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.