We flew Air France from Dallas to Lyon with a connection in Paris. We spent our first afternoon and night in Lyon and then drove to Saint-Jean-de-Losne where we meet up with our friends Jason and Roberta on their boat Decize. After traveling together on the Canal du Rhone au Rhin to Basancon and back we traveled to several cities in France before dropping them off for their hike on the Camino de Santiago, Camino Frances.
Our flight leg from DFW to Paris was on a Air France Boeing 787-9. I was looking forward to flying on this new high tech airplane but we both found the seats very uncomfortable on both flights across the Atlantic.
Our first afternoon in Lyon. A large shopping area with very limited car traffic.
More of the pedestrian shopping center area. Note the Rooster, the symbol of France.
Many of the nicest restaurants in Lyon are located on the peninsula between the Rhone and Saone Rivers. However, like in much of France, regular restaurants are not open until 7pm and many require reservations ahead of time.
The first of several doggie water stops we saw on the trip.
It was a steep walk from the river to the church.
La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourviere.
The front view of the Basilique.
Inside the church.
A mosaic on the church wall.
We found a funiculare adjacent to the church which we rode down back to the river level streets, snapping this photo once down. (Wish we'd known about the furnicular on the way up!)
Lyon is know as a foodie city and it didn't disappoint.
We started talking to the couple behind Linda who were very interesting. They come to Lyon a lot. He is a Coast Guard retiree who started a magazine on lighthouses around the world and it sounds like that keeps them going to some interesting places.
The first of many delicious meals.
The Rhone. The Rhone and the Soane meet in Lyon.
The Rhone at night.
A shopping mall from across the Rhone. The Basilique is above and behind the shopping mall.
A lot of color and there are a lot of people out enjoying the night.
Place de Jocobins. The Jocobins were a political movement influential during the French Revolution of 1789.
We drive to Saint-Jean-de-Losne and meet up with Roberta and Jason. We have drinks along the Soane.
And food.
And drinks.
A house warming present for the boat. Jason had to do some repair work first.
We leave the dock at Saint-Jean-de-Losne.
Our route, out and back.
There are goats that live on this island in the middle of the port near the marina.
Entering the Soane
Along the waterfront of Saint-Jean-de-Losne.
The entrance to the canal from the Soane. Lock (Ecluse) No. 75
Jason gets the controls that allow us to work the locks between here and Besancon. Besancon is lock No. 51
The lock controls.
Trying to get a signal back from the next lock.
Traveling down the canal. Some sections are very straight.
A most pleasant lunch on our first day.
Entering a lock.
We dock here in Dole where we will stay for 2 nights.
Dole. 2022 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Louise Pasteur in the town of Dole.
The first of many churchs we went into.
Inside the church.
Honoring the war dead. We don't know if the memorials inside the churchs overlap with ones in the center of towns.
As we did in our trip to France in 2017, we took photos of most of the memorials we found to soldiers who died in war.
A typical shopping street in old Dole where we explored
After looking through this bin of French music CD's, Jason and Roberta purchased several quite lovely ones for music while cruising.
The perched cat is the symbol for Dole.
We stop for beers at a restaurant close to the Canal de Tanners and order Ruby Leffe's, Roberta's favorite beer. Click for more Roberta expressions.
The canal at night.
Eating alongside the canal.
After dinner, walking back to the boat, we enjoy seeing the church lit up at night.
The next day we walk back across the canal to continuing our exploration of Dole.
Jason downloaded a guided tour of any city we visited on this trip. In our tour of Dole, we stop at the Fontaine aux Lepreux.
The Pasteur Museum.
We learned a lot about Pasteur and his many accomplishments.
We were well into this museum visit of all of Pasteur's accomplishments before we found a small thing about pasteurization. In France, Pasteur is primarily regarded for his other work, but in the U.S. we seem to associate him most with his work on pasteurization!
A display about his finding a vaccine for anthrax. He also found a vaccine for rabies amoungst his many accomplishments.
