All Quiet

Besancon
It is quiet on Armida this morning.  Terry is in bed, the dogs are curled up on the sofa and there is a gentle rain outside. There is no more gurgling and laughing from the suitcase, no more baby noises from adults and no more silly grins and laughing all around.
Sean and Skye left the boat yesterday for Paris and will begin their grueling 22 hour flight to Sydney this afternoon – we hope all goes well.  Adam had to leave to go back to work last week. We have had a wonderful time with them all here and feel so lucky.  Mind you we probably would have had a great time locked in a room for two weeks just watching grandson Sean.  I won’t go on about what a great little boy he is because that will be grandparent bias and to avoid cluttering the blog I have uploaded a bunch of pictures here.
They spent a few days recovering in Paris and took the train to Chagny on the Canal du Centre where we met them with Armida and cruised up to Santenay where we could sit under the trees in the warm weather and enjoy the charms of the village in the evening. The next day we cruised down the canal to Chalon-sur-Saone briefly losing Skye, Terry and Sean after they got off for a walk and ended up on the wrong side of the canal where the road took them off in the wrong direction.
A coupe of nights in Chalon enabled them to enjoy the great street market, stock up on some great wines, have a lovely dinner at Aromatique and experience the festival of music in the town with what appeared to be most of the population of the region. Two easy days up the river got us back to the old hunting ground of St. Jean de Losne where Skye and Adams’ friends Chantal and Sean met us after driving over from Wales for the weekend! They got to experience a short cruise as we headed into the Canal a Rhone au Rhin where we let them off for their long drive home and we continued up to our favorite town of Dole. 
This was the route of our first canal trip in 2001 and I had forgotten what a pretty trip it is.  After Dole the cruising alternates between canal and stretches of the River Doubs, often below limestone cliffs and forests.  There aren’t many villages but the natural scenery is lovely and the weather was mild.  It climaxes with the approach to Besancon as the massive fortress of Vauban’s Citadel appears on the top of the hill protecting the town.
After visiting the Citadel and its museums and Zoo (Sean got to see his first Kangaroo  - in France!)  Adam left and we spent a lovely restful five days with Skye and Sean all to ourselves.
And now they are gone and all is quiet.