Burgundy

Week 57 — Sept 20th - Oct 5th (Tony).

I haven't died yet; but I've been to Heaven. It's somewhere among the vineyards of Burgundy. Arriving in St Jean de Losne, the boating capital of inland France we were disappointed to find the town much smaller and less interesting than we had imagined and the port was choc-a-bloc with boats of every kind. Many were for sale, whilst others were works-in-progress or awaiting ship builders' attention. And the population of the floating community comprised mainly Brits. We found the atmosphere strangely unwelcoming and I can't imagine a worse place to spend the winter, holed-up in a freezing boat with nothing to do except play bridge or compare notes on the latest BBC soap operas. So we promptly elected to head up the Canal de Bourgogne to Dijon, a two day cruise along a very scenic poplar-lined canal. Dijon turned out to be a delightful city, full of interesting things to see, and of course rich in history as the reigns of successive Dukes of Burgundy predate the sovereignty of France.

We joined a mini-bus tour through the Cotes de Nuits vineyards — an eclectic group comprising a couple from Brazil, Japan, Korea, and us Aussies. The journey took us through villages famous worldwide for their wines, Gevery Chambertin, Vougeot, Fixin, and Nuits St-Georges. The young driver was an outstanding guide and I now know a lot more about the mystery of the great wines of Bourgogne and how their rigid appellations controllés work. I think I can now understand how to read the labels on bottles and distinguish what's likely to be good and what may be rubbish. Pinot Noir has always disappointed — it's never voluptuous enough for my palate — but I now appreciate there is a delicacy and fineness to a good Burgundy, but to find such quality it is unaffordable. Nothing however alters the fact that this area is one of the prettiest in France, if not the world, especially as the autumn tones creep into the leaves of the vines and trees on the hilltops. We were astonished to find that on the day of our tour (24th Sept) the picking of grapes had not begun. This year's harvest is particularly late for some reason. We passed by many famous grand-cru vineyards and observed a few vintners sampling grapes and testing the sugar levels of the juice. We paused to peer over the wall into the 2-3 hectare monopole plot of Vosne-Romanée Conti (photo) where grandad (presumably the owner) was introducing his toddler grand-daughter to the art of grape tasting. It is from these vines that the most expensive wine in the world is produced. There is a five year waiting list for buyers and the price, depending on the quality of the vintage, may range from 3,000€ to 6,000€ a bottle! I declined to place an order as I thought I'd already passed away. I expect it to be free in Heaven.

Such was the pleasure we derived from the bus tour, the next day we took the motor bikes for a run up to the top of the range and back down the same lanes through the vineyards where the picking had started now in earnest. It may look like fun but I can tell you now, picking grapes and hauling the baskets full of bunches back to the trailers waiting for a load to cart to the presses is not easy. After fifteen minutes, merely witnessing the toil in one vineyard, the romance of grape picking dissolved. Much better to be a taster of the finished product!

Christian and Charlotte, our Swiss neighbours from Roanne, arrived in Dijon having come up the Canal de Bourgogne from the other end. For three nights we alternately wined and dined onSable and Kinette, and caught up with each other's adventures over the summer. They will probably not get back to Roanne before we leave for Aus so we may not see them again until next year. Christian has kindly offered to keep an eye on our boat while we're away. Sally's sister, Myra, joined us in Dijon for a second stint at this wonderful cruising life and following a delicious Sunday lunch outdoors at a cafe in the square we set off back down the canal to St J de L and once more into the Saône. We stopped for a nostalgic night in Suerre, for it was here we first sighted Sable last September.

We called into Verdun sur Doubs for an overnight stop. This town also has a rich history of conflict, though not to be confused with the Verdun on the Meuse which was the centre of the bitterest battle of all in WWI. It also houses a fascinating museum devoted to bread making. We continued next day down the Saône, now a very big river indeed, to Chalon. This attractive city deserved a two or three day stopover but the marina staff were most emphatic that boats over 15 m long were not permitted. Despite her professional expertise, Sally's attempt at disembling fell on deaf ears, the Capitainerie having already paced out the length of our boat, but her piteous pleas for somewhere to moor gained us permission to remain for one night only. We felt pleased we hadn't tied-up on the town steps when we discovered next morning two enormous cruise boats had moored there during the night. Capable of carrying more than a hundred passengers each, I presume they must ply the Rhône and Saône from Marseilles to Chalon. We enjoyed exploring the town centre and visited a marvellous museum displaying photographic memorabilia and photos dating back to the originals produced by Niépce, the inventor of photography, who was born here. We would have stayed longer, especially as Chalon seemed to have a plethora of excellent restaurants. We had dinner at one which was very pleasant. The rest will just have to content themselves with the patronage of crews from smaller vessels. As if...

