanded in the 18th century. It's current owners began more restoration just after WW II. I took pictures as we pulled into to town moorings and a good thing, too. We no sooner got tied up than the rain began to fall. We did manage to hike up the hill to the chateau gardens in the evening during a break in the rain but by then it was too dark for pictures. Another time.

Entering Ray sur Saone.
Our next stop was Gray.

Fontenoy le Chateau and the end of the Canal des Vosges, July 3-5

2011-07-14T08:52:00.000-07:00

Another beautiful little village, Fontenoy le Chateau was an important fortified town from the 13th to the 17th centuries but went into decline after an attack by French and Swedish troops in 1635. It made it's big comeback with the opening of the canal in the 1870's and now boasts a couple of very nice tourist hotels, a hire-boat base and a very good boulangerie that, luckily for us, is open until 12:30 on Sunday afternoons. We pulled in about 20 minutes before noon, put out stakes for a free mooring across from the hire-boat base and made it to the boulangerie in plenty of time. That gave us all day to explore the village.
Up on the hill overlooking the Coney River valley are the remains of an old chateau, now primarily used as a graveyard, and a great view of the surrounding town and the green forests of the Vosges mountains. Down in the valley sits the medieval town with it's narrow twisting streets and picturesque buildings with the canal and river twisting their way through. Very pleasant!

Under the blue canopy center right you can just see people finishing their Sunday lunch.

Monday morning it was off for our last day on this canal, but first we had to endure some typical Canal des Vosges scenery.

There's quite a bit of wildlife along the canals; eagles and hawks, swans and ducks. To make it easier for the ducks to get in and out of the water when the canal sides are sheet piling, the waterways people have helpfully provided "duck ramps."

Monday afternoon we pulled into the village where the Canal des Vosges meets the Petite Saone River, Corre. It was time for the 4th of July!
For the first time in three years, Tim wasn't here to provide us with one sausage short of a meal and there were no other Americans, let along English speakers, around but we managed a good old American meal anyway. Well, almost. The barbecue sauce for the chicken had harissa in it, we had to use cornichons instead of pickles in the potato salad and the wine was French but it was a great meal nevertheless.
There was a gas station about a five minute walk away so we filled the tank and jugs.
A word about fuel; along with laundry, one of the drudgeries of canal boating. There are very few waterside fuel stations (I can think of two) in northern France so diesel has to be carried by jug from gas stations. A gas station close to the water is a thing to be cherished. A typical sight is the canal boater trundling back from the station with fuel cans. We have a hand cart that will hold our two five-gallon-equivalent jugs and I made three trips to the station to top off Odysseus. You can stop feeling sorry for me now.
So Tuesday the 5th about noon we were off onto the river. We had covered 129 kilometers of the Canal des Vosges, negotiating 92 locks in about 6 1/2 days underway.

Down We Go, July 1-4

2011-07-12T00:47:00.000-07:00

Still lots of locks but now they're down, which is much easier, there's a little more traffic but the weather and the scenery are beautiful. Friday was 17 locks in 11 kilometers and Saturday 10 lock in 11k bringing us to the canal bank at the Auberge du Coney. After leaving the Moselle River near the summit, the canal follows the Coney River down to the Saone. Somewhere in the past, someone, when hearing we would be making this trip, told us we had to stop for a meal at the Auberge du Coney and for that, we thank them.
It's a "renowned beauty spot," according to McNight and there are lots of holiday cabins and tourist facilities about. We found just enough space on the pontoon in front of the restaurant to tie up and went up to make our reservation. We then took a couple of hour bike ride to Bain les Bain. In Roman times it was known for it's hot waters and it was very fashionable in the 19 century. Emphasis on was. Maybe because we were there on Saturday afternoon and everything (I mean everything!) was closed but we were unimpressed. The gardens were beautiful but it looked like the town had seen better, more prosperous days.
The dinner turned out to be Italian; pizza, pasta and Italian wines on the menu, and it was very good (and very inexpensive).

The tie up at the Auberge.

The Auberge du Coney.
Sunday it was off to another beautiful village, Fontenoy le Chateau.

Locks, locks and more locks

2011-07-12T00:44:00.001-07:00

The Canal des Vosges (a much nicer name than it's previous "Canal de l"est, Branche Sud), connects the Moselle River with the Saone; 93 locks in about 120 kilometers. The Romans thought about making some kind of connection when they were in charge but the technology didn't exist at the time. It wasn't until France lost Lorraine to the Prussians in 1870 that the construction of the water link became a high priority. Work started in 1874 and was completed by 1882. It's also part of the through-route from the Mediterranean to points north. We saw a lot of sailboats (with their masts stowed, of course), many of them with Scandinavian flags. We found it to be one of the prettiest navigations we've done in France, very green and peaceful.

We made what turned out to be a brief stop in the cit of Epinal. There is a separate 3 kilometer arm of the canal that takes you to town, crossing a bridge over the Moselle, which the canal follows closely to near it's summit. We pulled into tthe marina about 5 pm after a very hot day and 15 difficult locks. The next day was also very warm so we did a little walking around and, after a large lunch, visited the Musee International de l'Imagerie. Epinal is famous for print making and the museum contains a pretty comprehensive history of the craft (plus it is air conditioned!).
Late Tuesday it began to cloud up and Wednesday morning it began to rain so we ended up doing boat chores and didn't get out much. Thursday's weather looked better and we had a chain of 15 locks in about 3 kilometers to reach the summit of the canal. We left at the punishing hour of 8:30 am so we could get to the first lock around 9. We negotiated the series of locks with no problem, accompanied by a Swiss couple in their cruiser, reaching the summit after about 2 1/2 hours. after the 11 k summit pound, we entered the first lock on the downhill side and found a wall to tie up to near the village of Girancourt. Nothing there but a small peaceful village surrounded by farmland and a good place to spend the night.

Charming Charmes, June 27

2011-07-12T00:39:00.000-07:00

Hugh McNight provides us with a little background on Charmes. "…in the 14th century it was overcome by plague and famine; in the 15th it was effectively burned to the ground by Charles the Bold and most of the inhabitants killed; similar misfortune occurred in the 17th century; and finally during World Wars I and II. All was bravely rebuilt between 1947 and 1952." We found the village very pleasant with three (!) good boulangeries and a big nearby supermarket.
They also really roll out the welcome mat for the "camping cars." The tie up is a long quay with water and power points and just on the other side of the sidewalk are places for rv's, what the Europeans call camping cars.

Looking down from the bridge over the canal one way,

and the other.
There is a great bike path along this part of the canal; the tow path has been paved, like we've seen in previous years. Sunday morning Cathy Jo did the laundry (always an enjoyable task) and in the afternoon we set off up the canal. About 10 k along the path we came upon the village of Chatel sur Moselle and it's 11th century chateau, which is in the process of being restored. On that Sunday the fortification was open to the public and we were able to wander around on our own, down through little stone doorways into underground chambers and passageways. Unfortunately, we didn't take the camera on the ride so we didn't get pictures but it was quite an experience and pictures from underground never come out anyway.
Monday morning we left Charmes behind and headed up the canal.

Off the River, Into the Canal des Vosges, June 23-26

2011-07-12T00:38:00.000-07:00

We left Toul Thursday morning and, after a couple of locks, returned to the Mosell River. This section of the river carries very little commercial traffic so it is possible to moor along the bank, something not easily done when huge commercial barges are thundering past.
We tied to the bank near the village of Maron and a couple of large barges filled with scrap for the steel mills at Neuves-Maisons did go by but there was a bend in the river just ahead so they were traveling pretty slow.
Friday about noon we passed through lock #47 at Messein and entered the Canal des Vosges. Here the locks are much smaller and closer together so what little commercial traffic there is (we saw one peniche while on the canal) is limited to the 39 meter variety.
We spent another peaceful bankside night and Saturday afternoon arrived in the (we think) aptly named village of Charmes.

More from Toul

2011-07-12T00:33:00.000-07:00

Toul is another very old city. Since it's in the bed of the Moselle, it's been fortified for a very long time; the last great works put up by our old friend, Vauban. The marina is outside the remaining city gates but there is a good view of the 13th century cathedral across the fields.

We also like this very ornate doorway, kept when they rebuild the building around it.

We had missed what passes for excitement in the Toul marina. We arrived on Tuesday to find the reasonably new building housing the toilets and showers closed and a blue plastic tarp covering the center of it's roof. Apparently Sunday morning about 2 am there was a very loud explosion and the roof was blown off, starting a pretty spectacular fire. A gas leak was the word around the docks. Meanwhile, a portable building was being trucked in a hooked up to provide the boater facilities.
As expected, Wednesday was cloudy a rainy with some huge thunderstorms. At one point around noon, it was so dark we had to turn on the lights. Our decision to wait until Thursday to continue looked pretty good.

Toul and the Fete de Musique June 21-23

2011-06-22T08:22:00.000-07:00

The Solstice is cause for a country-wide celebration of music in France. Almost every town has some sort of program planned. Our first year in France we were in Ferte sur Jouarre and heard chanson, a trumpet-organ concert and old guys playing guitar (sorta badly) in the city park. Last year we had just finished Odysseus engine difficulties and weren't anywhere near music. This year we pulled into Toul just in time to enjoy a real fete!
Toul is one of those smaller medieval cities we refer to as "egg shaped." The old part of town is surrounded by walls, moats or the remains of those and is sort of circular. The city had set up music stages all over town, it wasn't raining and everybody from town was there. We saw beginner guitar players from the music school, a piano teacher and his students, and a DJ who played a remix of "Cotton Eyed Joe." (Cathy couldn't remember the steps although she assured me her relatives would have!) The Holy Rollers were there trying to drum up some support, the "Portland contingent" with their black t shirts emoted their angsty songs and the "progressive rock" band with no hair was playing some 80's American "hair band" music. But we saw the topper as we were leaving town. Inside the Bar Au Soleil d'Or was a group of 60 to 70 year olds dressed in Beatles outfits like those on the cover of the Sgt. Pepper album playing Monkees songs. Classic rock, indeed! We chuckled all the way back to the boat.
The weather forecast said rain Wednesday but clearing on Thursday so we decided to stay put for another day in Toul before heading further up the river.

Liverdun? June 20

2011-06-22T08:11:00.001-07:00

It was overcast when we left Nancy but not raining. It wouldn't do that until we were in locks and had to be outside. One we got to the Moselle River, after about an hour, we turned left instead of right as we had last year. We were on new water!

Our next objective was the town of Liverdun, the so-called "Switzerland of Lorraine." We had a chuckle over that.

Perched on a hillside over a sharp bend in the Mossell, the site has been occupied since the Paleolithic era. Archeological digs have yielded bronze implements from Celtic times. The Romans called it Liberdunum, "Fortress on a Rock," and an act of the Merovingian king Dagobert gave the town to the bishopric of Toul in the 12th century, when it became fortified.

Now it's just a picturesque village in France, the home of the "Veritables Madeleines de Liverdun." We had to buy some. Delicious!

Cathy Jo on the streets of Liverdun.

Liverdun from the river.

The tie-up in Liverdun was really beautiful. A little arm leads off the river where a landing has been constructed. There's only room for a couple of boats but there was plenty for us and a hireboat from Lagarde.

The halte below Liverdun.

The next morning it was off for Toul.

To the Moselle: We Retrace Last Year, June 16-19

2011-06-22T08:04:00.001-07:00

So far the weather this year has been pretty marginal. There's been some rain almost every day, although at least until we got to Nancy it had been warm.

Thursday morning we waited for a shower to pass and then shoved off from the canal bank and headed west, retracing our trip down the canal. Last year the first night out from Lagarde we just stopped along the bank at the town of Sommerviller. This year we passed through one more lock to the town mooring basin to spend the night. Friday morning the skies had cleared a bit as we headed for our stop in Nancy.

The locks along this part of the canal are all automated. A "garage door opener" device triggers the lock's operation and, just like last year, until the last three locks before Nancy, it had worked perfectly. Just like last year, the locks stopped "seeing" the "telecommand" just before Nancy and we had to call the lockkeepers to operate them. There is a call box at each lock and the mobile "eclusiers" are good about showing up quickly. We never had to wait more than twenty minutes but it was a little annoying. We made a quick stop for groceries at the convenient waterside supermarket and by 2:30 we were tied up along the bank in Nancy. We made a quick trip to the tourist office at the beautiful Place Stanislaus (see last year's pictures) and made our plans for a couple of days.

Saturday morning we walked over to the big covered market to stock up on more groceries and then spent the afternoon at the Musee des Beaux Artes. The "School of Nancy" was one of the principal originators of the Art Deco movement and the museum contains a huge collection of art glass from the Daum company that is located in Nancy.

We'd made reservations at a restaurant we wanted to visit last year (it was closed - August!) and had a great meal at Pissenlits (Dandelions).

Every year the city of Nancy puts on their "Son et Lumiere" (sound and light show) in Place Stanislaus. They use high-tech projectors to show scenes on the buildings surrounding the square. Lucky for us, Saturday night was the first night of this year's show and it stopped raining long enough for the show to proceed. Very impressive! It was cold, though. Jackets were required.

Sunday the weather was just plain nasty; cold, windy and rainy. Books were read. Tomorrow we'd enter some new territory.

Los Angeles, London, Paris, Nancy, Lagarde. Whew! June 7-15

2011-06-22T08:03:00.001-07:00

Tuesday, June 7 was the beginning of this years Europe trip; work and family obligations delaying our usual mid-May departure. Air New Zealand whisked us from Los Angeles International Airport, leaving at about 4:30 pm and depositing us (early!) about 10:30 am at London's Heathrow Airport. From there is was a 1 hour Underground ride to the St. Pancras station. The Eurostar to Paris didn't leave until about 4 (we wanted to leave plenty of time for the connection) so we settled in for a leisurely lunch.

Two and a half hours after leaving London we were at the Gare du Nord, one of Paris' four big train station. The room we had booked for two nights was just a five minute walk from the station; we didn't even have time to get lost! After our host, Peet, showed us our room, we stashed our bags and hit the streets. We wandered along the Canal St. Martin, found some pizza to go, a bottle of red wine, headed back to our room for a quick meal and tried to defeat Mr. Jet Lag.

Thursday we visited the Musee d'Orsay for a big Manet exhibition and had dinner at a typical Paris bistro. For those who will be visiting Paris' 10th arrondissement, Philou was excellent! Friday morning it was on to Gare de L'Est, about 10 minutes walk from "Our Room in Paris." An hour and a half later we were in Nancy just a short walk from the car rental location. After getting thoroughly lost trying to get out of the city, we finally managed to find the road to Lagarde. We arrived to find Odysseus in desperate need of a bath but otherwise in good shape. After unpacking the bags we settled in for the next three months.

Saturday morning was cleanup time and the afternoon meant a trip to the supermarket; the shelved needed to be restocked. Sunday and Monday were boat maintenance days; a little painting, some engine chores. We had reserved the car until Friday but we really didn't think we would need it that long. The weather was not cooperating; showers just about every day. We decided to take a drive over to Alsace on Tuesday, drop off the car on Wednesday and head off down the canal on Thursday.

Alsace was it's usual beautiful self, although there was quite a bit of rain. We revisited Saverne, one of our favorite places, and drove down part of the "Route du Vin," Alsace's wine road. We had a hearty lunch in Westhoffen and headed back over the Vosges Mountains to Lagarde.

We also bought cherries. Yum. Sweet. If you need to buy them (they're falling off the trees everywhere), they cost about euro 2.50 a kilo; that's about a two bucks a pound for us American types.

Wednesday was the "Return the Car" adventure. There is no public transport to Lagarde. The nearest train station, about 10 k away across the rolling fields, gets maybe 4 visits a day. Our plan was to load the bikes into the rental car, chain them to the railing at the train stop (hardly a station) in Igney-Avricourt, drive to Nancy, drop off the car, catch the train to Igney and then ride the bikes back to Lagarde. We only had to leave enough time to get lost trying to find the car rental place in Nancy! And we weren't looking forward to that bike ride. Rolling hills means some downhills followed by killer uphills.

