Dannemarie (Close to the borders)

WEDNESDAY 18 JUNE 

Before visiting the Peugeot car museum on Wednesday we had to do some boat travel planning. We’ve had an outline plan that gets us back to the UK in time for family holidays in August, but we’ve added a spanner in the works as we also want to pop back for a long weekend at the beginning of July meaning we need to find somewhere to leave the boat while we go back. There didn’t seem to be many places between where we are now and Basel where we’ll start our journey down the Rhine. Other things to throw into the mix were moving the car as well as water stops and places to get fuel and food.

After a few phone calls, studying maps and researching bus and train timetables we came up with a detailed plan and booked into a port by the Rhine outside Basel for when we go back for the weekend. We’ve agreed with the port that we’ll leave the car with them while we head downriver to Strasbourg with a detour to Colmar for a few days. When we reach Strasbourg, we’ll retrieve the car and move it to where we’ll leave the boat in August. We started near Nancy in early April and have followed the purple line to Montbéliard where we are now. Over the next couple of weeks we’ll head along the blue line to the German border where we’ll leave the boat to go home for the long weekend. When we return we’ll complete the circle by following the rest of the blue line back to where we started with a detour of a few days into Colmar.

To put the distances in context, the complete journey is just over 900 km and we’ve already covered 540 km. In terms of locks there are 313 for the whole trip and we’ve been through 2/3^rd of them.

Once we’d finished planning, we went to visit the Peugeot museum in town. It was housed in a modern building in the area where the company has an extensive range of factories. The area is called Sochaux and the 3008 and 5008 models are currently produced there as well as the Citroën DS5. The museum is laid out in chronological order, and it was interesting to see how the early cars were little more than horse drawn carriages with an engine plonked at the front. Neither of us had consciously realised the connection previously; this photo is meant to capture that connection. 

Before going around the car exhibits, we followed those showing other products produced by the Peugeot family. We learnt so much about Peugeot and its history having always thought that the company only produced motorbikes, cars and trucks.

In 1810 four Peugeot brothers founded the company starting with steel production which expanded into cotton and textiles based in this area of France which was ideal for building mills to harness waterpower. By the early 1830s the company were also producing spinning spindles and looms. In 1840 they manufactured coffee grinders producing 1,000 units a day during the second half of the 19^th century. 1852 saw an expansion into saw blades and crinoline cages which are clearly similar designs. Although we knew what crinolines were, we’d never heard of crinoline cages and by 1858 they were producing 25,000 a month. Another innovation was in 1867 when the company started manufacturing sewing machines.

Neither had we known that Peugeot produced aviation engines. They started in 1905 powering airships then Blériot planes using seven-cylinder rotary engines. They switched to bomb casings production for WWI and then back into aeronautics, powering Voisin planes amongst other brands until the 1929 financial crash. They also manufactured marine engines during the same period. To us, one of the most surprising of their products, other than crinoline cages, was radios.

The company continued to expand, manufacturing kitchen products from salt and pepper mills through irons and toasters to food processors and hoovers, still making many of these products today. Of course, there were many cars on display from the late 1800s up to the modern day. There were also sections on their involvement in F1, rallying, sports car racing and concept cars.

Not only were we amazed at the range and variety of products we found it incredible that so many cars from the early day had been preserved including over 20 in the 1905-18 section.

THURSDAY 19 JUNE 

Before leaving Montbéliard we wanted to visit the science park which was only a five minute walk away from the port. We left before 8.00 as we wanted get back to have a morning cruise before the heat of the day. I have to admit that we didn’t understand a lot of what we saw. We could see that this was a pendulum clock as the long pendulum was hanging from the apex and it was swinging from side to side, but we couldn’t tell the time from it. Apparently, the plane of the swing slowly moves because of the earth’s rotation meaning that it can tell more than the time of day.

This one was easy as we could see it was a bronze of an ant…

…but we had no idea of what either of these were:

In the centre of the park was a maze but it wasn’t obvious what the scientific connection was. We thought it may have been used to demonstrate to school children how one of the maze solving theories works.

