June 2015

1st Monday, Left Auxonne at 8a.m. and headed to Pontailler. We made good time and had a look around town. It was raining on and off but we had a good look round and as it typical in Frence there was nothing open, it being Mon day. There were some quite grand dwellings, almost châteauesque! But we decided to move on after lunch.

     

There was also a poorly manitained Lavoir but with what looked like a movable floor that was operated on mechanical pulleys.

 

We then moved the boat on to Heuilley where we moored up on a small platform. We were hoping to visit the museum of fishing but it was closed so we decided to go on to Tamlay Castle via maxilly where there was reputed to be some Roman paving but we didn’t find that either! The castle of  Tamlay was also closed (although we were able to photograph it through the gate) it opens only in the months of July and August and even then, not on Mondays!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We cycled about 17k in all, along tow paths and cycle routes with a little bit of on road. Rhian made a good stir fry and we were early to bed.

02 June.  The early morning views from the boat were nice. It was a really nice bucolic mooring place. I heard an Owl before I turned in last evening.

 

 

 

 

 

We made a later than usual start and stopped at Mantoche for lunch. There was a castle right on the river beside the rather delightful mooring place. The main reason for wanting to stop here was the chapel devoted to the Bargies, however it was closed and no one knew where the key was!  We had a pleasant walk around the village and called in to look at the local “artists” studio.  The guy was having a rat problem, the place stank, the art work was indifferent and we were soon making excuses to escape!

 

 

 

 

We  cruised on to Gray and moored up on the other side of the weir, it is quieter here than in town.  We saw Peter from St Jean on his boat as we went through town so once we were moored up we cycled over to see him and had tea. This month’s banner photo was taken of the town bridge and weir was taken from the deck of the boat. The water coming over the weir is used to generate electricity.

3rd. Walked up into the town centre in the morning which involved climbing a fair few steps up a steep hill. Hence the early start on foot to avoid cycling up the hill and getting too hot. It is really hot by mid-day! Our first stop was the castle, set in lovely gardens with a delightful collection of bird and bug houses, it now house the town’s art collection and occasional temporary exhibitions.

    

Our next stop was the Basilica of Notre Dame. It was built over several centuries and had an interesting pulpit and organ, otherwise I have seen grander.

        

The town hall is the old market “Halles” and has a spectacular Burgundian glazed tiled roof.

           

 

 

 

Lounged about in the boat for the afternoon.

4th. Rhian is off shopping and seeing the sights and I am doing boat “stuff”, we may head out this afternoon.

Later…. no chance of heading out before tomorrow. Keelkooling needs fixing again.

5th. long cruise from Gray to Soing where we caught up with Pete and Glen via the tunnel at Savoyeux The boat went well and we made good time. The mooring site is glorious and it is really good to be with P & G with whom we are sharing a meal this evening.

                                 

 

 

6th Saturday. Rhian and I made an early start in cooler weather with overcast skys. Our objectives were to cycle to Ray-sur-Saône to see the castle and on to Savoyeur to see if Dean and Kate on Defy were still there. We did just under 40k and were back by lunch time. By which time the sun was blazing down and it was really hot.

The caste at Ray, apart from the two remaining medieval towers was mostly C18 and although imposing, rather plane. However it was set on the top of quite   a high hill with very good views.

      

 There was also a nice little church with another lovely tiled mini dome and a pretty lavoir. Looks like the lavoir fetish has re-manifest itself this season!

 

 

                                         

 

                     

 

 

There are two things that you do not easily get Rhian past without a stop. The one is the Cake and Pastry shops and the other is any sort of Animal!!!

   

Ray was a pretty town with some nice houses, the one above it typical of a certain era of Burgundian Town House with the ceramic decoration on the outside.

 7th. Left Pete and Glennie behind and headed off to Scey where we had nice moorings, if a bit too close to the weir for comfort! We explored Scey on foot. It is a town with some interesting buildings and a certain air of wealth about it. There was a Féte de Peche (fishing competition) going on at a stream that runs through the town opposite the Town Hall, which is housed in the old school. The weir is used, as are quite a few along the river, to generate hydro power. Rhian took us on a “short cut” up a steep path through branmbles and nettles that had us scrambling on all fours to peels of laughter! And there was the inevitable Lavoir.

