L'Avenir - cruising Europe's inland waterways

Osselle, River Doubs We've been here before - several times- and beautiful as the River Doubs undoubtedly is I'd have been more than happy to give it a miss this year. Apparently the rest of the boating community is of a similar opinion - we've seen only 2 other boats in the past 4 days. Quite why no-one is on the river is a mystery. I asked a lock keeper today and he had no idea either. It's been quiet since the beginning of the year apparently.We are still heading for Strasbourg. The Rhine beckons, my objections having been waved aside by a hand clasping a new, state of the art, life jacket. We've been travelling up to 6 hours every day now for 16 days which I realise will elicit absolutely no sympathy whatsoever from those of you daily commuting to work. The only thing we're battling is the current but it is making progress slow and occasionally exciting. We had a pretty embarrassing attempt at mooring in a fast flowing current at Besancon narrowly av...

Here we are in Auxonne once again  and since we have the luxury of an internet connection not provided by Monsieur Orange (with whom we have a rather testy relationship)  you're getting an update. This time we are here on a sunny summer weekend and as the mooring is alongside a water ski/jetski zone we were rocking and rolling and feeling a little seasick this afternoon. However, this is France and so, in civilised fashion, everything suddenly calmed down and all was packed up and quiet  at 7pm for the serious business of dinner. Non French take away pizza for us though after a long day and, because it's Sunday evening, no other restaurants are open. We are headed back to where we started a week or two ago. It's only been a couple of days since we turned around but already we've had lots of dancing around the decision of what to do next. We still want to go to Strasbourg but the route is in dispute. We spent last night in Gray where boats are already lining up and ...

Royal Mile Edinburgh No, we're not back in Scotland. Just a nod to the bard. 'Best Laid Schemes' indeed. We've never been enthusiastic planners and today we've been reminded why it's often best not to bother because, as Rabbie tells us, they 'gang aft agley' (often go wrong). We set off this morning on our last morning on the Saone, during pouring rain, remarking that it would be so nice to travel along this river in the sunshine and so fully enjoy its scenery. Be careful what you wish for. We also commented on the lack of boats. Strange that it's so quiet. The locks on this part of the Saone are all automatic. About 100 metres from the lock you twist a bar hanging over the middle of the waterway and this sets everything in motion. There are lock keepers living in some of the adjacent cottages but we haven't seen many apart from the ones supervising the tunnels. The ones we have seen have ventured out to sell us bottles of wine, tarts and te...

Angle Iron Tower (replica Eiffel) at Soing. Who knows why? Written whilst waiting for the port restaurant to open at Fouchécourt on the Petite Sâone. We’ve now been ‘en passage’ as real boaters say, for just over a week. Things have gone well – mostly. The weather (and forecast) could be better, we could have sorted out some cost effective internet and I should have remembered to retrieve the spare boat key from the marina at St Jean de Losne before we left but -the river is lovely, the villages postcard pretty and hopefully our first meal out tonight will be good. I am writing this offline. Monsieur Orange, who kindly (and inadvertently) provided us with such a good ‘bon plan’ last year of unlimited internet at 9 euros a month has decided it’s just not on this year. So, after multiple visits to the Orange shop (and, subsequent to our first enquiry, the assistants ducking for cover when they see us coming - why? Perhaps my mangled French hurt their ears as much as it h...

L'Avenir ready to leave St Jean de Losne Some days are deemed more auspicious than others. Yesterday, according to the Chinese calendar, was a lucky day. Today, according to our scenic views of Scotland calendar, is rather more important to us being the birthday of no fewer than 3 family members. Happy birthday to each of you in your different countries and time zones. Here in France, families are getting together for Mothers Day whilst in Britain Her Majesty is about to cruise along the Thames in some style to celebrate her diamond jubilee. One of the boats in our marina is obviously owned by a patriotic Brit as it is festooned with bright flags. And, our own contribution to the importance of the day? Our one hundredth blog post. Some decisions have been made. We are to depart tomorrow - probably - depending on the weather. After a week of bazing hot sunshine the heavens opened in the middle of last night and we were woken by loud claps of thunder. Did you close ever...