As we set about leaving when we got back to the boat, we noticed that firemen had turned up at the other end of the port to do some demonstrations to schoolchildren. These demonstrations included pumping great sprays of water across the canal and as we were going to be heading in that direction we hoped they’d see us coming.

The pompiers were also taking half a dozen children out at a time on a RIB which they seemed to be enjoying especially as they were making a large wake with the speed they were travelling at.

Soon after leaving the first lock, I remarked to Karen about how much wider the canal was compared with normal French canals. She immediately pointed out that were travelling on a section of the river Allan!

This was the stretch alongside which the vast Peugeot complex was situated but we could hardly see anything of it because of the tall trees lining the river. What we did see was a heron-like bird but was shorter and fatter. I sent a picture to a birder friend who said it was a night heron. I had noticed that our Merlin app has been recording night herons but it was the first time we’d seen one.

Just before the final lock we were back on the canal proper and had to make a sharp left turn at an old junction where a disused branch joined the main canal. In the corner was a péniche that had been converted to a liveaboard and they really had a great secluded position for a permanent mooring.

Coming out of the last lock we crossed over the river Allan which didn’t look so wide as it had when we were cruising on it earlier.

We moored up just outside the lock at another junction which was where a branch used to run up to the large town of Belfort. There were no roads or houses nearby and with very few frogs around it was very peaceful. Another bonus was that we would be in the shade from early evening.

Later on in the afternoon we went off for a bike ride around a couple of lakes on the way to Belfort starting by following the disused Belfort embranchment which was hidden out of site behind us in picture of the mooring above.

After a couple of km I mistakenly went over a piece of rigid plastic that somehow got caught in the spokes of the rear wheel. I came to a sudden stop as the plastic caught the derailleur gears which in turn bent into the spokes. I managed to bend everything back into some sort of shape but we had to turn around and limp slowly back to the boat as the chain kept getting locked up in the gearset if I put any pressure on.

On Thursday we cruised eight km up four locks and didn’t see any boats.

FRIDAY 20 JUNE 

As we failed to reach the lakes we wanted to cycle around yesterday, Karen chose to include them in her Friday morning running route. One of the lakes had a beach and swimming was allowed as it was watched over by lifeguards. It was too early when Karen went so the lifeguards weren’t yet on duty but she could see plenty of families waiting to get in as soon as the gates opened.

The largest lake was set aside for water sports including waterskiing complete with a ski jump.

I had a bit of a disaster whilst getting my breakfast when she was on her run. For many years I’ve occasionally suffered from what Karen and I call ALS or Achey Leg Syndrome. It tends to only happen when I’m sitting down in the evening. It’s never been debilitating but when I get it, I find it mildly uncomfortable. A couple of years ago I mentioned this to my two brothers who said they used to suffer the same thing but found a small handful of pumpkin seeds taken daily seemed to keep it at bay. I started taking the seeds too and my ALS episodes have become far less frequent. Whether that is psychological or not I don’t really care but my mishap happened when taking the freshly filled jar of pumpkin seeds from a shelf to sprinkle some in my muesli. Somehow, I caught the jar on the edge of the kitchen worksurface and it smashed to smithereens; there were shards of glass and pumpkin seeds everywhere.

Karen was back by the time I’d cleared up and had my pumpkin-free breakfast and we were soon ready to get going for the day. The locks from where we were moored to the end of the canal where it reaches the Rhine aren’t automatic and have to be operated by éclusiers. This means that each day we want to move we have to ring VNF the day before and give a time we want to set off the next day. We’d rung VNF yesterday and agreed that we would be arriving at the first lock at 11.00 which meant leaving at 10.00 as it was an hour away. The first section of canal we went along was looking very much like an English canal in places.

We soon joined a section of the river Allan and after a kilometre or so we were approaching the first lock that would be operated by our éclusier for the day. A tributary of the Allan, the Bourbeuse joined at the lock which made an interesting junction as the lock entrance was between the two rivers. We’d obviously made ourselves clear as to what time we were travelling as our éclusier was getting the lock ready when we arrived.

