At a Crossroads

Yesterday, May 31, we arrived at the village of Corre, at the junction of the northern end of the navigable Petite Saone River and the southern end of the Canal des Vosges. We were able to secure a mooring spot for CARIB in the very nice Port de Plaisance, where she will stay for a week. We'll meet up with Lon's cousin Frank in Epinal on Tuesday, see what we can of that town during an overnight stay, then continue on to the Alsace region for some additional "touristing" in Colmar and its environs before returning to Corre on Thursday. Friday will be cruise preparation day as we restock the groceries and prepare to start heading north on the Canal des Vosges on Saturday, June 7.

The overwhelming impression of our past few days cruising the northern end of the Petite Saone River can best be described as "serene." It was a very rural area, alternately wooded and agricultural. The gently flowing river continued to narrow as we headed north, and in many stretches was not much wider than a canal. The towns and villages along the route were mostly just small farming communities and/or involved with water-focused tourism, without much strategic importance historically. As a result, the occasional older buildings that could be spotted were simply vestiges of daily life "back in the day" and not part of any grand historical events. It was difficult to ferret out information on most of the towns and villages--there wasn't much on the internet and most tourist offices were not open and wouldn't be until "the season" started on June 1. We really missed not having access to walking tour maps and guides.

We left Ray-sur-Saone on Tuesday, May 27. Our destination for the day was Scey-sur Saone and it turned out to be a longer-than-usual cruising day for us at a bit over 5 hours. The twenty-two kilometers of distance wasn't so much, but 6 lock passages, 1 tunnel, and more than the usual amount of reduced speed zones added to the length of the cruising day.

Visible from the river was Rupt-sur-Saone, with its 17th
century church and its castle with a 12th century keep. Sad to
say, there was no suitable mooring near the village.

We passed through the 19th century, 681-meter-long Saint-Albin Tunnel just a few
 kilometers shy of  Scey-sur-Saone. It is classified as a Historic Monument.
 By the time it was finished in the 19th century, trains had already begun to surpass
 barges as a mode of transport for goods and people.

The Port de Plaisance on Scey's diversion canal could not handle our boat, so we "hung a left" down the arm of the Petite Saone to a wood and metal quay closer to the town itself. 

Our mooring in Scey-sur-Saone was lovely and peaceful, but Lon's estimation of a safe approach
to the landing didn't go over very well with some fisherman on the shore of the nearby campground.

We couldn't see the fishermen because of the trees as we made our way to the mooring, but they were most unhappy with our distance from the shore. In fact, one of them followed us all the way to the quay and continued to berate us as we were trying to get tied up. French may have been historically known as the language of diplomacy, but it was anything but diplomatic in the mouth of the angry man. As our attempts to apologize were not working, and to avoid escalating the situation, I reverted to using another language--cold, hard cash. Money does, indeed, talk. It was amazing how quickly an offer of compensation for their trouble (aka, bribe) quieted things down. Happy Hour could not come too soon that day.

We stayed in Scey-sur-Saone on the 28th. It was a rainy day, and we hoped to have a chance to look around this town that is classified as a "City of Character" in Burgundy-Franche-Comte, even if it had to be done from under an umbrella.

Turreted buildings, lavoirs, glimpses of art preserved on old buildings, and the town church.
It was quiet--maybe because of the weather.

This unusual building in Scey, a former foundry, is identified in Google Maps with the German
name "Haus der vielen Gesichter", the house of many faces. The aura conveyed by
the figures placed on the exterior walls is pure Halloween, not to mention a spooky
 "Chucky" doll or two in one of its windows. 

Thursday, May 29, was Ascension Day, a holiday in France. Fortunately, it was not one of those days when the locks are shut down, so we had no trouble during the short cruise (less than 2 hours) to our next destination, Port-sur-Saone. Its name says it all--it's been a port since at least Roman times, and ruins of a Roman villa were excavated in the town earlier this year. The Saone diversion canal through Port-sur-Saone was completed in the late 1800's, not long before river transport began to diminish in importance. Today, Port-sur-Saone has a Port de Plaisance and is a base for at least one holiday rental boat company.

We saw lots of camping along the river--and had a lot of 
fishing poles to look out for.

Sainte-Etienne church rises above the surrounding buildings in
Port-sur-Saone. In past years we've seen lots of 12th and 13th century
 churches. In this part of France, the 17th century seems to have been the
period for a "church replacement" building boom.

Building art--Fresco of the Rights of Man, honoring those who have
fought for human rights issues.

Left: another town, another lavoir.
Right: A long quay made mooring easy.

The building was formerly a hotel, but didn't seem to be open.
 "1588" above the door identifies just how old it is.

We had a stop picked out for the next day, Friday May 30, at one of the few moorings between Port-sur-Saone and Corre. We'd been seeing a fair number of holiday rental boats on the Petite Saone, so I was a little concerned about whether we'd find an open spot. Once we start cruising, we tend to keep going until we get to our overnight mooring, but many boaters take a midday break for lunch, and this can make mooring spaces trickier to come by. We ultimately decided to take a "bird in the hand" approach and be open to stopping earlier than planned if we saw space on a decent mooring. Our first option was full, but we were fortunate to find space at the second option, a restaurant quay in the village of Fouchécourt. Even better, the restaurant waived the small mooring fee that we were expecting to pay. We were glad for the short cruising day, because it got very warm by the afternoon.

Upper: the restaurant maintained a lovely park area.
Lower: the "Petit Port" adjacent to the restaurant/park grounds. 
A food truck was brought in for Friday pizza night. It was
 well-attended by the French, and had we not had pizza the night
 before, we might have joined in the fun.

The restaurant and port were the busiest places in town. There wasn't much to see in Fouchécourt aside from the church and residential buildings. Because we were tied up by noon, we had plenty of time to finally get the bicycles down and see what was going on in a couple of the neighboring villages, Baulay and Montureux-les-Baulay.

The village of Baulay had turned their lavoir into an exhibition
space. The display above recognized the soldiers from the region
who died fighting with Lafayette in the U.S. Revolutionary War.
 The small rowboat was constructed starting in 2010, and was
 a replica of a boat associated with the French troop carrier
 ship--the Hermoine--that brought French soldiers to Yorktown.

Baulay was proud of the activities of the French Resistance in Baulay in 1944. The Paris-Belfort line ran through Baulay, and was used by the Germans to transport personnel to concentration camps and to move equipment. Derailments by the Resistance from July to September 1944 shut down this pipeline, with no loss of life, until the Allies arrived on September 12, 1944.

Upper: La Tranché de Baulay was the site of derailment upon derailment.
Lower: The town created the display for its 70th anniversary commemorations
in 2014.

Montureux-les-Baulay was primarily a farming community, but it did have
a lovely mansion that seemed to be serving as an events center, and a very
small church. The bell tower of the church had survived since the 13th 
century, but the rest of the church was an 18th century reconstruction.

The local Montureux lavoir was lovingly maintained.

Saturday, May 31, was another warm day, but it was pleasant cruising in the morning hours. Same old, same old--nature and small villages.

Mama stork feeds her baby. 

Garden gnomes keeping watch lock side.

The 3 locks of the day were all quite deep. I'm glad
to be as tall as I am, because reaching the bollards
in or on the lock wall was sometimes quite a stretch.

Another castle seen from the river--a nice break from trees and cows.

Tomorrow we get CARIB ready to receive our visitor.