Barge Date:  09-05-2019

The run to Auxonne

To say the weather has been terrible for the past 2 weeks would be an understatement.  Cold, wet, rain, snow.  Does not give a person the desire to venture off the boat. In addition, the second half of the Rhone-au-Rhin leaves a lot to be desired in terms of stop-off points.  The one exception has been Besancon.

This is a very old city that is situated on the inside of a large loop of the Doubs River.  See GE picture for how this looks. Normally we would miss doing a loop around the city because there is a tunnel

shortcut, but since I made a navigation error we went through the tunnel so had to come back around the loop and upstream to get to the mooring we wanted.

Not such a bad detour.  Came to the only manual lock on the canal and the first manual lock we had to operate by ourselves.   With a little bit of instruction from a man sitting on his boat we got the job done.  There may be more of these coming up this summer.

I found Besancon to be different than other French cities I have seen. Perhaps not a single individual building or house, just long blocks of attached buildings.  Probably mostly apartments above.  The city does extend outside the Doubs loop so I was only looking at the city center, but it was definitely different. No new buildings. Not many people after work hours.

The city is also the home of some notable French figures.  Victor Hugo and the Lumiere brothers had early homes on the same square.  The city was also an early technology hub with watch making key to early success.  Prosperous, I would say.

Not shown in the picture above is the Citadel of Besancon which dates from the 17th century. And because of its history with watch and time pieces there is an interesting museum about, what else, Time.

As we continue on the Rhone-au-Rhin, we are again on and off the river. Although there has never been a hint of troubles with the river current I continue to be concerned that when we come off the river that we don't somehow make a goof and end up on the wrong side of the turn-off.  Other than river signs - and what we get from the navigation system - there are no barriers to prevent a boat from  going over the falls

Today we arrived in Dole. Didn't know the French loved Bob so much to name a city after him. The canal is situated just below the city center which is anchored by a large cathedral.  Rough mooring with some metal scraping.  And rain.

Tomorrow it is on to Auxonne where we will leave the boat for 2 weeks.

Dole