It was from this point that we’d be leaving the Allan valley as the canal then follows the Bourbeuse valley up to the summit. When we were travelling up from Montbéliard yesterday we saw a party of schoolchildren cycling with their teachers.  We saw the same group a couple of hours or so later and were amazed at how long they were cycling in the heat but I suppose they’re used to it. While going up the next lock we saw another group of children, most were taking a rest in the shade but came to the side of the lock or stood on the lock gates to watch us going up.

Soon after the third lock, our éclusier saw us through a swing bridge in a village called Froidefontaine where we were hoping to moor.

We pulled up just after the swing bridge in front of a boat that looked like it hadn’t moved for a long time, in fact, checking the licence later it had run out over five years previously.

The cycle path next to the mooring is still the Euro Velo 6 cycle route that’s been running alongside us since we joined the canal at its start 180 km ago. That length is a drop in the ocean compared to the full length of the cycle route at 4,450 km from the Atlantic to the Black Sea.

We didn’t fancy walking far in the heat but as the next village, Charmois, was only a couple of kilometres away we paid it a visit during the afternoon. It didn’t have an old church probably because there were very few old houses in the village but it did have a war memorial

And a lavoir with running water.

We also wandered over to the church next to where we were moored and found that much of the church dated from the 12^th century as a priory and the large building next to it had the date 1720 on its lintel.

Whilst walking to and from Charmois we'd noticed quite a few storks either flying in the thermals or pecking at the ground in a freshly mown hayfield. It wasn't until we got back to our village that Karen noticed a stork nest practically next to our boat. It had been built on a support erected for the purpose and there were two young in the nest waiting for the return of their parents with some food.

Having said we haven’t heard cuckoos since the beginning of June we heard one calling later once we were back on board. This reminded us of a saying that we’d never heard of before until Mavis, a dear friend of ours from our village told us:

“The cuckoo comes in April, he sings his song in May, he changes his tune in the middle of June & then he flies away.”

On Friday we cruised 7.5 km up three locks, through one swing bridge and saw one boat, a French river cruiser that came out of a lock as we went in.

SATURDAY 21 JUNE 

We set out at 10.00 as agreed with our éclusier on Friday expecting him to be setting the first lock for us when we arrived. We were a bit surprised when we could see the lock in the distance but no white van next to it which would have indicated the presence of an éclusier. Even though we’d been told that the remaining locks on the canal aren’t automatic, we tried the télécommande and for our second surprise found that it worked. In fact, it worked for all three locks of the day and we never saw our éclusier. Maybe they just wanted to know when we were moving so that they could provide cover if we had a problem.

We’ve been noticing a distinct lack of walnut and plane trees for the last few days and saw none on the journey. Coupled with that, the woodland scenery was just like being in the UK with oak, ash, sycamore, white willow and hazel being the predominant trees; the planes and walnuts make such a difference when they are absent. Passing a field that was being tedded we counted 20 storks in close proximity. We’ve never seen more than a handful together before so wondered what was going on. A friend suggested they may have been gorging on insects that would have been disturbed when the hay was being tedded.

The morning started quite hazy which we thought would provide a welcome relief from the heat but by mid-morning the clouds had burnt off and we could see the Black Forest mountains in the distance as we cruised along.

When we came out of the third lock we’d reached the summit and were in a village called Montreux-Château which is where we’d planned on stopping for the day. There were quite a few boats at the moorings but most were either liveaboards or abandoned with just a couple that were cruising like us. We slotted in next to a borne which was handy as we could top up with water and do some washing. A French guy from the boat behind came up to tell us that the bornes weren’t working but we decided to stay anyway as it seemed a pleasant spot.

There was also a péniche on the moorings that had been converted to a restaurant. We wandered down to have a look but found it was fully booked for lunch and dinner. After a quick rest we walked into the village and immediately came across the mairie which looked very pretty with flowers dotted around it. The war memorial stood directly in front of it.

Opposite the mairie was a lavoir with a sign saying it was built in 1875 and that the building is part of the village’s heritage so must be treated with respect. A second sign supported this by indicating that bicycles were not permitted in the vicinity of the building. I suppose that being on the cycle route it would seem an ideal place for cyclists to stop and sit on the washing stones for a rest in the shade.

