MOORINGS

There are easy moorings and then there are more challenging ones! We arrived at St Jean de Losne which was very busy and the only place to moor was next to a high sloping quay with bollards at the top. Well, we're always up for a challenge, so here goes.......lasso that bollard! Once we'd done that, it was out with the gang plank which wasn't quite long enough and a bit of climbing, then absailing down. We had several visitors over the few days we were there so they all had to learn to absail the top section.

Geoff attaching a 'handrail' for the most challenging mooring so far.

Next day, a nice easy mooring.

THE TRIALS OF A MARINIER

It's a tough life and after all that hanging around in hammocks, wandering around markets I thought Margaret could be gainfully employed to save a bit of diesel.

Barge propulsion. (Doesn't look too pleased!)

Meanwhile I had important duties filling up with Burgundy. I hope I didn't overbuy, but the barrel rate was unbelievable.

I'm sure there's room for a sofa somewhere.

Extracts from a recent visit to the Musée des Mariniers in St-Jean-de-Losne, the inland waterways centre for France.

HAUTE SAÔNE

Haute Saône and La petite Saône is ??? 

It's lovely but you have to make your own entertainment. Whenever we stop at small towns there are no facilities or shops. Perhaps a boulangerie, often closed because it's Tuesday or any other random day or the proprietor is 'en vacance', or the never too far away coiffeur. It's such a shame. They were obviously small vibrant towns that have lost their employment and hence population. If you want totally rural untouched France come to the Haute Saône. We did find a restaurant recently in Port-sur-Saône which was open and had people in it, the food was fine. Most towns/villages do not even have a cafe/bar.

Don't get me wrong we are having a great time, the scenery is great, lots of wildlife and the number of locks have reduced but the number of tunnels increased. It is, however quiet. 

New friends in Port-sur-Saône. Margaret had to speak to someone besides me.

Managed to find a tennis court to use. Hurray! Surprisingly no one else was using it.

Off we go to Auxonne in Côte d'Or in the Bourgogne (Burgundy) Region, for some action!

GRASS

Interesting image of the sun shining through grass into the interior of Soraya.

Onto the fridge door!

TOY TOWN - NEAT AND TIDY

There's obviously not much to do round here, other than spend your time titivating the garden! We were scooting into Épinal for the Saturday morning marché and saw this.....had to stop and take a photo! I wonder how long it takes to get all those trees identical.

A well manicured garden 'hedge'

Thought I'd better keep up with the neighbours and make sure our mooring was neat and tidy. So got the gardners in today to mow and strim!

The gardners at our mooring in Les Forges d'Uzemain

IT'S ARRIVED

After waiting for two and a half weeks the parts arrived!!! as pictured below. The delays were caused by money transfers, the Dutch Queens official birthday, May Day in France, VE Day in France and the delivery going through various haulage companies in Holland and France. It's here and after only 2 hours of work, out with the old and in with the new, it's installed and working. Hurray!

We could have easily gone on without a bowthruster. However once the parts were ordered and dispatched we had to stay put as the delivery address was fixed.   So we will be navigating tomorrow, 'hopefully' as it's yes another jour férié (Bank Holiday) tomorrow. There is only so much time you can spend in Les Forges d'Uzemain. 

Bowthruster motors and contactors. Very boring for some but not if you're on a boat.

THE FULL ENGLISH

We had an interesting night out the other night at a local auberge. We called into Ferme Auberge des 7 Pêcheurs on Friday to check it out and it was almost full, so we booked and went along on Saturday night. It wasn't quite so full in fact we were the only people. Still the service was good and very attentive with lots of local information about Cockchafers and Sanglier (wild boar) and gossip. Obviously Saturday night is not de rigueur. Perhaps there is somewhere else? We certainly haven't found it. The food was good, very farmer's wife like but the flambé mirabelles (very small yellow plums) with homemade mirabelles sorbet was stunning. 

Being quite a late night after cycling back we thought the next morning we would go for a 'full English brunch'. You can get bacon now in France in most supermarkets so here we go, the full monty with croissants.

Brunch

After the exhaustion of breakfast and reading it was time to hit the hammock.

Post breakfast relaxation.

As a friend often said 'It's a tough life being a tourist'.

