Boating in Burgundy: Day 8 - Dole to Auxonne

We woke in the morning to the lovely sound of pouring rain. Again. Sigh. We had paid 3 euros for a shower at this facility so we were determined to take them. We packed our towels, soap, clean clothes etc. and hurried to the shower at the other end of the marina. At least the showers were hot and roomy and there was space to keep our dry clothes dry. We each have waterproof jackets and water resistant hoods and as we got ready to pull out the rain had mostly stopped. Hopefully it won’t pour all day because today is the same as yesterday for the first 3 hours – lock after lock – which requires both of us to be outside as we go through them.

One section of the trip on the canal between Dole and the Saone River is through an industrial area. There are warning signs that there is closed circuit TV and other warnings if there’s any problem to basically, get the hell away – don’t linger! It’s not very pretty and doesn’t feel especially safe. Luckily, it’s only about a ten minute span of traveling time.

On the canal

a house at one of the locks

The lock at the entrance of the canal that led to Dole

The weather cleared up early in the day, so we weren’t standing in the rain too much. We reached the Saone just around noon and then got to the turn off toward Auxonne a little after 1:00. There was a lock there with two boats going in and one boat waiting in front of us and a large barge behind us. After the two boats went into and through the lock, a boat came through the lock in the opposite direction. After this, the boat ahead of us and we moved into the lock. Someone from the other boat got off to turn the pole that opens the lock door but it wouldn’t work. Then the girl from the other boat pulled the emergency pole. Then the captain from the barge came along screaming in French at all of us but neither we nor the folks in the other boat (whom incidentally we met in Chalon) could understand him. Fortunately, both they and he also spoke German so they explained what happened to us. We then had to wait for someone to come to reset the lock – about a half hour we were told.

The boat ahead of us waiting to get into the lock

The barge behind us (three times our length)

Waiting for the lock to open

The small boat on the left came out of the lock

The barge captain’s wife came over to talk to us. She spoke English and she and her husband were Dutch. Apparently, the lights on the locks go from red, to red and green, to just green. Since no one was in the lock, both our boat and the boat in front of us went in on the red and green, when you’re supposed to wait. That triggered a mechanism that stopped the lock from working at all. And it started raining again. Also the barge, being a professional boater, has right of way in the lock, even though we were there first. We finally got through the lock after the guy came to reset it.

The guy in the blue jacket resetting the lock and the barge captain

We traveled the short distance to Auxonne and docked at the recommended marina, H2O. As we were pulling into our space, a woman from the beautiful boat next to us got off her boat to help us dock. And she spoke English!!! She and her husband are British and spend a good part of their year on the boat. Her name is Chris and her husband, whom we met later, is Pete. Next, David and I went into the town of Auxonne and did a walking tour of this town. It’s cute and small and we sampled the pastries in several bakeries. This town is famous because Napolean went to school here.

Church in Auxonne

Fortification around the town of Auxonne

David in front of Napolean's statue

Walking around with pastries

Then we headed back to the boat to relax and pay the dockmaster. Well, he and his wife are also British and an American couple was in their office when we stopped by. The Americans were from Mass. and have rented their house out for two years while they live and travel on their boat! Living my dream!!! David was wearing one of his orange Syracuse shirts and, small world, the American guy went to Cuse!! We all talked for a while and then we headed back to our boat again. We were chatting with Chris and Pete, and then another of their British friends, Ken, also living on his boat for the better part of 20 years, came over. We all had a lovely time talking until they were joined by yet another American couple with whom they were having dinner. While we were getting ready for our dinner, we heard English being spoken by a man in the boat diagonally across from ours. Another American and his wife living on their boat, so we talked with them for a bit. They were going out to dinner as we were and so we were all taking the long path into town at the same time. Then we met up with another couple of Brits also living on their boat! It turns out this whole group was getting together for dinner. We all walked together and I was chatting with one of the British women. We all exchanged email addresses and blogs, and this last couple was planning to be in the US in a year or two and come up to the Hudson where we keep our "real" boat. Maybe we'll see them again. During our conversation, David mentioned the young couple with the sailboat and little children that we'd met in Tournus. He no sooner got the words out and they said "Oh, you mean Tom and Natalia". Unbelieveably, they'd met them too. Apparently the living-on-your-boat-in-France thing is a small world. Well, David and I had a nice dinner with a waitress who was kind enough to translate the menu, and best of all, this marina has wifi, so I'm very happy!