Hot air and swallows

During our travels we have come to know the differences between many towns and cities in France In our estimation some fare well, some not so well!

Dole would be one of our favourite towns. It is difficult to define what makes it so, probably nothing specific but all together we have grown to be very comfortable in its environs. The town is the birthplace of Louis Pasteur in 1822 but can lay claim to little else of importance. He was the son of a tanner. The tannery was on a mill feed canal at the bottom of town and the building is still there today. The canal still runs through the area which is now very touristy with restaurants and gardens.

The entrance to Dole along the Rhone-au-Rhin canal is leafy and very attractive.

On this visit we chose to moor against this high-sided quay. The town provides us with free electric power at this site.

Recently the town was the gathering point of those huge things invented by the Frenchmen, the Montgolfier brothers. Hot air balloons. For three days, morning and evening up to as many as twenty of these magnificent (but sometimes quite noisy) machines took off from the playing field nearby and soared away with the drifting air in the most romantic fashion.

Amongst them was this dramatic dirigible. An amazing balloon that had an engine and propeller for propulsion as well as heating gas for elevation. Quite fun!

During our stay in Dole, we decided to see some of the surrounding area away from the canal and river. We decided to take a train trip one day into the Jura ranges. We travelled on the Lignes des Hirondelles to St-Claude. All the pipe smokers amongst us know that St-Claude was the centre of the manufacture of wooden pipes – for smoking tobacco – in France. We are not too sure what keeps the town alive nowadays, but that is not the point. Probably the fact that it is the diamond cutting center for France makes up for the loss of pipe smokers. Unfortunately they weren't handing out samples on the day we visited.

The following story could be said to be for train enthusiasts only but the scenery that the rail line goes through is absolutely breathtaking and well worth the trip.

The town is serviced daily by this modern diesel – electric rail car. We departed Dole about 1015 on the route to Pontarlier and Neufchatel. At the township of Andelot en Montagne the train reverses direction and leaves the mainline onto a little used side track. The line runs through heavily undulating country and climbs steadily to a height of 903 metres near Morbier (of cheese fame) before descending to Morez at 736 metres. The train then takes off backwards again and runs mainly downhill to St Claude. The scenery in this area is exceptional and the steepness of the hillsides has required some wonderful bridges and viaducts as these pictures will show.

From Morez to St Claude the line goes through many short tunnels and the rail procedure in France is that the driver blows his whistle as the train enters and leaves a tunnel.

Our train of only one coach, had a large family group on board with a number of children and the train driver left his cabin door open and invited some of the children to assist him in sounding the horn. The train was only travelling at about 30 to 40 kilometres per hour at this stage and with more than twenty tunnels to go through, they all had a go.

After the recent rail accidents in France Spain and Switzerland, this assistance may now be a thing of the past.

An interesting thing here for rail enthusiasts, shows in this picture of the rail and points coming into St Claude station. You will notice the compressed gas cylinders by the points. They have a system of heating the point blades in winter to melt snow and ice that might get caught when the point is changed.

We returned to Dole after a very enjoyable day and were back on Matilda early evening.

There will be other stories to share so we will keep in touch.

Besancon Revisited

We had a spell of good weather in Dole and despite a few mishaps (such as the wrong colour paint supplied etc.) we managed to complete our painting projects on Matilda before our next guests arrived. We had arranged with Marg’s golf club that they could offer a week’s accommodation in Matilda for two people in a fund raising auction that they run. Marg’s golfing buddy, Greg was keen and out-bid the rest and he and his sister arrived by train on Thursday 27^th of June to join us there.

We departed next day and headed up the Rhone-au Rhin canal towards Besancon. The canal follows the Doubs river. It passes through some wonderful mountain scenery and although there has been talk for many years of totally rebuilding the canal to take modern sized barges, the pressure groups have, to this time, won out. If the rebuild ever went ahead, it would allow the big river barges access from the Mediterranean right through to Germany.

We spent a pleasant evening at our favourite mooring and Gregory and Susan went for a walk along the towpath in the misty rain. We have been alone here in the past but others are now appreciating the serenity of it all.

We arrived in Besancon on Sunday and circumnavigated the city on the river. We found a lock that you operate yourselves and Marg and Greg tried their skills. It is the only one we have come across so far. 

There has been a settlement on the site of Besancon as far back as 1500 years BC. The town is surrounded on three sides by the Doubs river and on the fourth by a mountain. In 58 BC Julius Caesar occupied the site, built some fortifications  and commented on its advantages. In the 15^th century, the town was sometimes under the control of the Dukes of Burgundy and changed hands quite a few times in various scuffles. The French military engineer, Vauban, drew up plans for massive improvements to the town’s defences including the citadel on Mt St Etiene.  Before construction started, another scuffle and the Spanish were in control again. They built most of the fortifications to Vauban’s design.

Today, the citadel is a museum primarily dedicated to the French resistance fighters of the second world war, as over 100 of them were executed here by the Nazis. It is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

We moored Matilda on the new pontoons below the citadel escarpment and planned our stay.

The citadel was obviously the place that we had to explore and we would need a full day up there.

Marg. Susan and Greg examine a statue of engineer Vauban standing on a map of France that shows all his fortifications.

We had walked up the hill from our mooring – about 130 metres and the views showed why this hill had become so important in the defence of the town.

The views from these lookouts are most impressive

Within the fortified walls of the citadel there was a cadet school for up to 600 young men, facilities were sufficient for a siege of up to 90 days.

This well was 132 metres deep and went down to below river level. The barrel-lifting wheel was man powered.

Besancon was France’s centre for watch production during the 19^th and 20^th centuries until the quartz revolution destroyed it. It has now regained some of its reputation in this area, we believe, in the production of artificial quartz crystals.