Wonder of wonders, it all worked exactly as planned. Cathy Jo's excellent navigation skills allowed us to drive right to the car rental place with only one, easily fixed, wrong turn. We were about an hour early for the train so there was no panic. The bikes were where we left them when we arrived in Igney and the bike ride turned out to be not nearly as bad as we thought. Thursday morning we waited for it to stop raining and headed off down the Canal de l' Marne au Rhine toward Nancy.

The map for 2010

2011-05-10T16:11:00.000-07:00

Oh the procrastination!

This map has been done for some time but somehow just never got around to the posting.

Without further ado - The Trip of 2010 - France to Germany and back!

View Voyage 2010, France and Germany in a larger map

The Cruise Is Complete - August 29, 30

2010-09-17T12:16:00.000-07:00

It was a good thing we made our bike trip on Saturday because we got up Sunday morning to more rain and wind. Luckily, Odysseus has an inside steering station so we wouldn't have to get cold and wet between locks but we did have 13 to do on Sunday. Luckily they were all pretty close together and, with an hour out for lunch, we'd finished them by about 2:30. About 3:30 we left the Saare Coalfields Canal and reentered the Canal de la Marne au Rhine, completing the loop we'd begun back at the beginning of the month.

We spent Sunday night tied up just before the giant lock at Rechicourt in the rain. (See the post about our previous visit here about a third of the way down the page.)

It again took quite a bit of time to negotiate the lock. We weren't in a big hurry, a hotel barge was coming up and so we didn't get through until about 1130. 6 locks later, at about 3 pm, we were tied up in Lagarde, where Odysseus will spend the winter.

Navig France, a hireboat company, has it's very active base at Lagarde. The owners, Jacques Lucas and Patrice Yax, are really building an empire here. Patrice has a nice guesthouse a couple of kilometers away and they are in the process of building a restaurant just across from where Odysseus is in the picture.

I mentioned earlier that Lagarde is out in the middle of nowhere; McNight calls it "intensely rural." This time, instead of being on one of the pontoons, as you can see we were tied to the bank, making it much easier to do the maintenance tasks we wanted to complete before we locked the boat up for the winter. It also gave us a great view of the horse corral right across the towpath.

The view out our window.

There is also a Michelin starred restaurant in the nearby village of Languimberg, Chez Michele. We thought we deserved a night out; our first Michelin star.

We had asked Patrice to make a reservation for us for Friday night; since it's a ways away, a member of the restaurant staff will come and pick you up and return you to the marina. The appointed time came and we sat forlornly waiting for the car to arrive. Patrice drove up with a group of people he was taking out on one of the boats for the weekend. I asked about the reservation and his face fell. He'd forgotten to call. He said, "No problem, I'll take you!" We said, "Without a reservation?" He says, "Pas de problem!" Off in the car we go. We show up with our smiling faces about 8pm and the Madame looks us up and down, seats us and then proceeds to ignore us for about 20 minutes. Luckily, we think they had a couple of cancellations so we were able to eat. The meal was very good, surprisingly reasonable and we think we had five desserts!

We made the trip into Luneville, the closest big town, to rent a car on Wednesday, and by Sunday had completed our painting, cleaning and winterizing. We still had a week before our flight left for home from Switzerland so Monday late morning we were off for a little sightseeing in Germany.

Return to France

2010-09-17T12:07:00.000-07:00

Our first stop in France was Sarrequemines, about 15 k upriver from Saarbrucken. There is a very nice set of pontoons right in the middle of town in front of an old casino.

Sarrequemines was once a major ceramics making center and the casino was built by the ceramics manufacturers to keep their workers out of the cafes (and presumable to recoup some of the wages they paid to the workers!). Now the factories mainly turn out floor tiles and the casino had been a restaurant but was closed for renovation. We spent a full day in town, first making a trip to the grocery store to restock and then taking the afternoon to take a very enjoyable bike ride along the Blies River which runs into the Saare in town.

Wednesday morning we set off, passing thru eight locks and covering about 25 k until we made a bankside stop for the night. Thursday we pulled into a very nice marina at the village of Mittersheim. We wanted to ride the bikes out to the medieval village of Fenetrange, about 8k from the canal so we figured we'd spend a day or two.

The marina was great. It had pontoons with free water and power, the facility provided by the village and the French canal authorities. It's a good thing, too, because the weather turned horrendous, with rain, wind and big thunderstorms. We saw in a local paper a couple of days later that what they thought was a tornado had taken the roofs off several buildings and tossed cars around in a nearby village on Thursday night. Luckily things improved on Saturday and we set off across the rolling hills on our bikes.

We had left the Saare River just above Saareguemines and were now in the romantically named Saar Coalfields Canal (Canal des Houilléres de la Sarre), but, as the French section was never enlarged for the really big barges and the coalfields are now shut down, traffic is pretty restricted to pleasure boats. Our bike ride would take us across the fields and back to the riverside and another impossible picturesque village.

Note the medieval satellite dish.

Part of the old town wall gate still exists.

We had a nice lunch at the restaurant in town, biked back to the boat and made preparations for departure on Sunday morning. We'd have a long flight of locks to do before reaching our next stop, a return the the giant lock at Rechicourt le Chateau, back on the Canal de la Marne au Rhine.

Noise and Thunderstorms - Saarbrucken

2010-09-17T12:04:00.000-07:00

We wanted to enjoy Saarbrucken. We really did. They have a nice small art museum we visited (admission was 1.50 euros!), and like Germans everywhere, their blood runs thick with beer. Unfortunately, they placed their mooring spot for pleasure boats right across from the autobahn that runs through town which, because it is backed up by a big wall, makes the tie up unbearable noisy.

Not much traffic now but wait 'til later!

A German rowing club doing what Germans do. Note the accordian player in the stern providing the entertainment.

The upshot was we only spent one night there and then about noon on Sunday after visiting the art gallery and taking in a classic car show across the river (beer for breakfast!), moved to the "Motor Boat Club Saar," just 2 k up the river. The people were very friendly and a couple of them enjoyed practicing their English with us. They also offered a great side benefit, cheap beer! They were providing us with the equivalent of a 15 oz bottle of Bittburger, one of our favorite German beers, for 1 euro! As the afternoon wore on, however, the clouds thickened and lowered and about 2:30 the heavens opened and a torrential downpour, complete with wind, thunder and lightening broke up the party. We were thoroughly drenched.

One interesting thing we did learn before the downpour: in the distance of the mooring picture, you can see a very tall stack. Here's a shot from the MBC Saar-

That is the city heating plant. It is oil fired but the residents are very proud that it has won several "green" awards. In the winter, steam is generated and shipped through pipes into the city. There are heat exchangers in the basements of the big building connected to radiators and major parts of the city are heated from this plant.

Monday morning we were off. By afternoon we would be back in France.

A Food Blog Interlude

2010-09-17T11:58:00.000-07:00

The next morning it was off to Saarbrucken, the capital city of the German state of Saarland. We hoped we wouldn't be too late for a Saturday market if there was one. We were too late but as we wandered through one of the city squares, Cathy Jo's eyes lit up as she discovered an American delicacy we sorely miss.
We love sweet corn. There's almost nothing better than a fresh ear dropped in boiling water for about 4 minutes then slathered with butter and salt and consumed. The French grow alot of corn; we see fields of it everywhere but it's either animal feed or used for biodiesel. Since we leave California in mid May, just as fresh corn is coming into the market, and return in September after it's gone, we really miss it. In the square was a friendly farmer with a whole pile of fresh, golden corn, still in the husk. He spoke English pretty well and invited us out to his farm for a festival he would be having in a couple of weeks but it wasn't close to the water and we would be gone anyway. We bought a couple of ears and did what was required.

Had to get a couple of bites before the picture was taken!

We now return to our regularly scheduled blog.

Up the Saar in Germany - mid August

2010-09-17T11:56:00.000-07:00

Our next stop was the town of Saarlouis. In 1680 along the new eastern French frontier with Germany, Louis XIV gave the order to build a fortified town to his old friend Vauban. Thus Saarlouis. Parts of the old fortifications remain; one section of wall that was used as ammunition bunkers has been turned into some really nice restaurants, cafes and art galleries.
We also had our first introduction to the German method of driving shopping carts. There was a huge grocery/department store called Globus just a five minute walk from the pontoon in town. We take advantage of these opportunities to stock up on food and wine because it makes returning to the boat with the plunder a whole lot easier. It was Friday afternoon and people must have been stocking up for the weekend because the place was packed and we learned that Germans drive shopping carts like they drive their cars; very fast and with no mercy. Luckily the carts had no horns to honk or lights to flash; we would have been in deep trouble with our more leisurely pace.

Mettlach and the Saarschleife - August 18, 19

2010-09-04T08:34:00.000-07:00

Our next stop was the town of Mettlach, for the last 200 years the headquarter of the ceramics firm Villeroy & Boch. Their offices are in a former Benedictine abbey that also houses a museum and display of the company's products. Mettlach also has several outlet stores; we could have bought clothing from Lands End but we controlled ourselves. Why we were really here was the Saarschleife, where the river completes a hairpin, 180 degree turn.
Just past town is a lock and just through the lock is a very nice pontoon with plenty of room for several boats. We staked out a spot and waited for the rain to stop so we could do a little exploring. A very nice bike path runs along both sides of the river from the Mettlach lock, around the "buckle" and on to a bridge at Dreisbach, just about 10 kilometers up the river. When the weather cleared a little, we hoisted the bikes off the boat and set off for the "Cloef," a spot up the hill where you can get a good view of the river. Parking our bikes and the foot of the trail, we headed up, with a couple of stops on the way to wait out showers, until we reached the viewpoint.

Mettlach is around the bend to the left, Driesbach to the right.

There is a diagram in one of the tourist brochures that shows how a 190 meter barge going one way and an 80 meter barge going the other can pass here but we weren't fortunate enough to ever see that maneuver.
We were pretty soaked by the time we returned to the boat but Thursday turned out pretty good so we left the pontoon and headed for the tieup in Driesbach.

That's the exit from the lock at the right.
While we were rounding the corner, we noticed a little niche cut into the wall at the very apex of the turn. St. Nicholas is the patron saint of bargemen and this seemed an appropriate spot for a shrine.

After an exhausting 1 hour and a little over 7k, we tied up at a very long wharf designed for commercial boats. Since we only took up a little bit at the very end, we didn't figure it would matter. We unlimbered the bikes again and made a complete circuit of the buckle, this time in the sun, stopping just long enough for one of those refreshing German beers on the way back.
The next morning we were off again up the river.

Up The Saar - mid August

2010-09-04T08:28:00.000-07:00

The approximately 175 kilometers of the Saar navigation (Sarre in French) is actually two parts. About 95 k is the river itself while the southern portion in France is the Canal des Houilléres de la Sarre, or the Sarre Coalfields Canal. Boat traffic on the Saar River goes back to the middle ages and the Coalfields Canal was constructed in the 1800's but the river portion was not completed to the Mosel until 2000. Since the river portion is new, it was built to handle the big barges, with locks measuring 190 meters long and there are plenty of mooring facilities for big boats, many of which are also suitable for smaller craft like ours. Also the lock, being new, are all the same and well set up for both large and small craft. We saw some big commercial traffic on the river but it was easily dealt with. We saw nothing but hireboats on the canal.
Our first day would be a short one. We wanted to make our first stop in Saarburg which was only a little over 12 k away. We were tied up before noon at a pontoon on the river set up by a nearby restaurant.
We spent Monday afternoon wandering about Saarburg in the intermittent rain, visiting what they call their "Little Venice," and we mean little. A small stream connects with the Saar in town, it was blocked in the old days to service a mill and still generates electricity for the town so restaurants and flower boxes make Venice, we guess.

There is a pretty good sized hill above town with the required church. On the other side of the stream is the hill with the required ruined castle.

The view back toward town from the river.
We really did like Saarburg. We probably would have liked it better without the rain.
There was a sign on the pontoon that said mooring would cost 10 euros for a night and usually someone stops by in the evening to collect. No one showed up so we thought maybe they were on vacation. Wrong! This elderly woman was banging relentlessly on the boat about 7 am Tuesday morning wanting her 10 euros. I thought she was going to chip the paint she was hitting the boat so hard. You don't get away with nuttin' in Germany.
Next stop was Mettlach, home of outlet shopping!

Trier Sunday, Aug. 15

2010-09-04T08:22:00.000-07:00

We were not going to visit Trier; it was further down the Mosel, we were turning off at Konz to head up the Saar River and there is no city marina; the closest tieup is several kilometers outside of town. When we were in Schwebsange, however, we met an Irish couple, Mike and Rosaleen Miller from "Aquarelle" (Just back down the Danube River from Serbia and Hungary with their boat. They let us try some of the distilled spirits they brought back in unlabeled bottles. That's another story!). They told us that there was a train station a five minute walk from the Konz marina and it was a 15 minute train ride to Trier. They said we shouldn't mss it. We're very glad we took their advice.
Off in the pouring rain we went. Usually I just toss off the fact that the weather prevented many pictures but with Trier I really am sorry. It's a remarkable place and I was only able to get a couple snapshots.
Trier was founded by the Romans in about 16 BC as Augusta Treverorum. By the 2nd century it was the capital of the Roman's Belgian provinces. It was the capital of the Gallic Empire in the 3rd century and Constantine the Great made it his residence in the 4th century. At that time it was the second largest city in the western Roman Empire, after Rome itself. It's had it's ups and downs since then, losing major populations to war and famine, then rising again. Somehow I just never thought of Romans strolling the streets of Germany but the evidence is right under your feet or before your eyes.
About a ten minute walk from the train station is the Porta Nigra, the old Roman gate so named because age has blackened its stones.

Right behind is the Stadtmuseum Simeonstift that houses about two thousand years of artifacts from the town.
A little bit further into town is the The Haupmarkt.

Of course Trier has several huge churches and old palaces and the remains of some large Roman baths, one found accidentally in the 1980's during excavations for a parking garage. There's also the ancient amphitheater that could seat 20,000 people, watching gladiator contests or animal fights held for the Roman Emperor.
One amazing building is Constantine the Great's throne room. It's not that impressive from the outside, except for it's sheer size. It has none of the gothic embellishments like towers or flying buttresses and no windows on the sides, but you walk inside to one giant chamber about 220 feet long and 130 feet tall. The hall was used by the emperor for state events and since the Romans were used to a more Mediterranean climate and winters in Germany can be quite cold, they were faced with the task of heating this gigantic building. They created a basement; the ground floor of the hall is held up with stone pillars. Giant fires could be lit in three separate chambers, warming the floors. Once they had the building warm, they used about 2 cords of wood a day just to maintain a reasonable temperature.
Over the centuries the building has been much modified, parts of it torn down then rebuilt in a different configurations, but in the 1800's it was decided to rebuild the hall in its original shape to be used as a protestant church. Along with the new, major parts of the old structure remain. That's what we see today.
Sundays in Germany are even quieter than France. No shops are open, just restaurants. The only people on the streets were tourists carrying umbrellas and maps.
We caught the 3 pm train back to Konz, hustled back to the boat and prepared for the next leg of the trip. We would be turning up the Saar River, heading south for our return to France.

Up the Mighty Moselle - Aug 12-15

2010-09-02T07:44:00.000-07:00

Since the wend of WW II, the Moselle has been completely reshaped to allow for the biggest shipping allowed on European waters. We saw some mighty big boats and negotiated some pretty big locks but everything went very smoothly and in some stretches the scenery was very nice.

This coal barge, actually a "dumb" barge and a "pusher" barge a combined 180 meters, about 600 ft, long, is leaving the lock in Thionville.

A typical riverside village.

A view down the river.
Since this is a big river with big traffic there is no tying up to the bank just anywhere like on the small canals. We spent Thursday night right at the Thionville lock; there was a good spot on the wall in front of the smaller old lock that was abandoned.
Friday about 2:30 pm we left France. Here the Moselle, now the Mosel, is the border between Luxembourg, on our left, and Germany, on our right. I believe in the past I have made mention of cheap fuel in Luxembourg and the marinas are no different. We spent the night in Schwebsange after filling our tank and jerry jugs with the 1 euro a liter fuel.
Saturday after about an hours travel time we left Luxembourg behind, now completely in Germany. About 3 pm we pulled into the Water Sport Club Konz, just after the confluence with the Saar. We would spend a day here so we could take the very convenient train into Trier on Sunday morning.

