North to Montbéliard

Dole

My brother, John, his wife, Christin, and their two children, Connor and Sofey, arrived on July 2. We decided to take them up one of our new favorite canals (Canal du Rhône au Rhin). The first 100Km or so of the waterway moves in and out of the Doubs River and is quite lovely.

Dole is one of our favorite places these days and only one day cruising from St Jean. This was the first time we had a full house, six people on the boat so it was cozy. We spent a day visiting Dole before heading north again.

Onward to Besançon

The next leg of our sail was a two-day cruise to Besancon, stopping at the little town of Ranchot the first night. It was hot, in the low 90s ,which was a bit of a shock for our Alaskan family.

We found a bit of shade off the boat in Ranchot to celebrate Martini Night. And a boulangerie for a special dessert.

The next day was a long one, almost seven hours of cruising, to get to Besançon. We also stayed a day here to visit the Citadel and the Victor Hugo museum (and hit the market).

Sofey, Connor and I visited the municipal zoo which is housed in the Citadel while the adults did the museum thing.

And it was even hotter in Besançon so we found a spot off the boat to set up chairs for our evening cocktails and dinner.

Uncharted Territory …. heading to Montbéliard

Leaving Besançon and heading north was new ground for us since Besançon was the farthest we had been on the Canal du Rhône au Rhin. This was a four-day cruise. It was still hot so we stopped a couple of times to play with our new boat toys… an inflatable dinghy and a paddleboard.

One of our moorings was a little town of about 500 people, De Luz, where they were having a town festival (the French are festival crazy in the summer) with a two-man gaelic band.

And just when we thought we understood what was going on…

When we finally cruised into Montbéliard, it quickly became one of our new favorite places. Lovely parks, lots of restaurants and a really big castley thing (also known as the Château des ducs de Württemberg ). We finally took pity on the Alaskans and booked a hotel for our last night before hopping a train to Paris with them.