Friday 12th July 2013
We
encountered the steel sided mooring as we pulled away....copped 2 scratches on
the hull....bugger!
We were
still our of contact....and in some ways, I was happy being insulated from the
outside world. It was a form of self defence.
Barometer
up, bikinis on. Jill's infamous chocolate chip cookies were already prepared.
This
morning was shaping up to be a busy one....tightly spaced locks.....and the
young domestic goddesses downstairs were primed and ready help.
We discovered that "lock habitat" fostered another resident....slugs...huge ones! Personally, I much preferred watching the copulating dragonflies who were in abundance everywhere!
The expanse of water, at the quiet little village of Selles, was still. It appeared like glass and shimmered in the bright sun light. The terraced village houses, with their shutters and forested backdrops were perfectly mirrored. The keeper came out to operate the swing bridge and waved us on......in this picturesque setting, I felt pangs of envy. Life appeared so honest and uncomplicated.
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| Selles |
And how lovely were the lock houses WHEN they were occupied...so pretty, bursting with flower pots, window boxes and trim, tidy, small flower beds....... The abandoned, derelict versions were sorry reminders of an era when all the locks were manned.
At 1:00pm
we reached Corre. We were now OUT of
the Vosges canal and onto the petit Saône River. This was it.......the home straight....cruising
downstream with occasional locks!!
The lock
operations were different: poles hanging over the waterway, slung from a rope
scaling the width of the waterway, to be turned counter clockwise as you
passed. The countryside opened up more: forests as well as open paddocks,
farmers on machinery with dust billowing behind, bales of rolled hay and the
smell of livestock.
 |
| Twisting the pole to initate the opening sequence for the lock |
 |
| Cow Country |
We felt
the confidence to project an arrival time now.
We could even contemplate the possibility of a relaxing day trip.
......in fact...arriving at the beautiful mooring in Port Sur Saône meant we were back on the original target.
 |
| Port Sur Saone |
 |
| Port Sur Saone |
A walk around town, a frenzied spend up on French magazines at theTabac shop,and dinner at " The Marine" restaurant, facing the water front, with it's nautical theme and tantalising menu, proved a much better suggestion than staying in for IKEA meatballs.
 |
| A more relaxed Skipper |
 |
| Our mooring |
Sitting
out on deck, in the cool of the evening, bidding passers by a " Bon soirée
", sipping drinks, and perusing magazine pages,.....(.well,......more like
looking at pictures in our case.)...was the perfect finish.
DAF NO. 1 required a leaf basket inspection in the morning....the
temperature was starting to rise.
Locks:
12
Overall: 203 out of 218
Distance: 50 km
Overall:
830 out of 959
Swing Bridges: 2
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