Next morning, we took our leave and turned off the river for the final, yes final, time and entered a 10.7 m lock, the highest we've ever seen, and emerged into the Canal de Centre. Stunningly beautiful, this canal winds its way straight back into the vineyards of Burgundy, albeit of lesser fame, at Chagny and Santenay. Today, we hiked to the top of a hill overlooking Chagny and the vineyards and were astonished to see clearly the high peaks of Switzerland. What a sight! We're now only about a week's cruising away from Roanne. We'll endure another few days of walking round the vineyards and sampling the produce of the region, then we will reluctantly direct Sable to her winter berth.

The Saône

Week 55 — Sept 6th - 19th (Sally).

This has been an interesting two weeks as we celebrated not only the anniversary of our purchase of Sable but also a year since we started our first cruise. We remember the trepidation as we set out and the few hiccups along the way as we gained confidence and knowledge into managing our floating home. In spite of it being the first day looking and the first boat we actually inspected we are both still convinced that we have not seen a vessel that would have suited us better. In our travels we have seen such a variety of boats, the strangest was little more than a floating raft, tent on top and powered by a single outboard motor. They chugged past us on the Meuse and we saw them again after they had completed 200 kms on their way north again. There have also been a variety of converted barges in various stages of renovation from the magnificent to the "How did I ever think I could do this." Those are the ones that make us so thankful that we bought a new-built with no work required.

Our two days in Gray extended to a week as we attempted to have a repair done on our clothes dryer. The promise of a new part by Thursday extended to 'perhaps' next Tuesday so we gave up and proceeded without a working dryer. However the extended stopover was not without highlights. We were moored to a long stone quay and on Sunday were woken by the VNF guys to warn us they were opening the barrages to release water, the result of a deluge upstream. We watched most of the day as the level rose until, when it was ankle deep over our ropes, we moved across river to a higher quay. The rest of the night was spent with one eye on the weather but by morning it was all under control again. Canal cruising has many advantages over rivers. The Saône, even this far up, is a mighty river — one to be very wary of when it is in flood. Gray was an important river port in its day and it had a large number of wealthy merchants who built great buildings throughout the town. Unfortunately most of these are now converted to flats and although the original grandeur is there it is slowly falling away under its weight of years. The Office of Tourism in Gray had organised a two hour guided tour of the town followed by a degustation lunch of local specialities. What a bargain at 4€20. It was interesting to get inside some of the buildings that are not normally open to the public, such as the original pharmacy of the old hospital complete with a wall of ceramic pots for herbs and potions plus the scales and tools for preparing them. Another fascinating building hosted a staircase where the top portion revolved to close off the top floor. It was renowned as the hiding place of an outlawed priest who became the champion of the people of Gray when he saved them from the plague.

From Gray we travelled downstream to Auxonne. Napoleon attended the local military academy in Auxonne and they are very proud of that. The town square boasts a statue of a very young Napoleon and the large military presence is accommodated in The Bonoparte Quarter. In the tourist Office we noticed a poster advertising an Exposition of Vauban in the Arsenal. So we set out to explore and found the Arsenal but could not find an entrance or any sign of the exposition. We gave up and returned to the Tourist office where I picked up the poster and asked our friendly lady for help. She told me it would cost 2€, to which I replied "Yes, but where is it?" The answer was it's 2€ for the poster, the exposition was last year!!!! They give you maps, booklets, free mooring with electricity and water, then charge 2€ for an out of date poster...  Auxonne also turned on a host of functions for our Sunday entertainment. The local triathalon started early and all day we had extremely fit runners passing to remind us that we should do more exercise. At 11.00am there was the local band, a march of soldiers and firemen with a wreath laying ceremony at the War Memorial. Then an open day at the fire station where we watched the complete destruction of a car using "The Jaws of Life."

Monday we continued our way south but true to form diverted and started north again up the Canal Rhone au Rhin. This is the canal that eventually leads to the Rhine and up to Strasbourg but we only intended to do a couple of kms to look at one village. Two days later we are still heading north, drawn on by the promise of just one more stop until we reached the old town of Dole where the Canal joins the river Doubs. Dole would have to be one of the prettiest places we have been to. A fascinating town of lovely parks, narrow cobbled streets and high pitched roofs, all dominated by tjonhe magnificent Church and bell tower. Every view is postcard pretty and we were sorry to leave.  But it was time to turn south again and after a day cruising we finally made it to St Jean de Losne. It is known as the inland capital of boating and you can see why. We are moored in a huge basin, one among 200+ boats — all shapes and sizes and several shipyards where boats are being repainted, repaired or converted from commercial to live-aboards. The town itself is disappointing. With such a floating population we had expected it to be a bit more welcoming so today we have decided to have one more little diversion before we continue south. Tomorrow we head west, up the Burgundy Canal to Dijon. Its only a day or so and seems a shame to be so close and not get among the grape vines of Burgundy, especially now that they're in the thick of picking. We are still enjoying glorious, sunny weather although for the past week there has been a strong and very bitter wind blowing straight down from the Urals. The sun will soon cross the equator into the southern hemisphere and we'll be following close behind!