Waiting

We had a few days to ourselves after Pam and Geoff left and before our next visitors arrived so we decided on a small excursion to Switzerland. We planned to visit Zurich for a few days – just because we could!

On the 1^st of September we boarded a train at the Belfort – Montbeliard TGV station  and a few hours later we were in Zurich. We had an apartment booked for two nights in a renovated hotel in the old part of town which we used as a base while we explored.

The city is on the northern tip of Lake Zurich in northern Switzerland, The old town, grouped on either side of the Limmat river is crossed by picturesque lanes that reflect its medieval history. The modern town is a major centre of global banking. The city exudes wealth  its residents appear very affluent. We hardly fitted to this prototype but although we found the city expensive and the weather off-putting, it was well worth the visit.

 

Zurich is also famous for its watches and clocks. And no matter where you look, you will see a clock.

The town has a strong history going back before Roman times These statues depict important figures from the 15^th century.

We took a day tour of the city and its surrounds in a coach. The trip included crossing the lake south east of the town on a ferry and a cable car ride on the Felsenegg mountain cable car.

We had coffee at the restaurant and admired the view of the lake and surrounds.

Back to Montbeliard as we had some more visitors arriving. Rachael and Josh with their two children, Mabel and Hugo were to spend a few days with us as part of their visit to France. They were met by Marg at the Belfort – Montbeliard TGV station and very quickly they were at home on Matilda.

We took a small cruise on the canal to give them taste of our lifestyle before they continued on their way.

Hugo amazed us all by showing a real ability to correctly steer Matilda.

Rach and Josh are vignerons from the Perth Hills and the family left us to travel to Lyon and Bordeaux, further following their interests in the wine industry.

Before the arrival of our next visitors, Ali and John, Peter found this wonderful example of a council worker’s artistic skills while Margaret, this statue of  Georges Cuvier, the famous palaeontologist who was born here in Montbeliard in 1769

We are waiting again, there will be more to tell so we will keep in touch.

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.

Back to the Saone

The Canal de la Marne a la Saone (now called the Champagne to Burgundy canal) runs from Vitry-le-Francois  in a southerly direction to the Saone River near Pontailler.  Construction was started from Vitry in 1862 and progressed in various stages. It wasn’t until 1907 that it was completed to the Saone and became a through canal. It is 224 kilometres long and has 134 locks with a 4.8 kilometre tunnel. It wanders through some lovely country but does not seem to have the popularity with modern boaters that it deserves.

One of our stops was at Joinville where we moored alongside an old mill that is now converted to a small hotel. We tried the restaurant and were impressed with their menu and food.

The old millstone is now a table in the gardens.

Peter is sporting a badly damaged knee, the result of falling off his bike in Vitry.

French engineers have always been good with their bridges and there are many examples of stone railway viaducts throughout France.

This one at Chaumont was built in 1857, it is 600 metres long and up to 52 metres high. It has 50 arches and 2 intermediate walkways. Rail track on the bridge was in use 12 months after construction started and it was officially opened after only 15 months.

The canals are scattered with other bridges and examples of these lift bridges are everywhere.

Sometimes the clearances of canal-side structures are very limited as this picture shows.

The canals are controlled by the Voies Navagables de France a Government body that is responsible for their maintenance as well as supervising their use. They have teams of trained people who carry out their jobs in an orderly and professional manner.

So we are told!

This is what happens when a small but powerful boat is handled on a canal by “Trained Personnel”. The operator moved over in the canal to pass us and suddenly the vessel was across the canal in our path! He drove the front almost 3 metres over the bank. The driver was not happy when he saw the camera but then had to ask us to help him. We used Matilda in reverse to pull him off the bank and back into the water.

Marg is very proud of her gardens as our visitors well know. She gets many compliments especially on her herbs and vegetables. She snapped this little admirer amongst them. We have seen these bee/moth-type insects a lot recently. They hover over the flowers and uncoil their proboscis and drink nectar from them. They are about 3 centimetres long.

The 14^th of July – Bastille Day – is a big day in France, We were at Auxonne and the town put on some entertainment and a fireworks display

There was a parade of boats down the river headed by this old restored ferry.

These fellows gave a display of walking on water.

The pyrotechnics were, as usual, very good.

We arrived at St Jean-de-Losne and moored on the steps which seemed deserted. Very quickly we were only part of the scene.

We called into Gray, another favoured town of ours and wandered around its historic heart a little more.

This is the original town library which is full of ancient books and is still used as a reference centre.

We visited Claudine at the Office de Tourisme who remembered us. She showed us a copy of a book especially printed for the New Zealand Consul who visited Gray for a special celebration. Matilda and other boats we know featured in it.

We will be back in Auxonne shortly where we plan to meet some more visitors.

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