Conflandey (Brexit effect on flags)

Ready for French national day

It was pretty cloudy on Sunday morning but as it wasn’t raining, we left for Chemilly straight after breakfast.  Our mooring had been so quiet compared with the noisy weir at Scey-sur-Saône the night before that we’d spent ages lying in bed listening to the birdsong before getting up.

Leaving our peaceful mooring by the château at Chemilly

As we went up the lock at Chemilly Karen popped into the lock cottage to buy some eggs.

Nice old couple waving goodbye to Karen (note the old lock information plate above the door)

It didn’t take long to get to our destination for the day, Port-sur-Saône, where a lock cut runs through the town as well as the river Saône. As we left the lock off the river, we passed the port. 

The port at Port-sur-Saône

The port was full, and we hadn’t expected to moor there anyway as it’s both a hire base and a base for private boaters to keep their boats.  Instead, we carried on to the centre of town and moored on the long quay.

Moored in the middle of Port-sur-Saône

As we’d arrived well before lunch, we went off to explore the town.  The main street crossed the other end of the quay, so we were soon in the centre of things.  We came up into the square in front of the mairie which seemed to have a few things going on.  First, we saw three bronze figures and found out they were entitled “Statues of the third millennium” and represented tolerance and brotherhood between people.  They were designed by Jean Thiancourt and cast by Antonio Serralheiro, a Portuguese artist, who lived and died in Port-sur-Saône.

Karen sat next to an African boy who's offering to play football with anybody

Completing the set, an Asian lad chatting to a seated European girl

Also in the square were a group of elephants, a giraffe and some African tribespeople.  We couldn’t find out much about these other than they were artworks from the Ivory Coast which, for a reason we also couldn’t ascertain, has strong links with the town.

Elephants, a giraffe and a postcard mural

The African tribespeople in front of the mairie

The wall in the background behind the elephants contains a mural of old postcards of the town.  Sadly, like much of the rest of the town, they were in a sorry state of repair.  Opposite the square stood the church and another small square with a war memorial. 

The church.  Oh, and look what is lurking in the foreground!

We were really surprised to find two further lavoirs in the town as many of them were removed in the larger towns to make way for developments.  That was before the state recognised their historical importance, both socially and architecturally, and started protecting them.  

Behind the war memorial in the church square was another fresco which had also seen better days.  This one was painted in 1990 and depicted the fight for human rights by people such as Lech Walesa, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Louise Michel and many others.  It was good to read later that a project has been initiated to rejuvenate both this and the postcards fresco.

Fresque des Droits de l’Homme behind the war memorial

Before we leave arty things, I’ll mention that there’s at least two modern life sized fishermen in white dotted around.  This one is sitting on the bridge across the river Saône:

Here he is again, from the main street through town:

Seeing the flags, we were reminded once again that the UK is no longer in the EU.  Many towns fly all the flags of the EU states and, until this year, the Union flag was among them: sadly, no longer.  Thinking about the Union flag or Union Jack made me realise something I’d never noticed before, the flag is a only mixture of the flags of England, Scotland and Ireland.  This uncovered another big hole in my history education – why isn’t Wales included?  I can only assume that England and Wales were one nation when the union with Scotland happened.

While on things European, we were pleased to receive our digital EU covid vaccination certificates over the weekend.  Hopefully, the UK will soon recognise the EU certificate and make popping back to the UK more realistic for people in our situation.  Especially as the EU already accepts the UK digital certificate.

When our friends Mike & Aileen visited Port-sur-Saône, they were less than impressed and Aileen described it as a shithole in her blog.  Mind you, they did visit on a rainy day.  Nevertheless, even though it was hot and sunny, we hadn’t been expecting much, and I suppose the best I can say was that it was very tired.   

