Swan song?

We got away punctually through the second tunnel on the river, and set off downstream. The going was good, with no holdups at the few locks and we made excellent time. I had thought of Gray for lunch, but we were too early. We did note that the hire boat base there didn’t seem to be doing booming business. That matches our experience on the river – not many hirers this year:

Gray was under a grey sky: not sure why it’s called Gray. Seems rather English, but probably not:

Mantoche, where we hoped to moor for lunch, was fully occupied, not least by two large barges taking up more than their fair share of space – a common phenomenon, regrettably. They are more than twice as long as Saskia, but still only have two people on board. Anyway, we found a fisherman’s jetty to tie up to for lunch, and sample the wine bought yesterday: a Chardonnay from Franche Comté – not something I had encountered before, and probably won’t again. But not bad, well chilled.

The sun came out at last after lunch, and there were even a few people gingerly bathing – that is children putting a toe in the water, and a couple of boys disporting themselves from a floodgate for the delectation of a girl up above.

Somebody’s dream house on the riverside caught our attention: lovely view of the river and a boat moored below the house. Can’t be bad.

We had expected to spend the night at Pontailler, but got there at 3.30, so pressed on to Auxonne, where we are now. The new Port Royal marina was excavated from scratch by H2O, the people who run the one at St Jean where Saskia is based (which means we get to tie up here for free).  Find a bit of land, get cash from the regional government and Brussels, dig a big hole - right under the city walls, built by, you know who, Vauban -  fill it with water and boats – can’t be a bad business!

Auxonne's other claim to fame is that a young gunnery officer called Napoleon Bonaparte was posted here for a while.

Tomorrow morning we will finally get back to base, in the morning, since it is an easy run from here. Meantime I will do a few calculations of how far we’ve actually travelled etc. for tomorrow’s final post.