            

         

 

 

 

 

 

The mooring at Scey.

From Scey we cycled back to Rupt-sur-Saône where we had a quick look at the DonJon and what was left of the castle. As it was noon we could not hang about and went down into the town.

        

In the town there was a Lavoir and another of the pretty little churches with the coloured tiled domes.

8th. Stopped at the free town moorings of Port-sur-Saône avoiding the marina. The moorings were nice but the town was a bit drab. They are trying. There are story boards along the canal-side depicting the town “Yesterday” & “Today” and what is envisaged for “Tomorrow”. There is a peace-makers wall in the town behind the war memorial (a bit of a paradox that!) featuring Mother Teresa & Ghandi among others, two neglected Lavoirs and some bronz statues……but somehow!

            

 

9th. We stopped at the little port of Fouchécourt, apparently the smallest on the Saône. It was rather expensive at Euro 15 per night and they wanted two euro for the use of the shower on top of that. There was a howling gale when we arrived and I had to moor on the long pontoon. The owner wanted me to move in case a long barge came in and tried to help me to do so. He was finally convinced that when I had said that it was not possible it really was not possible! We took a ride through three villages starting with the Lavoir of Fouchécourt right outside the port and heading off over the river to Baulay.

          The Lavoirs of Fouchécourt and Bualay

  

 

 

 

The church and village square at Baulay.The second village was barely a hamlet called Montureux with a Château and a small church with a C13 bell towerm not forgetting the Lavoir.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The small town of Jussey was given much publicity in the brochure that we got at Grey tourism office. They claimed that it had 19 Lavoirs. In fact it had 19 fountains and a Lidle, and not much else to commend it. We did some useful shopping and headed home.

         

10th. A long day. Moored up at the village of Selles on the Canal de Vosges at tiny wooden pontoons on a stone wall. There were some lads jumping into the canal from the pontoons and throwing mud at each other and by extension and not without intent, at the front of my boat.  I asked them nicely to stop but they continued and it got worse. I went into the adjacent pub and asked where the police station was. Two owners or workers there were hanging over their balcony highly amused at the whole scene till I reminded them that they probably wanted boaters to stop here to bring custom to their business and if word got out about the kids they wouldn’t stop. After that one of the guys came out with me and spoke to them. It stopped and they were soon all brandishing mops and doing their best to clean it up with the dirty canal water. I will now be quite pleased to see some rain!

     

The mooriungs at Selles, Fontenoy and Lock 30.

11th Stopped at Fontenoy-le-Château at lunch time. This was a Le Boat mooring and therefore a pay-port. Rhian suggested that we move on to a free mooring and we found a quiet spot below lock 30. The onlt problem being running aground and haveing to un-stick ourselves and use the passerelle¬!

12th. A really long day, 24klms, 29 locks and one swing bridge later we arrived in Girancourt. A nice canal-side mooring but no facilities,  no internet and very poor cell phone reception. Tomorrow Rhian’s friend Christine arrives and we will cruise into Epinal. We found a lot of water in the bilges, investigations revealed a hole in the water tank which I managed to seal temporarily with blue tack. I will do a better job of fixing it at Epinal.

Mooring at Girancourt at sunset.                                                            

There were two Lavoirs in a new style at Girancourt.

 

      

13th Christine arrived about 8.30 and we got off to the first lock at 9 sharp. On arrival in Epinal I went down into the bilges where the temporary fix of blue tack had prevented any further water from escaping but obviously a better job was needed. Drained the tank and managed to lift it off the cradle and cover the suspect area with Pratley’s Putty. I say suspect as it was impossible to say exactly where the hole was but it had been there for a while and the seepage had caused the steel of the cradle to rust and therefore exascerbate the hole.  The sponge protection between the tank and the cradle had broken down which had not helped. Cleaned up the non leaking side and inserted a split hose between the tank and the cradle (Rhian’s idea and a very good one too) will do the same to the other side tomorrow once the Pratley’s has set and I have painted it with red lead.

