Fragnes to Rully/Rully to Santernay

Wednesday 12^th August

Fragnes to Rully

8.5km 8 locks 2½ hours

We set off at 9am and we were very lucky that a cruiser left at the same time, just ahead of us, and they kindly waited for us and we went through the 8 locks together.  As they were in front in the locks they had to pull the blue cord to activate the locks, 3 of which were the deep 5m locks which have floating bollards.  All the locks filled gently which was a relief as last year we found the locks filled quite viciously going up the other way on the Canal du Centre.  

We were aiming for a mooring at Rully, where we knew there was only space for one barge, and we were really pleased to see it was vacant so we moored there at 11.30am.  

We luckily went into the locks with this cruiser
so they had to deal with pulling the blue cord to activate the lock
I bet they cursed when they saw us turn up behind them at the first lock!

These big 5m locks filled nice and gently

Our mooring at Rully
We sat outside late one night to spot shooting stars,
we did see quite a few corkers

Thursday 13^th August

We cycled 2km into Rully to try and find somewhere that was willing to deliver wine and cremant to our boat.  Last year we found a cave quite near to the canal but they wouldn’t deliver so we could only buy what we could carry on our bikes. 

In the centre of Rully we found one smart wine producer, which had a sign that said it was open and we went in.  Before we started a tasting we asked if they would deliver to our boat, the lady said yes, but after our tasting and after we'd decided to buy 24 bottles of wine and cremant, she then said they didn’t deliver….she must have misunderstood our previous question….so we explained we’d come by bike and that our boat was only about 5 mins drive away by car and we weren’t  leaving until tomorrow morning but she still said NON!  So off we went again in search of someone who would deliver.  Luckily we found one open and willing to deliver and we ended up buying 30 bottles a mixture of white Rully’s and white and rosé Cremant du Bourgogne.

We then went for a fabulous lunch in the village square, certainly somewhere we would be returning to.

Briday were happy to sell and then deliver our wine to our boat

We had a fabulous lunch in the town square

Friday 14^th August

Rully to Santenay

8 km 3 locks 2 hours

We could see our first lock of the day from our mooring at Rully, so at 9am we waited for the light to come on and for it to be green.  Nothing happened, so at 9.10am we rang the control centre number and we were told an eclusier would arrive shortly to fix it.  He arrived in his van, he did something at the lock and the light went green and at 9.30am we went through our first lock of the day.  The second lock was a deep 5m lock, with floating bollards.  We had walked to have a look at it the previous evening, so we knew the blue cord came down where the ladder was at the front of the lock.  After putting our middle and bow rope on the nearest floating bollard to the ladder, I pulled the blue cord, nothing happened, I pulled it again, and again, nothing.  Its quite daunting being in the deep lock, so with no intention of climbing up the ladder out of the deep lock, we rang the control centre again, and the same eclusier arrived in his van.  He then opened the lock house and set the lock in motion for us.  

The third lock was another deep 5m lock, this we think we operated ourselves, although the eclusier was around talking to some hire boats waiting to come down the lock.  The deep locks filled very gently and on the last deep lock we just had a middle line on the floating bollard and I was able to reach the blue cord to pull it to set the lock into action.

We were aiming for Santenay, and had our fingers crossed there would be space at the mooring for us, and there was…..hurray!!  We planned to stay here for the weekend.

We cycled into Santenay, and we bought some more wine, white Santenay and Aligote, and more cremant, and they happily delivered to our boat.

entering a 5m deep lock

I pulled the blue cord and nothing happened
The blue cord is hidden, you find it behind the 5m ladder

Beautiful stretch of canal past Chagny on the way to Santenay
vineyards are in view up on the hillside

We couldn't understand why a small newsagent/tabac in Santenay had a poker set in a smart carry case for sale in the window looking very dusty and with a sun bleached display box.....

.....then we realised that the town may have an interest in Poker as they have their very own Casino
We saw signs to Santernay Casino and thought it was the local Casino chain of supermarket!

We decided as a bit of fun to buy the poker set....it weighed a ton....11.5kg to be exact.  I waited outside the shop with the bikes and sent Kev in to buy it.  The poker set came with a cardboard outer display box.  Kev said to the lady serving him (in english and sign language) that he didn't need the cardboard box.....she then disappeared into the back of the shop and found him a fresh looking set with a box that wasn't bleached by the sun...after he paid for the poker set he then proceeded to take it out of the box and hand the cardboard box back to her and walk out of the shop....I think she must have thought he was mad!!