A Visit to Metz' New Art Museum

2010-09-02T07:40:00.000-07:00

Situated just behind Metz' train station, the new Centre Pompidou-Metz just opened in May. It is a satellite facility of Paris' famed Pompidou Museum of Modern Art, the one with all the exposed, brightly colored pipework. It was designed by the architects Shigeru Ban and Jean de Gastines.

What you can't see, just out of the picture to the right, is the great line of people waiting to get in. Not thinking clearly, we timed our walk from the boat to arrive shortly after the opening time of 11 am. We didn't consider that, since the museum just opened it's doors a couple of months ago, we might not be the only people eager to get in. We had plenty of time to admire the interesting architecture.

The design is really a cover, the white fabric stretched over the wooden framework, that encloses three floors of modules that contain the exhibits. It took us about an hour and a half to wind our way to the front door. We had lunch at the museum cafe, cheap beer but expensive food, and headed for the art.
One of the museums most striking features, beside the excellent collection taken from the parent museum, is that the end of each module is a window that gives a view out over the city, treating the vista as a work of art as well. On the wall next to this window is a statement by Oliver Mosset quoted by Ellsworth Kelly and translated by Cathy Jo, "In October 1949 at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, I noticed that the windows were more interesting than the art displayed on the walls." We wouldn't go quite that far but the views are stunning.

Thursday morning we were off down the Moselle River headed north toward Luxembourg and Germany.

Metz, the Ville Jardin, Aug. 9-12

2010-09-02T07:31:00.000-07:00

Just before 3 pm we had arrived in the Port des Régates, The Metz marina. It's just a short walk from the center of town and the view from our back deck was very nice.

Metz is the capital of the Region of Lorraine and originates at least from Roman times as it lies at the confluence of the Moselle and Seille Rivers, a major trade route. After Charlemagne died in the early 800's and his empire was carved up, Metz became his son Lothar's capital. It managed to retain its wealth and power into the Middle Ages, when it proclaimed itself an independent republic, until it was absorbed into France in the mid-1500's. It traded hands several times between France and Germany, like the rest of Alsace and Lorraine, between the 1870's Franco-Prussian War and WW II, until it was finally liberated by Allied troops in 1944.
The center of town is just an easy walk along the bank you see in the above picture. Just through the bridge behind that hotel barge is one of the first sights, the Protestant church on an island in the river, the Temple Neuf.

The town center is dominated by the Gothic Cathedral of St. Etienne which contains one of the tallest naves in France.

The cathedral, with scaffolding, of course.

It's hard not to feel a little insignificant when faced with this enormous space.
This being August in France, the best restaurants were closed but an island just up the river did feature "Metz Plage," or Metz Beach, complete with sand, umbrellas, a swimming pool and playground.

Tuesday we took a walk around what's left of the old city walls, including the "Porte des Allemands" that guarded the city's east entrance along the Seille River.

The city is also filled with green spaces. In fact, the city contains more park space per capita than any city in Europe. We spent alot of time walking in greenery.
Wednesday we would visit one of the main reasons for our stay in Metz, the new art museum, Centre Pompidou-Metz.

To Metz - Aug. 7-9

2010-09-02T07:27:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning we threw off the lines in Nancy and, after about an hour and a half, completed this portion of the Canal de la Marne au Rhine and entered the Moselle River. We turned north toward Germany but would make a couple of stops before the border.
The first was Pont-a-Mousson, famous as a foundry town. All throughout France you will find manhole covers made here. There is a very nice, quiet, free tie up in a park just off the river, and, as the name of the town is "Pont," there is one of the few bridges over the river, with the beautiful St. Martin's Church at one end.

Just down the river is the Abbaye des Premontres which dates from the early 1700's. It was devastated by Allied bombing during WW II. That important bridge, remember. It has been almost completely restored and is now used as a conference center, museum and art gallery.

Saturday night we had one of those "only in Europe" evenings. We'd seen posters for the weekly free outdoor concert in the place Duroc and seen the stage being prepared so after dinner we headed into town to see what was up. The helpful lady at the tourist office had informed us it was "accordion music" and from the look on her face she didn't think two Americans would be very interested. We joined the crowd listening to an hour or so of some pretty enjoyable French chausson, complete with the jolly fellow with the slicked back hair and the nimble fingers on the keyboard, accompanied by a drummer, guitarist and bassist. But when they brought another accordion player on stage and the guitar and bass players picked up theirs, meaning no less that four accordions sawing away, we had to beat a hasty retreat.
We spent the day in town at the museum and catching up on chores. Monday morning we thought we would leave early so we could arrive early in the day at our next destination. Unfortunately the weather had other ideas. We turned the corner out into the river to find a thick blanket of fog. There is some big commercial traffic on the river and we would soon be entering a narrow stretch. We found a spot to tie up in front of the Abbey and waited. Luckily, just a half-hour later visibility had improved and we were off down the river. Next stop, Metz.

Nancy - Friday, Aug. 6

2010-08-31T04:44:00.000-07:00

There's a pretty good sized marina for pleasure boats in Nancy but it's crowded and relatively expensive. Luckily, there are many free, convenient places to tie up along the bank and, since we can do without electric hookups for quite a while, we just found a good spot and settled in.
We can thank the dethroned King of Poland and the early twentieth century Art Nouveau movement for Nancy's high points. In the mid 1700's, King Louis XV of France awarded the Dukedom of Lorraine to his father-in-law, Stanislas Leszczynski, on the the understanding that on his death, it would revert to the king. Stanislas embarked on a massive, and largely successful, urban renewal project that transformed most of the central city into a model of then-current Classicism. The main square, named after the last Duke, is a fitting monument to his work.

At each corner are magnificent wrought-iron gates, two with beautiful fountains.

And triumphal architecture abounds: one of the other entrances to the square.

Nancy's other major claim to fame is the early twentieth century "L'Ecole de Nancy," one of the principal parts of the Art Nouveau movement. Nancy was a handicraft and metalworking town (thus the Stanislas Square gates), and the principals in the "School of Nancy" attempted to join the artistic styles of Baroque and orientalism with the then-modernism. There is a huge park, the Park de la Pépiniére, near the center of town. It contained this bandstand, a good example of Nancy's work.

We wanted to sample one of Nancy's many fine restaurants but it's the middle of August so all the best ones are closed for summer vacation. We'll have to try again later.
We were able to attend Nancy's "Son et Lumiere," however. Cities all over France put on these spectacles. We saw a great water and light show in Strasbourg. Nancy projected an elaborate spectacle on the facade of the City Hall. It was truly a spectacular. Stanislaus Square was filled with people oohing and ahing at the show.
The weather was a little marginal, gray and drizzly during our stay, so picture taking was not the best and, since Nancy will be our train connection back and forth to Lagarde, we'll be here again.
Saturday morning we were off on the next leg of this years journey, down the Moselle River.

Staff Cutbacks at VNF Really Hurt

2010-08-31T04:42:00.001-07:00

VNF stand for Voies Navigables de France. They're the people that run the canals. Like every other government agency worldwide, they've been trying to do the same job with less money, meaning less staff. Many locks are now automated but we sleep better at night knowing they're being watched over by experts.

To Nancy - Aug. 2-5

2010-08-31T04:39:00.000-07:00

Since we had cleared the boat lift we were at the "top" of the Canal de la Marne au Rhine; we had completed the climb up from the Rhine, we would now begin the decent toward the Marne. We would not be going all the way to the Marne, we would be turning north on the Mosell River just after the city of Nancy. Leaving the valley of the Zorn River, we set off across what we thought looked like the American Great Plains; rolling hills and lots of agriculture. And the summit pound, the space between "up" locks and "down" locks is really long, about 24 km. We went all of Monday without going through a lock. The first lock on Tuesday made up for it, though. Part of the improvements to speed commercial traffic in the 1960's, along with the boat lift, was the elimination of six locks with a single one at Rechicourt le Chateau. This meant that our first "down" lock would drop us 16 meters, about 50 ft.

An aerial shot of the lock complex from a nearby sign board. The lock is full for boats going down.

A hire boat gets ready to make fast it's lines for the ride up.

Once that hurdle was completed it was on to our next stop, the marina and hire boat base in Lagarde. We had stopped by this place on our way to France when we were first looking for a boat to buy and thought it looked like a possibility for winter storage sometime in the future. It is out in the middle of nowhere but the people are very friendly, speak excellent English and we kind of like being in the middle of nowhere. It also gives us the option of retracing the trip back and forth from Saverne next year if we want. We made the necessary arrangements Tuesday afternoon and then set off Wednesday in the pouring rain. It was only 45 km to Nancy, the next big city on our trip, but that's too much for us to do in one day so we made an overnight stop bankside in the village of Sommerviller. Just before Nancy was a supermarket right next to the bank. Your shopping cart can be pulled right up to the boat. One of the problems with being out in the middle of nowhere is that we hadn't visited a supermarket since Saverne. We tied up and restocked the wine locker, bought a few groceries and by 3 pm we tied up bankside in Nancy, Art Nouveau hq.

Ride to Sarrebourg and,Yes, A Sausage Fest, Sunday Aug. 1

2010-08-31T04:31:00.000-07:00

The town of Sarrebourg was only about an 8 km bike ride away from the canal and we wanted to see it's claim to fame, the Chagall stained glass window in the Chapelle des Cordeliers. We set off on the bikes while the fishing couple did their work.
The Chapelle is all that remains of a church and abbey that used to dominate the central part of Sarrebourg. During the French Revolution is was taken over by the state and used for a hospital and soldiers barracks. By the time it was turned over to the city it had become so dilapidated that it needed to be torn down; the only part left was the choir of the old church.
In 1974 the city commissioned the artist Marc Chagall to design the nearly 40 ft. high window. Then, over the next 18 months, his work was turned into glass by the master craftsman Charles Marq. It was installed in the end wall of the chapel in 1976. It's a magnificent work of art. Supposedly no pictures are allowed so I didn't take any but I did find this link to the Flikr page of
someone who did.

We left the boat about 10:30 for the bike ride into town. We arrived at the chapel to find that it didn't open until 2 pm. The bonus was that entry is free on the first Sunday of the month, which it was, but we had a couple of hours to kill. Luckily for us, the city was holding it's annual vide grenier, a giant flee market in the middle of town. These happen all over France in just about every small town and village; the city closes down it's center, marks off spaces and then the residents set up tables and displays to sell whatever they want. There's usually a lot of junk but a lot of interesting stuff, too. Since we're on the boat we don't have room for "stuff" but it's fun to stroll around and see what's on offer. There's also always some sort of food being sold by a some local civic association, in this case the local chapter of the French Red Cross. It was sausage and beer for all!
The back story to all this is that when Tim was with us we went to a music performance in Mulhouse telling him he would be able to partake in a sausage fest. When we got there they only had "healthy" food. His partner gave him all sorts of grief about the "sausage fest" but we want to assure you, BJ, that such a thing does exist!

The preparation.

The result.
Monday morning we were off.

Fishing in France, the Friendly Competition

2010-08-09T23:06:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we made the bicycle trip into Sarrebourg to see the Chagal stained glass window. As we were leaving the boat, an elderly couple was just setting up their fishing encampment right behind us. It seemed like it took an hour for them to get all their gear in exactly the right configuration, Oma put on her plastic apron and the fishing began. Several hours later, when we returned, they were still there, fishing away. An hour or two later, as we had our aperitif on the back deck, they began to pack up their gear. They had each been stashing every fish they caught a in mesh bag, one of which is owned by every French fisherman and dangled in the water to keep the fish alive while the fishing continues. First Oma pulled her bag out of the water, took some pictures and hooked it up to a hand-held scale. 18 kilos of fish, almost 40 pounds! After returning the fish to their native habitat, it was Opa's turn. He managed only 14 kilos. As we applauded their accomplishment, he raised her hand in the air. The Champion Pecheuse was crowned!

The Plan Incliné - July 31

2010-08-09T22:51:00.000-07:00

We left Lutzlebourg a little after 9 am. Four locks later we entered the basin at the base of the Inclined Plane Boat Lift about 10:45. There were no other boats waiting so we had the ride to ourselves.

Two years ago in southern Belgium we road the Strepy-Thieu boat elevator. You can see pictures and a description of that trip a little over halfway down the page here. This lift is a little different.
In the 1960's, an international competition was held to design a boat lift that would eliminate the 18 locks and full days time it took to get to the top of the Canal de la Marne au Rhine. Opening in 1969, the Plan Incliné took 5 years and about $15 million to build. It included about 1200 meters of new approach channel and over 3000 meters of new canal cut into the cliff face at the top. It's basically a counterweighted bathtub measuring the usual 39 meters by a little over 5, weighs about 850 tons when filled with water and, because of the counterweights, operates with an electric motor that develops about 12 hp! Boats enter through a lift gate that closes, the basin moves along a track on 32 railcar-like wheels being pulled by two sets of 14 wire cables.

View from the bottom.
After just about 5 minutes, the boat has completed the 108 meter climb and the tourists at the top are waiting to greet you.

The view back down from the top.
Since we were going up we then entered the new canal cut along the face of the cliff. It was a quiet Saturday on the canal; not much traffic.

The next obstacle to be overcome are the two tunnels, the first over 2 kilometers. It's lit on the inside but still, a half hour spent underground is not one of our highlights.

The light is green so we're ok to enter the second tunnel, 475 meters long.
Just past the last tunnel was the municipal tie up for the village of Niderviller. The docks are still there but the water and power are turned off because the bridge has just been replaced. Since we're ok for several days without hookups, we decided to spend a couple of days there. We had some bicycle side trips to make.

Saverne and Lutzelbourg -July 27 - 30

2010-08-03T13:18:00.000-07:00

I think I've quoted Hugh McNight's "Cruising French Waterways" before regarding this section of the Canal de la Marne au Rhin but it needs repeating; "Given one day to convert a person to the delights of French canal cruising, I would choose to take them along the 20 km of Canal from Saverne to Niderviller in NW Alsace. We would climb through the locks into the steep-sided and thickly wooded valley of the Zorn to Lutzelbourg; journey onwards to where the St. Louis-Arzviller inclined plane lifts our boat up a cliff face, voyage through the pine trees, and finally dive underground through two tunnels towards the more gentle countryside of Lorainne. It is a 20 km microcosm of all that I find irresistible about French waterways."
McNight would do it in a day. It took us a week. All we can say is, "Amen!"
We left Saverne on a cool, overcast Tuesday, negotiated the lock out of town and headed for Lutzelbourg.

Waiting for the green light.

After about 4 hours and 9 locks we were tied up on the bank in Lutzelbourg, surely one of the most beautiful villages in France.

We would spend about four days here, hiking and biking around the Vosges mountains.
Unfortunately, Wednesday we woke to pouring rain. Inez would be catching the 1:30 pm train back to Saverne. She was going to head back to Colmar for some touring of the Alsatian wine country before her flight back to the US at the end of the week. Luckily, about noon the rain stopped so we didn't get soaked on the walk to the station.
Since the rain had stopped, we decided to take a bicycle ride up to the Inclined Plane and check out the flight of locks it replaced.
More from McNight, "Built between 1838 and 1853, the object of the canal was to connect Paris and the north with Alsace, the Rhine and Germany. Considerable obstacles had to be overcome in hilly terrain, hence the many locks and several tunnels…. During the 1950's barge use had practically reached saturation point with many craft being…lumbering..vessels, mainly hauled by the towpath tractors…. The 1960's saw the replacement of the 17 locks in the Zorn valley by the St. Louis-Arzviller inclined plane and the substitution of 6 further locks by a single deep one at Rechincourt. On the 151 km Nancy-Strasbourg section the … journey time improved from about 94 hours to 53.
The ghosts of the abandoned locks replaced by the Plan Incliné are accessible by the old tow path made perfect for bicycles. It was a memorable ride.

