Quaint Villages and Farmers' Markets

For the next few days we travelled along the beautiful river Saone, but unfortunately it was raining again, a lot!

We were used to wet weather by now, and had good use of our wet weather gear which we almost sent back once the channel had been crossed.

The river was very full and the river markers were not far from reaching the level at which the authorities close the river to leisure traffic, and it is July.

A big contrast to previous years when others using this route were struggling with water levels, drought and excessive heat!

The next section involved stays at several lovely little riverside villages, all of which we seemed to manage to hit at market day!

Market day in France is a real occasion, people travel from miles around bringing all sort of wares ..... sometimes just food and drink, othertimes various clothes and bric-a-brac too.

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The big gauge Saone begins just before Seurre and we have now entered a Europen gauge waterway, with commercial barges and push-tow convoys of up to 185m long. There are five big gauge locks for us to navigate before arriving at Lyons.

On arriving at the Seurre lock, we messaged to lock via radio, who advised us to wait for a barge to pass before us. We did so and then , to our amusement a loud hire boat came whizzing past and entered the lock in front of us, not sure if they had messaged the loch keeper. But, as they managed to do a 360 degrees turn whilst trying to moor up, the lock keeper sent them back out to wait for the barge to enter first.

We decided to allow them to go before us, we were safely moored and felt it was easier to keep away from their antics than they from us! They were all very jolly however, and seemed to be having a great holiday.

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We stopped at Seurre, sheltered behind an islet, which was a bit tricky to moor at as the river was running fast with lots of eddies. However there weren't too many others here and so no-one to bash into! Previous hire boat had last been seen whizzing by....

Next stop was Verdun-sur-Saone, another market and really interesting town history with exceptional war memmorials again.

4th July!

It is election day in the UK.... we are keeping advised of everything thanks to our travel wi-fi hub using cheap data sim-cards each month, and allowing us to listen mainly to the BBC.

Apart from when 'Love Songs' is on , Sunday mornings, it makes Mike feel queasy with the romance of it all!!!

On to Chalon-sur-Saone, a large town with a good marina behind the Saint-Laurent island.

Chalon-sur-Saone has been one of the most important staging points on the river, it was winter headquarters for Caesar too.

The marina is busy as many boats are based ere long-term, and our berth was on an outer pontoon. Luckily we had help to moor as the current was really strong.

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There is a new government in the UK, I think a change is needed.

Chalon is beautiful, great for walking around with lovely floral displays and grand buildings and older parts. There was a big party by the river on our second nigh, with fireworks and music well into the early hours. The weather is improving and there is a real holiday atmosphere here.

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One of the Cruising Association members has suggested a little trip along the river Seille, just south of Tournus, which we were considering. On leaving Chalon we decided to head for Tournus as we had heard good reports of the town and it had been suggested that it felt a little like the feel of a Mediterranean town.

However, on arrival at Tournus the pontoons were full or roped off by resident boats. We managed to moor up in quite a tight spot but were soon kicked of by a tour boat!

So decision was made and we headed to the river Seille, we had plenty of time and would arrive well before lock closing time.

The river Seille has its source in the Jura mountains and is 112km long. It is canalised for 39km from Louhans and it was used originally to transport coal and stone to Louhans and grain, timber and barrel rings down to the wine regions of the Saone and Rhone.

The first lock was still manned , the others are all manual, and as we approached we were lucky that the lock keeper saw us approaching.

Our stop was at La Truchere, right beside a lovely restaurant the Embarcadere.

This is an idyllic spot, with much river wildlife, birds , a pretty village with a large mill and three other restaurants, yes-all open and busy!

The countryside was a typical harvest scene, the farmers hurrying to bring in the harvest in between rain storms, the sun today was shining!

There are lovely walks through farmlands and woods, and it is beautiful, we loved it here!