Santernay has a beautiful mooring

Picnic tables at our mooring with fab views of vineyards
Cooking line caught sword fish on our Cobb BBQ

Saturday 15^th August

16km bike ride Santenay to Nolay 

We found a cycle route that uses an old railway line going from Santenay through vineyards to Nolay.  An uphill ride all the way to Nolay, which was not too hard as it was a gentle uphill gradient, and the bonus was that it was really easy coming back.  

Fab views of vineyards on our cycle ride along an old disused railway line

Views along the cycle route Santenay to Nolay

Saturday evening we went for a fabulous meal at Le Terroir, a restaurant in Santenay.  Luckily we’d booked, as in the evening outside there was a sign to say it was fully booked that evening.  We now will not be able to visit Santenay without having a meal there.  The service was brilliant and the food was delicious. 

Walking to the restaurant in Santenay
vineyards in the background

Great meal in a very nice restaurant in Santenay

Sunday 16^th August

9km bike ride to Chagny

On Sunday morning we cycled to Chagny, back along the canal.  They have a huge Sunday market, its well worth a visit. We bought our obligatory spit roast chicken, plus some fresh veg and a freshly cooked lobster.  We know it was freshly cooked as it was swimming around seconds before it was put into the oven!

A fantastic fishmongers in Chagny

Weighing our live lobster

Our live lobster going into the oven you can't get fresher than that!
It did taste delicious 

Seurre to Verdun-sur-le-Doubs/Verdun to Fragnes (Canal du Centre)

Seurre to Verdun-sur-le-Doubs

Friday 7^th August

21km 1 lock 2 hours

We enjoyed our stay at Seurre, it was extremely hot and humid again which left us feeling very lethargic.  So we didn't do very much except perspire!

We rang ahead to Verdun to book a place to moor.  We were rather confused as we were told to arrive between 12 and 2pm….this is usually when the captainaire’s take their lunch but we found out when we arrived that the captainaire also runs the café at the port du plaisance so prefers people to arrive when he’s working over lunchtime.  We left at 9.30am and made really good time, so we tried to slow down to try arrive after 12, but we still arrived early but luckily the captainaire was there to show us where we were going to moor and he helped with our ropes.  It’s a really picturesque mooring, we were really pleased that we stopped there.

Going down at ecluse Ecuelles
It was another very hot day

Arriving at Verdun sur le Doubs

Verdun is a lovely place to moor

We were very surprised to see a commercial
come past us at our mooring at Verdun
it is coming down the Doubs to join the Saöne

Sunday 9^th August

Verdun to Fragnes on the Canal du Centre

20km 1 lock 3 hours

Last night there was a big thunderstorm which helped to clear the air.  In the morning we woke up to really heavy rain.  It was forecast to be a horrible day but we decided to move onto Fragnes, so I dressed in my wet weather gear, waterproof dungarees and jacket.  Luckily there was only one lock to deal with which was the deep 10.76m lock that was going to take us up onto the Canal du Centre.  It was still pouring with rain at the lock.  As we approached we were uncertain if we were going to have to wait a long time as we had read on the VNF website that it was only operating at specific times to preserve water but as we approached the light went green and red and we could see water coming out so we knew the lock we being prepared for us.  We had arranged a mooring at Fragnes and a spot for us was marked out with our name and red and white tape.

Travelling down the river Saöne
We haven't seen much rain for months so we can't complain

Lock 34b to take us up onto the Canal du Centre
Nearly 11m deep

You just about see me at the front getting rained on
Kev kept very dry!

Monday 10^th August

We had confirmation from Julia and Richard on Ettie that they had managed to get a mooring at Chalon sur Saone so we set off on our bikes to see them late afternoon.  We managed to find them at their unconventional mooring and we had a great time catching up and talking all things Piper and French barging.  Their guests, Malcolm and Mandy had gone for a look around the city and arrived a while later so we hope we managed not to bore them too much talking about boats.  It was so lovely to see Richard and Julia onboard Ettie, it was a shame we didn’t moor at the same spot, but possibly a good thing as we would have drunk far too much!

Julia and Richards mooring at Chalon
The port du plaisance doesn't like barges our size

Cheers!!

Ettie moored up at Chalon

Tuesday 11^th August

We got a little lost yesterday on our way to Julia and Richard, but in doing so we found where a Grand Frais supermarket was in Chalon, so we set off on our bikes again and went food shopping.  Even though we were limited to what we could carry on our bikes, we managed to get quite a bit, including a whole tray of fresh raspberries for 6 euros.

