Settling In

As expected, we've settled into a routine in Auxonne--most days involve an easy start over coffee, shopping for groceries or project items as needed, working on boat projects, light socializing in the port, Lon working on his SSI (StrategicSource, Inc) job responsibilities, and spending quiet evenings reading or on the internet. But a life that is only work would be very dull indeed, so we insert some "fun stuff" into the mix.

On Friday, August 23, our good friends from Haarlem, Netherlands stopped by on their way back to Holland after a 3-week holiday in the west/central and south of France. Joost and Yolanda and their daughters Suze and Rosa spent Friday night and most of Saturday with us. (Yolanda's mom and dad spent several days on the boat with us in mid-June.) We always enjoy their company and their visit provided us with an excellent opportunity for a short cruise on the Petite Saone river.

Yolanda DeJong and Joost Havers

 (back row)

Front row--Suze (l.) and Rosa (r.)

Joost, Lon, Yolanda and Suze on CARIB's back deck

Captain Joost did a great job under Captain Lon's watchful

eye.  The watchful eye wasn't really needed,

 as Joost has much experience in boats.

Auxonne and Port Royal (the marina) are in the background. 

The cruise gave us a first look at what will likely be the start

of next year's cruising route.

Suze and Rosa find that coloring is much better "plein air"

(outdoors)

We had a rental car for the weekend, so on Sunday the 25th we drove to the nearby village of Pesmes. Only a 20-minute drive from Auxonne, it had caught my attention because it is classified as one of "Les Plus Beaux Villages de France" (the most beautiful villages of France). How could we not check that out?

Pesmes occupies a high point on one side of the Ognon River. Its origins aren't exactly known. The first named family appears in records from the 11th century, but Gallo-Roman artifacts found in the area indicate that the village could have been in existence earlier than that. It didn't have an easy history--it was destroyed by the English in 1409 and burned in both 1477 and 1621--nevertheless, several heritage buildings survived.  It has a chateau with origins in the 12th century (and with 16th and 18th century additions); the church of Saint-Hilaire, also begun in the 12th century and with substantial portions from the 13th and 14th centuries; and several buildings of 15th and 16th century vintage.

Pesmes on the bank of the Ognon River. The Chateau de Pesmes sits atop the 

walled fortifications. This was our view as we ate lunch at a restaurant on 

the opposite bank of the Ognon.

The view over the lower

 town from the chateau

The church of Saint-Hilaire shows its age. The

shape and decoration of the church tower (toward

the rear) is typical of the Franche-Comte region.

But what about its "beauty" designation? Consider us underwhelmed. Maybe we were expecting too much. It was a nice enough village, but not what we would consider visually stunning. It was also disappointing that, apart from the church of Saint-Hilaire, the primary historic monuments were not open to the public except by appointment.

As it turns out, there are about 160 villages in France with the "most beautiful villages" designation. They are part of an association created to promote the tourist appeal of small rural villages with rich cultural heritage. In order to qualify for the designation, a village must have less than 2,000 inhabitants, have at least two national heritage sites, and have the support of the local village council and a strategy to preserve and promote their heritage. An on-site visit by the association is also part of the evaluation process. Essentially it's an accreditation of sorts that is good for six years as long as the village continues to pay its annual fee and conform with the association requirements. One can't really fault the attempt to bring some attention--and hopefully, tourists and income--to the French villages. Economic and cultural changes, e.g., the influx of large commercial shopping areas on the outskirts of larger towns and the closure of historically important types of businesses (such as sawmills), have been tough on French villages and towns.

We're experiencing a warm spell in these last days of August, but the cool evening temperatures and fog most mornings indicate that fall cannot be far away.

My morning walk today was away from town and strictly rural. The wisps

of fog gave the light a lovely quality.

We had thought that we would be travelling to Spain for a week in September, but the timing didn't work with friends we had intended to visit there. Our "Plan B" is now a trip to the Normandy region of France September 4-11. We thought it would be an appropriate destination during this 75th anniversary year of D-Day, and being able to get there by train is an added bonus. There's a lot to do besides the D-Day beaches, so we'll rent a car once we're there and see what we can fit into a week.