An abandoned lockkeepers house and lock.

The old canal is now filled with vegetation.
We got back to the boat just as the heavens opened and escaped being soaked by minutes.
Thursday and Friday were taken up with hikes into the mountains surrounding the village, including one to the ruined 11th century chateau that overlooks Lutzelbourg. While walking around the site it's hard to imagine that people lived in these buildings nearly a thousand years ago.

Saturday morning it was off to the Plan Incliné.

A Promise Kept - Saverne and Alsace

2010-08-03T13:08:00.000-07:00

It was still very hot when we left Strasbourg. After about 20 kilometers, looking for some shade, we found a tie up in the Foret de Bromath. Over 90 degrees F and humidity to match wasn't making the cruising much fun. We tied up about 1:30 pm and just laid around, hoping for rain. By evening our prayers were answered, the clouds thickened, the wind got up and rain began to fall. The next day was much cooler, cloudy and intermittent rain. We moved on to the village of Hochfelden, the home of the "Bier du Alsace," Meteor. They brew several hundred gallons of the stuff every day and tours are offered but we know how beer is made and decided to just wander around the village.

Hochfelden from the mooring.
The next morning it was off to Saverne.
Back in 2007, after we had tied up the boat for the winter in Holland, we traveled to Switzerland so Cathy Jo could revisit her old high school. On the way we stopped in the Alsatian town of Saverne, and, because we like it so much, stopped again on our way back to Holland. You can read the old postings here, just a little way down the page. As the Canal Marne au Rhine runs right through the middle of town, we said we would return. Finally, we were here!
We once again hiked up to Haute Barr, the chateau that overlooks Saverne, some of it built during Roman times.

The happy wanderers. We found an old Roman rock to set the camera on.
We tried to rent a car to tour the "Route du Vin" and sample some of that delicious Alsatian wine but, since it's busy vacation time in France, no cars were available. We managed to sample the wine anyway.
Monday, Cathy Jo and I decided to hike an area we hadn't been in before, on the north side of the canal, and Inez wandered through town. The Club du Vosges has set up signed hiking trails all through the surrounding mountains. They are much better marked that when we were here three years ago; we hardly ever get lost.Tuesday morning it was off down the canal.

Through Town on a Boat! and Let's Go to Germany

2010-07-26T00:59:00.000-07:00

Along with one of the oldest universities in Europe, Strasbourg is home to several pan-European organizations, including the European Parliament and the Court of Human Rights. They are housed in futuristic building in the "European Quarter" of the city. We would go by in Odysseus on our way out of town but we decided to take the boat tour on the River Ill to get a better view.

Home of the European Parliament.

Home of the European Court of Human Rights
Strasbourg was really busy with summertime activities, especially at night. Beginning every night at about 10:30 there was a show with lights, music and spouting water in the basin just next to the one where we were moored. It featured a really innovative rear-projection setup, a scrim, on a mist of water, for a backdrop. There was also a light and music display on the facade of the cathedral. Because of the presence of the University and all of the European institutions, Strasbourg has the feel of a big city without being overwhelming. We decided we really liked it here.
The next day, Inez decided to walk some of the city she hadn't seen and we decided to take a bike ride to see theTwo Shores Park and Footbridge. In 2004, Strasbourg and the German city just over the Rhine, Kehl, united to build this over 100 acre park on both sides of the river, with a footbridge linking the two sides. Just a 20 minute bike ride from where the boat was tied up, it seemed an easy way to visit Germany, if only for an hour or so.

The footbridge over the Rhine.

A grain carrier passes a moored Rhine passenger ship under the bridge.
Wednesday it was still hot but time to leave the city. A new piece of water, the Canal de la Marne au Rhin, awaited us, along with what is supposed to be some of the most beautiful scenery along canals in France.

Alsace and Language

2010-07-26T00:57:00.000-07:00

The two regions in which we'll be spending the rest of the summer, Alsace and Lorraine, are almost as closely tied to Germany as they are to France. Strasbourg joined France in the late 1600's but Germany annexed both Alsace and Lorraine after the Franco-Prussian War of the 1870's. The regions returned to France after World War 1, only to be taken over again during WWII from 1940-44. The food, the architecture and the attitudes owe much to Germany and the language shows it. We can hear the German influence in the French spoken here and, in fact, there is a kind of "high" German called Elsassisch, that is still spoken locally. People here seem to get along fine in both French and German, although they are usually more comfortable in one than the other. Listening to people speak in Kunheim while we watched the third place match in the World Cup between Germany and Uruguay, one person would speak in French but the reply might come in German, or some combination of the two. In Colmar, when Tim asked the girl cleaning the capitanerie if it was alright to walk across they newly mopped floor, her reply was a perfect example of the language combination. "Alles c'est bon," she said in German and French.

Strasbourg July 16-21

2010-07-26T00:48:00.000-07:00

Once again the mighty Rhine was easily navigated. There was a bit more commercial traffic so the washing machine effect was more pronounced but, since it was still very hot and more electricity was being generated by the huge hydroelectric station at each lock, the current was even stronger. On some portions Odysseus was making over 12 k per hour! We entered the river about 10 am and left it behind about 2 pm traveled until about 4:30 and found a spot in the deep shade to tie up for the night. The weather forecast had one more hot day and then thunderstorms but it was already cloudy as we went to bed. If it was hot, we'd stay put but when we got up the clouds had thickened and rain looked possible. We figured we'd travel the last 16 k into Strasbourg. We arrived a little after noon, found a spot to moor in the Bassin l'Hopital and settled in for a couple days. Our friend Inez would be joining us on Monday.

It did rain a bit on Saturday but it was sunny on Sunday. Into the city we went.
One of the first stops in the city has to be the cathedral Notre-Dame of Strasbourg. Built on the foundation of an old basilica from 1015 that later burned, the cathedral was constructed over a period of almost 300 years, from 1176 until the steeple was completed in 1439.

The stone statues around the door are intricately carved. This is the center of the three portals along the front of the cathedral.

A couple of days later we would take the 332 steps up to the porch just below the main steeple. This gave a great view over Strasbourg.

It would also give a good view of the famous "flying buttresses," a feature of all gothic cathedral. This method of reinforcing the walls let the designers add more window space, greatly illuminating the interior of the previously dark churches.

The River Ill surrounds one side of the the old city, the Canal du Faux Ramparts the other; the Canal Rhone au Rhine crosses south of the city just south of the river. Private boats are no longer allowed through the center but there are tour boats that will take you around and then up the river to where it intersects with the Canal Marne au Rhine, the next canal we'll be traveling.
Just where the river splits is an island, "Petite France", Strasbourgs most picturesque neighborhood.

After Inez arrived on Monday afternoon we decided it would be a good day for that boat trip through town.

The Colmar Embranchement - July 11-15

2010-07-26T00:42:00.000-07:00

After the big, bad Rhine River, the canal to Colmar was a welcome calm. We spent the night in the small village of Kunheim, just 6 kilometers off the Rhine, then got up early to make the last 22 k into Colmar; it was Sunday, Don's birthday, and a true French Sunday lunch was called for.

Down the Colmar Canal. Picture by Tim.
Sunday lunch in France is an event. Most shops and businesses are closed and the French either gather at someones house for a table-groaning affair or take part in the three hour restaurant meal. We parked the boat in the Colmar marina about noon and asked the port captain for a restaurant recommendation. He not only recommended a place, he made us a reservation! Map in hand we set out for "La Soi," or as it came to be known, "House of Pig."
It is truly a family style restaurant up a small side street and we really didn't know what we were getting into when we ordered. It seemed reasonable to order a salad and then main course until the salad appeared. It was a meal in itself. By the time we had consumed all of the (really good) food we could, there was nothing else to do but nap. Besides, it was beastly hot again (in the 90's), so there was not much else to do. This was also our first "tarte flambe" of the trip. This Alsatian specialty is like a very thin crusted pizza but with no tomato sauce. Instead it is topped with cream and onions. The traditional comes with lardons (bacon bits) and cheese, and there are also varieties with extra cheese or mushrooms. The one we had at "La Soi" was excellent. It will be the tarte flambe to be measured against for the rest of our time in Alsace.

A "tarte flambe" on the street.

Colmar is in the very center of the Alsatian wine region. As a result, it is chock full of tourists. It's been prettified almost to Disneyfication but some areas, particularly "Little Venice," with it's small canals and streams,are very beautiful.

Tuesday we took a bus up into the nearby vineyards in the village of Turkheim, just at the mouth of the Munster Valley. The views of the small villages reminded us of last year in Champagne. We wished it was cool like that. The weather continued very hot.

Delicious wines in the making.
Wednesday was "Fete National," France's equivalent of our 4th of July. Colmar would have a huge celebration with music and fireworks on Tuesday night. Cathy Jo was feeling a little under the weather so Tim and I made our way into downtown Colmar. We endured a really bad cover band, drank waaay too much cheap beer and saw a really amazing fireworks display coordinated with ear crashing music. About 11:30 we weaved our way back to the boat.
Thursday we were on our way back out to the Rhine. We would have one more short section before we could enter the northern branch of the Canal Rhone au Rhine. We stopped again in the village of Kunheim where Tim took the bus back to Colmar. He was off to Switzerland and we were off to Strasbourg.

Odysseus in Kunheim.

Much Ado…Saturday, July 10

2010-07-14T07:56:00.000-07:00

We left Mulhouse late Friday morning. It is about 14 k from town to the canal's confluence with the Rhine River where there is an overnight stop and we wanted to be ready to get an early start with the "big water" on Saturday morning.
There used to be a small canal, the Canal Rhone au Rhine Branche Nord, that went directly from Mulhouse to Strasbourg, our next major destination, but when the Rhine was canalised, it fell into disrepair. Now you must enter the Grand Canal, mingle with the huge Rhine barges for about 40 k until you can enter a side canal that travels 22 k to the city of Colmar. After visiting there it's 22 k back to the river for a short 25 k transit where there is a turnoff to the remains of the northern branch of the Canal Rhone au Rhine into Strasbourg. Since it is basically the Rhine, along with those giant barges is a significant current, about 5 k per hour on the day we traveled. Since we're going downstream, however, our usual leisurely 6.5 k per hour turned into 11. Screaming Odysseus!
Along with giant barges are the required giant locks. We would do 4 on Saturday, the first with Jeff and Helen on their beautiful Linssen motoryacht "Kairos."

Tim shows his manliness while Kairos prepares to leave the lock.
Luckily, since these locks fall about 15 meters (about 45 feet), the bollards that you tie to are floating; as the water flows out of the lock, the bollards drop with it. Line handling is very easy under those circumstances. Don't know how we'd cope otherwise!

This nearly 100 meter barge was leaving the Fessenheim lock.
Right about 3 pm we left the Grand Canal and ducked into the much smaller Colmar Embranchement. About an hour later we were tied up in the small village of Kunheim, safe and sound, with plenty of time for a little swimming before our aperitif.

You Say Mulhouse, I Say Mulhouse Thursday, July 8

2010-07-14T07:44:00.000-07:00

Mulhouse is a large, sprawling city that was Swiss until 1798 when, overcome with revolutionary fervor, the residents voted to become part of France. It's fortune came from printed cotton fabric and all that went with it. Now it's very industrial and a little gritty but it does have a great collection of museums. Of course there is a Fabric Museum, but also a Train Museum, a Historical Museum, a Firefighters Museum and a recreation of historical life and culture in Alsace at the Eco Museum, but the crown jewel has to be the Musee National de l'Automobile. Beginning in the 1920's, local business tycoons the Schlumpf brothers amassed a collection of over 600 cars covering the entire history of the automobile, beginning with a "steam" car from 1878 up until the present day race cars. The largest group in the collection is a huge number of locally made Bugattis; coupes, limousines and racing cars, with the highlight two Bugatti Royales out of only seven made. They were made for royalty and it certainly look it.
The brothers fortunes took a turn for the worse in the 1960's but they kept collecting cars. After their bankruptcy, the collection was rescued by the state and local governments and opened for display to the public in the 1980's. It is very impressive; too much for one day, even for the most dedicated gear head. Plus it was cool in there.
Click this link for better pictures than I could have ever taken. The Schlumpf Collection Click on the photos/videos section and then "Espace Adventure" for a great slide show.
The weather was still pretty hot. Time to move on to our next adventure, the Grand Canal d'Alsace; the dreaded Rhine.

Down to the Rhine, July 5 - 9

2010-07-14T07:41:00.000-07:00

It was really hot during our stay in Montbeliard and the marina was not a particularly cool place, although there is a very large park with lots of shade nearby. One day was spent on engine maintenance, with Herr Benz getting his first oil change and general engine room cleanup, and another with a 8 k bicycle trip to a nearby lake for a cool dip.

One of the most prominent buildings in Montbeliard, Chateau des Ducs de Wurtemburg.
Tim arrived without problems on the early afternoon of the 4th, we had a hamburger barbecue in celebration of Independence Day and Monday morning we were off for the last 11 locks to the top of the Canal Rhone au Rhine.
After an overnight stop in Montreux-Chateau, we began the decent. The first day would see us travel only 26 kilometers but clear 32 locks. We started at about 8:45 am and finished up just before 6 with an hour for lunch. Luckily, here the locks are all manually operated and a lock-keeper accompanies the boat. That allows the traffic to be managed, since boats are going up and down. We saw the most boats in a day that we'd seen since leaving Ranchot, about 6, coming in the other direction.

Wednesday was a shorter day with just 8 k and 6 locks. By just after noon we were tied up in the marina in Mulhouse (pronounced muh looz by the French) where we would spend a day.

Further Up the Doubs, June 25 - July 1

2010-07-14T07:38:00.000-07:00

After Besancon, the river enters a deeper, more spectacular valley. There are many small villages on its banks and it is surrounded by greenery; forests and small farms. Limestone cliffs rise up nearly from the riverbank.

Our first night out from Besancon we stopped in the small town of Deluz. They have a nice new marina but, since we didn't need water or to plug in, we just tied up to a small wharf next to the city park. The end of the school year is approaching and there was a "fete" for the nearby school that evening in the park. Beaucoups des enfants!
We also found a great spot on a pontoon right before a lock to tie up for lunch.

Cathy Jo enjoys the shade.
We had developed a small oil leak in one of the new replacement hoses but when we stopped in Baume le Damme, the helpful captain of the local tour boat was able to help us get it replaced with the assistance of the local truck repair shop. Stops in Clerval and l'Isle sur Doubs followed. We then left the Doubs behind to follow the River Alan into Montbeliard. We would be staying a couple of days there. There are great train connections to Paris and that would make it easy for our friend Tim to join us for a few days.

Up the Doubs to Besancon, June 22

2010-07-14T07:32:00.000-07:00

After spending Sunday cleaning up and generally re-preparing for departure, Monday morning at the crack of 9:30 we were off. Herr Benz was purring away nicely, and a good thing, too. All during the week of the engine replacement it had been raining and a good portion of the next two days travel would be on portions of the River Doubs.
Construction of the Canal Rhone au Rhine was begun in 1784 but not completed until 1833. Most of the canal was enlarged to it's present size by 1882 but it wasn't until 1921 that the last portion was updated. From Dole to Dampierre, the canal ducks in and out of the river. If it has been raining, as it had been, the current can be quite strong. In fact, the canal authorities had closed the canal for several days the week before because it was running too strongly. We found some of the river stretches on Monday and Tuesday something of a struggle, making only about 4 km per hour against the current. Since we were trying to be gentle with the engine for it's first few hours in the boat, we didn't want to push it too hard.
By about 1:30 Tuesday afternoon we arrived in the city of Besancon.
From McNight: "Originally established in Gallo-Roman times, Besancon has a long and rich history, sometimes as the center of an independent province, sometimes under Spanish rule. It's most notable feature is the hilltop Citadelle, fortified by Vauban in the 17th century.
Notable feature is right.