We’d noticed that when we’d come through the top lock before the summit, it was number three so wondered what had happened to numbers one and two. Looking at maps we found that the current summit was lower than the original and the two locks had been bypassed and also one at the other end of the summit level. This was clearly something I wanted to see even though it was too hot to be walking far. Karen stayed behind in the shade while I went to find the disused locks. I did find them, or at least where they were but couldn’t get anywhere near them because the sides were covered in nettles.

While I was out, an éclusier called by the boat to remind Karen we’d agreed to be at the first lock by 9.00 on Sunday morning. He also explained that the boat behind us would be travelling with us down the 15-lock flight to Dannemarie.

On Saturday we cruised 6.5 km up three locks and saw no boats.

SUNDAY 22 JUNE 

We left at ten past eight on Sunday morning to make sure we got to the top lock of the flight down to Dannemarie by 9.00, the time we’d agreed with VNF. Our French neighbours were leaving 20 minutes later as they had a river cruiser so wouldn’t take long to catch us up. We’d had a conversation with them before we left to agree who would go first into the locks. They were happy when I said it’s best if we went first. When we arrived at the lock it was already set for us and there were six éclusiers and one éclusiere milling around; here are some of them…

…and Karen giving information to another

You may have noticed the tray of fruit on the hatch cover in the picture above. Before we’d left Karen had moved our walnuts onto the second stage of the pickling process by removing them from the brine they’d been in for eight days and laying them out on trays. This stage turns them black in the sun and should only take one or two days because there's so much sun at the moment.

When the sun beats down while we’re cruising, we put the parasols up between locks and, so far, we’ve not forgotten to drop them when we go into a lock. With the locks so close together we had to negotiate the whole flight with the parasols down to avoid any chance of an accident. We ended up with two éclusiers seeing us down the flight in their vans. They alternated locks but stopped for a chat each time they passed each other.

When we were near the bottom of the flight our éclusier asked us and our French friends for a bowl. We each gave him a colander and he disappeared around the back of the lock cottage. After a while he reappeared with both colanders full of redcurrants and handed them back to us. At the final lock Karen noticed a heron standing watching the water level drop. We’ve seen this behaviour before as they watch for fish getting stranded on the cill as the water drains out. As expected, it did spot a fish and we saw it fly down to pick it up. I managed to get a shot as it got ready to fly into the lock.

As we came out of the lock we were immediately in the port of Dannemarie and moored opposite using a couple of handy commercial bollards.

Karen went over to the port to check where and how we could get water. The office had closed for the day so we’ll have to go over when they open in the morning. We had a nice long lunch at a restaurant overlooking the port and spent the rest of the day on and around the boat alternating between listening to the first test between England and India and dozing.

On Sunday we cruised 10 km down 15 locks and the only boat we saw was the French couple we locked down with.

MONDAY 23 JUNE 

Monday was forecast to be windy with temperatures dropping just below 30°C before they climb again during the week. It was definitely gusty when we got up so we decided to stay put for the day. It still felt very warm meaning we took it easy and just had a couple of short walks during the day. Thinking about it that was a bit unfair on Karen as she’d already been for a long early morning run.

Our walk before lunch took us further along the canal past the next couple of locks. Karen had spotted a couple of walnut trees at the second one so we went equipped with a bag and some gloves as Karen wanted to start pickling another batch of green nuts. There were a couple of pill boxes at the first lock of a type we’d never seen before.

We harvested the nuts we needed when we reached the second lock and felt it was too hot to continue in comfort so we turned around. On the way back we called in at the port to see Rob and Amy on Vivante whom we first met in Besançon. They’d left their boat in the port while they went to Strasbourg for a break for a few days and had just returned. In the afternoon we walked into Dannemarie and rather than finding a village as expected it was actually a town. It was definitely very Germanic and even the street names were bilingual.

The mairie had the words ‘RATHAUS’ and ‘TOWN HALL’ under the words ‘HOTEL DE VILLE’ and also had a very prominent stork’s nest on its chimney stack.

The sun had done its job and turned the walnuts in their trays black as expected which meant they were ready to be put into pickling jars with some malt vinegar based concoction that Karen made in the afternoon. She also got the green nuts we picked in the morning into the first stage of the process.  