Trading Bases

It's official. We have changed our French "home port" from Pont-de-Vaux to Auxonne.  It's not that we disliked Pont-de-Vaux, but as part of our tentative planning for next year's cruising season we decided that it would be nice to be closer to the "jumping off points" for a variety of canal routes in the center, north, and east of France. Staying in Pont-de-Vaux would have meant having to repeat--fall and spring--the 100+ kilometer stretch of the Saone River between Pont-de-Vaux and St. Jean-de-Losne in order to access those canals. Not horrible, but as we've already done that 2-3 day cruise 3 times we are not sorry to not have to do it again (for a while, at least).  As well, Port Royal has a large contingent of English-speaking boaters (Brits, Aussies, New Zealanders, and the occasional American) and an Aussie port captain. Sometimes a break from wrestling with the French language is a beautiful thing.

One result of this change is that, for all practical purposes, we are done cruising for the season. The past week has been spent on a mixture of projects (both planning and execution),  touristic/recreational activities, and simply relaxing and exploring our new "home". That pattern will continue until our return to the U.S. on October 1.

On Monday, August 12, we set off on our bicycles for the town of St. Jean-de-Losne, about 10 miles downriver from Auxonne. St. Jean is the town where the survey of our barge was done last summer. It has some boat related businesses that we needed to visit. Google Maps routed us along the river, and this was fine for about half the distance as we were on a lovely bicycle trail. But the asphalt disappeared, and then the gravel, until we were left with a mostly unimproved car track between farm fields and the river.

Between corn field and river--for a time we were afraid we

were going to have a repeat of the "pasture ride" we experienced

 in late May. Fortunately, the track was kept mowed, probably

for the convenience of the fishermen and campers we 

encountered at the river's edge.

On our return to Auxonne we opted for a less rustic route that took us inland to a lovely paved road that passed through several villages. The route was a bit longer, but the road didn't have much traffic and we made better time on our return trip.

Friday was "road trip" day, via train, to the town of Beaune. Located about forty kilometers south of the city of Dijon, Beaune is a French Town of Art and History and the center of the Burgundy wine trade. In the 15th century it was the parliamentary capital of the Duchy of Burgundy. Like so many of the towns we have visited this summer, the old town of Beaune contains some remarkable monuments, and preserved buildings and mansions of impressive age.

The 15th century Hotel-Dieu, built as a hospital for the

poor and sick. As evidenced by the long line of tourists

waiting to enter, this is the most famous of the local 

historic buildings. The world's biggest wine auction takes

place here in November. We would have loved to see the

interior, but had neither the time nor the patience to brave

the line 

The 14th century ducal palace of the Dukes of Burgundy.

It now houses the Museum of Burgundy Wine.

The old vat house at the chateau

 contained a collection of wine presses

from the 16th through 19th centuries. 

From the 13th century, and inspired by the religious center

in Cluny, we have the Collegiate Church of Our Lady--

another "Notre Dame". It is one of the last big Romanesque

churches in Burgundy.

Within the church, in one

 of the oldest chapels,

we find this 15th century mural.

The pride and joy of the Church of Notre Dame is a collection of five

tapestries from the 15th century that illustrate the life of the Virgin Mary--as 

it would have looked had she lived in the 15th century. The skill required to

craft these tapestries by hand was amazing.

The old town still retains many of the old ramparts,

and the passageways needed to enter and exit.

Lovely "old stuff" notwithstanding, Beaune is first and foremost about wine. Wine has been important in this region for millennia. The Climats (vineyards) of Burgundy are plots whose limits have been precisely drawn out and named for several centuries. Each Climat has its own specific soil, subsoil, and microclimate (the terroir). This means that every wine from a Climat has a unique flavor achieved through a single grape variety (pinot noir for reds, chardonnay for whites). Because these long-standing cultivation practices have given rise to a whole cultural and architectural heritage, the Climats of Burgundy were added to UNESCO's World Heritage list in 2015.

The area listed as a World Heritage site stretches from Dijon in the north to

a series of villages in the south called the Maranges, with Beaune

 approximately in the middle.  More than 1,247 Climats

are encompassed by the boundaries of the area listed as World Heritage.

Public art in Beaune, with, of course, 

a wine theme.

No significance whatsoever, except that any man who

would go out in public with a Pokémon character over

his motorcycle helmet deserves to be noticed. 

This coming Friday we'll be off to Dole to rent a car for the weekend. A large amount of shopping will be involved, as we hope to be able to acquire all of the supplies we need for the painting and wood staining that we want to accomplish, as well as oil and filters and things of that nature for winterization that must take place before the end of September. We are looking forward to a probable visit on Saturday by our Dutch friends Yolanda, Joost, Rosa, and Suze as they make their way back home to Haarlem after their summer vacation in various parts of France. And we are still hoping to do a several day long trip somewhere in early September--we're a little behind in the planning for that, so hopefully we can use this week to firm up those plans.

