Sitting on the back of Armida in the afternoon. Some clouds have materialized to take the sting out of the August sun but we are on the water with a lovely green area at the back of many old stone homes. A young German man just came from his garden to say hello. They have this home for holidays. We told him we met two men from Amsterdam this morning while we were all walking our dogs. They live here year round. Of course he knew them and said, “small town”. And that it is. Maybe 50 homes 2/3 of which are 16th and 17th century, all pristine. It’s obviously popular with the money people, but has no shops. Only one small family fun bar/cafe and the Mayors building. A van comes through every AM selling eggs, baguettes and croissants. Up the hill past the 13th century church, and lavoir (wash house) with an unusual oval pool, is the Chateau de Ray sur Saone. Once the largest fortress in this area of France. Built in the 12th century and as frequently happens was destroyed in the early 17th century and totally rebuilt as an imposing but charming chateau with expansive gardens with magnificent trees from around the world and fabulous views. It has stayed in the same family, 35 generations until the Chateau and grounds were donated to the region in 2015. The well maintained grounds are open to all for free but the inside of the building is only open for tours Thurs-Sat. So another time.
Yesterday and today we had a cute old man who lives here come peddling vegetables from his garden. Yesterday we bought lettuce, baby carrots and chives. Today raspberries and a big bag of skinny green beans. We don’t need tomatoes as we bought many a few days ago at only 1.09 euro per kilo (2.2 pounds) Couldn’t believe it.
We have been pottering up the Petite Saone for nearly a week and it didn’t start well. It took us 1 1/2 hours to get through the first lock below Auxonne due to a herd of rental boats and a hotel boat and we were thinking: why are we doing this in August. Well we must have hit the peak load of rentals coming and going to their bases and apart from one other wait we have had no more delays, not that we have a schedule. There are still lots of boats moving until evening but if we get somewhere by early afternoon we are fine and we have entertainment for the afternoon and evening at boats crowd each other for the last spaces.The weather has been glorious. For about 4 days it was sunny, clear with a light cool breeze and cool nights. The last couple of days have been hotter with less breeze but still cool nights – amazing for August.
The river here is lovely, narrower, greener and at 8km/hour very relaxing. No notable towns or villages but some nice surprises and pleasant moorings, like this place.
This afternoon we had to decide whether to go a short way upstream to a small town with groceries (for tomorrow, today is another obscure French holiday – Assumption Day) or downstream to a “middle of nowhere” mooring – or not. We decided Not and will stay another night. Terry said she could stay here for ever, but there is no electricity so we can’t.