Next week will see us getting to Mulhouse which sits at the end of this canal. We’ll then join the canal de Huningue down to the Rhine and have to get used to the big locks and boats up to 180 metres long for the first time this year. 

Montbéliard (off the river)

Early morning moored at Branne before the temperature hit 35°C

THURSDAY 12 JUNE 

Whilst having breakfast we checked the water levels and flows on the website I explained about on the last blog update. We decided that because none were going in the wrong direction, we should give it a go and have a cruise after five days of not being able to move. The locks are only two km apart for quite a while so if we found the going getting difficult it would mean we didn’t have far to go to get to the next lock waiting pontoon to tie up until we felt confident.

We also decided to stop keeping the car with us for the next few weeks, so Karen drove into Baume-les-Dames to find somewhere to leave it. While she did that, I set about taking the boat down to the port in the town to take on water which would also be a handy place to pick Karen up. It all worked perfectly and by the time I could see her walking into the port carrying a couple of shopping bags I was putting the hose away. We set off immediately and were soon leaving Baume-les-Dames to continue our journey eastwards.

Looking back over the weir to say goodbye to Baume-Les-Dames.

Having said the other day how good the locks have been on the Doubs we did encounter one that wouldn’t empty for us. I rang VNF and as they couldn’t sort it out remotely they sent an éclusier out to us. We tied up to the waiting pontoon as we didn’t know how long the guy would take to arrive. While waiting for him a mad Polish guy came by on his bike – I’d noticed a flag on the back with all his camping equipment. He stood by the side of us and played a few bars from his bugle including the Last Post. He then took some pictures, jumped fully clothed into the water next to us, bobbed up and down, got out and then cycled off.

The éclusier was a lovely guy and soon got us through the lock. We had a stilted but friendly conversation as he knew no English other than, ‘Goodbye’. It transpired he was born and bred in the area and would never want to leave it. He also loved his job and couldn’t think of anything else he’d rather do. He went ahead to each of the following locks to make sure they worked OK for us and also to continue our conversation. Well it wasn’t really a conversation as it wasn’t easy to understand him and he found it difficult to understand me but at least he spoke nice and slowly. The scenery continued to change as we cruised, sometimes the hills would fall right back leaving meadows in the valley and at other times the steep rocky hills returned alongside the river.

The river, although higher than normal, presented no problems and we were able to travel at almost our normal speed. We moored up for day below the lock at Branne and were able to sit outside for the rest of the day as a handy tree was covering half the pontoon in shade.

It looks like we’re finally going to have to get used to temperatures on the wrong side of 30°C. It always takes us a while to get adjusted and normally that would happen during May over here. We did have some 30+ days in May, but it then cooled down and we had quite a few grey days and also some where it rained so that’s why we’re having to get acclimatised again. We took the opportunity of mooring on the river to have a swim to cool down. As a strong swimmer Karen went in first to check it would be safe for me. There was no current near the boat so that's where I stayed.

I don’t usually include pictures from locks unless I’m describing something that occurred during the journey, but I thought a selection from the day’s locks would make a change and also show what amazing locations some are in.

On Thursday we cruised 10 km up five locks and saw two private boats, both French cruisers coming out of one of the locks together.

FRIDAY 13 JUNE 

Karen went for an early morning run before it got too hot, but she obviously didn’t go early enough as it was already 28°C when she got back to the boat. As much as our overnight mooring below the lock at Branne gave us wonderful views and also shade in the evening, we’d decided we needed to move on. This was because the road following the Doubs valley was right next to the mooring, so it hadn’t been particularly quiet overnight.

Going up the first lock Karen spotted that eggs were for sale in the lock cottage, so she knocked on the door to buy a couple of dozen. She was gone quite a while and when she returned she explained she had to wait because the man and his wife had insisted on washing them all first. After an hour or so cruising we were approaching Clerval where we planned on stopping for lunch.

There were no moorings in the town itself so we pulled up at the lock landing and then walked back downstream to Clerval.

The town stretched across both banks of the river and part of it was built under the riverside cliff face and this house abutted the rocks on one side, even the roof was built up to the rock.

