A "Penny-less time"- Besancon to Mulhouse
Penny left Besancon for "Grandmother duties" with Mary, our new grand child.
After several days of maintenance, I was joined by Charlie and his brother, John. After they had acclimatised and seen some of the sights of Besancon, we headed North along the Doubs and associated canal for Mulhouse. Mulhouse is about 25km from Germany and was a part of Germany until a couple of hundred years ago when it was "re-united" with France.
We had 90 locks and 155Km to traverse and managed it in much less than the predicted time. This was due to the small amount of other traffic as well as the excellent organisation of the lock keepers once we moved from the automated to the "manned" locks.
We got to Mulhouse in six easy days travel. We only had one long day.
We had plenty of time to examine some excellent scenery and look around the countryside. This part of the canal/river was very different from the early portion (which was flat). Nearly every day, we had high and steep cliffs on one or both sides of us.
There were a couple of very hot days and some cool ones plus some rainyt weather which has been rare on this trip. Charlie and John quickly got the hang of things and the trip went smoothly.
Our first minor excitement happened when we tied up in one of the river locks. We were travelling upstream. A lady was up te top of the lock shouting something to Charlie and John. However they speak no French. Once I spoke to her, she explained tat there was a Commercial Barge (Peniche) stuck on the canal section ahead (river and canal levels were low because of lack of rainfall). She needed to raise the level of the canal so they could free themselves. She also explained that even if she let us through, we would be unable to pass the other boat in the narrow/shallow section. So, we had to reverse out of the lock anbd tie up to the shore. This was a good opportunity for Charlie and John to jump over board for a swim. Very cooling. We also had a leisurely lunch.
Finally, the Peniche came and we had to reverse further down the river to let them past. We understood what the Eclusier meant on the next section of canal. It was indeed shallow and narrow with jagged rocks on each side.
The only other issue we had was with one of the lifting bridges. There are a number of these and they either swing to the side or lift up to allow a barge to pass. Unlike the Nivernais canal, these are staffed bridges and they give excellent priority to boat traffic. We approached one such bridge and the gates to stop carsd went down but the bridge did not move. This cycle repeated several times over 10 minutes with no movement of the actual bridge. Eventually, the operator came and explained that he was very sorry, but the bridge was broken and we were stuck. He called the maintenance people but had no idea how long repairs would take. Ah well, time for another leisurely and untimely lunch. Well, the service person cam relatively quickly and we were on our way again after about 30minutes delay- not too bad.
One day before reaching Mulhouse, we were stopped on an aqueduct while the lock immediately after the aqueduct was readied. John, fascinated by being perched well above another river, was jumping up and down onto the tow path taking pictures when he cried out and roilled on the ground. He had excruciating pain in his leg and had heard something go "pop". We stopped at a small village that night and had dinner at a restaurant 50 meters away. We had to both prop John up to get there and back to the boat. However, alas, there was no doctor and not even a taxi in the town. Indeed, the only commerce was the (excellent) restaurant.
The next day, we arrived in Mulhouse and Charlie and John went off to find a taxi and get to the hospital. John was treated very quickly and expertly. It was a muscle tear and he was bandaged up and given various instructions and a prescription. All just in time to catch the train to London the following morning! Fortunately, by the time of his departure the next morning, it was starting to improve.
Mulhouse is an excellent place. It was one of the towns at the heart of the industrial revolution in France. It has no less than 8 museums plus other attractions such as a big event for Bastille Day, lasting four days. We went off to watch three trapeze artists perform in one of the town squares at 11pm last night and it was fantastic!
Penny will be back from Australia tonight on the excellent TGV from Paris (570km in 3hrs including stops and suburbs). We are hoping she is not too tired because people have been erecting (very) high cables in the main town square. They criss cross the square from a large Cathedral, several other buildings and a huge crane. Performers (the "angels") will be dressed in white feathers and performing on these high wires at 10pm tonight.
All the best,
Dave