In his youth Pasteur displayed a talent for painting before turning his attention to science.
Additional artifacts at Pasteur Museum.
An organ grinder in Dole.
Our tour continues.
A local park. Pasteur.
Casino is a grocery store.
Picking up supplies for the boat.
A modern sculpture by Boettcher, The Gossips.
What is the latest news?
Along our tour we come across this building with detailed faces - all very different!.
A painted wall that looked very much like an actual door and window.
A narrow passage.
A closer view of Collegiate Church Notre-Dame of Dole.
A lifelike statue we came across.
Our second night in Dole, we stop at Aux Cinq Sens for another delicious meal. Here's just one of many great desserts. Hopefully all of our walking is helping cancelling some of the calories we're consuming on this trip!
Walking back to the boat our 2nd night in Dole.
The moon over Dole.
Our last morning we head back into Dole once more for an hour or so. We finally find this stairway mentioned in our tour guide, but hard to find as it was tucked back a narrow hallway next the Casino grocery store.
Another view of the stairway.
Looking from the back of the boat toward the church.
Leaving Dole.
Water lilies line much of the canal.
Herons looking for food. We saw quite a few of these birds.
A nice bucolic view.
The church domes in this area have this shape because ...??? a new bishop from another area liked the look.
Lunch on an isolated queue.
Watch towers along the way.
Emerson was usually barefoot on the boat.
Definitly having fun.
Lots of nice reflections in the water.
The crew hard at work.
We arrive in the tiny town of Ranchot where we will overnight along the dock.
We enjoy lunch there at a picnic table acroos the canal from our boat.
This lady comes around to collect a fee for docking in the town of Ranchot.
Jason works with the ladies assistant.
We enjoy coctails and dinner on shore along our boat. A hotel barge, Jeanine, shown tied up behind us is just small enough to fit into the locks. He has to go through some sections pretty slowly. He left very early the next morning but we were able to eventually pass him in a river section.
The next morning before heading out, Emerson and Linda walk into Ranchot. Great views from a street above the town.
Linda and Emerson buy baguettes in town.
An old well (not functional) in Ranchot.
We saw lots of firewood throughout the town stacked up and ready for winter.
Life rushes by so fast.
The region was still in a severe drought but recent rains led to enough water in the canals. Many locks have bypasses for the water to avoid overtopping. Throughout our trip we had great weather with just a few rainy days.
Not a lot of extra room on the sides in the locks.
More beautiful sites as we travel along the Le Doubs river. The path alternates many times from the river and back to the canals. We saw a lot of herons on the trip.
Not much difference between the canal and the river here.
An approaching boat on the Doubs.
VNF operates the canals.
In the river. Where is that channel marker?
Linda at the helm.
A brief but heavy thunderstorm. Roberta and Emerson got a bit wet working the lines through this double lock.
Still raining. Waiting for the second lock to fill.
Duh, stay to the right.
The old fort as we approach Besancon.
A closer view of the fort.
Along the way to our dock.
Le Minotaure sculpture on Le Doubs river bridge support.
Having dinner.....
....in Besancon.
A grocery store close to our dock.
Shopping for food.
A typical steet scene.
Roman mosaics in-situ under glass.
Our high paid translater at work.
We visit the fort.
Vauban, the architect of many fortreses.
In the fort.
Panoramic view of Besacon.
View of the fort and Doubs River
A view down from the fort to where we went through lock 51 to bypass a dam.
They had a small zoo in the fort. The baboons had a quite large area to roam.
The entry to the fort passed above the baboons.
We weren't sure what kept the baboons from climbing out.
Just outside the fort was a church. Changes made over the years.
Part of the wall remaining from Roman days at Porte Noire.
Porte Noire.
Roman ruins.
Roman ruins.
How they were discovered.
A view of rooftops in Besancon.
We had lunch here
A lovely lunch with good food and the staff going out of its way to please us. Coffee with cream in the afternoon..not the French way of doing things.
We visit the home of Victor Hugo.
Books and the year he wrote them along the steps.
