Sydney visitors

The town of  Auxonne, on the Saone River is at the edge of the Department de Cote-d’Or. It lies on the boundary between Burgundy and Franche Compte. In Roman times it was established at a ford of the river and was a day’s march from Dijon, Besancon and Dole. In the 17^th century, our good friend Vauban altered the town to a garrison and surrounded it with his fortifications. Some of these are still visible.

Since then it has always had a military presence and Napoleon Bonaparte received his early training here. Those of you who read our blog continuously will now be bored with the history lesson as we have mentioned much of this before.

We had returned to meet an old school friend of Peter’s and his wife Bev, who are joining us after their tour of Turkey and Slovenia in Eastern Europe before they go on to the UK. The Colonel, as Ian is affectionately known spent 5 years at school with Peter and they have kept loosely in touch ever since.

We had been told that the Azviller Inclined Plane has been repaired and our plan was to head back to St Jean de Losne, then up the Rhone au Rhin canal to the Rhine. Down the Rhine to Strasbourg and then the Marne au Rhin back to Nancy where we will spend winter again.

In a quick tour of Auxonne  Bev appreciated this decorated round-about.

We continued on to Dole and in the old section of the town, saw the birthplace of Louis Pasteur on this tannery canal.

 The weather was good and we pressed on towards Besancon.

We found the Besancon cathedral that housed this astronomical clock. An amazing instrument whose movement has 30,000 working parts. Far too much to try to describe it here but well worth some investigating by interested people.

Besancon is another Vauban fortification and of course we visited the Citadel. The weather was not too kind but our lunch in the restaurant was very pleasant.

Ian and Bev left us here to continue their European adventure in the UK before heading home. We weren’t alone for long as Peter’s sister, Pam and husband Geoff were joining us soon.

Before they arrived, we explored the city a little more and found this wonderful scene. Every now and again the lad lets some water flow in the hose and the old firefighter gets a squirt! A lovely sculpture/fountain?

Pam and Geoff arrived 18th August and once again we visited The Citadel. – our fourth visit but always something new to see.

We are travelling up the Doubs river here and the scenery is quite dramatic in parts. The Doubs rises in Switzerland and during the spring as the snows melt, it can run very quickly. With the dry spell that France has been having this year, the depth is minimal and some navigation has been restricted.

Soon we were in Montbeliard which is the “home” of Peugeot motor cars They have their origins here and the town does well from the large factories that produce them. 

We visited the Peugeot museum that is full of these beautiful old classics. It may not be obvious but the little green number is less than 1.2meters wide. The body was only as wide as one person.

Montbeliard has a history that goes back 2000 years and since the 12^th century the area has swung from French to German and back until the early19th century. It has a number of grand buildings and structures from these times.

Pam and Geoff left us here to travel to the UK to continue their wanderings We will have more visitors soon and there will be more to tell – so we will keep in touch.