Managed to finish off and clean up in time to walk into town where I met up with the others and we had dinner at an Indian. The city is very pretty and we caught the tail end of the weekend festival with a couple of acts in town squares. Set along the Mossell with a side canal, there is plenty of water. One waterway in town has been adapted to form a white water canoe experience. The Lavoir has become a Theatre, there is a big basilica and a lot of the houses are gaily painted in the old town. It is hilly which adds character and the ruins of a medieval castle overlook the old town.

      

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lavoir Theatre

 

 

 

              

   

 

Many of the house were

painted in bright pastel

colours.

 

 

 

         

 

14th & 15th. Spent the best part of these two days in the bilges. The leak was not fixed and was not where I had thought it was. It was in fact where the bracket is welded onto the tank to attach it to the cradle. But it was the back bracket in the far corner and it took a lot of getting at. I am glad I have been doing yoga or there is no way I would have squeezed myself in there. The up-shot is that we have to live with half full tanks till I get it fixed either in Nancy or Toul.

16th. Took the bikes in to the bike shop and got a few snags sorted and a new rear tyre for the tourer. Got the laundry up to date and hung about the boat, Too tired to do much else. In bed by 8pm and slept till 7am. Much better.

17th. Christine left this morning. We still have a full Elsan sitting on the deck!!!! and there is no sign of the promised toilet at our mooring outside Nomexy. I did a tour of the remains of the Château at Châtel-sur-Moselle. The earliest remains date back to the C11. It is being restored by volunteers and was well worth the visit. I managed to understand most of the commentary.

Rhian denies all responsibility for the appearance of yet another slab of chocolate cake!!!!!

Below, our mooring at Châtel-sur-Moselle, the town and château.

               

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Model of how it is thought the castle looked at it prime and what is left of it today.

18th. Short cruise of 10K and 6 locks to Charmes. Charmes are few in Charmes! An un-interesting town with a lot of old industrial buildings which have fallen into disrepair. Even the Lavoir looked sad.

 However entertainment was had helping Rhian try on strappy sandals in the second-hand clothing shop to go with her bargain “French Frock” from the Red Cross store!

Watch out for her soon to be released best seller…”Dead Women’s Cloths….adventures of an undercover bargain hunter”

 

19th June 2015. 72nd birthday! Finger and foot tapping my way down the canal de Vosges to Gilbert O’Sullivan’s quirky rocking jazz & quirkier lyrics or singing along at the top of my voice to Carley Simon – showing my age and not giving a toss- it is difficult to imagine a better way to celebrate. Rhian, who was off on the bike for this stretch, met me at one of the locks with a packet from the patiserie and a birthday wish. we are moored up outside the village of Bayon which is claimed to have a good place to eat so we will put on our glad-rags later and test its reputation. A cycle ride into Bayon earlier revealed a couple of interesting buildings and an elegant church tower.

                                          

 

 

 

 

 

 

A good end to a near perfect day saw Rhian and I taking a taxi into the village in our frocks and high heels to have dinner. It was GOOD!

 

Back at the boat I had to try and capture the once in a lifetime opportunity of Rhiam in a frock. Got there second time around when I convinced her to loose the hoodie and stop acting the fool. It took some doing!

  

See can look quite feminine and alluring when she is caught unawares!

I am not sure she will ever forgive me for this!

Fortunately she doesn’t read the blog!

 

20th. Easy four hour cruise to the attractive moorings at Richardménil, 13k and 7 down locks, via the Flavigny Pont Canal (Aquaduct).  There were two Lavoirs in town but not a lot else that was accessible to grab ones attention. There was a Parc Château with the ruins of an old castle and a chapel but these turned out to be on private land.

        

 

 

 

 

 

21st. A long day of 6.5 hours with only 9k but 19 locks including five really deep up locks and a down staircase of 10 bought us into Nancy. We were met at the mooring by Dean and settled into the marina.  