There were a couple of riverside restaurants and one of them had a novel way of selling extra portions. The meals were pre-prepared and were the same as some of those on the menu, they just needed heating through though.

We crossed the river on the bridge that linked the two parts of the town and found the mairie. This was the first mairie we can remember seeing without any flags flying so it looked rather miserable.

Clerval château now houses the museum of memory and peace which sounded like it would have made for an interesting visit. Of course, as is our luck, it was closed because they obviously knew we were in town.

There were two war memorials next to each other, the right hand one was erected for those fallen in the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian war and the other the two World Wars of the following century.

Back down near the river again we found a lavoir that needed some attention to make it appealing to tourists. I doubt most would notice it even though the grass and scrub had recently been cleared.

The temperature was 34°C by the time we returned to the boat so I got the second sunshade out to give us more protection as we continued our cruise. Being as we were travelling on a wide river we did feel the effects of a river breeze which helped somewhat. The only lock of the afternoon looked quite unusual as it had very tall top gates. This was because the river was on the other side and the height would prevent the water coming over the lock during floods.

We stopped for the day on yet another lock landing, this one was in Pompierre-sur-Doubs and we took the opportunity once again of going for a swim to cool down.

On Friday we cruised 9.5 km up three locks and saw three river cruisers, two French and one German, all heading downstream.

SATURDAY 14 MAY 

I know I seem to go on about the current high temperatures but it’s a big thing to us on a steel narrowboat because it heats up so quickly and then retains it throughout the night. Most bigger boats have built in generators and can run air conditioning units and, as well as being large and hence airy, they are often painted white so reflect all the sunlight.

I did a bit of painting first thing while Karen walked into the local village, Pompierre-sur-Doubs.  She came back and told me how pretty and well cared for the place was. It had a quaint mairie, the second one in two days not displaying flags, but as it was so cute it didn’t seem to matter. It was also quite unusual in that there were no signs that part of it was ever a school as is normally the case with village mairies.

She also found the old school which has now been converted into private homes…

…a pretty lavoir that had water in the abreuvoir (water trough) but sadly not in the washing basin…

…the war memorial,,,

…and a church with a Burgundian bell tower.

Not only was the village well cared for, but she said it felt as if the villagers were proud of their home. A stone plaque on an inside wall of the lavoir showing the village watermill, the lavoir and an old bridge across the river was testament to this feeling.

On her way back she stopped at the lock where the previous evening I’d noticed walnuts that looked ready to be picked for pickling. It’s an interesting custom in northern and central France where most locks have one or two walnut trees growing next to them, planted by the lock keepers who used to live in the lock cottages. Karen had obviously gone prepared as she’d taken walnutting gloves and a bag with her. Walnuts have to be handled carefully, or at least with gloves, as they stain pickers’ hands black. This is both in June when the green ones are picked for pickling and in the Autumn when the ripe ones have fallen to the ground and are harvested for shelling.

During our day’s cruise to L’Isle sur le Doubs, Karen started the first phase of the pickling process: pricking the skins and then bottling them in brine. They are then left in that state for eight days before the next stage of the process starts. We went up several locks and at one of them the lock cottage had hardly any gardens to speak of. Its frontage was the towpath and a railway line ran immediately along the back of the house.

While on railway lines we can tell we’re nearing the Peugeot factories at Montbéliard and Mulhouse because several of the freight trains that have passed us were loaded with either Peugeot cars or with Peugeot vans. The following lock started working for us and then went to two red lights as the doors started to open. We pulled up and called the VNF control centre who told me that there’d be a wait of an hour as the éclusier was on his lunch break.

We went inside to have our lunch when Karen saw a VNF van driving past us. I went out and found an éclusier had parked up and gone into the lockside control hut. We were soon going through with hardly any delay and I thanked him for interrupting his lunch hour. He was fine about it and was glad he could help us out.

We realised during the cruise that this would be the last day we’d be on the river Doubs itself. From our destination for the day, L’Isle sur le Doubs, until we meet the Rhine near Basel we’ll be travelling on canal only apart from a small section at Montbéliard. The section at Montbéliard is actually a crossroads where the river Doubs flows across the canal so care has to be taken because of the obvious crossflow.

