We left Dole on a sunny day and headed out on to the River Doubs. The canal for the first 150 km is basically the canalised Doubs with odd forays through side canals cutting off a particularly fast flowing section of the River. North of Isle-sur-le-Doubs it becomes Canal only. It flows through a wide plain to start with but gradually the sides of the valley start closing in and the river flows through windy gorges before emerging higher up into a wider plain again.
The valley sides are limestone and mainly wooded and very remote. It is quite frankly an extremely beautiful river which we have almost to ourselves. There is the occasional village, very little boat traffic and all the locks are automated. We are issued with a remote control device (like a garage door) and we just click it near a lock and it gets it ready for us. Very quick and efficient.
We left arrived in Raunchot and took the last place on the quay there. The weather was changing and we had rain that night and all the next day so we decided to stay where we were until it had passed over which it had by the following day. We arrived at the provincial capital Besancon enclosed in an almost 360 degree loop of the river with a magnificent Citadel above dominating the whole town.
We spend the next day at Besancon and walked up to the citadel where we had an amazing view of the whole countryside. We saw the Museum of the French Resistance and of Deportation which is based there which even though in French was quite moving.
We also visited the cathedral and viewed the magnificent Astronomical clock which gives read outs on 102 astronomical and temporal quantities including the state of the tide in most French Ports, the position of the planets, the dates of Easter, the dates of this year’s solar and lunar eclipses and most amazingly there is one dial which only clicks over one notch every 4 centuries to allow for a leap century.
Given that it is all done by clockwork and is over 150 years old it is quite amazing. Then it was tome to continue our cruise up the river and we called in at Baumes Les Dames and Isle-sur-le-Doubs which are both old and very quaint.
Yesterday we reached the summit of the canal, no longer on the River Doubs and met yet another NZ boat Erewhon moored at Montreux Chateau. It is a lovely spot in the middle of nowhere and at an altitude of 341m there was no other way than down the next day.
And so down it was and we went through 16 locks over 3 kms and stopped at lunchtime for the day at Dannemarie where Wendy cleaned the teak decks with acetic acid. Tomorrow we get to Mulhouse at the end of the canal and then head down the Rhine calling in at Colmar and Strasbourg. The Canal de Rhone au Rhine is 237km long and has 114 locks. Switzerland is just 15kmn away from here and soon we will be going down the French German border. It’s still over 1000km back to Holland but it’s all down hill and mostly with few locks.
