(Mostly) Short and Sweet

We’re now into our 5^th day of cruising on the Petite Saone River, and are spending it as a “rest day” in the village of Ray-sur-Saone. "Rest" is a bit of a misnomer, as it’s not as though our schedule has been grueling. In fact, we are making a conscientious effort not to over-do the number of hours we cruise on any particular day. Our immediate, short-term cruising goal is to be in the town of Corre—the furthest point of navigation on the Petite Saone River, and the start of the Canal de Vosges—by no later than June 2. Lon’s cousin Frank arrives in France from Canada on June 3 and will take a train to Epinal. We had originally hoped to cruise on CARIB to Epinal in time to meet him there, but our departure delay caused by Lon’s fall means that we will rent a car in Corre and drive to Epinal instead. In constructing a cruising itinerary to fit this short-term goal, our general outlook is that we’re not in a hurry, and if we arrive at a day’s cruising destination no later than early afternoon, we’ll be well-rested and easily able to spend time investigating where we’re at. Of course, reality can sometimes collide with the “ideal”, and so adjustments must be made. One of the biggest “reality checks” is the location and suitability of mooring spots.

We’ve found that finding appropriate mooring spots on rivers can be more challenging than finding a place to stop on canals. At least on a canal we have the option of pulling over to the side of the channel and driving stakes to hold our lines if we are unable to find a mooring quay or pontoon. Rivers with too much vegetation on their banks and unpredictable water depths remove that as an option. In a pinch we could perhaps find an off-channel pond in which to drop anchor, but that’s more effort than I care to contemplate. We’ve been on the lower 2/3 of the Petite Saone before—in 2021 we had to turn around just north of our current mooring when the Canal de Vosges developed a leak—and are looking to mix things up a bit in terms of our daily stops. This means that we are on the lookout for moorings that: (1) can accommodate a 21-meter barge (2) are in towns that we haven’t been in before and are interested in exploring and/or have shopping options (as groceries can be a challenge), and (3) that are not-too-distant from the previous mooring location.

If we had a smaller boat it would definitely be easier to find mooring
spots. Many of the haltes and ports are designed for boats that are
less than 12-15 meters long, such as this halte in Arc-les-Gray.

Friday, May 23, was a beautiful—if somewhat cool—day for our 3-hour cruise from Pontailler-sur-Saone to the village of Mantoche, a few kilometers south of the much larger town of Gray. When we cruised past Mantoche in 2021 on our way to moor in the town of Gray, we’d noted the quality of the quay and loved the location by the town’s chateau.

On the way to Mantoche we passed the junction of the Petite Saone with the 
Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne.

Our approach to Mantoche. Although there were two boats on the town quay, they were
far enough apart that we would be able to slip between them. So far, so good. What we weren't entirely sure about going in was the depth of the water. Most reports we'd seen said that the depth was one
meter at the downstream end (and less upstream). As our water draft is 1.1 meters, we were a bit
nervous about possible grounding. Happily, our concerns did not come to fruition.

Panorama of the Chateau de Mantoche, as seen from the park fronting the boat docking
area. The current chateau is primarily an 18th century restoration and enlargement of an
older fortified castle that was destroyed in the early 17th century.

The 12th century church that originally sat on this site is no
more, having been rebuilt in the early 18th century.

The town was rather quiet on that Friday night, but we were able to take advantage of dinner out at what appeared to be the sole restaurant in the town. Very friendly owners. "The Capitainerie" also doubled as a small--very small--grocery store. 

Our cruise on Saturday, May 24, was even shorter. We decided not to stop in Gray this year, having stopped there twice in 2021, and as we didn't yet need to restock the larder, we continued on a few more kilometers to the village of Rigny. Our cruising time was a grand total of 2 hours. 

Putting Gray "in our rearview mirror", so to speak. We enjoyed
touring the town a few years ago, but didn't expect it had changed
in any substantial way to make another visit necessary.

 

Are the residents having trouble with English-speaking boaters
trying to stop where they're not supposed to? We saw a few
signs like this--using the English word "boat" rather
than the French word "bateau'"--on one stretch of the waterway.

Our mooring on a diversion canal on the outskirts of Rigny. The
concrete quay was a bit longer than the reported 15-meter length, 
and it worked well enough for an overnight stop. Until we were nearly
abreast of the quay we weren't sure that it had been mowed.
Thankfully, we didn't have to put our newly purchased scythe to work.

