June 2024 – Part 1 (1st to 15th)
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The first day of June saw us moving on from Fleury sur Ouche, ready to tackle yet another eight locks on our way to Plombières lès Dijon, stopping in a large basin between locks 49S and 50S (initially very close to what turned out to be a fairly busy cycle path, so we moved across to the other side to a grassy, quiet bankside mooring, and closer to the exit lock for the next day). Waste and electricity were both available here (seemingly free), so we refilled our water tanks again, and plugged in while we waited just to top up the electric. Afterwards we took a stroll into the town to see what it had to offer, and then settled in for the evening.
We arranged with the eclusiers to leave the next morning at around 9.15, so Nicki quickly walked the dogs beforehand – at which point she was stung on her foot by (we think) a bee, which caused some pain and discomfort for a few days. Anyway, we carried on our way through several more locks on our way to Dijon where we would stay a couple of nights.
On our way we soon encountered so much weed in the canal that we could hardly make any progress, at times only managing 1 kph! At one point even, something appeared to get stuck in the prop but careful engagement of forward and reverse eventually cleared it, thank goodness.
Arriving at our last lock of the day on a lovely sunny, Sunday late morning, we were pleasantly surprised to see a virtually empty quay waiting for us, with some activity going on along the quayside which bordered a large park. It turned out that we had arrived just as the second day of a festival of summer sort was beginning, and we were right at the centre of things! In front of us were Newfoundland dog rescue demonstrations taking place in the water, behind us was a water-based jousting competition, not to mention a youth street and line dancing troupe, a small group of classic cars (mostly 2CVs), and further along was a stage for various dance exhibitions (folk dancers, Bollywood style, traditional local dancers, etc ), a tent with a small group of musicians and singers, a brass band marching up and down, not too mention some armed soldiers patrolling around. All very exciting and entertaining for us and for the dogs.
During this very entertaining time, Nicki and I managed to re-erect the railings on the stern deck and also add the nets to complete the picture, and by the evening we were exhausted after such a busy day.
My chores weren’t over yet, and the next day I donned my wetsuit to drop into the water and check out the prop – with the heavy weed over the last several days things were feeling sluggish and it was a struggle at times. I was very glad I’d decided to do this, as it turned out that there was a large quantity of weed still tightly wrapped around the prop which need to be sliced off! We also made some time to walk into Dijon and wander around the streets.
After two nights spent in this city, we set off again at what seemed to be our usual starting time these days (9.15) and on another gloriously sunny day continued along the canal until we passed ecluse 64S, Epoisses, and were able to moor up beside an old factory. A short distance away was a big supermarket, which gave us an excuse to take a pleasant stroll along the canal and into the shopping area to buy supplies and restock.
Now, on 5th June, we cruised along to the next ecluse (65S, Bretenieres) just a few minutes away, ready for our pre-arranged 9 am departure, only to be told by the eclusier that another boat would be locking-in with us for the journey. When it finally joined us, it transpired that we both then had to wait for a large hotel peniche to come through the ecluse, so it was 10 am before we managed to get out the other side and carry on. Still, it was another hot, sunny day to be enjoyed, so not all bad, and together both boats meandered along the canal for a further two hours until … it was the eclusiers’ obligatory lunch break and we were left to moor just past ecluse 69, Longcourt. Unfortunately once their break was over they then came along to say that we’d have yet another delay as a second hotel peniche was (slowly) making it’s way up the river. After so many weeks of virtually no traffic, it all seemed to be catching up today. Finally though, everything worked out and we carried on to and through ecluse 74 to moor for the night on a stretch outside of a few houses at Brazey-en-Plaine.
With temperatures now in the high 20’s, it was getting fairly uncomfortable, so being outside on deck in the locks wasn’t so great for Nicki at times. Still, we carried on and only had to wait at ecluse 75 (Viranne) for one hotel peniche to arrive and pass by, and an hour later we reached ecluse 76, Saint-Jean-de-Losne, our final ecluse on the Canal de Bourgogne. Sorry as we were to leave this lovely, exhausting canal, we exited from the ecluse and turned left into the Petite Saône, the next stage of our travels through France.
With no fixed mooring in mind and no eclusiers to look after us, we cruised slowly along this seemingly vast river (well, after a few weeks on a canal, it was huge to us), with the sun shining, a gentle breeze and hardly any other boats in sight. We soon spotted a nice little quay for our stop-over, just at the edge of the village of Les Maillys, and by midday we were sat with a mug of coffee, some toast and jam and big grins on our faces. There was a little area nearby for the dogs to mooch around in, and we also took them for a few short walks when it had cooled down a bit. The following morning we walked into the village on an errand, and on our return we took off the ropes and away we went.
Today (7th June) we had a new experience when activating an ecluse on the Saône – a long blue plastic pole was hanging down some way ahead of the entrance to the Auxonne ecluse which needed to be twisted as we passed it thus setting the automatic gate opening. (This time round we managed to hit it dead on and it was dragged up and over the boat!! We quickly learnt from that and will be more aware and more prepared for future encounters.)