Out of the Canal

It's cloudy and rainy this afternoon--a welcome thing in this very dry summer, and a perfect time to create a blog posting.

We left Besancon on Monday, August 5. After 10 days we were ready to move on, but we enjoyed our stay there immensely and the departure was a little bittersweet. Because the Besancon tunnel is manned it doesn't start operations until 9 a.m., but we were able to enter as soon as it opened and had a relatively easy cruising day. We had originally thought to stay at all of the same moorings as on the way upstream, but soon realized that our more rapid cruising progress downstream--and the fact that we were so rested after our "time off"--made that plan unnecessary. We extended our first cruising day to 7 hours and arrived at the halte in Ranchot none the worse for wear. No cycling this time around, but we were able to take advantage of the local canal side restaurant for a delicious and relaxing dinner.

The following day was an easy 4-hours to the lovely town of Dole. It would have been even quicker, but in the sections of the canal west of Besancon we have been encountering holiday boat traffic, which has resulted in some waiting at the locks.

The view of Dole in a westbound approach  on the Canal

du Rhone au Rhin is stunning, especially when the canal is

like a mirror.

We arrived in Dole around lunchtime, which gave us the afternoon to complete those parts of the "perched cat" historic trail that we hadn't managed to do on our initial visit to the town.

Six weeks after our first stay in Dole the flowers were

fully in bloom, and the church is still as imposing.

The architectural feature known as a "grotesque" (a carved

stone figure) is common on many of the older buildings we

see. These particular carvings are just a few of the many on 

the 17th century Hotel-Dieu (former hospital for the poor)

in Dole.

Canal des Tanneurs at twilight

Our canal cruising has not provided us with as many opportunities for socializing as our Great Loop trip of a few years ago, but in Dole we were fortunate to meet--and join for "docktails"--fellow Barge Association members Nina and Graham Johnston (of Narrawallee, Australia). We again realized what a small world it is, as Nina and Graham are very good friends with our canal-boating neighbors in St. Petersburg, the Casons. After we left Dole and stopped in Abergement-le-Ronce we encountered  Richard and Julia Pearson (whose home is in Cornwall, England), also members of the Barge Association, and had more enjoyable conversation.

Stalking the local "wildlife" in Abergement-la-Ronce

A not-so-lovely industrial portion of canal just to the east

of Abergement-la-Ronce. For safety reasons in case of a chemical 

spill, mooring was forbidden in this stretch of

the canal between locks 70 and 71

It's vacation season in France, which means that holidays are in full swing. Many small businesses are closed for 2 or 3 weeks as their owners take their annual vacation. Camping seems to be very popular, but we must admit that some of the choices of "campground" make us shake our heads. Then again, we've heard about RVers in the U.S. who park in Walmart parking lots, so who are we to judge?

A campground in Dole. From our mooring on the canal we

looked across a relatively busy road to this parking lot and 

camping area. At least the campers to the rear in this photo

have the river behind them.

A campground overlooking the Rhone au Rhin Canal

A French cyclist spending the

 night along the bike path

We exited the Canal du Rhone au Rhin on Friday, August 9. Rather than turning left on the Saone River and heading directly back to our home port of Pont de Vaux, we made a right turn and headed upstream about 14 kilometers to the pleasure port in the town of Auxonne.

Ecluse 75--our last lock on the Rhone-Rhine Canal. The Saone

River is visible in the gap beyond the lock. We turned in our

automatic lock control mechanism and prepared for our

right turn.

Auxonne is a town of about 8,000 inhabitants and is the capitol of the Cote-d'Or department within the Bourgogne-Franche-Comte region.  Like many of the other towns in the area its history is wrapped up in conflicts both within France and with neighboring Germany.  It has held a strategic position on the Saone River, which is probably why it is one of the sites for which Vauban designed and built defensive structures in the late 1600's.

One of Auxonne's main claims to

 fame is as the location where a young 

Lieutenant Napoleon  Bonaparte

 attended the Artillery  School

 from 1788-1791.

The Porte de Comte, the former east entrance of the town built

in 1503 and retained in the 17th century fortifications.

The Porte de Comte had several of these animals carved into the façade. We

stared and we stared and we could not figure out what they were. Dinosaur?