The Rigny of today is a small, quiet, non-descript little village. Its history seems to have been one of centuries of being caught in the middle of disputes between one political faction or another. So, nothing especially out of the ordinary in the experience of French villages!

The church of Saint-Etienne in Rigny. The 18th C high
altarpiece is listed as a Historic Monument. 

Left: roses and old buildings are a potent esthetic combination.
Right: Many of the village WWI war memorials in this part of
France are topped by the "Gallic Rooster," a national
symbol of France. Its origin goes back to the Middle Ages, a play
on words between the Latin word "gallus", meaning an inhabitant
of Gaul--but also meaning "rooster". 

The main "claim to fame" of Rigny these days, at least according to the cruising guide, is the gourmet meals served in the Chateau de Rigny, which is now a B&B.

Upper: part of the Chateau de Rigny complex
Lower: the new bridge (since 2010) to Rigny that crosses
 the Saone. A previous metal bridge was badly damaged
 in WWII, and wooden repairs collapsed under a herd
 of cows in the 1950's. 

May 25--cruising day 4-- is where our "short day" aspirations broke down, due to entering a sort of "desert" with respect to mooring options for barges. The cruising itself was nice--after early rain the sun came out. As has been true since we left Auxonne, the route has us alternating between stretches of the actual river and "diversion canals" which bypass portions of the river and shorten the travel.

Lower: A "porte de guard" on one of the diversion canals.
 The downstream ends of the diversion canals typically
 have a lock, and the upstream ends a "guard gate,"
 the doors of which get closed in the event of flooding.
Upper: unusually, the diversion canal just south of 
Ray-sur-Saone  had a "guard lock" at about the
 midpoint of the canal--and no "guard gate"--to
 deal with flooding situations. 

Left: approaching the 620-meter Tunnel de Savoyeux. The most difficult part of the cruise
was the deep lock we had to deal with prior to the tunnel.
Right: in the Tunnel de Savoyeux. A "piece of cake" as far as tunnels go. When you've gone
through tunnels that are 5 km (3 miles) long (as we did in 2021), 620 meters
 of well-lit tunnel is nothing to worry about.

Believe it or not, Lon is actually enjoying the boating. It's just
that he's about to enter the tunnel and he's concentrating
on staying off the walls of the relatively narrow passageways 
and tunnel.

In 2021, we moored (by pounding stakes) against the bank of the canal fairly close to the tunnel exit. There's a port nearby, but they don't accommodate barges. At that time, the bank was nicely mowed. This year? Not so much. It's a good thing that we hadn't intended on staying there, but having to push on to the next possible mooring site at Ray-sur-Saone made for a longish 5.5-hour cruising day.

To get to Ray-sur-Saone you have to "make a left turn" from the normal cruise route that follows a deviation canal in order to travel about 1 km down a stretch of the actual Petite Saone River. As with Mantoche, there were advisories of depths of 1 meter in this 1-km stretch. We'd seen that other barges of our size had successfully made it to Ray, so we thought it was worth a try. We very slowly made our way amongst the river buoys that marked the navigable channel and docked without seeming to have ever been in danger of running aground. As it was already mid-afternoon by this point, and it had started spitting rain, we decided to stay in Ray for a day for recovery and to give us time to walk around the town.

Top: Approaching Ray-sur-Soane and avoiding the shoals to our right.
Bottom: our view from CARIB. The church tower and the Chateau de
Ray have a birds-eye view of the village.

An artistic "Welcome to Ray sur Saone".

The washhouse of 1844 was beautifully designed
and maintained.

The Church of Saint Pancras has a choir that was
built before 1224 and side chapels from the 15th 
century. The Romanesque heritage is evident in the
interior, which also contains several historically listed
works of art from the 16th and 17th centuries.

To get to the castle and the upper town one must climb.
The Petite Saone is visible at the upper portion of the photo.

The Chateau de Ray, an 18th century construction on the site of the medieval fortress that had been
 destroyed in the wars of the 17th century. The castle gardens were open for visitors, but at this point
in the year, the interior of the castle is only open for tours on weekends. The last owner of the
castle donated it to the Haute-Saone Department in 2015.

Pat climbing stairs near one of the two towers
of the castle that date back to the Middle Ages.

Our cruising itinerary tomorrow will take us beyond our "turn-around" point of 2021.