We were now on our way to the town of Auxonne, and had arranged an overnight berth in the marina, and also to catch up with some boating friends who were due that day too. The marina was very nice and well maintained, and with the still beautifully sunny weather, it felt almost perfect. Tim and Penny arrived on Deep Thought soon after and moored in front of us, and we arranged to meet up that evening.
After a brief rest on Shensi, Nicki and I took a walk into the town and found a nice little cafe to relax at with decorations up and down the street. There was definitely a lot of history in Auxonne, but with the heat (along with a certain amount of apathy) we only managed a cursory glance around, so Nicki researched a little information when we got back so at least we could sound knowledgeable if anyone asked.
So, here goes. Auxonne is an old stronghold, with a history of a strong military past, thanks in particular to the stay of Napoleon Bonaparte, who subsequently became Emperor of the French. He was stationed as a lieutenant at the town’s Artillery School from 1788 to 1791. There are many monuments and tributes to him in the town, including the Bonaparte Quarter, the Royal Gate, the Sign Tower and the Arsenal, to name just a few.
The Arsenal buildings were built in 1690 as an artillery armoury, and are one of a very few Vauban armouries to have been completely preserved. (Vauban was the person behind several fortresses in France known particularly for being impregnable.)
That evening we spent a couple of hours with Tim and Penny, catching up on a few years worth of adventures, but eventually it was time to head back to Shensi for the night – although not before I had managed to get a photo of the beautiful sunset.
First item on the agenda in the morning was to pay the Capitainaire for our overnight stay, followed with saying goodbye to our fellow boaters, and we were off once again.
(photo courtesy of Tim)
Our itinerary for the day was to head vaguely towards Gray, but as we approached the village of Mantoche, it looked too pretty to pass by and so we ended our day there.
The ‘halte’ was on a quay backed by a nice grassy stretch, which in turn backed onto a very attractive chateau, perfect as ‘our’ backyard. Rain had been threatening most of the day, and we felt fortunate to rope in in dry weather and manage a short walk into town, but eventually the heavens opened and it was almost solid rain for the rest of the day.
A rather disturbed night for us – heavy rain, too hot, surprisingly noisy in the early hours – left us both tired the next morning, but being the troopers we are, we prepared the boat for another day of cruising and were off. This day’s travelling saw us arrive at another pretty little halte fluvial, Pont Chantenay, but not before today’s adventure of a second tunnel via the Savoyeux lock-cut. Entry to the tunnel was traffic light controlled, and it seemed we were on a roll as everything was in our favour with no waiting around.
The Savoyeux tunnel is 650 metres long and cuts across a major meander of the Petite Saône river, on a perfectly straight line route. Work on the tunnel began in 1838 and was completed in 1843, employing some 400 workers.
After this short excursion through the tunnel, we emerged a little over half a kilometre later, happy with how we’d dealt with it, and carried on to reach Charentenay – the mooring here was on a lovely grassy bank, but as there was a bit of a gap between us and the bank, we needed to bring out our ‘serious’ ramp in order to reach terra firma. Once in place it worked out well though, nice and stable for us and for the dogs. A few minutes walk back along the towpath took us into the tiny village, where we came across the ruins of a watermill, broken mill stone and some of its workings still visible. From there was a lovely stroll through numerous fields, all overlooked by a large chateau (yes, another chateau – they’re getting to be two a penny!) in the distance.
After another quiet and peaceful evening followed by a quiet and peaceful night, we woke up to the knowledge that yet another tunnel awaited us later that day, and three locks further on we approached the Rupt lock-cut heading to the Saint-Albin tunnel (our second in as many days). The lights were against us though, and we had to wait a short while to enter the cut as a couple of other boats were still travelling through. Once they’d passed by, the lights flicked over to green and we were off, followed a little way behind by a Le Boat cruiser (who managed to pin his boat to the tunnel wall a couple of times!).
As we slowly cruised along the cut there seemed to be a lot of construction/ renovation work taking place, until in front of us was the tunnel entrance ….
lining the lock-cut 10/6/24
A little bit of background on this 681 metre long and 6.55 metre wide Saint-Albin tunnel …. works began in 1837 and were completed in 1843 although it was not until 1880 that it came into full use. The upstream and downstream entrances were entirely made of masonry, with terraces created above each entrance. The underground has a barrel vault, with just one well at its centre for ventilation. Originally it was planned to install towing benches in the tunnel, but this idea was replaced by chains to haul the barges, as that system was less expensive. When the tunnel did finally open, it worked on a one-way system so boatmen were given an almanac showing the passage times (in rotation of three hours) for each day of the year, for both upstream and downstream directions. Nowadays stop and go signal lights indicate to boats as to when they can enter the underground canal.
After successfully passing through the tunnel, we continued on through another three automated locks until we reached Pont-sur-Saône, finding a long stretch of mostly unoccupied public quay to tie up to, outside of some private houses on a very quiet road, little traffic and with a good circular walking route for the dogs.