BAIN ROMAIN

It doesn't quite live up to its namesake in Bath. We went into Bains Les Bains, our nearest local town and found the Roman Baths.....closed and, looking through the windows, somewhat derelict inside. It's supposed to be known for its hot springs but the town was completely dead apart from a large modern six storey block with hundreds of rooms for people having thermae treatments, but there was nobody around.....a ghost town.

Bain Romain at Bains Les Bains

and this is what you're supposed to wear if you do manage to get in, not sure if it's a good way to display the prices. Think I'll give it a miss, Bath....there's no competition!

Mannequin in the shop next door

LET'S SMOKE IT

A local speciality in The Vosges is smoked meats of all kinds. What else would you expect in a land of forests. They have enough trees to smoke anything. We've tried many the various pork cuts - palette, jambonneau, poitrine, as well as poulet and the canard. They are all excellent. The poitrine fumé (belly pork) on the BBQ is amazing.

Smoked meats at a Saturday marché stall in Épinal

Another new favourite, whilst we are on food, is a cheese called Rondblond affine à la biere. A cricket ball sized beer washed cheese. Can't be bad. Look out for it in Waitrose!

A local seasonal speciality is the wild asparagus. It could be the same species as the Bath asparagus which was apparently introduced by the Romans who were also well entrenched in the Vosges.

Asperges sauvages

RAIN OR SHINE

We've been having both recently. Last evening the rain turned emphatic. Today the sun is blazing. Still waiting for parts to arrive, been promised Wednesday. Time will tell, pah! We've had a few torrential days recently and the rivers are very full, so much so that in conversation with friends down the Canal des Vosges where we are heading and turns into the canalised Le petite Saône, navigation is closed. The locks are locked until the flow drops. If we hadn't had the bowthruster malfunction we would be stuck 20-30 km further on. Does it matter?

Morning mists. Which way will it go rain or shine? (It went shine) 

The view is from our present mooring at the metropolitan heart of Forges d'Uzemain.

SCOOTS AND STAINED GLASS

While we are waiting for the bowthruster parts to arrive we are making the most of the local amenities. Not that there are many. Scoots is the main player now rather than Soraya. Forges d'Uzemain where we are has NO facilities not even a boulangerie. Due to the route we have taken recently the nearest town is our former friend Épinal. A lot closer by road than by canal. Saturday market and a meal out here we come. Faux filet, sauce poivre, frites et salade for ~£7 can't be bad. The smoked meats! More of that later. During our return we did a bit of tourist stuff and found a rather interesting church....

A lot of modern architecture in France is brutal and ? (No comment, well lots of comment but not here.) Eglise Notre Dame in Épinal is on another level. Built in the 1950's it's a mix of concrete and stained glass. Does not sound too exciting so far but the stained glass is the main player. The building is lack lustre from the outside. Looks like a concert hall. You enter inside and it's a riot of colour with the ~largest stained glass window in France

Part of the window, The Life of the Virgin Mary.

A contemplative parishioner, guess who?

All very difficult to photograph with a mobile phone, the interior is amazing. The blog post only possible due to 'Internet' yes 4G the first time in ages.

LES VOSGES INTERNET CAFE

Still stuck in Forges d'Uzemain as we are still awaiting parts from Holland. The bowthruster story continues.....

We said we had a broken chain problem in the bowthruster, we did and the new parts were received and installed. What I did not know untill installation is that the incident of the log caused a lot more damage. Various gears and the 2 electric motors are either badly stripped or inoperable! These could not be seen at my first inspection as they run in a grease filled shaft and only when installing the chain the problems revealed themselves. No problem, get in touch again with manufacturer and organise more replacement parts. All good then nothing happened. I telephoned him and to be fair his English is good, better than my Dutch, during the conversation I realised what he was saying that whilst he accepted a credit card for the chain ~€50, he would not for new motors etc. a much larger amount and required a bank transfer. No problem we thought transfer direct from Credit Agricol to Holland. Well no, it was a problem as they wanted to send a pass code for this type of transaction to us by post to our registered address, ie. The Circus, Bath. Not much use. No problem we'll do it another way. Which we did but it all takes time and with no or very very little Internet coverage at Soraya's mooring we've been spending a lot of time at our local Internet cafe, still only H+ or 2G, at the top of a hill, as in the picture below.

Good news, the money is now in Duco Boegschroeven's bank account and they have confirmed that the parts have been sent. In any case we can't go anywhere today as all the locks are closed, May 1st.

Margaret at our local Internet cafe, well it is if you take your own coffee.