Tuesday 5th July
We got going late, after a coffee at MacDonalds to use their wifi connection. We’d planned a short hop (with no lock) to stop at Verdun sur le Doubs but when I phoned there was no space. They said we could come in if we could tie up at our back only which we declined – not such a good idea for a sailing yacht - so we had to continue and now take in a lock. This was no problem at all with our new fenders which worked a charm. It had turned into a very long, hot day, though it was only 5 and a half hours travelling. The Saône is an extremely nice, tranquil river to travel on and very rural and pretty, the banks dotted with cows, sheep and fishermen, but it lacks the dramatic beauty of the Rhône.
There are some beautiful houses too, with their own private jetties and lawns that are beginning to look like African lawns in the winter – brown and sparse.
However, just sitting and motoring along is tediously boring, the monotony broken by the short, stressful and physically demanding periods in the locks or when entering or leaving a marina/pontoon. Sailing, or perhaps more specifically, boating, is a sport (if you can call it a sport) of extremes. Long tranquil (tedious) periods interspersed by moments of extremely violent activity.
Where possible we are trying to stop every twenty or thirty kilometres, but it all depends on the stops available. We are rather jealous of the shallow keeled motor boats and flat bottomed barges which can just slide up to the banks and park almost anywhere they fancy. There are lots and lots of hire boats in this section of the river and they are a bit of a menace. Some are quite adept, know how to handle their boats and have good manners, but not all, and most privately owned boats dread having one of them parked next door or sharing a lock with them – their locking manoeuvres can be quite extraordinary.
We finally arrived at Seurre at 5.30 pm, where we’d hoped to find a free Halte Fluvial but found the whole area has been turned into a marina. Within minutes we were greeted by a remarkably unfriendly capitan who charged us €13 for one night including water and electricity but not showers which cost €2.60 each - presumably because of the water shortage. (We are no longer allowed to wash our boats.) Chalon-sur-Saône marina was much nicer with good showers included at €17.
Paul, a friendly Belgian helped us tie up and then came aboard and we swapped notes on the canals. He has come down the Saône and Marne canal which we intend to take, and though he has no charts he was able to give us information on good places to stop. He said the canal is very easy, with a good level of water and almost all the stops are free. He managed without a chart and we have decided that we will have to do the same – unless we meet someone who wants to do a swap. Paul also warned us that Seurre was the last stop where we would get free water so we topped up our tanks (he said water costs €6 at St Jean de Losne), and that St Jean de Losne is the last good place to get diesel. We still have pretty full tanks, but we will buy a couple of jerry cans worth. We gave Paul all our notes on the Saône and Rhône.
Seurre is a nice but ordinary town and in view of the cost and unwelcoming capitan we left the next day at lunch time. A hundred yards up the canal we went into our next lock, once again without trouble. We seem to have finally totally got the hang of these locks and for the first time I wasn’t hyperventilating as we went in. Later in the day we were told that that was the last of that type of lock. Ha ha.
It was only a three hour 16 kilometre journey to St Jean de Losne. As we were coming into the town we were approached by a small motor launch with three French Gendarmes, one of whom boarded the boat to carry out a check. A charming, handsome young man, he wanted to see our boat papers, passports, vnf vignette and driving permit (Permis Plaisance). This last is a new requirement (by law) for all craft under 20 metres in length and one has to pass all sorts of tests to get it. Bizarrely, as these things always are, skippers who hire a boat are not required to have one whereas all us privately owned and very experienced skippers are! I read somewhere on the internet that if the skipper has an International Licence or something from his home country then that will do, and as Mike has a Skippers Licence from South Africa, we produced that. I pointed out that it included some hours experience of tidal and inland waters and our Gendarme was perfectly happy – good man.
However, he wasn’t so happy with our very aged (never serviced) fire extinguishers and made a report insisting that we replace just one at the soonest possible. He also wasn’t too happy with our life jackets but he let that pass. There’s nothing wrong with our life jackets, they’re just old. After a happy little chat in French and English he shook our hands and left the boat. Upon arrival in St. Jean de Losne we went to the hardware store and bought a new extinguisher for €30 (groan) and then presented ourselves at the Gendarmerie Fluviale where we found the same delightful chap and showed it to him plus the receipt. Back at the boat we took the old one off and before chucking it we tried it – worked perfectly, of course!
We couldn’t find space on the quay in town so carried on a little and saw a large barge tied to a pontoon outside a camping and restaurant area. There was space ahead of the barge so we went in but hit bottom just before the pontoon and Mike pulled back. The Australians on the barge (Histoire d’Eau – great name) came out and very kindly offered to let us moor against them which we did. We’d met them, Peta and Steve, at Macon. They had helped us tie up as we came in and introduced themselves but they’d left the next day and we hadn’t seen them again. Very nice people, we went aboard (I’d been dying to get inside one of these big barges – lovely and spacious inside) and had a cup of tea with them, then again in the evening we all had drinks on Forever.
St Jean de Losne is a central spot for various canals and home to the ‘Le Boat’ hire company. There is a marina here where many boats are left for the winter and there are boat yards and chandleries providing the necessary services. The town is very nice and I’ve found a laverie where I did a big wash including bed linen.
Friday 8th July
We had a very enjoyable evening with Peta and Steve – aperitifs on Forever followed by a shared dinner of paella on Histoire d’Eau, drinking port till the early hours.
The view of St Jean from Forever.
We have one more stop at the town of Auxonne, then we’ll pass Pontailler-sur-Saône and turn west into what they now call the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne (224 Kilometres and 114 locks), which will take us up to Vitry-le-Francois and then we join the Canal Lateral a la Marne (67 Kilometres and 15 locks) to Conde and a brief part of another canal to Epernay and the Marne River to Paris (182 Kilometres and 18 locks).
The black stars mark Port Saint Louis in the south, Lyon where we left the River Rhône, St Jean where we are now and nearly the end of our journey on the River Saône, Epernay at the end of the canal, Paris at the end of the River Marne, Le Havre at the end of the River Seine and finally Carentan across the channel in Normandy. As you see, most of our trip is in the rivers with only one canal.
Good one, let's see if this goes.
ReplyDelete