The entrance to town on the Doubs.
The city occupies a giant bend in the river; in fact the Doubs almost doubles back upon itself and the fort occupies the high ground at the narrowest point of the "buckle." Two tunnels, one for cars and one for boats, pass underneath the Citadelle, eliminating the need to go all the way around.
We tied up at a nice free mooring right under the walls, deciding to spend a couple of days.
Of course the next day we had to make the hike to the top of the hill to take in the view. Besancon was spread out below us and if you look carefully, you can see "Odysseus" and "Zee Otter," another barge from Saint Symphorien owned by Peter, a hot air balloon pilot, and Judy, a former ballet dancer, tied up on the pontoons below the fort.
The fort had most of the comforts of home so the soldiers and their help would be able to withstand a seige. The complex was really very elaborate.

After dark, the fortifications are illuminated, making a very dramatic scene.

Thursday night we watched the US soccer team defeat Algeria to move on to the second round of the World Cup. The only problem was we were in a bar full of Algerians so we had to be very circumspect when the US scored the only goal of the match in extra time.
We decided we really liked Besancon. It is a university city so there is a lot of activity; there was a nice "buzz" about it. We wouldn't mind coming back here sometime in the future. But for now, the river level had dropped, the current had decreased and it was time to move on.

We "Heart" Ranchot

2010-07-14T07:28:00.000-07:00

We couldn't have picked a better place to be stuck than Ranchot. The halt is very secure with power and water available, a good boulangerie is right around the corner and a good sized grocery store is a five minute bike ride away.
Sunday morning after the bad engine news was delivered, as we were drinking our morning coffee, we noticed several people walking up and down the canal bank, peering at our boat and obviously discussing something. We saw them "framing" us with their fingers, movie director style. Since we're from near LA we immediately thought "movie!" and maybe there was some money in it for us. But it turned out they were a local plein air painting group looking for subjects for the days outing. We were picturesque enough for them. They set up their easels and went to work.
Meanwhile we were off on our bicycles. The Grottes d' Ossell is a system of limestone caverns about 15 k up the canal on the most excellent towpath/bicycle route and about 4 k up in the hills. The caves have been visited since the 1700's and stretch about 8 k under the hills, about half of which is accessible. It really is very impressive, with a very colorful collection of stalactites, stalagmites and other cave formations. The tour took about an hour and, luckily, the guide spoke English well.
There was also a rowing club nearby, We thought they may have an outboard or other small boat that we could use to get back to St. Smphorien but had no luck with that. We did see the boat "Esprit de Normandie," a boat whose owners we had met over the internet. They offered some advice but, since they were headed in the other direction and were only on the boat for a few more days, that was all they could do.
Upon returning to the boat, we saw that the painters had been hard at work and took pictures of the pictures.

We gave our boat calling card to one of the painters who told us that the press had been around and we asked if photos could be emailed to us.
When we got to Holland on Thursday and picked up our email, there was a note from the Mayor of Ranchot, Eric Montagnon, with copies of the newspaper pictures.

The Mayor and one of the Painters

There are several Odysseus' among the paintings of the day.
That's the Mayor in the back row to the left of the photo.

We replied with our thanks, using our computer to translate the email into French but composing the English version for easy translation.
Just after the engine was installed on Saturday, Mayor Montagnon happened to be walking by on the bank with a group of friends and stopped by to complement our French! We explained the ruse and he said he would stop by on Sunday afternoon. True to his word, as we were having our evening aperitif, the Mayor and his daughter Emily stopped by. We had a nice chat even through the language difficulty, and we learned a bit about the village.
About 500 people live in Ranchot but, as there is no industry and only one working farm, they use the train to commute to Besancon and Dole. The Mayor has lived in Ranchot for about 3 years and both he and his wife work for the railroad on the construction of the extension of the TGV (bullet) train from Belfort into Switzerland, due to be completed next year.
We thanked the Mayor for his hospitality but it was time to move on. Tomorrow was departure #3!

It Is Done - Saturday June 19

2010-06-24T02:58:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning, Bouba and Guy arrived, this time with some lifting equipment. We weren't going to have to muscle the new engine into the boat.

Bouba goes all "McGiver" on it.
After the motor was on the boat, we headed back to drop off the van in Dole. We made the noon return train and, after the 5 minute walk from the train station, came back to find the engine in place and in the process of being hooked up.

Herr Mercedes in his new home.
There were the usual glitches along the way but Bouba was able to deal with them all and by about 4:30, Odysseus' new "Herr Mercedes" as purring away in the engine room.

Odysseus doing what she hadn't done in a while.
We had a light dinner and collapsed. Tomorrow would be a day of clean up and rest. Monday we would be off!

How We've Moved Up In The World

2010-06-24T02:55:00.001-07:00

Remember this from 2007 in Holland?

This is what we took to Holland this year!

If This Is Thursday, It Must Be Holland

2010-06-24T02:48:00.000-07:00

Meanwhile, the folks at Ranchot had been very accommodating. They gave us a break on the nightly fee for moorage and, when we asked at city hall if there was internet so we could make a reservation for a truck to haul the engine, they let us use their (one!) computer. (The village only has 500 people. The residents were really great and they're will be more postings about that later.)
We made a reservation with Europcar for a small van from their Dole office for Wednesday morning and checked the train schedules. Wednesday we took the 8 am commuter train to Dole, picked up the truck, which was much bigger than we needed but the smallest they had available, and headed back for Ranchot.
About 2:30, Bouba appeared and we set to work, Don being the assistant. By about 4:30, the engine was disconnected and lifted out of it's spot but we awaited the arrival of Boubas weightlifter friend, Guy, who was going to help muscle the engine out of the boat and into the van.

Bouba and his assistant are pleased with their work!

Up the stairs to the van.

A little giddy after a hard afternoon's work. Bouba and Guy.
That done, we headed out for Holland at about 7:30 pm. We had to be to Drinkwaard as early as possible on Thursday so they could transfer parts from the existing engine onto the new one and get us out of there by Friday morning.
It was lucky the van was big. We were able to put some foam bedding from our aft cabin in the back of the van with the engine and, when we stopped for the night (morning!) about 1 am, we could curl up with it for a couple hours sleep; a kind of wake. We pulled into Drinkwaard's shop in Sleidrecht about 9 am, they offloaded the engine and we found a hotel nearby, although our room wouldn't be ready until after noon. We took the bus into the city center of Doordrecht, Holland's oldest chartered city, had a look around and some lunch, came back to the hotel room and collapsed.
We had dinner at the hotel, watched Mexico demolish France in the World Cup (Viva El Tri!), and went off to dreamland.
After breakfast at the hotel, we headed back to Sleidrecht where we waited for the paint to dry on the new engine. Euros were exchanged, the engine was loaded up and by 11 am, we were on the road back to France.

The new Herr Mercedes.

Arco congratulates Don on his recent purchase.
Don grits his teeth.
We pulled into Ranchot about 7:30 pm, sent a text to Emma letting her know we had returned and the return message said Bouba and Guy would arrive about 9 on Saturday morning for the installation.

Waiting … Still Waiting, Friday, Saturday and Sunday

2010-06-24T02:44:00.000-07:00

We didn't hear from Alain Friday morning and his cell phone was going directly to voicemail. By afternoon we were pretty tense, so we called Bourgogne Marine, where we knew he was doing the generator installation. Christophe said he had probably turned his phone off so he could eliminate distractions but he might be able to get to us that afternoon. Frustrated at not being able to leave the boat waiting for the call, we just sat around and stewed. Finally, Saturday morning about 9:30 Alain called, saying he would be in Ranchot by about 10. He arrived with his thumb in a big bandage and his father, a retired electrician in tow to be his right hand.
Technical sidebar - when we first stopped I took off the head cover and discovered that one of the valve rocker arms had come completely off the push rod. The #3 cylinder exhaust valve was not working at all. That's why the engine was shaking so much.
Alain took one look at that and yelped "Bizarre!" He had never seen anything like it. After taking the assembly apart and then putting it all back together, he attempted to readjust the valves. Nothing was working as it should; his diagnosis was either the timing chain had broken or there was a problem with the camshaft. Either way, major engine work was going to be required again.
As soon as we heard that, we were on the phone with Drinkwaard Motoren near Rotterdam, Holland. When we first bought Odysseus they had supplied some hard-to-find parts and we knew they sold reconditioned engines. After speaking with Arco van Houlingen, we decided that, rather than pour more money into an engine that we would never trust again, we might as well bite the bullet and buy a replacement. It would be an exact replacement for the existing engine; all that would be necessary would be to disconnect to old one, lift it out, drop in the new one, hook it up and off we would go. Yeh, right!
The major problem was that, if Alain was going to do the job, he said we would have to somehow get back to St. Symphorien, about 40 k and 12 locks. We weren't going to be doing that by hand! Off he went, leaving us to consider how we would get back. We were pretty disappointed he just left us with no help at all.
So it was going to be up to us to find an inflatable with an outboard, or even an outboard itself so we could figure out a way to get back. We made several phone calls but, being late Saturday afternoon, nothing too much was going to get done until Monday.
Just after we got the bad diagnosis, friends from last year, John and Sue on The Aryani showed up and tied up right behind us. They invited us over to drown our sorrows. Right after, a French boat we traveled with over last summer, Brise Nuit, also pulled in. It was old home day.

The Ranchot "halte fluvial".

The next morning, as they were leaving, Sue and John gave us the number of the mechanic who takes care of their boat, Phillippe Bouchiba, "Bouba," and told us to give him a call. He lives in St. Symphorien, is an independent mechanic, and, as a local, might be able to arrange the tow. We dialled the number on the card listed for English callers and left a message with his English speaking partner, Emma who, along with keeping Bouba in line, acts as a travel agent for French hotel barges. After a couple of calls back and forth, it was decided that Bouba and Emma and his two children would come up (ON SUNDAY AFTERNOON!!!!!), Cathy Jo and Emma would have some wine, the kids would fish, a Bouba would take a look at our problem.
After checking it all out, Bouba said he thought he could make the engine work enough to get us back to St. Symphorien but when I expressed my FEAR of taking off from a good, secure mooring into the river with no guarantee we would make it to another good mooring place, he said he would do the exchange where we were, beginning Wednesday at 2 pm.
After drinking of wine and shaking of hands, Bouba, Emma and the kinds were off and we plotted how we were going to make this happen.

The Adventure Never Stops, Thursday, June 10

2010-06-24T02:42:00.000-07:00

We left Dole a little before 9 am with the small village of Ranchot as our destination, about 20k up the canal. Everything seemed to be going well, although the engine seemed to be making a little more noise than usual. After 4 locks, about 11:30, the engine made a bang, spit out a puff of smoke and began to shudder violently; it was only running on three of four cylinders! There was supposedly a tie up in the village of Orchamps just ahead but it was nowhere to be seen. The engine was still running, although just barely, so we figured we might as well continue to Ranchot, where there was a good tie-up. Normally we shut off the engine in the locks; there doesn't seem to be any reason to just sit there idling, breathing in exhaust fumes for 10 minutes, but we had two locks before Ranchot and we were afraid if we shut off the engine we'd never get it started again. Holding our breath we navigated the river sections of the canal against the current (luckily not that strong), and limped into Ranchot about 1:30.
Right after the engine started acting up, Cathy Jo had phoned Alain to let him know we were in trouble. He answered from the hospital! He'd been installing a new generator in a big barge and sliced the tendon in his thumb. He said to call when we got situated and he'd see what he could do. After we got tied up we got back in touch with him and he said if he could, he would see us Friday morning. Luckily the Ranchot halte has electricity and water and is a very secure tie-up for 7 euros a night. We settled it with our stomachs churning, wondering what could possibly be next.

The Next Departure, Tuesday, June 8

2010-06-24T02:37:00.000-07:00

Monday morning at the crack of 8, Alain showed up with the repaired head and assorted gaskets. He set to work and by about 3 pm was ready to fire up the engine. It started right up and never sounded so good! We ran it in gear for about an hour, churning up the water in the upper basin to make sure the overheating problem was solved. After the test, everybody was satisfied, Alain made up his "facture," (the bill), euros were exchanged and Odysseus was considered repaired.
While Alain was working, Peter the port captain and (and tow horse) had graciously given Cathy Jo a ride to the grocery store for provisions. We were ready to go.
A little before 9 Tuesday morning we started the engine, gave it 10 minutes to warm up, cast off the lines and headed up the Canal Rhone au Rhine once again.
We originally intended to make Dole our first stop but since we'd been there by bicycle just the week before, we decided to stop just a couple of kilometers before the town in the village of Choisey, where there was a very nice new pontoon. No services on the pontoon but the village is very picturesque and has a sign at the halte advertising "tous commerces" (all shops). We followed the sign, expecting to find maybe a boulangerie and a little grocery store. Instead we found a giant Cora, kind of like an upscale Walmart, along with a huge development of large retail outlets. We picked up a couple of things and retreated to the boat to wait out some pretty heavy showers.

Choisey
At 9 Wednesday morning we were underway again, Dole just an hour away. We were tied up on one of the finger pontoon just after 10 and set off for town. We were pretty familiar with the layout of the streets by now. No such thing as a grid in these medieval towns, especially if there's a hill and church involved.
Luckily, at least in the morning, the weather was a little better and the light was good for some pictures.

One of Dole's major industries of old was tanning of hides. The old "Tanner's Canal" has had a makeover.
For dinner we had been advised that the pizza from the pizza barge was pretty good; cooked in a wood-burning oven, according to the sign. It was just across the canal so we took advantage of a brief pause in the rain showers to dash over for a pie. It wasn't the pizza of our dreams but pretty good.

May 30-June 7 Waiting

2010-06-05T13:24:00.000-07:00

There wasn't much we could do for the rest of the week but wait. But we have bicycles, we're in France and we might as well make the best of it.
One of the drawbacks of St. Symphorien is that it's a pretty good way out of town. It takes about 20 minutes on the bikes to get to the nearest grocery and boulangerie but, luckily, it's right along the river on a very nice, paved path. After a couple of days to do errands we decided we should make a trip to Dole, which was supposed to be our first days objective. It's just 20k up the canal; a little over an hour ride. We had visited the town when we were in France with John and Patti five years ago and vowed we would one day make it there on our boat. Maybe next week. This week we do it on two wheels.

The weather was not at its best, cloudy and a little chilly; light rain was in the forecast, so I didn't take a lot of pictures but we will be here in a week or so and hopefully it will be more sunny.
There is a very busy Nichols hire boat base and the town is overlooked by a spectacular church.

We had a huge French lunch, wandered about the towns twisty streets and headed back for the boat.
On the way back we saw this beautiful wheat field with a bunch of poppies in the middle. If they harvest this all at once do you get pre-made poppy seed rolls?

Friday was a much sunnier, warmer day so we took a ride up along the river to the town of Auxonne. it's just bout 8 k right along the river. This time no paved bike path but a beautiful ride through the countryside.
Another ancient city with a church that was constructed beginning in the 12th century, Auxonne was fortified by Vauban (who did a lot of that kind of thing) in the 17th century.

Part of the old city walls.

It's also famous for hosting Napoleon Bonaparte for a couple of stays in 1788-89 and 1791 while he was an artillery officer. There is a statue, of course.

On Saturday, one of the longer term residents here at Bourgogne Marine, Tim and Ali Julyan left with their barge Linga. They needed a better place to continue with their major rebuild/renovation and a space opened up down river about 15 k that was a little more convenient for all the work they must do. We met them right before we left last year when they fed us dinner as our stores dwindled and then we met up with them again shortly after we arrived back. Tim is a very capable shipwright/fitter/mechanic from Cornwall in England and was full of great information and support during our "troubles." We wish them well.

Ali waves goodbye

Captain Tim keeps a good watch as they enter the lock.

Linga heads down the Saone.

Meanwhile, we wait.

Saturday, May 29, The Diagnosis

2010-06-05T13:17:00.000-07:00

At the crack of 8:30 am, before we had even finished our coffee, Alain showed up with a very welcome bag of pain chocolate and a couple of large toolboxes. Within two hours he had removed the cylinder head from the engine. While there was no obvious damage, there were a couple of places that looked questionable. We were again moored outside two big boats, making crossing difficult, especially with a large, heavy engine part. There was nothing Alain could do today, anyway, and he would be going to Dijon Monday afternoon, where a machine shop could pressure test the head and make sure it was flat. He would return Monday after lunch and deliver the head to Dijon. With nothing to do but sit and wait, we did just that.

