The Petite Saone

On the way back we stopped at Verdun-Sur-Le-Doubs. We really enjoyed it here. It was a very pretty little town and we spent some time exploring.

                                               Verdun 

We spent some time in the Museum du Pain. This was all about the baguette. We watched a movie on how the baguette was made, before machinery and now.

Verdun is a town of fisherman and is the headquarters of the “Knights of the Pochouse”. This is a dish made from a mixture of several fresh water fish in a delicious wine sauce. Russel wanted to try this so we went to a local restaurant and he really enjoyed it.

         

                                              My Favourite veiw of Verdun

                                 We passed a flee market. They even had Tractors for sale

a veiw of Verdun as we were leaving

We stayed in St Jean De Losne long enough to do our washing at the local lavoire and then headed down the Saone to Auxonne.  Another gorgeous French town.!!

                               A view as we entered Auxonne

The church in Auxonne - however wasn't open both times we went to see

Whilst riding around we discovered a large army presence. There was a very big barracks.

The Military headquarters we saw.

This is a statue of Napoleon Bonaparte who attended the army academy in this town. He was the second lieutenant in the Regiment De La Fere and a student at the artillery school of Auxonne. He stayed here from 1788 to 1791 during 2 periods interrupted by a leave of absence.

We were speaking to a policeman who said that the town is very proud of Napoleon.

One of the main reasons we wanted to go here was to see the one of the last of the needle weirs still in service on the French waterways and the very last on the Saone. As the water starts going down, dozens of wooden planks called needles are placed one by one against folding metal frames. Once in place they simply held there by the water pressure. When the river starts flooding, to help the flow the planks are lifted out and the frames folded down to the river bottom.

Guess what? The river is flooding so we didn’t see the needles. Below is a picture of what we could see.

We left Auxonne and headed up the Petite Saone and finally stopping at Gray. It was a long travelling day so we decided to see the town the next day. That night I came down with a dreadful bout of the 24 hour wog. I was so sick the next day that I just laid in bed and only came up when Russel needed help at the locks. It was a lonely day for Russel. He even had to cook his own dinner.

We did however make it to the next place Seveux. Below is a picture of their wash house. It is one of the best we have seen apart from the one at Tonnerre.

The Petite Saone Canal is very pretty and has a lot of interesting locks and tunnels. It would be one to take visitors on. The only problem is the huge number of hire boats and they can be quite frightening to enter the locks with. I wish they would give them a little advice on how to use locks. One lock keeper was quite cross with one lot that kept using his motor in the lock. If you are up the front of an up lock it can be quite violent.

The entrance to one of the tunnels we went through. It looks small from afar but once you get in there is plenty of room

We reach the end of the tunnel. It is well lit so no need for us to use our own lighting as we have done before

This is a picture of a Garde Du Porte. it is an open ecluse that they can close if the river is too high. We pass through lots of these in this canal.

We noticed that these calves weren't happy enough with the grren grass they were eating the lillies in the river.

We arrived in Port-Sur-Saone the 13th July and decided to stay for two nights hoping they might have some celebrations for Bastile day on the 14th. I am afraid the concert and fire works were washed out sue to too much rain. We spent the day on the boat listening to a penny bomb going off nearly every 5 minutes for about 4 hours. It drove us insane. If only we new how to say shut up in French!!!

We have finally arrived in Corre. We did our last ecluse this morning. Arcturus comes out of the water on Wednesday morning and we then head for Paris to catch our flight at midday on Thursday.

For the year 2012 we did 110.84 engine hours,  230 kilometers and 260 ecluses.

The Saone and Canal Du Centre

We have decided to leave our boat in Corre which is on the Petite Saone. We have three weeks to go before we need to be in Corre so at lunch time we said our goodbyes and left St Jean De Losne and headed down the Saone to Serre a pretty little village on the edge of the Saone.

It was great!!. Finally Russel could put the throttle down and burn a few cobwebs out of Arcturus. We were going 13klm per hour and really enjoying the river. We put our music on loud and passed many campers along the river, many fisherman and many gorgeous homes. The weather is very hot and humid so sailing with the wind in our faces was great.

Campers - mostly to fish

An old ancient ecluse

The second night we stopped in Chalon–Sur-Saone. After it cooled down we rode through the beautiful village.

                                           This flower arrangement was very beautiful

Showing Arcturus trying to find shade - it was very hot and humid

That night another electrical storm hit!!!

The next day we spent the morning exploring Chalon and visited a Museum of photgraphy.It was very interesting. The museum was centred on Nicephore Niepce the inventor of photography. After lunch we headed back up the Saone about 2 klm to the entrance to the Canal Du Centre.

Oh why did we do this!!!! Ecluses soon hit us and they were very angry up locks. The first one went up 10.7 meters. We had a lock keeper to work the lock. After that we were on our own .Each lock seem to be different in their set up and it kept us on our toes. We had to pull a cord to start the lock in motion and it was always way up the end where the water came in. This would push the boat around. we then got wise to this and Russel would climb off the boat to pull the cord and we would tie up well away from where the water came in.

We arrived in Chagny where we stayed for three nights.

The next day we rode into town and had lunch at one of the restaurants. We tried to find internet but couldn't.

This was the square in Chagny - not sure why the big rooster!!

Next day we rode 4 klm down to Santenay. We had a picnic in the square then rode up the hill to the Chateau and the vines!!

That night we were having a barby and noticed a storm brewing. It hit just has Russel took the food off. It was hail!!! We had to run around closing all the windows.

This is the view we had - watching the storm arrive

After sweltering all day at about 6 pm it poured. The next day it drizzled all day.

The next day we caught the train to Beaune. Yes it was raining but we put on all our wet weather gear and rode to the railway station .We missed going to this place when Steph and Bruno went in the car. we had moved the boat. The train trip was about 10 minutes and we of course took our bikes. Beaune is very touristy and is well known for the wines. It is in the Cote D'Or.!!

A must when you visit Beaune is to spend a few hours in the Hotel Dieu. Founded in 1443 by Nicolas Rolin chancellor of the Duke of Burgundy to help the needy. It looks like a gothic palace not a hospital.

It was set up as a hospital for the poor and run by the nuns. It was well worth a visit.

                                The court yard!!

The hospital beds in the great hall - 15 on each side!!

We left Chagny that afternoon and sailed to a gorgeous spot over looking the Santenay valley.

This is what we could see from our boat.

Next day we headed to St-Leger-Sur - Dheaune. This is where we will turn and head back to St Jean De Losne.

We enjoyed looking at the reflections in the water at dusk.

                                   St Leger-Sur-Dheaune with the reflections

                                                Yet another Barge full of the English

                                               The reflection of this tree was fasinating

We decided to make the ,most of the sunny day today as once again the sky is building up and we expect rain tonight and tomorrow.

We rode to a place in the hills called Couches where there is a Chateau. The ride up was very pleasant, but on the way home Russel chose a different way and we came down this huge hill. It was like coming down the Darling Ranges with cars and trucks passing us. I didn't enjoy but I am still here to tell the tale.

Couchers Chateau

The Owners of the Chateau live in this part. The building on the side is the Chappel

We rode through where those houses are and met an English couple our age who own a house there. They showed us over it. They have decided to let it out for other people to enjoy. It would be a fabulous holiday for a group of friends.

The Gardens of the Chateau

Close up of the flowers. I just lovely their light and fluffy gardens.

Tomorrow we head back the way we have come via the Rhone and into St Jean De Losne.