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| Besancon. A pump out! and it looks like it works and it's free!! |
10.7°C Sunny and hot. Untied from
the pontoon below the ramparts in Besançon and set off upriver at 9am on la
boucle du Doubs (loop of the Doubs river). Passed an old loading/unloading
basin on the right, now filled with yellow water lilies. A Le Boat hireboat
went past, heading downriver, at 9.10am by the first roadbridge. As we came to
the second roadbridge a female goosander flew past. At the third bridge another
Le Boat
cruiser came downriver towards us then did a sharp U-Turn to moor next
to the vertical stone quay at Port Battant. Into the lock cut leading to
St-Paul’s lock. There was a trip boat on the mooring below the lock, it was
running its engine and pouring out clouds of thick blue/grey smoke. Cough, cough. He
wouldn’t get away with running a road vehicle like that! Why are there so many
people who don’t do engine maintenance on their boats like they do with their
cars?? A few
cruisers were moored on the finger mooring below the lock. Mike
went up a ladder and put a rope on a bollard while he turned the lock round. It’s
DIY and manually operated by boat crews. The paddles needed many turns to open and shut. The
capstans to open and shut the gates were very stiff and would have benefited from some grease. Last boat was uphill and had left the top
end gates open and all the paddles up. When the lock was empty Mike opened one
gate – a guy came out of the old mill alongside the lock and went to open the
other gate for him until Mike pointed out we only
needed one gate. Mike had
taken a short boat shaft with him and hooked a rope for me and put it round a
bollard, which was in the wrong place – and the water kept pulling the boat
forward. Up about 2.10m. Not far upriver from the lock there was an extensive new
pontoon, about 150m long, outside a large modern building. Just a couple of
boats tied to it – one smoky cruiser had just set off heading the same way as
us. The pontoon had all facilities – including a toilet pump-out!
We paused and refilled our water tank, didn’t need much so, it didn’t take long
and we were on our way again. A bit further upriver there were two converted péniches,
one was a floating restaurant, the other a houseboat. A factory marked on our
chart had disappeared altogether. Two more houseboat péniches were moored
upstream of the next road bridge. Took a photo of the eastern most end of the
ramparts as we continued past the end of the tunnel and on upriver. Lock
40 La
Mâlate filled as fiercely as we’d written on our guide book last time, glad
Mike had a rope on a recessed bollard and I also had one on a vertical bar set
in the slot for the blue rod, as one gate paddle still opened fully all in one
go. The boat still tried to surge back and forth with the flow. Surprise when
the gates opened, there was a DB a few feet from the gates! Mike managed to
steer around his bows without getting into the shallow edge to our right. Then
the boat went into the chamber before he got a green light – why do they do
that? It’s sure to go “en panne” and cause more work for the VNF. There were
three more
péniche houseboats moored on the left bank above the lock – Nadia was
very tastefully converted. 6.4kms of river to the next lock and it was starting
to get very hot with no relief from the breeze which was coming from behind us.
The river was still flowing between 2.5 and 3kph as we wound around the bends
through Chazeule. The village church clock rang its bells for midday as we went
past. Rocks and more bends. No pontoon now at the sports ground. Lock 48 Chalèze
emptied slowly. Again it was a deep lock (3.6m) which filled fiercely and there
were no bollards in the wall, but there was a bar in the slot for the rod, so I
threaded a
rope around that. 7.6kms to the next. I made some lunch and sat
inside with the fan on to eat mine. Mike had put our sunshade up (first time
this year) so he was sheltered from the sun under that. Through the flood gate
at Roche-les-Beaupré and noted a new pontoon for mooring, right next to a
friterie (French-style chip shop). Last lock of the day was another two-rise
staircase lock. 47/46 Deluz. No bollards or a bar in this one, went up the
lower chamber OK, then Mike got off the boat and walked up to the top, I
steered the boat into the top chamber and Mike
took the centre rope, put it
round a bollard for me, then lifted the blue road. The man from the house alongside
the lock was mowing his lawn on the lockside. We moved on further up the canal section and moored next to the busy little
D266 road, using the Armco supports to tie to.
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| University and a blue bendy tram. Besancon |
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| St Paul's lock and mill (manual DIY) Besancon |
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| New moorings - abt 150m of pontoon with all mod cons. |
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| Tunnel under the citadel eastern end |
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| Two rise staircase at Deluz |
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| Alongside the road abv Deluz 2-rise |
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| Moored abv Deluz locks noisy fishermen on the pontoon behind us (opposite bank) |
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| Eastern end of the ramparts. Besancon |
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