It got very busy at Fragnes with hotel barges
this one had problems with a hire boat determined to squeeze through rather than wait

Choisey to Abergement La Ronce/Abergement to Auxonne/Seurre

Choisey to Abergement La Ronce

8.5km 4 locks 1 hour 50 mins

We set off at 8.30am and we were moored up by 10.20am.  We had a quick look around Abergement, its just a very small village, with very smart playground and sporting facilities just near the mooring.  We found a boulangerie for the all important baguette!  The mooring is just after a lock, and the canal is quite narrow, which seemed to create quite a flow of water backwards and forwards, so there was quite a bit of creaking on our ropes.

A good mooring to stop at to give you a launch pad onto the river Saone
It took us about 1 hour 20 mins from here to get onto the river

Friday 10^th July

Abergement la Ronce to Auxonne

21km 4 locks 3 hours 50 mins

We set off at 8.30am and had a very easy trip back to Auxonne where we were leaving Rangali while we popped back to UK for a few weeks.

We arrived back to Auxonne on 31^st July and we had a very busy few days doing cleaning and maintenance jobs and creating sun shades for the boat to keep us cooler in the hot weather we’d been experiencing.   We did quite a bit of shopping at home to help us keep cooler onboard Rangali.  We did think we’d return to rain and cold weather now we’d bought all this stuff but luckily its still been great weather, except for one rainy day.

We met up with Sally and Charles on Bluegum and their daughter for dinner on the Friday night and had a great time yet again.  We will be sorry to see them disappear off down south.

On a very wet Tuesday we drove over to Choisey to visit the Grand Frais supermarket and bought loads of fresh fish, fresh fruit and vegetables.  We popped down to the mooring at Choisey just to be nosey, to see if anyone we knew was moored up there, there wasn’t but we did manage to see a fisherman with his young son looking at their catch, a huge catfish about a metre long, they’d only caught it with a small fishing rod….the sort of fishing rod Kev had been fishing with in the same spot when we’d been moored up at Choisey.  I think if Kev had caught a fish that big I’d have run a mile…it looked huge.  I do hope they were going to eat it as it was obviously very dead lying on the side of the canal, very sad to see. 

Wednesday 5^th August

36km 4 hours 2 locks

Leaving Auxonne, a great port to stay at

After a foggy start to the morning, we Auxonne left at 10.30am.  The day ended up being very hot again, with clear blue skies.  The river was quite busy with boats, we are definitely in the middle of the holiday season.  We stopped off for an hour at the campsite pontoon at St Jean for lunch.  The pontoon was empty when we arrived but soon filled up.  It’s a very nice mooring, with what looks like a nice little restaurant.  We’d got lots of fresh food onboard from our recent Grand Frais shopping trip, so we wont be eating out for a while!

A very nice pontoon mooring at the campsite at St Jean

As we went past St Jean de Losne we saw Bluegum moored up but no one onboard.  There would have been space for us on the quay but we’d booked a mooring at Seurre so we carried on.  

Bluegum at St Jean, surprisingly there would have been space for us

Approaching the big commercial lock at Seurre, the first one we've done this year
All nice and easy, bollards in the wall, we just used one middle rope as we gently dropped down

Exiting the lock to arrive at Seurre

We arrived at Seurre around 3.30pm.  We phoned the captainaire, as the mooring we thought we’d be on (a long pontoon on the river) was full, he directed us into the port du plaisance to moor up on the hammerhead end of a pontoon.  It’s a very nice quiet spot, off the river.  We are staying here for two nights.

A very nice mooring, perched on the end of a pontoon
mooring with water and electric 23.5 euros a night
although they forgot to switch on the electric point for us last night so we used our electric splitter on
an electric point being used by a boat moored up near us, so we could use the air conditioning in our bedroom last night

Shade Sail by Kookaburra 3mx2m bought on Amazon when we were at home
Idea pinched from Ettie and Tesserae!
The shade sail lets air through it but stops 90% of UV rays
We were lucky enough to find white straps in the bricolage in Auxonne

My sun shades I ran up on the sewing machine using a Kookaburra shades sail (3m x 3m) I'd bought on offer on Amazon.
We went to see Wilson Covers who made our back awning when were in UK and they made us some metal tubing
for the shade sail on the dogbox, and gave us some spare zip and sliders so my shade sails fit perfectly into the awning, much smarter and cooler
than the beach towels we were using to block the sun.