Alain at work.

The offending part, we hope!

Our headless Mercedes.

Monday morning we were able to shift positions in the upper basin allowing us to be much closer to the bank with much easier access.
Monday afternoon a little before 2, Alain, true to his word, appeared, loaded the head into his truck and headed off to Dijon. By Tuesday afternoon we had word that the head was not cracked, was warped but fixable and once the parts arrived and the head was repaired, probably next Monday sometime, the engine could be reassembled. If the head was truly the problem, we could be underway by the middle of next week. All we could do was wait and make regular visits to the distributeur du billets (the cash machine) to make sure we had the euros required to make all this happen.

Thursday, May 27-Departure and En Panne

2010-05-30T12:12:00.000-07:00

The weather forecast looked pretty good for Thursday and our first objective was the town of Dole, just 19 k away. We wanted to be there for their Saturday market. As we motored around waiting for the first lock to cycle for us, I looked down at the engines water temp gauge and noticed it was pegged. The engine had overheated in about 10 minutes idling. Not good.
We pulled alongside one of the moored boats and I dove into the engine compartment. Opening the bleeder valve, a rush of steam escaped but then coolant. After a few second, the temperature returned to normal. "Just an air lock," I thought, and off we went. The next section of canal (the section between locks is called a "pound") was about 5 k and I kept a close eye on the temp gauge as we motored along. All seemed to be well. However, just as we pulled into the next lock, the gauge pegged yet again. After another quick visit to the engine, it seemed to be under control and the next pound was only 1.5k. Pegged again as we entered the lock. One more air/steam bleeding operation and we headed for the next lock about 1/2k up the canal. If it happened again, we were done for the day and would have to find a mechanic to look at our problem. Sure enough upon entering the next lock we overheated again. There was a great tie-up just past the lock. We tied up and called back to St. Symphorien. Luckily, Port Captain Peter happened to be standing next to Bourgogne Marines mechanic, Alain, when we called. Peter said Alain had to finish up a little task but would see us in an hour. An hour and a half later (exceptional performance by French standards!) Alain arrived and diagnosed the probable cause as a bad thermostat. He happened to have an exact replacement thermostat for our Mercedes engine in his truck. Unluckily for us, the simple fix didn't work. We would have to return to St. Symphorien for further diagnostics and repairs.

We spent the night at the tie up and turned about to return to Bourgogne Marine Friday morning. After getting a replacement for our "telecommand," the remote control that operates the lock (our first one was malfunctioning, of course!) we finally got underway about 9:30. The engine heated some before the first lock but not too bad. However, after the second 1 1/2 k long pound, we thought the engine might explode from the heat; steam was escaping from everywhere! We made it through the lock into the 5 k long pound but were going to go no further under our own power.

We made a call back to Bourgogne Marine to try to arrange a tow, at least to the next lock, about 5k. If we got that far, we would be able to use the engine to get through the last lock and into Bourgogne Marine's tie-up. The return call wasn't good. Port Captain Peter said there wasn't anybody available to tow us but, to paraphrase, "let me have a bowl of soup and a shower and I'll be up there and we can pull her back down the canal."
"By hand?"
"It's not that far," says Peter. "It'll only take an hour."
I told him he was crazy but he said he'd be to us in an hour and I said I'd wait.

About two hours later Peter showed up with Alain and a work/study/intern at Bourgogne Marine, Samir. Alain shook his head over our story and said when we returned he'd have to remove the cylinder head, thinking the gasket may be damaged. He dropped off Peter and Samir and left.
We hooked up two lines to the boat, put Peter and Samir on the towpath, Cathy Jo at the helm and me on the boat pole to keep up off the bank and off we went.

Odysseus makes like a true canal barge.

Peter, Samir and I traded off as we covered the 5.5 kilometers, averaging about 3k per hour. We got to the last lock, put Peter and Samir ashore, motored into and out of the lock and found a place to moor in the upper basin at Bourgogne Marine. Alain would be around in the morning to begin troubleshooting.

Arrival at St. Symphorien sur Saone, May 15

2010-05-30T11:55:00.000-07:00

The boat, other than being really dirty on the outside, was in great shape when we arrived. Peter, the port captain, very efficiently hooked up our electricity, we unpacked the sheets and blankets from their winter storage and moved in for the summer. We had made a quick stop at the grocery on the way to the boat as it was Saturday afternoon and all would be closed on Sunday, so we had a nice dinner and continued the jet lag recovery process.
Sunday was anything but a day of rest; it took us all day to clean the outside of the boat and we wore out a scrub brush on the deck paint in the process, but, once cleaned, Odysseus looked great. Very little work would be required to make her cruise ready.
By the weekend we were ready for a little R and R. We would be returning the car to Dijon on Tuesday so on Sunday we decided to do a little touring around the area.

We are right on the border between the Departments of Burgundy and Jura. Part of the Jura is Alsace, home of great white wines, comte cheese and the foothills of the Swiss Alps. We made a day of it, circling through the town of Poligny, which they refer to as "Capitale du Gruyere de Comte," and Arbois, home of the famous "Vin Jaune." In between, we visited the "Cascades du Herisson," a series of six waterfalls stretched over 3 kilometers of the Herisson River. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and the scene reminded us somewhat of Yosemite National Park on a beautiful summer day. Not exactly wilderness. We think we were there with most of France … and their kids.

At the top of the Cascades.

The last of the Cascades. French "wilderness."

Wee stee tee!

We saw a sign leading to the "Belvedere de Chatelaine" (Belvedere is viewpoint) and bypassed it 'til we went through a small tunnel and saw some great views. We backtracked to the village, walked about a half mile up a trail and got a great view of the village of Chatelaine.

After that, a stop in a wine shop in Arbois for a little tasting and the purchase of a bottle of the famous vin jaune.
From the Michelin Guide to the Wine Regions of France:
"The unique vin jaune, a white wine made exclusively from the Savignin grape, is left to age for six years and three months in 2281 containers, without topping up. In other words, the wine is left to slowly evaporate. In contact with the air, a film of yeast forms on the surface of the wine. This protects it from oxidization and fosters development of the wine's characteristic flavors, which range from fresh walnut to curry. Vin jaune is therefore a very dry wine… Is is aged in a special bottle, known as a clavelin, which contains just 62cl.

Vin jaune

We were moderate in our tasting and arrived back at St. Symphorien safely for dinnertime.

Monday was Pentacost Monday; almost all of the stores were closed but, as we were returning the car Tuesday morning, we thought we would take all of our laundry into nearby St. Jean du Losne to the laundromat. Of course it was "en panne," out of order, and locked up. Oh well, more laundry by hand, but since we're in town we might as well at least get some bread. The St. Jean du Losne boulangerie, our favorite, is closed Mondays so we went to the one across the river in Losne. Out of bread, more in twenty minutes says the helpful clerk. We walked back across the river to St. Jean, had a coffee in one of the waterfront cafes and returned to the boulangerie. Still no bread. Nuts! Oh well, the Casino supermarket will be open till noon. No bread. The Colruyt (kind of a down-market Costco) is open. Surely they will have a loaf or two. No bread. C'est une catastrophe!!!!! We slunk back to the boat breadless and spent the day aboard our laundry-festooned boat.

Tuesday we returned the car to the train station in Dijon, enjoyed our first full-on French lunch of the summer at a bistro across from the excellent Dijon covered market, took the train back to St. Jean where the ever-helpful port captain Peter picked us up and delivered us back to Odysseus. We would spend Wednesday making our final preparation and be underway Thursday morning.

May 12 - It Begins

2010-05-30T06:37:00.000-07:00

This year's trip began easily enough. The car rental company just down the street from our house allows one-way rentals to LA airport for just slightly more than the bus. That allowed a leisurely trip to the airport, arriving in plenty of time for the doffing of the shoes and other airport funness. Our flight would take us from Los Angeles to London's Heathrow where we would have a two hour layover, then on to a three hour flight to Basel, Switzerland. Helpfully, British Airways checked our bags all the way through so we would not have to deal with luggage in London.

One great feature of Basel is their wonderful tram and bus system. A confirmed hotel reservation gets you free access to the system. We left the airport (with our bags!), boarded a tram and it dropped us off within steps of our hotel. The problem was the steps. The Hotel au Violon is a converted convent/prison. No, really! It is very nice, and for Switzerland, very reasonable. Unfortunately, as in all medieval cities, even with a map it's hard to find your way around. After dragging our airline-max-weight bags up the hill and twice asking for direction, we finally found the place and checked in. That's when we found out about the elevator that leads directly from the hotel lobby to the main square outside the hotel, the Barfusserplatz, locally known as "Barfi," where the tram stop is. As we'll be coming back in September, this is something we'll remember.

This, the German part of Switzerland, is very orderly, very expensive, and, right now, really cold and damp. We found a place to get a pizza (about $23!) and a half-liter of wine (you don't even want to know!), and collapsed into our beds to begin our jet lag recovery.

We would only be spending one full day in Basel now, taking the Saturday train to Dijon, so we spent Friday all bundled up wandering about the central city checking things out. Because the weather was pretty frightful, few pictures were taken. We'll be coming back in September on our return and hopefully the weather will allow some more photography but there are some pictures of city hall.

As usual, any really nice building is covered in scaffolding while we're here.
City Hall and the Friday market. Good sausages for lunch!

The City Hall tower

Very elaborate painting on the courtyard interior.

A city gate.

We did take advantage our our free "Mobility Pass" to ride the tram around; one line takes you in a circle around the old city, so we got a good overview of it's layout which is cut in two by the swiftly flowing Rhine River. We also made a trip to the train station to buy our tickets to Dijon. It would be a rather roundabout trip with changes of train in Mulhouse and Belfort but leaving at about 9:30 am would put us in Dijon around 3 pm; plenty of time to pick up the rental car and be to Odysseus in time for that first bottle of French wine.

Map of the Year

2009-10-03T15:07:00.000-07:00

After several days of slaving away over a hot computer I've managed to put together the map of this years adventure. As before, you can click on it for an enlarged version. You should also be able to open it in Google Earth for even more control over the view.

View 2009 Voyage - In France in a larger map
There are two pages in this version, the link to page two is at the bottom.

That will be all the posts for this year. I hope you enjoyed following along. We had a really wonderful time this year and are having a hard time not beginning the planning for next year now but really don't want to spend the next 7 months trying to hurry things along. Life is too short!

The Return - Sept. 16

2009-10-03T14:54:00.000-07:00

And just like that ... we're back in our other life.
The return went just as planned; we think we've gotten a handle on the train thing. The French TGV arrives in Paris at the Gare de Lyon, the Eurostar leaves from Gare du Nord. There's an underground RER (the system that travels to the Paris suburbs as opposed to the Metro which is just in the city) that only has a couple of stops between the train stations. The hotel we were staying in for the night was right by the Eurostar station so we wouldn't have to hike to far in the morning.
The Eurostar stops in St. Pancras station in London. Jump on the Picadilly Line of the London Underground and about an hour later you are deposited at Terminal 5 from which at the BA flights depart. The only hard part is getting from the LA Airport to Ventura. I think, per mile, that was by far the most expensive part of the trip home!
The front door key worked and, since we'd given the house a pretty good cleaning before we left, all that we had to do was collapse into bed to begin recovery from jet lag. Monday morning it was back to work for both of us.

Back to Our Other Life - Sept 9-15

2009-09-17T16:59:00.000-07:00

We got back to the boat late Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning found us hard at work on tasks that had to be completed before we returned to Ventura. Some painting needed to be done, engine maintenance performed and a thorough washing and cleaning was called for.
Our journey back would begin Tuesday morning. The rental car had to be dropped off in Dijon, then the TGV "bullet train" would whisk us off to Paris. After spending the night there, we would board the Eurostar for the trip under the English Channel to London's Heathrow Airport where we would place ourselves as the mercy of British Air for the flight to Los Angeles. By 7 pm Wednesday we would be in Southern California.

Much Less Than a Year in Provence - Sept 3-8

2009-09-17T16:45:00.001-07:00

We had a medium-long list of boat chores to attend to before we headed back to Ventura but that journey didn't start until the 15th so we decided we had time for a little adventure not involving barges or canals.
Thursday morning in the pouring rain we jumped into our rental car and headed south for Provence taking the long way around through the French alps. We were headed in the general direction of Grenoble and Albertville, site of the winter Olympics years ago. Because of the weather, most of the mountaintops were covered in a cloud blanket but the weather cleared somewhat as we approached our first stop in Annecy. We parked the car in the lot at the train station and started walking toward the tourist office to find a room but stumbled on a decent, affordable hotel on the way and checked into the Hotel du Nord for the night.
What a beautiful town! Situated on the shores of the appropriately named Lac d'Annecy, the Canal du Thiou runs through town and provides several picture-taking opportunities as well as a great setting for waterside dining. Appropriately we had fondue for dinner.

We set out the next morning, heading into the mountains. The weather hadn't completely cleared but by afternoon we were up in the Alps, luckily too early for snow. We did cross the Col Galibier at about 7,500 feet with the temperature about 45 fahrenheit.

A look back down the road.
Friday night we spent in Digne-les-Baines, the chief town of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence region; at least we were in a department with "Provence" in the name and the scenery was beginning to look more like Southern California, but with castles.

We didn't note the name of this village but the castle caught our eye.

Our last night in this general area was Aups; a good place to stay if you want to see the Gorges du Verdon.
Most people when they hear "France," think Paris, big cities and closely placed villages of Provence and the west. They don't usually picture something similar to the Grand Canyon.

The two lane road clings to the side of the canyon, following the Verdon River for a pretty good distance. At one point, the road curves away to cross a side canyon over a very tall bridge. We couldn't figure out why they had one lane blocked off with all kinds of activity until we saw the guy jump off attached by a bungie!

The ultimate destination for our trip was the Cote d'Azur, specifically St. Tropez. I've never seen the Mediterranean Sea, where Cathy Jo spent a good portion of her formative years, and that area seemed like a good place for an initiation.
We decided to try to find a room in the village of La Garde Freinet; it's close enough to the coast (about 15 minutes) but far enough away that we could afford to stay for a couple of days. We found a room at one of the local hotel/restaurants and set off for some exploration.

Our room was the one on the top floor with the shutters open.
The village was very beautiful, typical Provence tile roofs and pastel colors, and has apparently become very popular with British expatriates. We heard alot of "English" english being spoken and two of the local property seller offices had names like "Witworth" and "Sterling."
The guide books had warned us of horrific traffic jams and hordes of people at the coast but, maybe because it's September, we found it not as crowded as Malibu on a sunny weekend. We wandered the marina waterfront and got a good look at St. Tropez across the water.

After our picnic lunch we hiked up to the old chateau that overlooks the harbor.

The next day we planned to have lunch in Cannes ... why not? ... but first we stopped to check out the village of Grimaud. It was just too much quaint.

The traffic was pretty bad on the road right along the coast so we didn't make it all the way to Cannes, stopping in the town of Antheor for a huge lunch of paella. After that there was nothing to do but find a nice piece of beach for a swim and a little relaxation before the drive back to La Garde. I had my baptism in the Med!

Tuesday morning it was time to hit the road back to the boat. What had taken us four days to accomplish on the back roads we traveled in about 6 hours on the "A" roads, although it did cost us about 35 euros in tolls!

Closing the Circle - August 27

2009-09-17T16:30:00.001-07:00

About 35 k after leaving Verdun sur Doubs we rounded a bend in the Saone River to see St. Jean de Losne (pronounced "loan").

On May 16, 2006, after spending three days in Paris, we traveled by train to Dijon where we met our old friends, John and Patti Hardman.
The Hardmans (their blog is linked in the sidebar) had been sailing buddies in the 1980's when we owned Arrow, a 1913 Edson Schock yawl, and they owned Freya, a 1940's Atkins Ingrid ketch. In the mid 90's they returned to Texas but we had kept in touch over the years and when they bought Capri, and early 1900's converted dutch barge, in 2003, we figured we'd have to plan a visit.
After picking us up at the Dijon train station, John and Patti drove us to St. Jean de Losne where we were introduced to Capri.