No, not a thing in 1503. How silly that we did not see that they were the

quintessential symbol of royalty--the porcupine?! Turns out that Louis XII 

inherited the emblem of the porcupine (and its supposed symbolism of 

invincibility) from his grandfather. By the latter part of Louis XII's reign,

 i.e., after 1506, Louis was trying to be seen as a "kinder, gentler" king and

 began to distance himself from the "bellicose" symbolism of the porcupine.

 My opinion is that all of the good animals must have already

 been claimed as royal symbols.

Notre Dame. This part of the church

dates from the 12th/13th centuries. 

Note the "twisted" tower. (France has

over 60 churches with this type of 

architectural feature.)

The interior of the church has a number

of treasures from the 15th & 16th

centuries, including this 16th century

wall painting of St. Hubert

Chateau d'Auxonne, erected in 1479 by Louis XI after

Auxonne was annexed from Burgundy. Later additions included

late 17th century barracks by Vauban.

A late twilight view of Port Royal, the marina we're staying at in Auxonne.

 The lighted building is part of the local army base.

We'll be staying in Auxonne for at least a few more days and will firm up our future travel plans while we're here. Not that we're counting, but it's already nearly mid-August, which means we have about 7 weeks left before we head back to Florida.

Been There, (Not) Done That

One of the concerns that I had about our out-and-back cruise on the Canal du Rhone au Rhin this summer was the possibility of too much "I've been here already, I don't need to do it again." Unfortunately, I'm easily bored, and usually don't care to repeat places or experiences unless there is something that I've found to be particularly special. The antidote to that is to realize that one time through a city/town/region can never be enough to fully explore what an area has to offer--it just takes a little digging and a little effort to come up with alternative experiences. So that is the approach that we took to our 10-day hiatus in Besancon. We enjoyed relaxing mornings without the need to "get up and get moving", but also did the following:

1) We explored more of what Besancon had to offer.

An unusual sight this summer--cloudy and rainy skies during

our first couple of days in Besancon.  But that's OK, they

could use the rain.

A walk through Parc Micaud on the "opposite" side of the

river gave us this view of CARIB III (in the middle of the pack),

moored under the watchful "eye" of the Citadel.

Our view of the Citadel during an

 evening stroll just down

the street from our mooring spot.

We bicycled around the Besancon "loop" to view more of

Vauban's fortifications, the Quai Vauban (17th C, left in photo),

 and the Battant neighborhood (right in photo).

To look at this little bit of stone, you'd never imagine it is

the remnants of a Roman amphitheater from the 1st century that

could hold up to 20,000 spectators. It was dismantled in the 

Middle Ages and the stone used for building local houses.

Our bicycle ride took us through the tunnel that cuts under

the Citadel. We'll be using this tunnel when we leave Besancon

on Monday (August 5). It takes us into a lock at the opposite

end of the tunnel and then back into the Doubs River.

Besancon is the center of watchmaking in 

France. In keeping with its horological history,

this Astronomical Clock was designed and built

in the late 1850's by the master watchmaker

Auguste-Lucien Verite. It occupies a room in the

 lower part of the bell tower of Saint-Jean

 Cathedral and one of its functions is to

 operate the clocks of the cathedral. 

It has over 30,000 parts, including religious 

automatons in the upper part of the clock.

(Apostles rings chimes and Jesus is either

 buried or resurrected, depending on the hour.)

A free classical music concert in the courtyard of the

Renaissance Palais Granvelle took an unexpected turn when

the contrabass fell and was damaged. I somehow managed

to capture the "moment of horror" for the 3-person musical

group when it happened--it was a rather loud "thunk".

We also went to two movies, and re-encountered both Louis Pasteur (he was educated in Besancon and for 3 years was the schoolmaster of the Jesuit school in the city) and Marquis Jouffroy d'Abbans (of steamboat fame--the statue in Besancon is in much better shape than the monument in Baume-les- Dames.)

2) We took a train ride to the city of Belfort. The city is just north of Montbeliard, so our route involved a bit of "backtracking" and allowed us to see the Rhone-Rhin waterway at Baume-les-Dames, L'Isle-sur-les-Doubs, and Montbeliard from a different perspective. Belfort is located at the junction of the Alsace and Franche-Comté regions. It has an old town, with buildings dating back to the Middle Ages, but it also brought us into contact again with master fortification designer Vauban as well as Statue of Liberty designer Bertholdi (mentioned in the previous posting about Colmar).

Like Besancon, Belfort has a Citadel. It was 

built in stages, starting in the Middle Ages, with

significant contributions by Vauban in the late

17th Century. 

