Besancon
Besancon was an excellent stopping place. It was a major supply depot for Julius Caesar and then became a Roman City. There was an ampitheatre holding 20,000 people, an aqueduct for supplying the city with water and a Roman Bridge over the River Doubs. Parts of these are still visible.
Besancon was owned by several countries and only became French in the 1600s when the French overcame the Spanish inhabitants. One of the conquerers was Vauban who then set about making the city better able to withstand attack. He built lots of things around France, but the Citadel and all the intricate fortifications were his best known work. The city is built inside a loop in the river and there is a very steep hill preventing any access from the land. It was on this hill that they built the Citadel, which occupies over 12 hectares and which gives tremendous views over the city and countryside. It is all so magnificient that it is UNESCO World Heritage listed. So, we can tick off yet another World Heritage site from our list.
We climbed up and visited the two museums, the fortifications, the ramparts and even a zoo (with tigers, orungatangs, wallabies, kangaroos and other animals). One of the museums is the "French Resistance and Deportation Museum" and we spent hours exploring it. Very sobering information.
While at Besancon, I was able to view the most amazing clock I have ever seen. It is a "Horlogue" and is huge. Not only is it huge, but it contains 30,000 moving parts and was built in 1857. It tells the time all over the world, has tides for all major French ports, has an operating planetarium, has the catholic church liturgical calendar, signs of the zodiac, leap years and leap centuries (the leap century dial only moves once per 400 years). It does other things as well and visits are timed to include various "events" and animations each hour. This is the hugest, most complicated, old mechanical thing that I have ever seen. While on the subject of time, there is a huge "Museum of Time" housed in an old Palace. It traces the measurement of time through the ages and has a trulyt magnificient display of every type of clock, watch and other time-keeping apparatus. They would probably like to include the Horlogue, but that would be too massive to move and possibly would never work again.
I attended a fabulous organ concert which included a Bach organ duo. Not only were there two organists, but they were playing on two old organs in the cathedral. The performers could not see one another so it was very impressive.
While at Besancon, Penny left for Australia and two weeks with the new mum and grand daughter. All is going well.
I got on with some tasks- all of which took longer than expected but which will make the occasional 38degree day more comfortable. The decks are now white rather than dark grey and as a result, are 30degrees cooler. I replaced a huge radiator from the wheelhouse. It would stick into the right thigh of whoever was steering. The damage caused to the internal ceiling from the rotting roof is finally repaired and simply requires some beading for completion. Various splicing was completed. The wooden facias at the base of the mast were rotten. They have now bee replaced and the new wood has several coats of epoxy resin and then marine varnish. It should last a long time. I welded up the winch which raises the mast and this is much better. I also relocated the tailshaft greasing system and installed a system for refilling the small generator with red-diesel. Previously, I needed to use a jug and decant the diesel from one place to another.
The final day was spent changing the oil plus diesel-oil filters.
There was another day when I finally uncovered the remaining mysteries of the shower and bathroom sink water which was not being pumped away properly. I discovered yet another (but well made) tank which was full of smelly grey slime, wads of hair and all sorts of other junk that had gone down various pluig-holes. I would say it has not been cleaned out for years and was rather disgusting. Anyway, it is all clean and sparkling now and works far better than in our experience.
So now, must major work on Anja for the year is complete and all of it will make life more comfortable.
Friends Charlie and his brother John have just arrived from Australia. Charlie will be with us for a month and John for 10 days. John will be leaving just before Penny arrives back. This is likely to be just before we tackle the mighty Rhine River. We have been told this is "not for the faint hearted" but as we are not faint-harted, we will be going down it and hopefully avoiding treacherous whirlpools and the like plus dodging huge ships and container vessels.
Photos show:
Views in the underground Grottes
Bear Skeleton
Overnight stop near old mill and waterfall
Spectacular tunnel
Views of Besancon City
Citadel
Resistance transmitter from WWII
Vauban
Besancon Cathedral
Best Regards, Dave and Penny
