France, Day 6. Ranchot to Besançon.

 We leave Ranchot early because we'll have the most locks to go through (12) in a single day during our trip.  We're escorted out by a swan and light rain, which comes and goes throughout the day.  The land changes fairly dramatically as well.  We move from flat farm country into hill country, with dramatic cliffs overlooking the canal and river Doubs.   We arrive at the big city of Besançon just before 5pm.  It's a bit stressful pulling into a big metropolitan city, but there's little boat traffic, and even though the entrance to our marina for the night is very tight, we manage to back into our slip with no problem and have the rest of the night to explore briefly before dinner and early bed.

France Canal trip, Day 5. Dole to Ranchot.

We arrived in Dole last night around 7:30 pm.  It's the first time back to Dole in 20 years, and it all looks just as I remember it.  We moored in the marina that sits directly below Louis Pasteur's compound and museum.  Found an incredible dinner at a small restaurant up the path into town.  This morning, Wednesday, we woke to rain and gray skies.  Headed up into the old part of town for some sight-seeing, croissants, and cathedrals. 

We got back on the canal at 1:30 pm, and exiting the first lock leaving Dole, we found ourselves on the most beautiful stretch of the canal we've seen.  Trees draping over the water, soft pastel colors because of the weather.  Just amazing.  The weather got gorgeous in the afternoon as we made our way into Ranchot for the evening.   Just as we decided to walk into the village, there was a huge downpour, including hail!  Good thing we found an overhang at the local restaurant to wait it out.  The storm quickly cleared and we were treated to a gorgeous ending to the day.

France Canal trip, day 4

Today we make up for lost time due to the May 1st National Holiday.  An incredible sunrise greets us at Lamarche-sur-Saône as we head towards Dole.  The weather is on-again/off again rain, sun, clouds, sun, rain.  We also make our big move off the Saône River and canals and turn up the Canal du Rhône au Rhin towards Dole.  We're a bit apprehensive about this canal, as it's much busier and much narrower with a lot more locks, some of them quite deep.   As it turns out, our worries were for naught.  The Rhin is incredible!

France Canal trip, day 3

A short day today, May 1st, which is a national holiday in France and believe me, everything shuts down.  It's also our 7th wedding anniversary!  So come along from Pontailler-sur-Saône to Lamarche-sur-Saône for the night.

France canal trip, Day 2.

We start our second full day on the canals of France after an incredibly quiet 1st night sleeping moored to the edge of the canal in the middle of farm country.  Today we will travel about 60 kilometers and end our day in Pontailler-sur-Saône.