Our last stretch on the river Doubs

Soon after leaving the river we were heading into L’Isle sur le Doubs and looking for a quay next to an Intermarché which we found after ten minutes cruising and tied up for the day.

As it was early afternoon we thought we’d pop to the tourist office and have a look around the town. It really was mad dogs and Englishmen weather as the only people out and about seemed to be tourists. The tourist office had already closed for the day and wasn’t reopening until Monday so we made up our own tour. We were in what looked like the main street of the old town.

The nearest building in the above picture was originally a primary school then it was used as a mairie (note the tell-tale air raids sirens) and is now a primary school again. We headed down the high street to the island of L’Isle sur le Doubs itself which is obviously surrounded by water. This is where the original part of town was and it really was quite attractive with most of the houses backing directly onto the river. I took a photo of one line of houses but it didn’t come out very well. Later on I found a photo of the houses on the web – can you guess which one was mine?

With it being such a hot day we found that the locals were out enjoying themselves barbequing in the shade of the trees on the banks with many of them swimming and paddling in the river. There were even people in the water both sides of the weir.

The waterpower was harnessed from early times and several forges had been built on the island. One of them made nuts, screws and bolts and used these arches, which had wheels on, to transfer power by belts into the factory. That forge was dismantled when the company went out of business but a later factory, now disused, can be seen in the background behind the arches.

On the weir side of the island we found various stone structures and also a noticeboard that indicated they were all that remained of a castle built for the Count of Neufchâtel in 1230.

At the other end of the island we came across a water fountain and an abreuvoir and saw a cave behind them.

We investigated the cave and found that it contained an underground lavoir and the basin was still filled with running water. 

We than retraced our steps and instead of going back to the boat we crossed the canal to have a look at the south side of town which was clearly the modern part of L’Isle sur le Doubs. The only building we saw of any note was the old telegraph office.

Rob and Amy from Vivante whom we’d been moored next to in Besançon had recommended a restaurant in town so we went along when it opened at 6.30pm. Unfortunately, they were fully booked so we ended up ordering a pizza to take away and had a couple of drinks while we waited.

On Saturday we cruised 10 km up five locks and saw two private boats on the move, a Kiwi couple and a French couple.

SUNDAY 15 JUNE

The forecast was for cooler weather on Sunday, to be brought about by thunderstorms. We didn’t want to stay in L’Isle sur le Doubs, preferring instead to get out into the country and it seemed the best window for cruising would be a few hours either side of midday. Before we left, Karen did some food shopping while I made a couple of trolley trips to the fuel station.

It was a mixture of sun and cloud for the journey and we avoided getting wet as there were only a couple of light showers. At one of the locks we saw an automatic weed dispensing machine. I use the word dispensing to mean getting rid of as opposed to giving out. When it sensed the hopper in the water was full, a conveyor started up and transferred the weed into a shredder which then disgorged into a skip. We actually saw the machine in operation as we came up the lock but it was idle again as we passed it.

Now we were off the river and onto a canal proper the countryside had definitely changed.

We were fortunate with the weather, because as we were mooring up for the day at Colombier-Châtelot, we could hear thunder in the distance.

A thunderstorm then arrived with us and lasted an hour or so but at least it brought the temperature down somewhat for the rest of the day.

On Sunday we cruised seven km up four locks and saw no boats.

MONDAY 16 JUNE 

We woke to cloudy skies on Monday which was ideal for Karen as it was a run day, and whilst she was gone I had a walk in the countryside. We set off soon after we were both back and by the time we reached the second lock the clouds had started receding.

We had a lift bridge ahead at Colombier-Fontaine and we’d given VNF the requisite amount of notice by calling them by 15.00 the day before. Although we’d said we wanted it raised at 12.00, we were three quarters of an hour early but an éclusier was already waiting for us and was happy to let us through. I did wonder if it meant he could take an early and extended lunch break.

There was a VNF office just after the bridge and Karen had spotted an outside tap so I asked the éclusier if we could take on water and he readily agreed. I know we only filled up a couple of days ago, but we always top up whenever we see a tap that’s available as it’s not always obvious where the next working water tap will be.

