Au Revoir Canal du Bourgone - Dijon to Longcourt/Longcourt to Auxonne

Beautiful Fleur de Lys and Amaryllis - sister hotel barges run by Orient Express moored up at Dijon
We saw passengers leave Amaryllis while we were at Dijon and
they looked like they had had a fantastic time onboard, giving all the crew big hugs and waving goodbye
from their minibus right up until the last minute

Leaving Dijon

Tuesday 9^th June

Dijon to Longcourt-en-Plaine

15km 14 locks 6 hours including lunch

We left Dijon at 9am and had a pretty easy journey to Longcourt upstream of lock 69.  The lock keeper recommended to moor up above lock 69 as it was pretty with the avenue of trees.  I was pleased to stop as I was getting a headache from the fumes of a cruiser we were sharing a lock with.  It got very windy and blustery in the afternoon, and threatened to rain in the evening but the strong winds moved the black clouds on to rain on someone else!

Longcourt above lock 69

Wednesday 10^th June

33.5km 9 locks 7hrs

Au Revoir Canal du Bourgogne

We were ready and waiting for our lock at 9am but unfortunately our lock keeper didn’t arrive until 9.15am. This meant we missed the last lock on the Canal du Bourgogne before it closed for lunch; so when we finally arrived at St Jean de Losne at 1.30pm, the quay moorings were already full.  (Another time we will moor below lock 69).  

We had provisionally booked a space at Auxonne for this afternoon, just incase we couldn’t moor at St Jean, so we continued on up the River Soane.  It was amazing the difference being on a wide river again after the slow canal and all those locks!  We covered 18.5 km on the river Soane with only one automated lock to negotiate in around 2½ hrs.

Our last of the 189 locks on the Canal du Bourgogne
113 going up and 76 going down
The VNF lock keepers have been fantastic

Lovely wide, gentle flowing river Soane

Boats on the pontoon waiting to enter the canal du Rhone au Rhin
about 30 mins cruising from St Jean

Signs in the distance indicating where a short canalised section begins on the Soane

Automated lock, it fills very gently, bliss

We will be staying in Auxonne for a few days.  We are expecting friends Roger and Glynwen to arrive on Etholle (piper barge) by Friday.  The marina is great here at H2O, Roy who is the captianaire is delightful and he was able to recommend a few different restaurants, which was a surprise, as we’d read that Auxonne didn’t have any good restaurants. Lets hope they are wrong and Roy is right as we’ve booked into one for tonight and a different one for Saturday night.

We waved hi to another Piper barge called Bluegum as we arrived into Auxonne, they were moored up on the public moorings.  There was space there for us but as we’d booked with Roy at H2O we didn’t feel we could cancel.  We walked around later to say hi, as we’d not met them before.  They are headed in the same direction to us up and back down the Soane to Auxonne, so I am sure we will see them again over the next few weeks.