As we crossed the bridge with the flags and the statue of the fisherman a Frenchman stopped us and asked if we spoke French to which we gave the usual response along the lines of, “Nous parlons Français juste un peu”.  He asked if we were from the péniche anglaise and it transpired that he’d seen us passing when he was walking along by the river earlier.  We had quite a good conversation and he spoke a little English sometimes too.  I was dying to ask what he thought of the town when he announced that his wife (no longer alive) was born and bred in the town, and he loves coming back as its such a nice place and his daughter and grandchildren live there.  Needless to say we didn’t mention what we thought of it.  Later in the afternoon he stopped by with his granddaughters and two of their friends as he wanted to show them our boat. 

The sun was fully out by mid-afternoon and as it was so hot we just lazed around waiting for the England-Italy game which, being as we’re in France, started an hour later for us.

On Sunday we cruised four miles up two locks.

Karen was back at work on Monday morning and my main job for the day was to retrieve the car from Gray.  I’d worked out that I could get the later of the two buses a day that run between Vesoul and Combeaufontaine, stopping at Port-sur-Saône halfway.  I would then wait 15 minutes at Combeaufontaine for a much longer journey to Gray.  I’d been very careful checking the small print on the timetables to check which days the buses run, and it turned out they were weekdays only.  I’d also bought a fresh block of tickets for my Mobigo bus app.

The timetable indicated that the bus stopped at the mairie in Port-sur-Saône, so I waited outside even though there was no sign of a bus stop.  A minibus arrived dead on time, and I hopped on only to find I couldn’t get my ticket app to work.  It was all rather embarrassing as I couldn’t explain to the busdriver lady what was going wrong.  In the end I gave her €1.50 in cash and sat down.  Fortunately, there was no one else on the bus so the bus driver was the only witness to my embarrassment.

We arrived at Combeaufontaine after a hair-raising ride, and I did wonder if she was making a point that I’d delayed things when I got on.  As I got off, I checked that this would be the same stop that would be used by the bus to Gray.  She said it was and asked if I’d made a réservation demandée.  I told her I hadn’t, and she explained that I need to make the réservation demandée by phone on the day before the journey.  Once again, I was saved too much embarrassment as there was nobody to hear my poor French or laugh at my mistake.  Fortunately, she was making the return journey to Vesoul about 20 minutes later so all I could do was wait for her to come back.

At least the bus stop in Combeaufontaine was by a lavoir!

The lavoir by the bus stop at Combeaufontaine

I got back on the minibus rather sheepishly and proffered my €1.50 but she refused to accept it and was really friendly and offered me loads of apologies.  When I got home, I checked online and couldn’t find anything to indicate that I had to ring to make the reservation for that service, but I rang anyway.  After another conversation that seemed to go on for ages, as both the girl on the end of the line and I were repeating practically everything, I felt confident I’d made my réservation demandée.  Let’s see what happens tomorrow when I get back to Combeaufontaine.  If my plan fails then I’ll have to wait until Thursday because everything will be closed down on Wednesday, July 14^th.

It was due to rain on Tuesday, but it didn’t matter as Karen was working and I was having round two of car retrieval.  The same busdriver lady picked me up by the mairie and we chatted for a while, but I had to draw it to a close after a while as I find it hard work concentrating on the language for any length of time.  When we arrived at Combeaufontaine, the connecting minibus was waiting for me, so I got to Gray OK.  The state subsidies must be high for these rural bus companies as my fare was only €1.50 for a 45-minute journey.

It was really warm when I got out at Gray and the town was packed; a fair had gone up along the quay which was also crammed with boats into the distance, far more than when we’d stayed there.  I picked the car up and headed for home via Conflandey to check the mooring, our plan was to move there in the evening if all was OK.

I mentioned recently about how in the 19^th century many Burgundian mairies were built over washhouses thus reinforcing the attitude to women in those days who were expected to do the laundry while men did only things men could do, in the mairie.  At Dampierre-sur-Salon I was lucky enough to pass one of these buildings.

At least the women were under cover and protected from the sun or inclement weather, unlike the open air one in the park opposite that had been converted to a flower display as with the one Karen found at St-Albin last week.