That's Capt. John posing at the stern.

After spending 10 days with them on the Burgundy canal, we decided that this was a life we could lead. We returned home, sold the house and the following spring found us in Amsterdam beginning the search that would lead us to Odysseus.
On August 27, 2009, our barge was tied up just a little west of where we had first seen Capri.

We would spend four days on the quay in St. Jean and then, on Sept. 1, make the 4 k final leg of our summer's trip to St. Symphorean sur Soane and Bourgogne Marine where Odysseus would spend the winter tied up right behind Capri.
990 kilometers on the canals and 53 days of traveling had taken us from Champagne to Burgundy.

Odysseus is the smallest barge tied up at Bourgogne Marine's lower basin. Capri is right in front of us.

Last Days Underway, August 24-27

2009-09-17T16:27:00.000-07:00

About 2 pm on Monday afternoon we pulled into the village of Fragnes. It was the last good place to moor on the canal before we entered the Saone River for the last leg of the trip to St. Symphorean where Odysseus will spend the winter. Right at the tie up spot was a boulangerie, restaurant, hair salon and bicycle rental shop. We wandered into town to find other shops but there really weren't any, everything was clustered around the halte. By evening it had become very warm and humid again; the skies were looking threatening. By dinnertime it was raining hard again and was still coming down occasionally Tuesday morning. We weren't in any hurry so decided to say put for the day.
Wednesday morning we were off for the last 5 k of the Canal du Centre, but first we had to navigate the lock that empties into the Saone River, called Ecluse Crissey..
Back in Digoin we had met Jenny Fennell, an English woman who has spent the summer on the canals in her river cruiser, making the trip with friends as crew. As happens with limited places to stop, we had bumped into her at several places along the way and we met up again in Fragnes. She would be storing her boat in a marina near where Odysseus was going to be so we left together and shared the lock, with it's nearly 11 meter drop.

Jenny (on the left) with Joe and Ailish. Smile, or as they say in France, " wee-stee-tee!"

Our next stop was Verdun-sur-Doubs, where the Doubs River meets the Saone. Another picture-worthy town with a small marina on the river.

Verdun has it's market on Wednesday morning so we stuck around long enough to check it out. About 9:30 we were underway up the Saone to St. Jean de Losne where this whole barge thing originally started.

Santenay - August 21-24

2009-09-15T06:44:00.000-07:00

The village of Santenay is at the southern tip of the Cote d'Or, one of the most prestigious wine making regions of France. It's also a very picturesque village with lots of wine tasting and buying opportunities.
By Friday afternoon the weather had cleared; the rain had cooled things down and we were ready for some exploration. The town was just a 10 minute walk from the boat so off we went.

One of the village streets. Santenay is divided into upper and lower sections. This is in Bas, or lower, Santenay.

The village is surrounded by hills and it was just a short walk up to get a panoramic view of the area. Below us was Haute, or upper, Santenay.

The Cote d'Or is known for several grape varieties but it's probably most famous for it's pinot noir grapes. There are a couple of wine shops in town that specialize in tasting and sales of the local wines so we just had to visit. Since we'll be leaving in just about a month we didn't want to really stock up; the winters are pretty cold here and that's hard on wine storage but we'll be back in the spring for some serious shopping. The prices are very reasonable.
Sunday morning we bicycled the 4 kilometers up the cycle path along the canal to the town of Chagny. They have a large market and we plundered the stalls for fresh fruit and vegetables. After lunch it was back on to the bicycles for a trip along an abandoned railroad bed converted to bike path to Nolay, about 8 k away. Next to the church in the village square is the covered market. Built in the 14th century, the roof is made of limestone and the framework is chestnut wood.

The ride to Nolay was a little arduous as it was all slightly uphill. The trip back was a blast. We barely had to touch the pedals.

After a serious discussion, Cathy Jo and I decided the halte in Santenay was tied with Cumieres in the Champagne for the most beautiful stop. The canal runs along the side of the hill so you actually look down on the village and the picnic tables provided for the boaters and cyclists make it very pleasant. It didn't hurt that the weather was gorgeous the three days we were there.

The view from the boat.

Monday morning it was off to our last stop on the Canal du Centre, Fragnes.

Paray to Santenay August 15-21

2009-08-25T05:14:00.000-07:00

From McNight's Cruising French Waterways "During the late 17th century Marguerite-Marie Alacoque, a nun, witnessed a succession of visions of Christ with his heart exposed, but it was not intil the 19th century that the devotion of the Sacred Heart made Paray le Monial a town of international pilgrimage." She was canonized in 1920 and Paray is now the recipient of the second largest influx of pilgrims after Lourdes.
The 11th century basilica was begun by St.-Hughes, the bishop of Cluny and is quite a sight.

The center for the pilgrims, however, is a large collection of tents set up on the outskirts of town that house continuous religious services.
It was still really hot, well into the 90's, but luckily right before town the canal passes through an avenue of trees that almost completely overhang the water. We spent Saturday afternoon there and then moved on Sunday morning.
Sunday afternoon found us in the small town of Genelard and, still looking for shade and cooling breezes, we made it to the top of the Canal by Monday afternoon. Canals follow streams and rivers to provide them with water but when you reach the summit there is usually a lake as you are between watersheds. The Canal du Centre is no exception and just outside of the town of Montchanin we found this weeks version of nirvana, shade all day with a lake just steps away! With the temperature still in the 90's, we spent Monday and Tuesday afternoons submerged.
Wednesday it was off to the town of St. Leger and the beginning of the real burgundy wine country but it was still scorching. Luckily about 4 am Friday the lightning started to flash and by 5 the rain started pouring down. The heat had broken and for once we were not going to complain about rain. As a matter of fact, we had told the lockkeeper we would be getting underway about 9am and we did, getting thoroughly wet in the process. The fresh water rinse felt great!
By about 11:30 the rain had stopped, the sun was beginning to peek through and we were tied up just outside of Santenay. We were back in serious wine country!

Digoin, or Welcome to the Canal du Centre August 13

2009-08-25T05:10:00.000-07:00

After a couple of days paralleling the Loire River, we entered the town of Digoin where the Canal Lateral a la Loire becomes the Canal du Centre. The Canal du Centre was built in the late 1700's to connect the Loire and the Saone Rivers.
But first it must cross the Loire. Rather than have to lock down to river level and then lock up the other side, in 1835 an aqueduct was built over the Loire to carry the beginning of the canal.

The lock gates are about to open and we will cross over the Loire into Digoin.

The view from the river.
The weather had been very hot and we'd spent alot of time seeking shade. Luckily, just on the other side of the "pont canal" (canal bridge) there was a secure place to tie up under some trees for afternoon shade. Also from there it was just a short walk to the river for a refreshing swim.
We were lucky enough to see a couple of full size barges navigating the canal, full size being about 39 meters (120') long.

The other "must do" on Digoin was the Thai restaurant. We had been told by our friends John and Patti Hardman that this was a requirement of any visit to town. We had a very good meal (including thai curried frog legs; they do taste like chicken!) but the highlight of the meal was the "digestif". The very nice young waiter brings a bottle of what he called sake (but tasted more like gasoline) and two small cups, carefully placing them on the table and filling them before bowing and backing away with a silly grin on his face. When filled with liquid, the cups display a pornographic picture in the bottom and the restaurant is nice enough to provide a different picture for the men and the ladies!

We also saw this very dapper gentleman taking his Friday morning stroll. In France, you can accessorize anything with a loaf of bread.

Saturday morning it was off down the Canal du Centre, the first stop Paray le Monial.

Decize to Digoin-the Canal Lateral a la Loire August 10-13

2009-08-25T05:05:00.000-07:00

It turned out we were in Decize just in time for the "Comice," a kind of county fair complete with a midway, a hunting dog exhibition, a dinner-dance and a parade. We missed the first day so the hunting dog exhibition and dinner dance were out but we were in time for the parade and midway.
The parade was quite a spectacle. It took over an hour for all of the floats to creep by our spot and after wending it's way through town the marchers had been at it for well over 5 hours!

The Cub Scouts had their float.

There were the stilt walkers in funny costumes.

And of course, the Queen and her court.

They give boat rides on this sailing riverboat, typical of the older craft of the area. Behind us is "Les Troubadors" owned by Tom and Laurel from Bainbridge, Washington.

We had noticed on our way into town that the ever-helpful VNF, along with the shopping center owners, I'm sure, had put a very nice quay right next to a giant supermarket and hardware store. We backtracked a couple of kilometers to stock up and then headed out of town. As we entered our next stretch of water, the Canal Lateral a la Loire, we looked back and saw the ruins of the 12th century fort built by the Comte de Nevers that stood guard over the Loire River.

Down the Nivernais Canal August 5-9

2009-08-25T04:57:00.000-07:00

We left the canal bank about 9:30 am and entered the first lock on the downhill side of the Nivernais. After that first lock there was what is called a "stairstep lock;" the boat exits one lock directly into the next. The first stairstep was two locks then about 45 minutes later a three lock complex followed just a couple hundred feet later by a two lock complex. It was time for the lunch closure as we completed the three locks so, after some maneuvering, we pulled into the first of the two lock combination, which was already set up for our descent, to have our lunch. When I went below to shut off the engine, something smelled a little funny. Further investigation revealed that we had ruptured a hose carrying coolant from the external cooling pipes back into the engine, much of our coolant was now in the bilges and we had a seriously overheated engine! As we had no replacement hose, I was going to have to bicycle the 8 km back to Baye where there is a big hire boat base, buy some hose (if they have it), and return before we could continue on. There was a boat waiting to enter the lock, however, so first we had to get out of the way.

We're in the center of the three lock combination. That boat below the two lock combo will have to wait 'til after lunch.
It was back to the old canal days as we used line and human power to pull the boat from one lock to the next and then out of that lock to the bank below where we could tie up to try to make repairs.
They did have the hose in Baye and after a 2 1/2 hour delay, we set off again for out next stop, Chatillon en Bazois.

Set up on a bluff over the Aron River and the Nivernais Canal, Chatillon en Bazois boasts a beautiful, privately owned chateau built on the site of the ancient fortress of the Sires of Chatillon.

The owners provide guided tours during the summer months and we were able so see some of the interior but, unfortunately, no pictures were allowed. The furniture and fixtures are elegant and ornate (think Ming Dynasty figurines and oil portraits from the 18th century) but with modern touches; the owners do live there at times.
They also have a full time gardening staff and early in the morning we spotted the head gardner dealing with moles as I'm sure many would like.

We did hear a gunshot a little later so we assumed he got his rodent.

We made an overnight stop in the small town of Pannecot (where the advertised pizza restaurant is no more; the port captain said without the bread delivery truck in the morning "we would starve!") and Cercy la Tour (we thought that sounded like a vaudeville act, especially when we noted on our charts the nearby town of Les Brunettes). We left Cercy early because we wanted to get to the days final destination, Decize, before the lunch closure of the locks. Luckily we did because it turned out their was a "Concourse de Peche,", a fishing tournament, scheduled to begin a 9 am. The French are very serious about their fishing and it would have been a nightmare to interfere.

As we were about halfway down the line, the whistle sounded at 8:50 and the bait balls began to hit the water and just as the 9 am whistle sounded for the fishing to begin we were in the clear.
We arrived at Decize, the end of the Nivernais Canal just a little after noon, having cleared the last lock at 11:45. After 187 kilometers and 110 locks, we thought we'd take a couple days off.

To the Top of the Nivernais July 30-August 4

2009-08-10T08:46:00.000-07:00

The next afternoon found us about 14 kilometers down the canal near the small village of Asnois. There was a nice tieup with room for just one boat right by a park below the village. We were secure by about 3:30, plenty of time for a stroll thru the village and then back to the boat for an aperitif. We had just finished our glasses of wine about 6:45 when a woman drove up in a car, parked in the park and came walking down to the waters edge.
In her halting English, she told us that three boats were on their way and would be at the park in about 15 minutes. We had seen them before; they are a moveable summer camp for middle schoolers. We had no intentions of being surrounded by a bunch of 11-14 year olds on their summer vacation so we evacuated immediately! Luckily there was a "self-opening" bridge about a kilometer away that had a pair of bollards to tie up on. We spent the night there in blessed silence.
Our next stop was Chitry les Mines, so called because silver and lead were mined here centuries ago.
As we pulled into town we noticed that at the campground across the river they were erecting a stage with a big banner overhead that read "Morvanstock." We asked around but nobody seemed to know what was going on. Nothing happened Friday night but on Saturday we could hear what sounded like sound check (it wasn't that close so not really annoying). By evening the clouds had begun forming and there was some lightning around but we heard the music start and though we'd go over and see what it was all about. Our guess is that some sort of Dutch camping club had taken over the campground for the weekend and this was their entertainment. It was a typical Dutch pop-rock band playing covers of old pop songs in English and the announcements from the stage in Dutch. it seemed all very strange in Burgundy!
We only stayed a few minutes: we'd seen this kind of thing before in Holland and the sky was looking very threatening. We got back to the boat just in time as they sky repeatedly lit up with lightning, the thunder was deafening and the rain she came pouring down. If there was enough mud I suppose Morvanstock would have been just like Woodstock but I don't think they were up to it. We didn't hear any more music.

We were fast approaching the top of the Nivernais Canal which features a flight of 16 locks in two kilometers, three tunnels and then the summit lake. There is a very nice place to tie up near the village of Sardy right at the bottom of the flight so we spent the night there and then set off about 9 am on Tuesday morning for the trip to the top.

The Nivernais is lauded as one of France's most beautiful canals and, at least in this section, we have to agree. When we finally got to the top, where traffic lights control the entrance to the three tunnels (they're one-way) we had been underway since 9 am, it was 2:30 in the afternoon, we had a 1 1/2 hour lunch stop and the gps said the boat had been moving for 1 hour; most of the time was spent either in or waiting for locks but the scenery made it all worthwhile.

Approaching one of the locks. The gates are open but water continues to flow over the back gate.

Everything is manually operated. Here a lock keeper opens a gate.

Around the corner and into the lock.

The lock keepers let us stay tied up in the lock after it had filled as it was time for lunch. We went through all of the locks paired up with the French couple on the boat behind us.

On the way to the tunnels.

After you leave the last lock, the summit tunnels must be passed through. There are three, the first two about 250 meters (700 feet) each and the last about 750 meters (about 1/2 mile) and they are just slightly bigger that the barge. Before you can get to the tunnels, though, you must pass through a little over a kilometer of a massive ditch. As you can see, it might as well be a tunnel, it's just that the roof is green instead of stone.
After you exit the tunnels, you reach the summit lake, the Etang de Vaux, the waters of which are used to feed the side of the canal that descends to the Loire River. There is a dike that separates the canal from the lake and there are plenty of places to tie up.

The view across the lake.

After a night on the bank, it was time to head down toward the Loire River and the final kilometers of the Nivernais.

Clamecy July 28-29

2009-08-10T08:42:00.000-07:00

Clamecy is the biggest town between Auxerre and the end of the Nivernais Canal at Decize so we decided to spend a couple of days.
As we entered the last lock right before town about 3 on Sunday afternoon the skies were very dark. Sure enough, just as the lock gates opened, so did the heavens. There were no available spots on the town moorings so we were going to have to drive stakes in the ground and tie to those ... in the pouring rain. Luckily it was pretty warm so we just got a thorough rain-water rinse. The next day a couple of boats moved and we were able to tie up on the quay.
Although Clamecy is on the Nivernais Canal, the Yonne River also runs through town and was the center of the towns industry for centuries; that industry being firewood for Paris. The town is on the edge of the Morvan Forest and the trees would be felled, cut into logs and then floated down the Yonne to the Seine and then to Paris. The practice began in the 16th century, lasted until the early 1920's and employed generations of residents of the area.

Downtown Clamecy with the church tower keeping watch.

