Beyond Besancon and Back

Dole.

Whoever flipped the switch last time to end summer only left it there for a few days before pushing hard over towards winter. I finished my bottle of Ricard which was the perfect 5 o’clock aperitif for the summer just after it got cooler.  No need to replace it.

We had a few nice days into Besancon and up the river beyond where the cliffs got steeper, the hills got greener and villages started looking more Swiss/German.  Besancon is still impressive with the massive Citadel dominating the town.  It has continued to improve over our visits and is now very clean and well organized – even the graffiti.

We cruised up as far as Baume les Dames, named because of the Abbey. There is a Baume les Messieurs for the men's abbey but it is 100km away, just to be safe.  This is where the weather turned and we decided there was not enough of interest with poor weather and the limited time we had so we turned around and headed back.  We came out of one lock to find a yacht stuck in the middle of the river. We did the good deed and helped pull them off.  Two days later we helped a cruiser stuck above the weir in Besancon.  Paying it forward we hope.

Back in Besancon we met up with friends, Martin and Wilma from Sydney who had come from Granada where they are spending a year.  We had lovely afternoon cruising down to the weir when the weather cooperated and a day more to Dole when it didn’t.  We think they had a good time as the weather was a lot cooler than Granada.

In case you forgot, we are in France.

Now we are in Dole, Martin and Wilma have gone and the weather is supposed to improve.  Only a couple of weeks left.

A French Shrug.

Armida uses propane for cooking and heating and we keep a spare tank on the swim platform. The main one ran out about 10 days into the season and because it is a short season I decided not to replace it.  A couple of days ago the pressure looked a little low and the bottle felt light so it seemed prudent to get a new one as running out of gas away from a marina in the cold weather would not have been fun.

Yesterday we walked the 1km to the Geant Casino supermarket for groceries and I checked the gas bottle stand by the fuel pumps and noted that the lady who collected payment from the non-automatic pumps sold the gas bottles.  So today I loaded the empty bottle on the trolley and trekked over there before the forecasted rain arrives. The little booth was closed up tight even though the sign said opening hours were from 9:00 and it was 9:40.  Into the supermarket services office where I was politely informed the Gas was “closed  Tuesdays”!.  But of course, who would buy Gas on a Tuesday?  Now i have today’s exercise done and tomorrow’s organized.