In Place de Bosquet, Dampierre-sur-Salon

The next village was back to highlighting the gender differences as the lavoir was positioned outside the mairie but at least it wasn’t underneath.

In Vaite

I won’t show all the lavoirs from my journey to Conflandey but will leave you with this pretty but open air one in the centre of Lavoncourt.  It conjured up interesting images of women washing clothes in the centre with animals drinking around the outside. 

In Lavoncourt

Conflandey was a lovely little village with a great open mooring above the lock and I found myself thinking how stunning it would all be in the summer and then realising we were in the middle of July already.  The mooring was extra attractive as there was no path alongside which meant Buddy would be safe off his lead.

Where we hoped to moor at Conflandey

My only concern was getting through the lock as the flow from the weir alongside was quite strong and not only that, but there was also a tributary coming in from the other side of the lock entrance making the water extra turbulent.  The different colours of the two rivers can clearly be seen here at their confluence.

River Saône at the top and the Lasterne on the bottom

Looking upstream, the Saône coming over the weir and the Lasterne joining from the right

When Karen finished work, we set off for Conflandey.  Karen took the car, and I took the boat with the intention of meeting her as she walked back downstream with Buddy.  It was still quite grey but at least the rain was still holding off for the journey.  As I left Port-sur-Saône I went under the viaduct carrying a bypass that was under construction.  It’s due to open later this year and will hopefully allow the town to become a far more attractive place without the through traffic.

The viaduct carrying the new bypass

Once Karen had parked up, she set off to meet me but stopped by a wire producing works just below the weir.  Wire has been produced there for over 100 years and the company seemed very proud of their heritage.  The wall along the towpath contained many information boards some of which depicted stories of families who worked at the factory before the first world war.

Montage along the mill wall

One of the many posters showing details of workers’ families

After a while Karen had to turn around as the towpath ran out, so walked back up to the lock so she could help me through when I arrived.  The river was wide for much of my journey, so I didn’t have to struggle against the flow, but it was a different story approaching the lock because of the turbulence. 

Approaching the écluse de Conflandey

I got through with a fair bit of rocking, steering one way and then the other and picked Karen up at the lock entrance.  Once we were moored up, we got the bunting out to decorate the boat ready for the French national day on Wednesday.

Putting the flags up for la fête nationale

On Tuesday we cruised four miles up one lock.

Before I start on Wednesday I want to respond to Helen & Chris who left a comment asking a question about UK/EU gas bottle adpaters.  I’m not convinced that Blogger handles my responses to comments correctly so here are the salient points: “This is a link to the adapter we purchased in the UK. Another solution would be to buy an EU regulator from a brico or large supermarket over here to replace the existing UK regulator.”

Although the predicted rain didn’t fall on Tuesday, the whole country was expecting bad weather on July 14th, so we prepared to stay put for the day.  It hadn’t started when I finished breakfast, so I took the car to Baulay to check the mooring there.  As it seemed a pleasant place with no boats, I left the car in the village and then cycled back.  There wasn’t a towpath, so I cycled back along the lanes which were even quieter than usual because of the national holiday. 

When I got back to the boat it still hadn’t started raining so I took Buddy out for a walk.  We kept dry and I was lucky enough to see my first hoopoe of the year.  These birds are unmistakable in flight because of their pink bodies and back and white striped tails.  We also popped down to the wire works and went around to the front entrance where the railings were bedecked with even more information boards.

This one shows one of the factory rooms

Taking a peek at cables of wire inside

Between the wire works and the village of Conflandey stands a large island with a rather run-down chateau in the centre.  When the works was first built, a path across the island was installed to provide access for the workers.  It ran across a suspension bridge on each side of the island and was raised on pillars as it crossed the chateau’s gardens on the island.