Looking back toward town with part of the marina in view.
One of the best features of the Nivernais Canal is the revitalized towpath. The campers in the picture above are on it returning to the campground after a visit to the grocery store. Before barges were motorized, they were towed by horses or, in some cases, people. (In the barge museum in St. Jean de Losne there's a great picture of granny towing a barge along the Canal de Bourgogne with a tumpline!) The government has revitalized the path all along the canal and now it makes a great, and well used, hiking and bicycling path. Since the canal is level, the only elevation changes being at the locks and even those are very gradual, It's very easy cycling. The authorities have also very kindly spotted picnic tables and water points along the path to make for an easy trek. As a matter of fact, we'll frequently park the boat and then cycle either ahead, to see what we'll be facing, or back to check out things we may have missed.
While we were in town we took advantage of another feature of the Burgundy region; wine in bulk. The local cave has casks of local wine in the store and, after tasting to make sure it's what you want, the "Fountain of Wine" is filled. 5 liters for about E12. Dontcha love it!

The flowers, by the way, are sowed wild by the canal authorities at various places along the canal for your picking pleasure.
Wednesday morning we were off.

Stuff from Last Week

2009-07-28T03:40:00.000-07:00

This lock area was a Disney wonderland and the house itself was beautifully done up.

Just a little farmhouse, the Chateau de Faulin.

Unlike Holland, the boaters are responsible for operating the bridges. Luckily there aren't too many!

This farm is ready for the vandal hordes.

The Rocks and Chatel Censoir July 26

2009-07-28T03:36:00.000-07:00

Along the Nivernais, the locks close for lunch from noon to 1 so it's always a good idea to plan your day with a lunch stop in mind. (The locks here are really close together, usually just a half hour or 45 minutes.) This day we planned our lunch stop at the Roches du Saussois.

It's not like the eastern Sierra; we tied up about 11 am and were up on top in about 15 minutes but the view down the canal was pretty nice.

The rocks are a popular climbing location and we spotted this climber making his way up the face.

After lunch we headed off to spend the night in Chatel Censoir, again being tied up by about 2:30.

The town and church look down on the canal and the Yonne.
Our next stop would be Clamecy, about 20 kilometers away. It's the largest town between here and the end of the canal, about 2 weeks away so we'll probably spend a least a couple of days for reprovisioning and laundry.

Accolay and Mailly le Chateau

2009-07-28T03:31:00.001-07:00

The village of Accolay is on a 3 km long side canal that branches off the Nivernais and heads over the the Cure River in Vermenton. We stopped for the night in Accolay and rode our bikes down the excellent tow path to Vermenton and back in the afternoon.

The Accolay halte.
The Nivernais is one of the most beautiful, and most popular, canals in France for cruising. There is no commercial traffic because the canal is small, shallow and some of the locks near the top smaller than the standard 39.5 meters long and 5 meters wide. Also there are some really low bridges.
The canal was originally begun in the late 1700's but because of the difficulty of it's construction, wasn't completed all the way through until 1842. The section we are on now parallels the Yonne River, occasionally sharing it's banks. Major commercial traffic during the canals heyday was wood carried from the Morvan forests to Paris for construction and firewood. As commercial river traffic dwindled throughout France, many canals were abandoned. Here I'll quote from one of our bibles, "Cruising French Waterways," by Hugh McNight

"One of the key factors in saving this ravishing navigation for posterity was Roger Pilkington's voyage on his motor yacht Commodore, which was so beautifully described in Small Boat Through France (1964). But the decisive event that determined the canal's future was brought about by waterways enthusiast Pierre-Paul Zivy, an Anglophile who had cruised rivers and canals in England and established the first inland hire cruiser fleet in France on the Marne (in Chateau Thierry. We visited in June. dc) Having obtained assurances that neglected maintenance would be tackled by the authorities, he set up his Saint-Line cruiser base at the Baye summit level in 1964 and campaigned for the threatened section to be transferred to the local Department. This act was astonishingly courageous and foresighted. It would be another five years before the second such boat operation appeared on the Canal du Midi. There are now many holiday boat firms and hotel barges using the Nivernais, not forgetting private craft. The canal has become of of the most popular routes in the network..."

We can speak to the canal's popularity. Those hire boats are everywhere, mostly captained by people who have never driven a boat before. Since we're steel and they're fiberglass, they are more bothersome than dangerous, though they do provide endless hours of entertainment.

Our next stop was about 20 km down the canal; the village of Mailly le Chateau and, yes, there is a chateau.

And the village below.

The canal here parallels the Yonne River, which was visible from the chateau.

It was Sunday afternoon and the village was hosting a petanque tournament. The game is much like lawn bowling except no lawn and the balls are made of steel. Usually it's a game for the retired set but we saw an old master sharing his wisdom with some up-and-comers.

Since our travel days are so short, these villages so small and the days still pretty long, we usually just spend the afternoon in a place and then move on the next morning, as we did here. Next stop, The Rochers du Saussois.

Auxerre to Clamecy July 23-27

2009-07-28T03:26:00.000-07:00

Our first stop out of Auxerre was the village of Bailly. What nice people! They helpfully put their tieup spot directly below the 10 acres of the Bailly Lapierre Wine Cellars where they give guided tours and tastings! The cellars are the home of about 70 winemakers responsible for "Cremant de Bourgogne," the burgundian sparkling wine. Made by blending pinot noir, gamay, chardonnay and aligote grapes, the wine is made using the "methode champenoise," where the fermentation creating the bubbles takes place in the bottles. The rules for producing the wine are very strict The grapes must be harvested by hand and transported in open crates. No more than 100 litres of juice can be extracted from 150 kilos of grapes. The juice is then stored in giant stainless steel tanks to make the "still" wines that will be blended into the cremant. After filtering and bottling, a temporary cap is placed on the bottle and its laid to rest for between 18 and 24 months. The bottles are then put on revolving racks that turn the bottle 1/8 turn every 6 hours while progressively tilting the bottle to move the sediment into the temporary cap. After freezing the neck of the bottle, the cap with the sediment is removed, the "dosage" is added to create the type of cremant (dry, brut, etc.), the bottle is corked, labeled and ready for sale.
We took the tour through the 7 million bottles stored in the cellar but the vastness of the old quarry sucks up the light from the flash. I did get some shots to come out.

Tough job moving these racks around with a fork lift all day. No tasting!

Half-bottles almost ready for a store near you!

We sat through some really loud thunderstorms late that afternoon and evening but we were off the next morning for the village of Accolay.

To Auxerre - July 18-23

2009-07-28T03:20:00.000-07:00

Since it was a whole 32 kilometers from Joigny to Auxerre it would take us two day to make the trip. We spent the night in a little town called Gurgy alongside the bank at the city park. One of it's features was a woman selling postcards and objets d'art and giving foot massages. Ines and Cathy Jo thought it would be a good place for a picture.

Saturday about noon we arrived in Auxerre. It's supposed to be one of France's most beautiful cities and we'd have to agree. Twisty streets lined with 13th century timber-framed buildings, hidden squares and a waterfront dominated by two beautiful churches make it very picturesque.

Religious buildings are documented on the site of the Saint Germaine Abbey since the 5th century and the crypts under the existing building date from the mid-800's but most the the building now visible is from later. The church itself was completed in the 13th and 14 centuries, the tower in the 12th while the cloister, sleeping quarters and refectory date from the 17th. The buildings now house Auxerre's Museum of Art and History with a collection of medieval and Gallo-Roman art and artifacts.

The other church looming over the waterfront is St. Etienne's Cathedral. Here, the crypts date from the 11th century with work on the main buildings as they now stand taking place between the 13th and 16th. As I mentioned before, we're now out of World War territory so most of the stained glass and statuary remains from the original, although most of the smaller outside carvings have lost their heads in the various religious wars and revolutions France has experienced.

This is the view of the front of the cathedral.
The city also has a great clock tower built in the 15th century on the foundation of what was originally a Gallo-Roman tower and first used as the count's prison. One side tells the hour, the other the positions of the sun and moon throughout the day.

The town's mascot is Cadet Roussel. Guillaume Roussel moved to Auxerre in 1763 and after serving as a servant and footman, set himself up as a private bailiff. Apparently he was just a little eccentric. One of his political enemies composed a song to make fun of him but it was taken up as a marching song by soldiers during the 1792 French Revolution and became famous throughout France. A town mascot deserves a statue.

Tuesday about noon Ines took the train back to Paris, hopefully this time the 1 hour trip is was supposed to be and about 5 pm our friends John and Patti Hardman arrived. You may remember them as the people who got us into this barging thing in the first place. A link to their blog is in the sidebar. They are in northern France and Alsace this year and left Capri in Toul to drive down for a day's visit. On Wednesday, John helpfully took me to the nearby hypermarche so I could fill up the jerry jugs with cheap diesel and exchange a butane cylinder then he and Patti were going to take us out to lunch in the "nearby" village of Avallon. It's away from the canal too far for us to visit but supposedly very quaint. Unfortunately, "nearby" turned out to be about 50 kilometers. About the time we were about ready to chew off the ends of our fingers, John said "Here!" He pulled into a small restaurant in some unknown village and, in another great French moment, we had a wonderful lunch on the terrace overlooking a park.
About 4 pm John and Patti headed off and we made one more run to the grocery store for provisions. The wine rack and the pantry were full. Time to be off down the Nivernais!

Joigny July 17

2009-07-28T03:16:00.001-07:00

The next stop on our journey was the town of Joigny, built on the side of the cote San Jacques.

Headed toward Joigny. We'll be tieing up just before the bridge you can just see to the left of those trees on the right.
I mentioned before that we are now out of the war zones so many of the buildings remain from the 12th and 13th centuries, although much here has been rebuilt after a huge fire nearly destroyed the town in 1530. There's also a difference in the architecture from what we have seen earlier. Many of the buildings are half-timbered with carvings on the wood. Joigny had some great streets.

The view back across the river from the newer section of town. Those are chablis grape vines to the left of St. Thibault's church.

One other French curiosity caught my eye. I've never been able to figure out the huge popularity of Jerry Lewis in France. He's alway been a big draw here. Another popular figure is Johnny Hallyday. For many years the pop star has been beloved by the French; kind of like Elvis. The owner of the boulangerie you can see just above the boat in the picture before must be a big fan. I just had to get a picture of the shrine in the window.

Thursday night we had a spectacular light show. The day had been very hot and muggy. About 8 the lightning began; the most spectacular show any of us had ever seen and both Cathy Jo and I spent some time in the midwest. Just a little later, the heavens opened and Odysseus got a good rinse.
Thursday was also our 27th wedding anniversary and Ines treated us to a dinner at one of the better restaurants in town (the showers stopped just long enough for us to walk to the restaurant). Friday morning, after a quick visit for the market in town, it was off toward Auxerre.

Sens July11-16

2009-07-28T03:10:00.000-07:00

Tim would be leaving us and our friend Ines joining us during this week. There are very good train connections between Sens and Paris and, since the canals are closed for France's "Fete Nationale" (Bastille Day, July 14), we figured we'd stay put for a while. There's a good free mooring here with water and electricity, a big grocery store and nice boulangerie nearby. What more could anyone need?
From our guidebook, Sens is named for a Gallic tribe, the Senones, who captured Rome in 390 BC. In the 12th and 13th centuries it was a major ecclesiastical center but fell into decline during the religious and the succession wars of later centuries. It's pretty quiet now but has a beautiful cathedral, one of the first gothic churches in France, along with a museum that houses a major collection of Gallo-roman artifacts.
As seems to happen often, the cathedral is undergoing some renovation so the tower is covered in scaffolding but the major portions are still visible.

What you can see of the tower.

The city hall is just down the street and has a great facade.

The Gallo-roman section of the museum has a reconstruction of Roman baths that were found in the area. Tim got a good picture of the installation.

Bastille Day turned out to be much fun. There was a car show in the town square with some really nice old vehicles.

What would a car show in France be without some old Citroen CV's?

Tuesday night it was time for a fireworks show. We happened to be tied up in the perfect place to get a front row seat for the show and all of Sens seemed to know it. I tried to get a picture of the hundreds of people in the park next to us, lining the bridge behind us and standing along the road in front of us but in the dark it just didn't work. The show started about 10:30 (that's about when it's finally dark) and lasted for about a half hour. It was a really great show. Fifteen minutes after it was done, almost all of the people were gone, although a few of the local "yoots" stayed behind to exhaust the last of their firecracker stash.
Wednesday afternoon, after a little train snafu (a signal problem on the line meant she had to take the local instead of the express), Ines joined us and Thursday morning we were off in the direction of the Canal du Nivernais and the city of Auxerre.

The Yonne and a Visit to Sens

2009-07-28T03:09:00.000-07:00

Shortly after noon we entered the Yonne River at the city on Montereau. We know we're getting deeper into the countryside when the locks close for lunch. That's right; open at 8 or 9, close from 12:30 to 1:30, then close again at 6 or 7. Friday night we missed the last lock we wanted to clear by about 10 minutes. It was really no problem as there was a good place to tie up just below the lock, the only drawback was we had to listen to the water rushing over the weir all night, kind of like camping next to a waterfall.
The next complication occurred the next morning. A large commercial barge pulled in shortly after us Friday evening and was all ready to go right at 9. We weren't quite ready yet so when the lockkeeper motioned us in, we signaled we would be ready a little later. What we didn't know was that the eclusier (lockkeeper) handled the lock we were at and the next one. He'd have to lock the commercial barge through the next lock up and then come back for us. We finally got underway about 11 am but, luckily, we only had about 3 hours travel to our next stop. We did have to wait for the lunch hour to finish before we could lock through the last one of the day but we were secured in Sens by 2:30.

Moret sur Loing - July 7-10

2009-07-28T03:06:00.001-07:00

The bike ride to the Chateau originated from Moret-sur-Loing, just off the Seine. The home for many years of the impressionist painter Alfred Sisley, a colleague of Monet and Renoir, who died here in 1899. Many parts of town look like they came right out of one of Sisley's paintings.

The day after our wet bike ride, the skies cleared and we were able to spend some time wandering about the town.
One thing we have noticed now that we're no longer on the "War Track" (the Marne, Meuse, etc.) is that these villages were never bombed to smithereens. Some of the views are breathtaking.

And the place set aside for us to tie up is pretty scenic, too!

Friday morning at the crack of 9 it was time to be off. Today we would leave the Seine behind and enter the Yonne River.

Chateau de Fontainbleau

2009-07-09T08:39:00.000-07:00

France is known for the great chateaus; Versailles, Vaux-le-Vicomte,Chenonceau, but we would be passing within an easy bike ride of Chateau de Fontainbleau and it's magnificent forest so we really had to stop. One of the side benefits of that would be the stop - Moret sur Loing, another impossibly picturesque town.

Wednesday was the designated chateau visit day. Since we only carry two bikes, we visited the tourist office in Moret and they were very helpful in arranging a rental bicycle for the day, even having it delivered to the tourist office for Tim to pick up on Tuesday afternoon. The weather forecast called for "a shower or two" but it looked pretty good in the morning; plenty of clouds but lots of sun as well. It took about an hour to make it through the maze of forest trails to the Chateau.

The forest path.
And I must say we looked like a pretty sporty group.

My bike is holding the camera.
When we got to the chateau it was pretty gray so I didn't take any garden pictures but I did get a shot of one wing of the chateau.

The first mention of the chateau is in the 12th century but little remains of the medieval castle. The real construction of the palace began with the reign of Francois I in the 16th century. King, emperors and Consuls have been tearing down and building parts of the chateau ever since. It now has over 1500 rooms under over 20,000 square meters of roof surrounded by formal gardens that cover about 35 hectares and the 84 hectare park (a hectare is about 2 1/2 acres).

We followed the self-guided tour of the interior until, as Cathy Jo said, we were suffering from "gilt overload." Example -

I believe this was Marie Antoinette's bed.

By the time we finished the tour, it had begun to rain. There are no garden pictures. There are also no pictures of the muddy, soaked bike riders that returned to the boat after the trip through the forest. But it will make a great story later on if we all don't catch pneumonia!

We'd be staying in Moret for another day, leaving Friday morning, so there was still plenty oftime to visit the town.