As we were time rich so far, we decided to stay for two nights, just because we could
With a couple of weeks still in hand, we set off after our second night in Pont-sur-Saône slowly travelling along the pleasant forested waterway, encountering a few (mostly hire) boats. An annoying encounter at one lock happened when a hire boat locked in ahead of us and promptly activated closure of the gates, leaving us unable to enter with them and having to reverse back some distance to twist the ‘dangly pole’ to activate the prices all over again. Ah well, you live and learn … hire boats aren’t always as accommodating as you’d expect!
Eventually, after almost six and a half hours of travel (a long old day for us) we arrived at the junction of the Canal de Vosges, the next leg of our journey, and immediately passed into lock 46, Corre, the first lock for us on this canal.
Having entered the lock we noticed a machine marked ‘remote control’ on the lockside and out of interest thought we’d hop off the barge and check it out. Just as well, as we realised then that from here on in were in a waterway that needed a remote control device to operate the locks along this canal. The controller was all boxed up and ready for collection from the machine, so we breathed a sigh of relief and exited onto the Canal des Vosges.
Immediately ahead of us we could see the municipal halte which we were hoping to moor at, and thankfully there was plenty of room for us. There was a charge at this halte, but at 16€ for a night, including electricity and water – we topped up with water, but didn’t need any more power – it wasn’t very expensive, and plus, we needed to stop and relax now, then give the dogs some decent exercise, and get a few supplies from a close-ish supermarket.
Corre 12/6/24
Corre is a small town at the end of the Canal des Vosges (which begins at Neuves-Maisons on the Moselle river), with lots of heavy lorry and agricultural traffic passing through. The halte municipal seemed a little tired and rundown, but it was perfect for our needs, and if we’d needed more there was a large Port de Plaisance available immediately before entering the canal.
On the following beautifully sunny and hot morning we set off with our remote controller at the ready, and less than a kilometre further on we almost missed the first station to activate the next lock, no 47 Vougécourt. Fortunately we saw it just in time, so no harm done.
From then on we were more vigilant, and became fairly adept at searching out the activation stations for the following five locks, before stopping at the VNF halte of Pont-du-Bois just past lock 39. It was seriously hot by now, so we called it day here, just taking the dogs for a nice walk and swim along the canal a little later.
Overnight it seemed to have rained quite a bit which cooled everything down by the morning. However, a large part of our next day’s travel ended up in rain too. What a change from the previous day! With no fixed destination, we carried on along the canal, now following the Coney river on our right much of the way.
At this stage, the canal narrowed significantly due to overgrown trees and vegetation along the way, so it became a little hairy at times; on a couple of occasions there were signs indicating that we needed to sound our horn to alert others of our presence on the water, which is when we realised that the horn wasn’t working properly – possibly waterlogged from the rain.
Just another thing to stress over! Mind you, it wasn’t all bad, as we passed a lovely chateau alongside the canal with vast, well-maintained lawns, enclosed by several kilometres of iron railings.
Mid-day saw us pulling into the Port de Plaisance in Fontenoy-le-Chateau, just as the rain stopped. Passing through the town’s ecluse, it seemed as though it might just be a very small, uninspiring place but still, we got ourselves ready and walked into the centre to check it out for ourselves.
At it’s centre, as with most rural towns, was a large gothic church with lovely stained glass windows, and from there we continued up the hill to visit the ruins of the town’s namesake, giving us lovely views over the Châtelain valleys of the Lorraine department we were now in. The chateau dates from in the 10th century through to the 17th century, when it was dismantled – all that remains now are its foundation stones and part of a tower. However, many of the stones from the chateau were taken by locals and used in the building of their homes, some of which are still in existence to this day.
On our way through the town, we were somewhat startled to find two huge Nazi flags draped down the walls of the Hotel de Ville, along with some historical notices on a board nearby …. absolutely not something we’d expected to see anywhere, let alone in this tiny town.
However, it turned out that a film unit was at work there, recording scenes for a World War 2 movie. None of it was real. Phew!
Returning to Shensi a short while later, we managed to sit down for a while before the dogs (but mostly Casper) decided they needed dinner, then we too needed our dinner after which it was a walk along the canalside before settling down for another relaxed evening on the water.
A quirky thing we noticed in the town was that most of the public railings, lampposts, a couple of houses, bollards, and bridge railings and posts are painted lilac. We couldn’t find out any reference to this, but we’ll keep trying to see what it was about!
After a rainy night, and a wet morning we followed the usual routine – dogs up and out for morning wee break, then …. for no apparent reason that we could work out, Pip suddenly started screaming and was extremely upset. We got her back on the boat but she was very unsettled and subdued, so we decided to just keep her rested and quiet for the day to see if she had maybe pulled a muscle, and hope that helped. So we continued our journey, everything quiet today (well, when hasn’t it been to date) but as we hit the first lock the rain started, not too hard at first but getting heavier as we cruised along, and after our sixth lock of this wet morning we called it a day at a nice looking mooring just beyond lock 29, Bains-les-Bains.
Partly because of the earlier bad weather, but mostly to keep Pip rested, we didn’t manage any exploring, only a very short walk in a nearby forest for some fresh air as the sun started to come out.
