Summer 2015 Part 2

We left Fragnes on Monday 8^th June. Locked down (10.76 m) to the river Saone and turned northwards .It was our intention to take two days to get to St Jean de Losne but as things happened we continued on and did the 70 Km in the one trip.(This was our longest days cruising since we came to France.) En route we through the large locks at Ecuelles and Seurre on our own. It was a little uncanny being in such large locks on our own.

After a couple of days in St Jean de Losne we continued on to Auxonne. We had not visited before and were anxious to view this historic town. As you arrive in the town an old fortress reminds one of the military heritage of the town .It was here that a young Lieutenant Napoleon was stationed at the end of 18^th century. Unfortunately our stay was a little disturbed by the presence of high powered speed boats zooming up and down opposite the moorings instead of the area designated for them. Happily the water police dealt very effectively with the situation on the second day. I saw the owner of one of the offending boats get a bundle of papers from the police that he almost needed an assistant to carry.

The annual blessing of the boats and water festival was set for St Jean de Losne for the weekend   of 21/22^nd of June. We went there as observers but were invited to line up face on to the quayside alongside the large commercials. It was a really good festival and we were more than a little surprised to be called up alongside the commercial skippers to receive a special presentation of two specially inscribed bottles of wine.

Following this rather exciting weekend we left St Jean de Losne and headed for the Canal du Rhone au Rhin. We entered this canal at St Symphorien which is a base for a lot of barges. After this we travelled to Dole passing through an alien looking Chemical factory. All sorts of solvents and products such as caustic soda are manufactured in this complex. From Dole we travelled onwards to Becancon stopping at a number of remote moorings on the way. This section is mainly the River Doubs and is pretty wild with locks beside open weirs and fast flowing side channels .It reminded us in many ways of the River Barrow in Ireland.

In Besancon we visited the Citadel which overlooks the city. (The navigation is in a tunnel beneath it).It is also possible to travel around the city on the loop but depth is limited. The Citadel is 118m above the city and was completed by the famous architect Vauban on behalf of King Louis XIV. It has been used as a barracks a military school and prison. Nowadays it houses three museums a Zoo and exhibition centre.

After Becancon we doubled back stopping in Dole where we met up with a few of the barges that had wintered in Roanne. Enough to say that we had a rather jolly weekend. Following this we retraced our steps once more to St Jean de Losne where we locked up to the canal de Bourgogne on Wed 8^th July.