L'Avenir - Cruising Europe's Inland Waterways

St Jean de Losne  The journey has ended for this year. We are back in the marina at St Jean de Losne and busy preparing L'Avenir for her long, northern winter and ourselves for our long flight to the southern summer. As ever, we find ourselves wondering at our surprise that this moment has arrived. Surely after 5 summers afloat we should have learned that time really does fly when you're enjoying yourself and the closer you are to the end the quicker it speeds by. Summer virtually threw its hand in a couple of weeks ago. We had intended staying at Auxonne for only one night but ended up tied to the pontoon there for 4 days of torrential rain and high winds. There seemed to be as much water falling out of the sky as there was running beneath us. At least we had the luxury of staying put. We felt admiration (and sympathy) for those hirers on their expensive week's boating holidays forced to battle on, clad in sou' westers and oilskins in conditions more North Sea tha...

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...

Otherwise known as the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne Am writing this as we cruise up the River Saone having left the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne this morning. The river here sweeps through forests and although the trees are mostly still in full leaf they are beginning to hint at what is sure to be a gorgeous display of autumn colour in a few weeks time. Unfortunately, we won't be here to witness it as, exactly 2 weeks from now, we need to be in Paris ready to fly home to Australia. Summer has slipped into autumn and the days have not only become shorter but they seem to be whizzing past at an ever increasing pace. Time is very nearly up. Autumn activities are in full swing here now. The crops are mostly harvested and the fields are ploughed ready for whatever winter crops they grow; squirrels (beautiful red ones - haven't seen any greys) are busy collecting nuts as are the local French people - and me. There are walnuts and hazel nuts all along the canal banks...

Warning - gratuitous product name dropping you may find offensive. I was amused recently to discover that we have apparently joined the ranks of the 'chic'. Here we were, moored beside a pretty village in Franche Compte enjoying a very late and pretty ordinary ( or so I thought) lunch of bread and cheese and a glass of the local white. We were both reading the day's English newspaper which had been magically delivered to our Kindles via Whispernet. (Yes, I know it's not chic to read at the table but we're about to more than make up for that). He was still on the front pages which were filled with stories of rioting and looting in English cities whilst I, having had enough of that depressing news, had flicked to the magazine section and promptly choked on my crusty baguette necessitating a gulp of wine before I could read on. Me. 'What do you think of the fromage?' Him, barely looking up. 'You mean the cheese? S'okay. Prefer the blue though....

We love having visitors and are really appreciative of the long distances people travel and the convoluted routes they are prepared to take in order to find us (not to mention the even more involved route they might have to make to return home). Our somewhat lackadaisical approach to planning means that we're never quite sure where we're going to be even a week hence so I'm afraid intending crew have to be pretty resourceful, adventurous types prepared to make their final travel arrangements at the last minute. If you're thinking of joining us over the next month or so I can say with certainty that we will be in France (although we are very close to both Switzerland and Germany at the moment) and with some confidence somewhere in Franche Comte or Burgundy. Unlike some other countries France has maintained an excellent train network which generally works efficiently and as canals and railways often share similar routes we are usually not too far from a station. I say gen...

  Well things could be worse. At last the sun is shining. We are now on the River Doubs which is in cow bell  distance ( heard them today) of Switzerland. The river is pretty but there are very few places to stop which becomes more of an issue the nearer it gets to lock closing time. The canalised sections of this navigation are in a very poor condition and so it's difficult to moor except where there is a pontoon ( practically nowhere). And even if there is a pontoon, hard luck if you happen to want to tie up on a Sunday. There'll be a fishing competition and there's no arguing with French fishermen. We tried and lost.  We've had a long couple of days with every stop already occupied and so lunches on the run. A rather prettily lit tunnel. We are now in Besancon.

Things to do on a warm Sunday morning in Dole, France: lie in bed..... ....go to this church or.... don a lovely shiny helmet and play grown-up super soakers with your friends and team mates and have fun!

Barbie weather at last! We are a little surprised to be on the River Doubs (canal du Rhone au Rhine - I have to look that up every time). After leaving the Canal du Centre we cruised up the Saone to St Jean du Losne, the fabled centre of navigation in France. I'm not sure what I expected here - there are certainly plenty of boats but the town seemed less lively than I had anticipated. We stopped in Blanquarts marina for a couple of days and enquired about leaving the boat for the winter. No chance apparently - you have to book a year in advance. H20, the other big boatyard, is next door. We enquired there and they may have a place but they also directed us to their new marina at Auxonne further up the Saonne. So off we set for a look see. The cruise up the river was pleasant and quiet. There seemed to be quite a few boats coming the other way. At the lock into Auxonne we discovered why. The keeper told us that a lock further up had been so badly damaged it was closed - effectiv...

I love canals. Want to stop?  Just pull in to the bank and hammer in a couple of pegs. But - I love rivers more. We descended the deep lock onto the Soanne and when the guillotine gates slowly slid open everything the world became bigger, wider and more relaxing. Exiting the canal cut we immediately met an approaching large peniche (commercial barge) and rather than going into panic mode (my default position) and yelling 'get into the side!' 'look out!' we just swung nonchalantly to the right with regal wave and drifted past. Lock from Canal du Centre onto the River Saone   A great evening of musical and theatrical entertainment in the narrow, cobbled streets of Chalon sur Saone compensated somewhat for the rather expensive night in the port. Pity about the drenching thunderstorm. Thunderstorms seem to be a daily feature recently. Usually ocuuring about 3 in the afternoon. Anyone would think we were in the tropics. Chalon sur Saone We are heading north alo...