The path across the now greatly overgrown gardens

The chateau has seen better days

Some of you will be pleased to know that I couldn’t find a lavoir in the village, but it did have a war memorial standing outside the church:

Walking back across the road bridge I was able to make a comparison between nowadays and the river as it was over 100 years ago as seen on one of the factory information boards.  The weir in those days was a needle dam and has now been replaced and the lock has been rebuilt too.  The factory could be clearly seen in the distance on the left whereas now it’s almost obscured by trees.

 

Looking the other way to our boat, you can understand how I had a ‘forgetting it’s July’ moment thinking how glorious it would have looked if it were a summer’s day.

Moored at Conflandey

The rain started in the middle of the afternoon, and it was still at it when we went to bed so it goes without saying that we stayed put.  During the evening we had an Avis telling us that because of the rising levels, the pound below the one we're moored on is closed until Saturday at least.  The lock below us was the problem as it's alongside a weir as opposed to being in a lock cut like nearly all the others on the upper Saône.  We weren't surprised as it had been tricky when we'd come up 24 hours previously, so it was just as well we decided to move on from Port-sur-Saône when we did. 

Chemilly (the hole of the soul)

Heading for the weir at Scey-sur-Saône

After a short walk on Thursday morning, we set off from Soing and headed for Traves under grey skies.

Leaving Soing on Thursday morning

I’ve mentioned before about lock cuts and how they provide short cuts across large meanders in rivers.  Flood gates are often found at the upstream entrances to lock cuts and they are closed in times of flood to prevent damage to the man-made lock cuts.  On some rivers, flood locks are sometimes found in place of flood gates.  These work like ordinary locks but don’t have a rise or fall unless the river is running high.  The other difference compared with ordinary locks is that the upper gates are a lot higher than the lower gates as they need to retain the higher water level.  The picture below shows us leaving a flood lock (écluse de garde); the gates we have just come through are higher than those at the bottom.

Écluse de garde at Cubry-lès-Soing

After a while the clouds cleared, and we put up the parasols to keep the sun off the rear deck and Buddy.  About six kilometres from Traves the weather suddenly changed again, the sun disappeared, and the wind really got up.  The wind was so strong that we found it quite a struggle to get the parasols down.  As we approached Traves the wind died down as quickly as it started, and the clouds started clearing once again.

All calm again heading into Traves

The river forms several small lakes around Traves and a holiday park is built around one of them.  Rickety pontoons have been erected so that the holidaymakers can hire small motorboats and take them around the lakes and onto the river.  If there’s room, visiting pleasure boats can also moor up for €8 a night although there’s an extra charge for water and electricity but we didn’t find out how much that was.  There was just room for us and after mooring up we went for a look around.

Moored at Traves

We had a walk to the next village which was called Bucey-lès-Traves.  We went up a hill overlooking the river where there were some lovely summer houses built to take in the views along the valley.  The village had the usual mairie, lavoir and church but no shops or bars.  We walked back along the side of the river thus completing a circular walk.

On Thursday we cruised 13 miles up three locks.

An eight-kilometre walk was advertised on the information board in the holiday home park and as it was highly recommended, we thought we’d take it before setting off for Scey-sur-Saône on Friday.  According to the leaflet there were two attractions of the three villages of Bucey-lès-Traves, Aroz and Traves.  These attractions were a couple of stones dating from the Neolithic period and a lavoir in each village.  We find that trails are either extremely well signposted in France or very poorly marked: well signposted routes being the most usual.  This one was at the worst extreme as we only came across two signposts, so we were glad we’d taken a picture of the route.

The stones were difficult to find as they were both in crop fields with no path leading to them.  We knew that the first stone was to the left of the farm track we were following, 50 metres or so before it reached a T-junction.  All of a sudden, we were at the T-junction even though we’d not see the stone.  Karen spotted it first between a pea field and a wheat field.  We'd been walking alongside the pea field for a while and had been admiring dozens of butterflies, including many long tailed blues whose larvae feed on several different species of legumes. 

