MiscellaneaUS

Our route has taken us down the Rive Saône, from its navigable beginnings at tiny Corre to the small village of St. Jean de Losne, the boating center of France or so we are informed regularly.  But of course we knew that, which is precisely why we are here.

It's a sweet, easy trip down the gentle, ever expanding Saône with just a few locks, only two shortish tunnels, friendly stops, ancient towns and this time, great weather.  The scenery and company ain't so bad either. 

The church is usually the biggest thing around

Except for the occasional old Norman keep

A pleasant overnight stop after a short day of Rive Saône cruising

More bread, more bread, s’il vous plait

If you happen to be in Gray, France and pass by the street level window between those two cars and a disheveled looking older woman opens that window asking you in rapid French if the date written on the tattered piece of paper she's holding is right, do cut her some slack. She's just trying to keep it together......and aren't we all. 

We hate tunnels even when you can see the light at the end of 'em

Reserved for dogs? Not this dog says Yogi.

To enter a lock, you sidle the boat up to a blue tube hanging over the water, grab it and twist it to get a red and green light showing the lock is ready to start its automatic operation. In the beginning of our short trip, after the twist, we would shove Yogi-dog below, closing the door so he would be out of our way and safe while we were locking through.

After our third lock, Mr. Smarty-pants would watch me twist a blue tube then head below decks all by himself. His seeming cooperation didn't prevent him from complaining extra loudly all through the locking process, though. Everyone within 5 kilometers heard when Echo was in a lock.

If one wants to sell something its best to have it where many people are looking to buy.
It is time to sell our Echo-boat so that's why we are in St. Jean de Losne.  Appropriately, we hope to end this phase where we began it. This is the town we first came to start our search for our first canal boat, Chapter III.  It's a full circle deal.

In the two weeks we've had the boat for sale, we haven't exactly being inundated with people clamoring to buy this boat. We'll probably have a long time to wait before our buyer shows up.....if ever.

But this is the place to be for the moment, our moment looks to last until the end of September when we're due to return to Arizona.

In the meantime, there are people to meet, bicycle rides to take, an English/German/French lending library, concerts on the town's quay every Friday night and sunshine to soak up.
We can do that. 

 

Our sign of the times (h2ofrance.com)

Little Surprises

In Soing, a tiny ville with a very Yogi-friendly halt fluvial, a local man with a basket-full of freshly picked young produce came by our boat. Even though his prices were exorbitant, we bought a bunch of baby carrots because they were gorgeously beautiful, although we complained to each other about the price we were forced to pay for a measly bunch of carrots.

Now, those are carrots!

We hadn't remembered how carrots were supposed to taste. For a long time, we've eaten large tough orange sticks cut in various ways; round shapes, oval shapes, crinkle cut....sliced and diced to make you think you are eating a baby carrot. Pshaw!

Our advise to anyone, forget the grocery store. Just plant some seeds, wait a bit, water a bit and then join us in rediscovering carrots.

What's that traveling down the highway?

Golly, it's a horse-drawn camper

Turn right just past the replica of the Eiffel Tower for the campground

Small -- sure, charming -- you betcha!

A well deserved rest with oats for a couple of hungry draft horses.

 

 

 

It was mom and dad with their two pre-schoolers out for a a four day camping trip through rural France. I really can't think of a better way for small children to spend their time than watching the fat rump of a good looking horse, can you?