His most famous character, Jean Valjean
Not only was he a writer but was involved in politics and progressive social causes.
He lived in several places over his 83 years.
A playful sculpture along the route we were walking. The kid on the right has his foot on the hose stopping the water.
The embedded tour symbol in Besancon.
We visited a clock museum.
A very old clock.
The most expensive watch ever?
The other side of the watch.
A three second timer.
They were not only interested in clocks but time. These tapistries illustrated life in a different time.
A closer view of one of the tapistries.
One of the pictures of Besancon from a long time ago. They had several showing the town over time. If you look at a modern map the view shown here is just a small section of a much larger Besancon.
Children on time.
A Foucault pendulum.
How the pendulum tracks time.
A relief map of the town of Besacon on the top floor of the museum.
Martini Night.
Where we docked.
We had to hand operate these locks. They were the only hand operated locks on the trip.
Closing the upper doors.
Opening the gates. These were the only wood doors on the trip.
Opening the gates.
The gates cranked open and closed pretty easily.
Decize heads for the lock and gets some help from Linda with the lines.
Linda helping Jason with the lines.
Waiting for the lock to fill.
We did it.
The back side of the fort as we head to the tunnel under the town.
Entering the tunnel.
Where is that boat that had been ahead of us?
Heading back to home port.
A hard left to enter the Tunnel de Thoraise.
The Tunnel de Thoraise was constructed 1803 to 1810 and is 185 m long. The lighting and water feature are much more recent features.
The cruise director came up with some declicious meals.
The black dot on the sign means to sound your horn incase another boat is approaching around the corner.
A trail runs along side the canal.
A quick lunch on board.
Some locks had cavities.
Once inside the lock you pulled up on the blue pole to start the locking sequence. Pulling down on the red one caused an emergency stop and called the VNF out to check. This would not be good.
A sailboat transiting through on the canal.
Back in Ranchot.
Another nice dinner at Le Galoubin in Ranchot. We made reservations on our way to Besancon. All of the regular restaurents required a reservation. Even if they had tables in the evening, without a reservation you wouldn't get seated.
Quite a few people fish along the canal.
We started out early to be ahead of another boat and at the first lock a log kept it from fully opening shuting it down. The locks were officially open at the time we arrived but the VNF didn't start work for another hour or so. They did show up right about their start time.
But it was another lovely morning. Our blood pressure stayed low.
The river and canal side by side.
Close to Dole.
Making the last turn into Dole.
We enjoy another simple meal with wine.
Back in the old town of Dole, we sneak close behind the back of "The Gossips" to see hear the latest!
At a small park next to the boat dock....
....we all got to enjoy the overiszed chairs.
Our last evening this second visit to Dole.
Roberta dresses the lines as we leave Dole.
We meet another boat on the canal.
The sides of the locks are lined with rocks so you don't want to get too close.
I think this may be switchgrass growing next to the corn.
Etiquette
on the canals is to wait at a lock for any following boats that can be seen approaching.
Jason had yelled at the boat behind us when it closed the lock doors right before us as we were leaving Besanon. The lady standing there is with the VNF that runs the canals. We were waiting some time for them to catch up.
Just after the other boat told the VNF lady they didn't want to go into the lock with us. This was the boat we started out early to avoid. They eventually bumped their way in!
What probably is an old grain storage facility that used to use the canal for grain transport.
Still in use just not using the canal.
Getting near the end of the canal portion of the trip. It has been great!
A section of the book used to guide us along the canal.
Delicious mousse.
As we "sped" down the canal we caught up to his young lady walking on the canal path and eventually passed her. At the next lock she passed us and got quite a ways on down the path. We were getting good at going through the locks; getting our lines fastened and activating the squence almost before the boat came to a stop but it still takes time to get through.
A hotel barge on the Soane docked at Saint-Jean-de-Losne
Saint-Jean-de-Losne
Back in Losne where we had a lovely dinner at a small floating restaurant in the port.
In the restaurant.
In the restauant looking towards the menu.