The first stone, outside Scey-sur-Saône

The stone was the only one left of what had been a Neolithic single chambered megalithic tomb.  Historians specializing in that period believe the body was passed through the hole (the hole of the soul) for a moment of spirituality.  The next stone was outside the village of Aroz and was easier to spot, but this time the fields around it were all fenced off.

The second stone, outside Aroz

The lavoirs at both Aroz and Traves were both impressive, full of flowing fresh water which always provides a welcome drink for Buddy.  The one at Aroz also had a flowing water trough (abreuvoir around three sides.

Aroz and Traves lavoirs

The church at Aroz

When we got back to the boat we set off for Scey-sur-Saône.  The rain from two days previously had swelled the river somewhat and we could feel the extra flow, especially as we were heading upstream.

Leaving the holiday park at Traves

There was a lock cut outside Scey-sur-Saône that went through a tunnel after going up the lock.  The tunnel was one way and the channel leading up to the entrance seemed so bendy that we couldn’t believe that 39-metre barges used to ply their trade along this route until a few years ago.

Reinforcement work was being carried out on the cutting at the far side of the tunnel although there was no sign of any actual physical activity, a bit like roadworks on British motorways.

The light at the end of the tunnel is a boat following us

Reaching the end of the second lock cut of the day we re-joined the river and turned downstream to find the mooring at Scey-sur-Saône.  We’d read that the mooring was just before a weir at the town bridge and as the river was running higher than it had been lately we were both a bit concerned about mooring up.  We would have to turn before mooring so that we were facing upstream; the boat is a lot easier to control if heading against the current.  We hadn’t realised how close to the weir we would have to go in order to turn around and I have to admit that my heart was in my mouth, especially as I just managed to avoid a moored boat during the manoeuvre.

This picture is as we headed for the weir which runs across in front of the island.  It looks tranquil and you can hardly tell where it is but that’s not how we felt as we approached it:

French weirs don’t tend to have barriers across the river

During the afternoon, the other three boats on the mooring left so we were on our own in the centre.  Rather than being bang in the middle which is rather selfish, we thought we’d move to one end.  We did this together as we were on a flowing river, and I put a chain on at the front just in case any mischievousness happened overnight – we didn’t want to wake up teetering on a weir.  Once we were safe and secure again, a woman came over and told me that we were on a reserved mooring and needed to move back five metres.  She pointed to a sign at water level that can only be seen when arriving by boat.  I apologised and we set about moving back to the next set of rings.

Scey-sur-Saône was a town rather than a village and had a 7/11 (actually 8/8) store so Karen popped in to get a few bits and then we walked around the town.  A lot of effort had gone into putting up placards of old postcards on various streets.  They were positioned so that it was easy to see ‘then and now’ views which we found most interesting. 

We came across one lavoir near the church and this one was built over a fast-flowing stream, so Buddy was straight into it to cool down.

Buddy having a cool down in the water (he still won't swim)

We were joined by another boat later in the evening which was flying a red ensign so we thought they were Brits.  It turned out they were Dutch and had borrowed the boat from British friends.

On Friday we cruised eight miles up two locks.

As much as we love hearing running water during the night when lying in bed, we found the noise of the weir next to us louder than any of the weirs or lock overflows that we’ve heard before.  This meant we were up early even though it was a Saturday.

Sun coming up on Saturday morning in Scey-sur-Saône

Karen went for a run first thing while Buddy and I went to the local campsite to pay our €4 overnight mooring charge.  We then had a walk around Scey-sur-Saône to take in the parts of the town that Karen and I hadn’t covered on Friday and found many houses had towers built as part of the structure or in their grounds.

This was one of the old forges

...and here is one of the towers in someone’s back garden

The mairie was very pretty in pink and still had the inscriptions ‘ECOLE DES GARCONS’ and ‘ECOLE DES FILLES’ on the front walls of the two wings:

The imposing costume museum…

…and the war memorial

Karen came back from her run rather pleased with herself as she'd found a pump-fed lavoir in the little hamlet of St-Albin.  It's now being used as a flower bed and she was extra pleased as she'd spotted the sloping washing stones around the outside.

