The River Saône

We were both a little anxious about heading onto a big river after the familiarity of the canals. We hadn’t been on a river since the Seine, last September, and the last lock on the canal was really deep and scary!

However, we soon realised that our fears were completely unfounded and how great it was to be on a wide expanse of water again. The Saône was calm and beautiful in the sunshine, and surprisingly empty. It runs through rural countryside with lush trees growing right down to the water’s edge on both banks in places. It gave us a sense of exploration, cruising slowly up the channel, dense vegetation lining the banks, no signs of human habitation, watching the shadows of birds of prey circling over the canopy.

We’ve had lots of great rural moorings along the Saône where we’ve just tied up to some trees or staked to the bank and enjoyed being in the truly unspoilt countryside. The wildlife is prolific; we’ve seen families of ducks and swans, kingfishers, coypu, frogs, kites, buzzards and heard innumerable songbirds.

We’ve also visited some interesting towns. Some highlights include: steak and frites at the Café National in St Jean de Losne, shopping and the Musée des Beaux Arts in Dijon, frescoes in the Cathedral at Dole and the Musée Baron Martin in Gray. I seem to be developing a preference for medieval art – not quite sure why. I think it’s partly because many of the paintings from this period tell a story – it’s not just art for art’s sake.

To keel or not to keel

Having finally made the decision to lose our keel, our plans were thwarted at the final hour. We arrived at H2O’s slipway and looked at the trailer they were planning to use to haul us out with some trepidation. Frankly, it didn’t look big enough, but they assured us they had successfully hauled out bigger boats than ours. So, with Johanne lined up on the slipway, the trailer started creeping under her hull and then stopped. The driver got out and wiggled a few buttons on his remote control but to no avail – the trailer would not go far enough under. They offered to lift her out with a crane at a greatly increased cost. The drydock wouldn’t be available for another 3 months. What to do? After lots of discussion, we decided to live with the keel for another year and have booked into the drydock for next April. What an anticlimax!

Saone

Just a quick update - will add more + pics soon. We're currently on the River Saone, just north of Gray. Both still enjoying our travelling life. We were unable to get hauled out of the water to have the keel taken off the boat so have decided to live with it for now and try again next year. Hoping for more internet time when we get to Toul and will do a proper update then.