Happy Anniversary to Us

Forty years ago today we said our "I do's" in the Northwestern College Chapel in Roseville, MN. Memories of that day include a car fuel filter that kept clogging and Shriners everywhere. We still hold a minor grudge against the Shriners for holding their convention in Minneapolis the weekend we got married, thus taking over all of the better hotels. The Radisson Hotel in Plymouth, MN was definitely NOT our first choice for a hotel on our wedding night.

On this July 7 we are in the town of Dannmarie, France. The fuse issues of a week ago were dealt with on July 2 with a car rental and road trip to a boat repair shop--Atelier Fluvial--in St. Jean de Losnes. We bought replacements and spares and were thrilled that the new parts fixed the problems with the bow thruster and the inverter.

We cruised on July 3 to the town of Montbeliard, a town of about 25,000 that is home to the main manufacturing plant of the Peugeot automobile company. Despite its industrial aspects, it has a rather nice old town. Architecturally it is German in flavor, but then, the town only became part of France around the time of the French Revolution. Many of the oldest buildings stem from a city "update" that was accomplished in the early 1600's by Swabian architect Heinrich Schickhardt.

Having dinner with a view of Eglise Saint Martin (1604),

the oldest Lutheran/Protestant church in France. Unlike the 

Catholic churches, the Lutherans don't seem to leave their

buildings open during the day for allowing views of interiors.

Chateau de Monteliard, which was for centuries the seat

of the Dukes of Wurttemberg. The oldest elements of

this iteration of the castle are the bulky circular towers

from the 1400s.

Floral gardens on the chateau grounds

We realized while in Montbeliard that the sight gauge for determining our engine fuel level was not trustworthy and we probably did not have the half tank of fuel indicated. Enormously grateful for not having run out of fuel while cruising, Lon made arrangements for a truck to deliver fuel to us where we were moored. An appointment of "after 10 a.m." on July 5 turned into 1 p.m. before the fuel truck finally arrived. Normally this wouldn't be an issue, except that at Lock 7 upstream of Montbeliard the locks change from automatic (operated by the boater with the VNF-issued apparatus) to manual (each lock operated by a vnf employee). Boaters must call the VNF to make appointments for each boating day--starting point, starting time, and stopping point.  A VNF employee is then assigned to the boater (or groups of boaters if the boats are small enough to fit into the lock together) and drives from lock to lock to set the locks for boat entry and start the lockage sequences.

The very late arrival of the fuel aborted our cruising appointment on the 5th, so we were only able to travel to a mooring short of the switchover point (suffering through waits at 3 broken automatic locks in the process) before stopping for the evening. The next day we made the earliest possible appointment with the VNF and put in a long day of cruising to get to our destination of the port at Dannmarie.

On passing the town of Montreux-Chateau yesterday we entered the "Summit Pound", meaning we had officially passed the high point of the canal. From that point we started to descend as we continued working toward--for us--our  final destination of the city of Mulhouse (where we will turn around and head back the way we came on the Rhone-Rhine). Our first taste of locks going down was a "flight" of 12 locks in the space of about a mile and a half. All-in-all, we went through 21 locks yesterday.

This is what happens when canals are abandoned.

The Canal de la Haute Saone-connected to the

 Rhone-Rhine Canal- was permanently closed in 2018.

 It hasn't taken long for the weeds to take over.

A portion of the flight of locks. It took us two hours to

go through the 12 locks.

This young lady was one of two VNF employees who assisted

us with the "down" locks from Montreux-Chateau to Dannmarie.

She and the young man she was working with bicycled

between the locks.

At rest in the port at Wolfersdorf/Dannmarie

Two war fortifications (foreground and upper left) in the 

vicinity of the marina and next downstream lock. I haven't

yet found any info about which war or which entity created them.

Dannmarie has a national cemetery for dead from the 

Great War. About 400 soldiers are interred here, including

some unknowns. The WWI cemeteries make me sad every time I see them.

We are now in the Alsace administrative department, which

means that the Vosges mountains aren't too far away.

An Alsace stork, possibly just

returned from delivering a baby.

Our destination for this evening's anniversary

dinner. Love the architecture!

Tomorrow will be another long day of cruising. We have an appointment at the next lock--just adjacent to the marina--at 0830. About 20 kilometers, 20+ locks, and an hour-and-a-half lunch break should get us to Mulhouse between 4 and 5 p.m. We're planning to stay at the marina there for about a week and do some day trips by train. We will be joined on July 13 by Lon's Canadian cousin Frank Cedar.