Tag: france

While we spent the last month entertaining three groups (12 friends and family) the French canal system was busy drying up. See map below: green is good, orange is so-so, purple is bad. Since the route west to Paris is closed to us we are unable to complete our planned grand tour.

Our new plan (ha, ha, ha) is to go north to Metz and then hop a train for lunch in Luxembourg. We will then begin to retrace our route. Some of this will be fun, like the boat elevator we took to get here.

Other parts, like slogging up the Rhine, and waiting for huge boats to come along so we can go through huge locks, not so much.

The Canal de la Marne au Rhin (at least to Nancy) has surpassed our expectations for beauty.

And Nancy has been a lovely stop. The captainerie called Place Stanislaus the most beautiful square in France. It is indeed lovely and has a cool light show we managed to stay up for (it started at 10:45!).

We made it to Besançon with our dead alternator and moored at the lovely Cité des Artes (That’s our little boat at the far end).

What was supposed to be an overnight stay turned into a weeklong soujourn while we waited for our new alternator and the mechanic. As it happened we could not have proceeded in any case because the river was so high that the locks up river were closed.

So, what else to do but enjoy the town? Tuba player on the dock, Ultraviolets – best cocktail in France – at Boheme, and the Museum of Fine Arts and Archeology.

Not to mention the heavy metal festival at the end of the dock,

where we also scored this awesome drinkware but forgot to bring bananas.

And we took advantage of Besançon’s great restaurants.

Then more Ultraviolets, because Boheme has some fantastic people watching.

Roberta had plenty of time for a visit to her favorite outlet store (twice).

And Jason stocked up on his new favorite apero snack.

We both agreed that Besaonçon would be a great place to live (lot of runners here) and Roberta considered putting a mailbox on the dock. But, the mechanic showed up and the locks opened up and we were on our way.

Two hours before our first guests of the season arrived, this happened.

Decize safely in her (weedy) slip with a new transmission.

We headed south on a shakedown cruise with our guests. First stop Verdun-sur-le-Doubs at our favorite captainerie.

On to Chalon-sur-Saone, winter headquarters of Julius Caesar (he is no longer there) and a distribution point for Leffe Ruby!

Then up a little river (La Seille) where we had to do our own locking.

It was also the inaugural cruise for our latest boat upgrade – Le Moulinet

We stopped in the book town Cuisery, where Francis ordered … something.

After picking up some noir graphic novels and ghost stories we went back down the Seille to Tournus.

The French version of a unicorn…. real crackers!

After dropping off our passengers, we headed back north, with an overnight stay at the home of some friends who have retired near here. In one year they’ve transformed their backyard into a park-like oasis. Did we mention real showers? And a swimming pool? And real showers?

After a quick stop at our home port (St-Jean-de-Losne) for a final transmission check we headed north to start our grand tour. Oops… turns out we spent too much time cruising and not enough time shaking down. Enjoy these next photos of bucolic Burgundy as our alternator slowly dies.

The goal: to be cruising the inland waterways of France, a la 2024.

We made it to St. Jean de Losne … before our long-awaited gearbox. We found lots of weeds but no boat in our slip

So, only one thing to do….Apero! At La Barge.

Our first full day in France was spent getting reacquainted with our little home away from home as we tried to stroll away the jet lag.

The exterior renovations of the church seem to be complete but work continues inside.

Not pictured: our boat.

Also not pictured: our boat.

No first day in St Jean would be complete without a visit to the hardware store.

No boat here either.

But a well-timed ping from the air tags attached to our bikes, which are attached to our boat, solved the mystery.

We thought she was still in the shed, so this is good news in that we should have a place to stay when we check out of our lovely inn in two days. Won’t be the first time we’ve started the summer in the shipyard. C’est la vie…