Greg and Susan left us in Besancon to continue their European holiday. We put them on a train to Monaco and Nice.

We were on our own again with almost nothing to do!

We are sure there will be stories to tell, so we will keep in touch.

Dijon to Dole

0635 on the 4^th June. We are on the railway platform at Dijon. The Thello train from Milan to Paris will arrive at 0639. As the screen on the platform indicates it will not pick passengers up. It will stop to drop passengers only. In this case, from coach 93, Craig and Penny stepped off.

They were only with us for a few days between touring Italy and a nature and bird watch cruise on a small ship in the seas between Ireland and Scotland. Penny has become something of a twitcher in recent years. We were taking them up the Bourgogne Canal for a few days.

Note: the affinity with the duck.

On this canal, the ecluses are operated by an eclusier who follows the boat along the towpath – usually on a motor scooter. We think Penny is trying out for the job – probably next summer.

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During our travels in France we have seen and photographed many of their attractive buildings but as in the rest of the world there are many that have little architectural merit. This complex in Plombiers was an interesting exception. Five like this one, all in a group, all the same, all taking the shape of old freight barges.

Unfortunately as Craig and Penny were only with us for four nights we could not make another major town. We traveled up the canal to a little village called Dissey sur Ouche, turned Matilda around and made our way back to Dijon.

On our return we found the port full of boats similar to Matilda. The DBA – Barge Association of UK, was holding a rally and there were some 20 vessels in the port for the weekend along with the normal traffic. Space was tight but we managed to moor at the end of the harbour.

Craig and Penny left us next morning and we were joined by another group. The brother of a nursing friend of Marg’s was travelling in Europe with his wife and two friends and they had asked if they could join us for a week. They were Chris and Margot with Val and David and after dropping Craig and Penny at the railway station we met them at their hotel and took them to Matilda.

We had an early lunch and set out down the Bourgogne Canal towards the Saone River. We were headed to Dole on the canal du Rhone au Rhin.

These Burgundian buildings, with their colourful glazed tiles, appear again beside the canal.

D to B 036

We moored on the steps in St Jean de Losne and our visitors toured the town. One of the hotel barges we have come to know, Jeanine came into port and found she had nowhere to moor. We were able to move out and let her take our place. We then rafted up to her. It was almost like being in Boom again. In the picture above you can see Jeanine hard against our port side. We were all relaxing after dinner.

Another lovely meal was a luncheon we all had together at La Grignotte restaurant in Dole which is noted for its masses of tasty sliced potato frites.

Chris, Margot, Val and David were with us for a week of an extended European stay. They left us to continue by car to Herisson a village in about the geographical centre of France. They were staying there in a friend’s villa.

But there was no relaxing for us, the weather was clear and at last we could paint the walkways and rear deck area with quality non-skid paint. This we did and barely had time to watch it dry before our next guests arrived.

A golfing buddy of Marg’s and his sister were arriving soon, so there will be more adventures.

We will keep in touch.

Still no summer

Judy and Geoff arrived in Chagny by train, late morning on May 21st. Unfortunately the weather was still miserable and wet. We met them at the station and walked the short distance up hill to the harbour on the canal where Matilda was berthed. Yes, uphill! The canal actually passes over the railway line in a concrete aqueduct at the end of the station. It can be seen (not very clearly) in the photo below.

We all came back to Matilda, had some lunch and tried to warm up. The continuous rain has been causing problems. Further up, the Canal du Centre had broken its banks, flooded some fields and stranded a number of boats in an empty pound. It is taking some time to repair and at this time the canal is closed to traffic. Unfortunately we have no pictures of the event. It also meant that the Saone River was in flood and we were reluctant to enter it.

We departed Chagny next day after lunch and headed towards Chalon sur Saone and pretty soon Judy was giving a group of VNF workers a hard time.

We moored at Fragnes and travelled by bus to see something of the town of Chalon.

We found a market in progress in the small square outside the cathedral. The square was surrounded by this style of building.

We wandered into the church and amongst the other beautiful things we were fascinated by this beautiful tapestry. Peter’s photography does not do it justice, but look at the fellow in the left hand lower panel. Horns?

Next day we were allowed on to the Saone and we headed towards Dijon. Geoff enjoyed handling Matilda on the river. The high water is obvious under the trees on the shore.

We were soon through St Jean de Losne and into the Bourgogne Canal. Here we were followed by an eclusier who manually set the locks for us. Generally someone will jump ashore and give a hand with the gates.  

We were once again passing these beautiful buildings. This one at Longecourt en Plaine has been owned by the same family for more than three hundred years. They still farm the land surrounding it and also use part of the chateau and out buildings as a hotel.

Another, not so grand, but with the beautiful roof tiles typical of the Burgundian style.

We continued on and Judy was quickly picking up some of Marg’s rope handling skills. Those more observant ones amongst you will notice that the jack staff on the bow is missing, a piece of old wood in its place. Very good! The top of the jack staff is the highest point on the boat. It is set about 100 mm above the cover of the rear deck. With the extreme rainfall the water level is up in the canal and the clearance under bridges is at a minimum. We have found out the hard way that Matilda’s roof has passed less than 100 mm under some. Fortunately only the jack staff suffered.

We arrived in Dijon and moored in the harbour on the sloping quay. Judy and Geoff were  keen to move on so we took them via the new tram system to the station. We had them on a train to Toulouse via Avignon that afternoon. We hope they were moving into warmer weather as it had been pretty miserable while they were with us. We even had the central heating on at times to keep the boat warm.

Craig and Penny were arriving in a week. This meant that maybe we might get some time to do more painting. It will be great if we can sit and watch paint dry!!

There will be more to tell, so we will keep in touch.