Auxonne to Lamarche/Lamarche to Pontailler/Pontailler to Mantoche/Mantoche to Gray

Tuesday 16^th June

Auxonne to Lamarche-sur-Soane

11.5km 1 lock 1.45hrs

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Auxonne and the H2O marina.  Roy who runs the marina was a delight.

We had a very sociable time meeting up with our good friends Roger and Glynwen on Etholle (Piper barge), new friends, Sally and Charles from Bluegum (Piper Barge), Becky and Dave from Wonderlust (Piper Barge) and Marie and Guy (Piper barge in waiting) drove over from Dijon to look at our Flexiteek flooring to check on the colour choice as they have decided to have that on their new boat.

Roger and Kev caught the train to Migennes early on Saturday morning to pick up our cars.  Glynwen and I celebrated her birthday over a coffee and cake and then we all went out in the evening for a lovely meal at Le Corbeau in the centre of the town.

Auxonne H2O Marina

Auxonne is an old fortified town, with an army training garrison
We liked it here, there are a couple of good restaurants 

Roger and Glynwen making mooring up in a small space look easy

We reluctantly left Auxonne on Tuesday morning around 10am, and headed up river for 11.5km, negotiated one lock, which we shared with a French cruiser and we arrived at Lamarche-sur-Soane around 11.54am.  It’s a good mooring, but somewhat overlooked by motorhomes.  There were 20 motorhomes parked up there by the evening.

We walked to the nearby restaurant further along by the river and had lunch.  We sat on the back deck and read our books, and while we were reading/snoozing, we suddenly felt a big jolt, and when we looked towards the bow of our boat we realised a hire boat was trying to moor up in front of us, but struggling in the wind.  After they had moored up, they were extremely apologetic.   Luckily their bow (with the anchor sticking out) hit our front rope fender, and not the paintwork, so there was no damage.

A good mooring at Lamarche-sur-Soane
Bakers in the town and a riverside restaurant 500m away

We think their view of us and the river was nicer than our view of them!

Wednesday 17^th June

Lamarche to Pontailler-sur-Soane

6km 40minutes

The river Soane is a delight but not easy to take a good photo

Arriving at Pontailler-sur-Soane
lot of space on the quay for us-hurray!

We did the short hop of 6km from Lamarche to Pontailler and moored up on the steps just before the bridge.

During the day it was quite a busy mooring with boats stopping off for lunch and then moving on.  Sally and Charles on Bluegum arrived in the afternoon, and we had a lovely time chatting over cups of tea and then again later in the evening, over a few glasses of wine.

The town had a lively feel,  maybe because we had arrived before lunch....
it looked like a nice restaurant
but we had dinner planned so maybe next time we moor here we'll try it out

We were on our own for a short time

But the quay filled up for the evening

Thursday 18^th June

Pontailler to Mantoche

24.5km 2 locks 3.5hrs

We left Pontailler at 9am and we enjoyed the trip up the Soane to Mantoche.  The river is quite wide, very wooded, the 2 automatic locks were a dream; very gentle filling, with bollards inserted in the wall to make things easier.  There are quite a few boats around, (private and hire) going in both directions.

The mooring at Mantoche is very attractive, with picnic tables and an old chateau over looking the mooring.  We had a walk around the small town, not much there, and very quiet.

Mantoche
This is a very pretty mooring

Friday 19^th June

Mantoche to Gray

6.5km 45mins

We left Mantoche at 9.20am and arrived at Gray just after 10am and found a nice mooring along the quay, just along from Sally and Charles on Bluegum.  There is free water and electric at this mooring, and a supermarket very close by.  We decided to stay here for the weekend.  Moving off on Monday.

Arriving in Gray
The mooring quay is on the right just around the corner out of sight
I was keeping my fingers crossed there was a mooring available for us

And there was
It was great to see Sally and Charlie were here on Bluegum

Gray
 Pont de Pierre

Saturday 21st June is the National Fête de la Musique
There was a band playing under the covered market
After drinks onboard Bluegum with Sally and Charles we wandered down to see the band playing

The music was a little like the band 'Madness' hence the funny dancing!
There wasn't a big audience, which was a shame.
When the band finished we went back to Rangali and had a bring your own cheese and wine evening with Sally and Charles, very enjoyable