The repurposed lavoir at St-Albin

It reminded me that I'd come across a couple more during my walk around town:

A basic riverside one and another built over a stream

After a mid-morning coffee, we set off in brilliant sunshine on the short journey to Chemilly where we were hoping a short pontoon was free.  As we cruised out of Scey-sur-Saône, men were busy tidying the gardens in the summerhouses along the riverbank.  No doubt they were readying them for the upcoming summer holidays.  When we arrived at Chemilly we were in luck as the mooring was empty and we soon moored up in an idyllic spot next to the rear grounds of a château.

Moored at Chemilly

The village was so small that it didn’t even have a church, but it did boast a mairie of course.

Since returning from Barcelona we've taken advantage of Karen having a week off work by travelling and exploring each day.  Sitting outside, reflecting on our week, we both felt like we're having a second holiday. 

On Saturday we cruised four miles through no locks.

Soing (it's OK she's from Barcelona)

Catherine's view across Barcelona

We really enjoyed our long weekend in Barcelona, and it was good to spend time with Matthew and Catherine.  We haven’t seen Catherine since February 2019 as she’s been locked down in her adopted hometown of Barcelona.  It wasn’t quite so long since we'd seen Matthew as he visited us on the boat for a few days last summer when Norway relaxed their travel ban.  We took in the usual tourist sites in the city but as spending time with the children was the main reason for going, we spent most of the time relaxing outside:

As fully vaccinated French residents there were no restrictions for us driving to and from Spain, so we didn’t have any of the hassles of paperwork or needing Covid tests in either direction.  The same applied to Matthew although he did have a test before going back on Saturday as the rules for Norwegian residents travelling back from Spain weren’t entirely clear.  When he arrived back in Norway it transpired that he needn’t have spent 3½ hours queuing for his test as it wasn’t a requirement for his re-entry.

The 9½ hour drive down from Gray was uneventful with just a short delay when we hit Lyon during the morning rush hour.  We didn’t leave until mid-morning on Monday for the 875-kilometre long drive back but were back on board by 8pm, so another reasonable journey.

One evening Catherine & Matthew treated Karen to a cooking lesson for her birthday.  We had a great evening preparing, cooking and finally eating our meal.  The experience was extra special as we had an exclusive session and therefore dined totally privately. 

Barcelona is home to many of Anton Gaudi’s iconic designs, so we took in a few of those during our daily walks.  The cathedral which has been under construction for 135 years and still isn't finished was one block away from our apartment and Buddy had his pre-breakfast walks around the outside.

The Sagrada Familia…

…and the other side

Casa Batlló (apartments built in 1904)

Casa Milà (Gaudi’s last apartment building – built 1906-12)

Catalan is the main language spoken over much of Barcelona, so most information is presented in both Catalan and Spanish, and we really had to rely on Catherine to help us navigate our way around menus etc.  She is determined to add Catalan to her armoury of languages over the next year as she intends on working and living in Barcelona for the foreseeable future. 

Walking to see the superyachts in one of the ports we passed Barcelona’s Arc de Triomphe:

Arc de Triomf (or Arco de Triumfo in Spanish)

To complete the tourist pics of the city here's a Spanish pillar box:

And this is one of the narrow streets in the old town:

One afternoon we went to see where Catherine lives up on a hill overlooking the city.  She is very fortunate and has wonderful views across to the Med below as in the opening picture to this blog update.  This final view of Barcelona shows the size of the cathedral in proportion to the rest of the buildings. 

Even though we were only away for a few days, our first holiday for three years, we felt really relaxed when we got back to the boat.  The weekend had been extra special because we were able to spend time with two of the children.

Karen wasn’t working for another week therefore we decided to take advantage and have a few days cruising.  Unfortunately, rain was forecast for Tuesday, but we thought we’d get a move on anyway.  We were going to dispense with the car for a while until we could find somewhere where we could get buses back to Gray to retrieve it, this meant we wouldn’t be restricted in how far we travelled each day.  It was getting on for midday by the time we were ready to leave and had said our goodbyes to Helen & David who weren’t leaving until Tuesday.