 

 

 

 

In the evening Rhian did her own thing and I went into town with Kate & Dean, There was a music festival on the streets with all sorts of gigs on almost every corner. We danced in the streets and had kebabs in a square in the old town.

Stanislav Square was really impressive. The sound and light show is not being held this year as they are busy with renovations and cleaning of  the stone work.

The church of St Epvre is also in the process of having its stonework cleaned and is a much prettier building than the Cathedral.

Nancy is renowned for its iron work a few examples of which can be seen below.

 

        

 

Kate & Dean     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

22nd. We had an abortive cycle ride out to Château Montagu where we hoped to visit the museum of iron but of course it was closed. If we had done our homework properly we would have known that!

                                         

 

In the late afternoon we went back into the old town and enjoyed the narrow cobbled streets, the architecture including a wonderful “Girondelle” in a building we would have missed if a local had not pointed it out to us. We visited the oldest remaining gate of the towns fortifications and as the rain started found an Italian where Rhian treated me to a lovely dinner. By the time I left it was raining quite hard. Rhian stayed on to have desert but I was almost falling asleep in the heat of the Restaurant and had to leave.

                           

 

      

 

 

 

 

 

I shall be sorry to see Rhian leave tomorrow. She has been the perfect crew, quick to learn the ropes so to speak! We made a good team and she pulled her weight in every way including the dreaded Elsan disposal! She can come back anytime. This of course leads me to have high expectations of future crew and I think it is worth while publishing that in future I will expect visitors to share in ALL the tasks involved in running the boat.

23rd. Rhian left in the morning and Paula arrived in the evening. It poured most of the day and I spent it engaged in laundry, cleaning the boat, re-making beds and shopping.

 24th. The day dawned bright and clear with 23 degrees promised. We went into town to the market, the cathedral, St Sebastian Squ and the Old Town where we met up with John and Georgie for lunch.

In the evening Kate & Dean joined us for Aperos. Dean is pissed off about his broken transmission.

25th Cruised to Liverdun. The mooring among trees in a little branch off ther main river was delightful and we were helped onto the small pontoon by other boaters. There is not a lot of space. The fortified village up on the hill was interesting and we enjoyed exploring before returning to our tranquil mooring.

                    

 The Lavoir, featured right above, was constructed in the early 20th century indicating that the villagers did not have running water at the time.

There was a vaulted storage cellar under one of the houses which was reputed to date from Gallo-Roman times due to the shape of the coloums.

26th. Cruised through to Duncan’s yard outside Toul and moored up next to Georgie and John with whom we had dinner in the evening. It is in a quiet pound between two locks and quite pleasant.

 

 

 

 

 

27th. Paula left this morning and a bit later so did John & Georgie so I got into the engine compartment and finished off the painting down there.

28thm Sunday, a good day to look at the town and take photos without too many people or cars getting in the way. I walked in at 9am and returned just after 11. The town is extremely strongly fortified with large earthwork protective barriers in two circles before you hit the moat and then the walls.

        

 

There are two major churches, the Cathedral of St Etienne is satisfyingly Gothic, it shares some lovely gardens with the rather grand Town Hall.

        

 

The second church, Saint-Gengoult, has houses and shops clinging to its walls which gives it a rather homely feel.

                             

 

I have only scratched the surface with my walk this morning but expect to have other opportunities over the coming days and am looking forward to exploring in more depth. Georgie and John were not impressed with Toul which just goes to show how different we all are.

29th. Nice dinner last evening on an adjoining boat with a couple from Stanford in the Cape. Abortive attempt to get hardware items today that resulted in getting lost, doing 30k cycle and only getting two out of five required items, Duncan doesn’t think he will get to the tank til;l the end of the week. The highlight of the day was listening to BBC radio fpour “Just a minute” at 6.30 UK time, chaired by that remarkable nonogenarian, Nicholas Parsons. If you don’t know it tune in via your computor if necessary next Monday for the last in the present series. Excellent fun.