After our delightful sojourn in Besancon, Ivan and I decided to slowly meander our way back on the Doubs River and the Saone River to St-Jean-de-Losne. This is because we need to leave our boat in a good marina for two weeks so we can do some other travel, and SJdL is perfect. It’s also nice and close.
Anyway, for a couple of weeks we’ve been backtracking in the Burgundy Region. Whilst we’ve been covering old ground, there’s so much to see in France that we made plenty of new discoveries. Here’s Ivan, waxing lyrical about the Doubs River.
Amazing discovery on the Doubs River
One morning we went for a ride and ended up in a little village. We weren’t sure what the village was called, but we found out later it’s called Thoraise. The village had stone houses and was as pretty as a picture. We could just spy the top of a chateau through a gap in the houses. So we decided to see if we could find it.
We rode down a hill in the general direction of the chateau, across a wheat field and through a tree lined riverbank. There we made a wonderful discovery.
We found the chateau! It was incredible and looked like it was growing out of the rock. It blended perfectly with the surroundings. The view from inside must be amazing. Here’s Ivan’s impressions.
Making new friends
Later that day just outside a place called Saint Vit we met an absolutely delightful French couple called Béatrice and Philippe. Incidentally, for those on the Burgundy canals, Saint Vit has an excellent grocery store called Les Saisons with local produce that is in season, delicious and quite cheap.
Béatrice and Philippe live on their barge La Gwendoline all year round. It’s their home, and it’s beautiful. Their dog Gringo has a huge personality and we enjoyed giving him lots of pats. Ivan and I both love animals, as you may have worked out from my one of my previous posts, so any chance we get to interact with them is something we both enjoy. So we loved our time with the crew of La Gwendoline.
The French tradition of the apero
Béatrice and Philippe invited us to have an apero with them. What’s an apero? It’s a French tradition where you have a drink and some snacks before dinner. Yes please! Béatrice and Philippe had a great little setup on the canal bank next to their boat and we were delighted to join them. Béatrice mixed up some kir which is a drink that uses Cassis and white wine. She used the recipe handed down through generations in her family. It was delicious! One drink led to several and we had a lovely night.
Now, Ivan is 6 foot 4 inches tall and has long arms (I reckon he has the wingspan of a condor). So therefore, you’d think he’d be brilliant at taking selfies. No, he’s not. I gave him the job of recording our true French apero experience, and it did not go well. Check out the photos below.
In Ivan’s defence, he was trying to get the perfect shot with all of us and Gringo. But Gringo was only interested in the food. I took some non-selfie, old-school photos of the occasion and I don’t think I’ll be winning any photography awards any time soon.
The next day before we headed off, we had a coffee with Béatrice, Philippe and Gringo on their barge La Gwendoline. It is a truly beautiful home, complete with a fireplace. They told us about a bird that fell out of a nest nearby that they have rescued. It lives in the wild but comes to visit them every day. Life is full of wonder when you live on the canals of France!
Catching up again
Our next stop was a place called Ranchot. It’s a little village with only 500 inhabitants. It has an excellent mooring spot and bakery. We were delighted to run into Steve the English guy that we met in Dole and celebrated Bastille day with. We invited him over for an apero which lasted until midnight.
Steve gave us some of his home-made sloe gin that he’d been storing for years. We felt honoured that he shared it with us. The gin was delicious! And possibly a bit dangerous. Ivan was given the task of taking the selfies to record the occasion. Let’s see how he fared this time.
We stopped for a night in Dole, and we still love this place. We were treated with some more fireworks – just like Bastille Day. We’re not sure why, they must have heard we were back in town. Thanks Dole for the amazing show! By the way, the big light in the background of the video is the moon. Perfect!
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