Another aerial view of the Citadel fortifications in Belfort. It

had particular significance as an entrenched camp for the 

people of Belfort in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War.

Bartholdi's Lion is a symbol of the city's 

resistance during a 103-day siege at the end

of 1870. (Lon is in the foreground)

History is all well and good, but Belfort is also city firmly rooted in the present. Like Montbeliard, it has a significant 

industrial footprint. This photo shows the location of Bertholdi's Lion at the base of the Citadel, and the sign "Support the 

Employees of General Electric" speaks to the impending loss of about 1000 GE jobs in Belfort (almost a quarter of the 

current GE workforce there).

Belfort as seen from the Citadel

 3) We had fun with ruins. All we can say is, those folks in the Middle Ages sure did love their castles. In the blog posting of June 25 I mentioned how we had seen castle ruins on the bluffs above us as we cruised by Montferrand-de-Chateau. We thought it would be fun--when we had a rental car--to see those same ruins "up close and personal".  And it was.

We parked in the town of Montferrand-de-Chateu

and climbed the path to the site of the ruins.

One source states this remnant was part

of the chapel

View of the Doubs from the ruins of the Chateau de 

Montferrand. We recognized the boat cruising by as belonging

to two women from Belgium that we met in Besancon.

"Look ma, no railings!" The site was not

set up for safety and security,

so approach the edges at your own risk

There's something fascinating about ruins that haven't been restored to death--an authenticity of age that is compelling in a way that a fully reconstructed historical site just can't match. So with that in mind we also stopped at another medieval chateau, Chateau de Montfaucon. The remains of the 11th century castle, damaged and abandoned during the Ten Years' War in the early 1600's, stand on a rocky spur overlooking the Doubs Valley. Remnants of a village that existed outside of the castle walls also remain.

A view of the castle ruins from the perspective of the old

village.

The interior castle grounds were behind a

 locked gate, so I had to settle for a

 photo taken through the gate.

Lon at the "dungeon" end of the ruins

4) We explored UNESCO sites associated with the history of salt. We started our day in Salins-les-Bains, where for over 1200 years a saltworks (Grande Saline) existed to produce salt from brine in the region. For centuries salt was a critical means of preserving food, and was therefore an extremely precious and expensive commodity. The production of "white gold" engendered a huge amount of effort: the brine was pumped from a bench of rock salt nearly 250 meters below the surface. Technology changed through the years, and ultimately economics caused the saltworks to close in 1962.

The Grande Saline (Great Saltworks) of Salin-les-Bains.

Vauban had a hand in designing a fortress
 (visible on the hill in the upper left) that helped to

guard the city of Salins-les-Bains. At one time Salins-les-Bains

was the second most important city in the region after

Besancon.

Underground tunnels dug in the Middle Ages

I think I liked this window and door combo because it

uses our boat colors

A second, associated "salt site" is the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans. Louis XV ordered the construction of the Royal Saltworks and it was built between 1775 and 1779. It was created to function as an integrated factory in which most of the working community worked and lived, but to be honest, it sounded a little too insular to be comfortable. Brine from Salins-les-Bains was piped the 20+ kilometers to the factory site. It's an interesting example of the history of industrial architecture, but it was never an economic success and closed in 1895 after "only" 120 years. The site has undergone 3 rounds of restoration, and definitely has no aura of deterioration.

This photo shows only a portion of what is a semi-circular collection of 12 buildings, sites of work and life

for the director, the workers, and their entire families.

The building exteriors incorporated the motif of brine

pouring from a jug.

5) We drove to the birthplace of French artist Gustave Courbet in the town of Ornans, a mere 10 miles or so from Besancon. I don't know much about Courbet, other than that he is important as the leader of the Realism movement in 19th century French painting. This is the bicentennial year of his birth. Coincidentally, within just the past few days, a several-years-old lawsuit related to the posting on Facebook of an image of what some would consider to be a too-graphic Courbet nude was settled. (Google "l'Origine du monde" if you're curious.) The town was conducting its 43rd annual "Art et Artisant" festival this weekend, which made for a lively visit.

Ornans and the Loue River

A lively Sunday in Ornans

If there's a hilltop there's going to be a chateau. A mere

45-minute walk might have brought us to the summit.

We passed on that particular opportunity.

There was more "new" to do, but it's time to move on. Fortunately, we do not see any 90+ degree days in the forecast. Some thunderstorms are possible, but we can work around those.