It did rain a lot of the way, so we used our parasols to protect us from the worst of it while on the back deck.  We weren’t the only ones on the move as we passed and were overtaken by many hire boats.  They tend to move every day whatever the weather, so we even had company at one of the locks.  This picture sums up the afternoon’s cruise:

Near a place called Quitteur

We moored for the night at a waiting area for the tunnel on the lock cut at Savoyeux and the rain stopped once we moored up.  We thought it would be OK to moor there overnight as we planned on getting away early on Wednesday morning and any early risers would probably get straight through the tunnel without having to wait.

Moored in Savoyeux lock cut

On Tuesday we cruised 17 miles up four locks through one tunnel and the sun finally made an appearance a bit late in the day at almost nine o’clock.

Wednesday was back to hot weather with some welcome cloud cover.  As we’d moored overnight in the tunnel waiting area we left at 8am before VNF asked us to move on.  After a little way we were passing the port at Savoyeux which is where we were going to leave the boat when we went to Barcelona.  We cancelled it in the end as we decided to leave it at Gray as friends were staying for a few days and were able to keep an eye on it and water the plants.  You may remember me explaining that we would have had to breast up alongside a narrowboat owned by a guy on a small Dutch barge.

It would have been problematic getting Buddy on and off anyway

We headed for Ray-sur-Saône for breakfast and were lucky as three boats left as we were nearing the mooring, leaving it free for us.

Heading for Ray-sur-Saône

Moored for breakfast

It turned out to be a lovely mooring and a very pretty village with the usual things like a mairie, a church with Burgundian roofed bell tower, a lavoir and a château overlooking the village.  A sign indicated that the lavoir was unusual as it had an 18^th century oval washing basin.  Ironically, the other two lavoirs we found during the day also had oval basins.

The château gardens were open to the public, so we walked up to the top of the hill above the village to have a look around.  The original fortress was built in the mid-1400s and had 14 defensive towers, two of which remain to this day.  The castle was extensively rebuilt in the 1700s and has been unchanged since then.

Looking over Ray-sur-Saône from the château gardens

When we got back to the boat the mooring had filled up and we set off for Soing.  Two 25 metre pontoons were provided just below the weir at Soing, but they were full.  After a bit of investigation, we realised we could probably just perch on the end of one of the pontoons and tie the other end to some trees. 

Is this a record for the shortest amount of pontoon used?

It took us ages to get lines across to the bank and make the boat secure.  It wasn’t made any easier by the swathes of stinging nettles Karen had to stand in along the water’s edge.  I had the job of cutting back the overhanging branches so that the boat would fit under the trees without knocking the plants off.

After mooring up we went for a look around Soing: here’s the church, an odd looking lavoir, the massive mairie which was totally out of proportion for a small village and the war memorial. 

We then walked three kilometres out of the village to see one of the two main local attractions according to the blurb on the information sign at the mooring.  The walk took us across fields to some woods to see the Fontaine des Ormois which was built in 1780.  We weren’t sure what to expect as there were no signs of any settlement around, but it turned out to be two oval basins.  The smaller one was an abreuvoir or animal watering place and the larger had washing stones around the perimeter and was obviously a lavoir.  We were completely flummoxed by the lack of any housing in sight and couldn’t find out why the fontaine was built there.

Abreuvoir, lavoir and Buddy enjoying the water and the shade

Back in the village we went to the playing fields to find the other attraction which was a 12^th scale Eiffel Tower erected in 1992 to celebrate a riverside festival along the Saône.

As it was Karen’s birthday, we thought we would go out for a meal if we could find a restaurant.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t one in Soing, so we resorted to plan B.  We'd bought some good steaks before we left Gray and had a lovely meal on board before the England game.

On Wednesday we cruised 12 miles up two locks.