It was the first day since we left the canal des Vosges on 2^nd June that we’ve not had part or all of our journey on a river. It made a pleasant change being on a canal and we soon got used to it and also taking in the different scenery.

After four locks we arrived in Dampierre-sur-le-Doubs and moored up on an old high quay next to the church. Once again, it was a reminder that we no longer had Buddy with us as it would have been very difficult getting him off and on the boat against such a high quay.

There wasn’t much to the village, not even a bar or boulangerie. The mairie was small like the one Karen had found a couple of days previously at Pompierre-sur-Doubs, but it could hardly be called quaint, like she’d described hers.

With fewer than a dozen villagers killed in the two world wars two marble plinths had been erected in their memory in place of a traditional war memorial. Words to the effect that ‘it’s our moral and civic duty to never forget those that lost their lives’ was inscribed on the bottom of one of the plinths.

We were moored at the end of a road called rue du Lavoir and we had to walk the length of it before finding what we hoped to find.

Later in the afternoon we walked a few km further upstream to check out the section where the river Doubs forms a crossroads with the canal. We wanted to be sure we knew how we would handle the cross current caused by the flow of the river. Fortunately, it looked quite benign, so we were confident we’d be okay when we cruised that way the next day on our way to Monbéliard.

In the days before motorized barges they had a novel way of crossing the river when it was high. A narrow-gauge rail track ran on the towpath on the bridge that crossed the river. A chariot (description from our guidebook!) ran on the track from one side to the other with a barge attached to it to prevent it being taken down stream. We found what remained of the ‘chariot’ on the bank of canal by the crossing. I have to assume that must have been some sort of restraining mechanism that stopped the 'chariot' being pulled into the river.

When we got back to the boat we called up VNF as we had to give notice that we wanted to go through a lift bridge just outside Montbéliard tomorrow,

On Monday we cruised 10 km up four locks and saw one private boat of unknown nationality.

TUESDAY 17 JUNE 

With a hot day forecast we set out early from Dampierre-sur-Doubs bound for Montbéliard. This is leaving the Dampierre lock, looking back at the church under which we’d moored the previous night.

The canal kept reminded us of cruising in the UK with some narrow sections and sometimes the edges were lined with rushes.

It wasn’t long before we were crossing the Doubs and, as we suspected, the crossflow was hardly noticeable. This picture shows us entering the crossing with the canal continuing into the distance. The Doubs flows in from under the bridge which can just be seen on the right and then leaves on the left where, just out of sight, the river Allan joins it.

Now we’ve left the Doubs valley we’ll be following the river Allen for the next 20 km or so and then the river Bourbeuse to the summit. We had one lift bridge to go through and arrived 15 minutes early but the éclusier was already on site and was closing the vehicle barriers as we arrived.

We noticed how tame the herons were becoming the closer we got to Montbéliard. We saw a couple standing next to fishermen and not flinching when the rods were being brought in as we passed. There was even one at the side of a lock that wouldn’t move as we went through.

We soon reached Montbéliard and managed to moor outside the VNF office which is right next to the port. VNF allow visiting boaters to stay a night or two for free which we thought was most reasonable considering we were in a very popular tourist town.

The blue boat that’s to the right of us was too long to moor safely where it was in the port. To overcome this, they had a mobile spud leg which can be seen to the right of their anchors. It was the first time we’ve seen such a contraption, usually they’re part of the boat itself and the legs are dropped down underneath to secure the boat to the bottom of the waterway. The figurehead on the boat is actually a live heron.

After lunch we walked into Montbéliard and caught a train to Baume-les-Dames to pick up the car. Rather than taking the autoroute back to the boat we went the scenic way along the Doubs valley, recognising many of the places we’d cruised and moored at recently.

Back at the boat we met a lovely couple who were admiring our boat and ended up having drinks with them in the busy bar at the port. The couple were from Indiana and had recently bought a house on the canal de Bourgogne and were taking a holiday by cycling along the Doubs.

On Tuesday we cruised seven km up four locks, through one lift bridge and saw no boats.