Have spent the week in Dole catching up with some friends and just spending some time around the town. There is a Carnival on in town this week. Unfortunately for them the weather still hasn't improved much and I'm sure their numbers are down. Who wants to ride the roller-coaster in the pouring rain!!!
We visited "Le Chateau du Mont Joly" again; this time with Davib & Juliette (from "Jubilant"). Another great meal from the Romuald & Catherine, who by the way also came onboard "Histoire d'eau" for dinner with their girls. I have to say that Pete was a little less nervous this time, having cooked for them before, and we had a great evening onboard with the family. The girls like the boat, I think, (especially feeding the swans with Dad) and were good fun to have aboard.
We also met an Australian couple who have built a narrow boat in the UK, where they have cruised for the last two years. They are now trying their hand on the French canals. They moored up on the outside of us for a day or so. (These narrow boats are specifically built for the conditions on the UK narrow gauge canals, where their dimensions are perfect. Sometimes though, they have problems with the larger dimensions on the French waterways. Geoff was happier mooring up outside of us, than on the sloping quay in Dole).
Their boat was called "Matilda Blue".
Afterwards we had lunch with the Webb party at a restaurant called "La Grange", also in Rully, which is one of the famous wine towns in Burgundy; arguably in some of the best wine country in the world (apologies to the Barossa - but this is hard to top!)...
After a superb lunch we went back to the winery again to taste Jean-Claude's Cremants (sparkling wines, made like Champagne, however since they are not made in Champagne can't be called that).
I have to say David has been very good, driving us about and taking us to some interesting places. He has also offered to take us to Dole on Saturday to pick up our hire-car - very generous of him.
NB: We plan to visit some friends in Portugal over the next couple of weeks, and to sail down the Portuguese coast with them. Consequently the website may be off-line for most of the rest of June ... sorry 'bout that.
We left "Histoire d'eau' in our home port of St Symphorien-sur-Saone for three weeks while we went sailing with some friends in Portugal. We hired a car and drove down to meet them, travelling through the S-W of France and the north of Spain. It's just a little short of a 2,000 kilometer drive, and since we've never been to Spain together before, we decided to take four days to drive down.
On the way down we visited and stayed in the following places:
We have enjoyed a couple of wonderful trips this year (to Paris for the Rugby and Spain & Portugal for the sailing), but we are now back on the canals for our summer cruise. We left St Jean-de-Losne today and headed south on the Saone for the "Canal du Centre". To get to the "Centre" is about a 60 to 70 kilometer trip with a couple of large river locks, and is very pretty. It's also very nice to be on the river. Because it is wide, and has very little traffic, it is very relaxing and allows us to travel a lot faster than on the canals. (This also runs the engine harder and hotter and removes some of the dirt and smoke. We always run cleaner after a good fast run on the river. NB: when I say "fast", I'm talking about 15 kms/hr.)
We had dinner with Tom & Trish on the first night (terrific food) and a port BBQ on the second night. It was just like an Australian BBQ; except that we were the only Australians there (everyone else was American), and there were no "snags" or lamb (we BBQ'd spare-ribs and had corn bread with them), and we drank French wine (not beer). Otherwise, it was exactly like an Australian BBQ.
I feel it also necessary to add that, in one regard in particular it was EXACTLY like an Australian BBQ; all the "blokes" cooked and the girls made the salads. We decided that the "BBQ gene", although not yet mapped by the Human Genome Project, must never-the-less exist and must, undeniably, be on the Y chromosome. (See photo left - QED).
As much as we enjoyed the company in Fragnes, "we have promises to keep ..."; and so we left and travelled down the canal to the wine growing village of Rully (that is, we have some painting we have to do on the boat...).
The village is quite pretty and has a grand old chateau on the hill above.
We arrived however at around noon on a stinking hot day, and one thing we have learned is that 'you can't paint a boat when the steelwork is too hot!' - it simply doesn't work! Coincidentally, there are also a couple of very nice restaurants in Rully, all of which serve a good Sunday lunch. Faced with these two incontrovertible facts, we didn't break out the paint and brushes.
We stayed in Rully for three days (and on the third day we painted).
You can click here to go directly to the July 2010 web page ... click here for July 2010
(Quick as a flash, I said to Pete, "I could be wrong Pete, but I reakon they might be Australians!".
Mrs Caswell didn't give birth to any stupid kids!).
On the River Saone: Wednesday 02/06/2010 to Friday 04/06/2010:
After a great stay in Dole we've moved back on to the river for a few days. We went out with David & Juliette Webb again, along with their friends Hugh and Ru, courtesy of the Webb's people mover and visited a winery in Rully (in the 'Cote de Beaune' wine region). The guy who owns and runs the place is Jean-Claude Brelier, a great outgoing character who showed us around his winery. We then had a tasting (or two). We tasted both his reds (pinots) and whites (chardonnays) - very nice.
Sailing Trip: Saturday 05/06/2010 to Friday 25/06/2010:
We stayed in an apartment behind the Casino (see photo), which was excellent. We've found that if you only want to stay one night,we found that by not having made a booking we nearly always got a cheap one day rate - much less than the advertised or internet rate. This place had a kitchen, large bathroom, a separate toilet, lounge room, balcony and a double bedroom; was air-conditioned and modern; and cost €80 for the night.
We tried our first Tapas here. Very good.
There was one place in Santander, however, that we didn't feel the need to go to ...
The city's Cathedral was (and still is) the destination of the famous 9th century medieval pilgrimage route; called the "Way of St. James". (in Spanish, called the "Camino de Santiago"). Apparently pilgrims walked from all over Europe just to pray here and to touch the statue of St James at the rear of the cathedral. They in fact still do today; we saw many people walking or riding their bikes along the route. Apparently there are many very cheap "pilgrim" hostels at which the walkers can stay.
We found a hotel on the edge of the old town - another good find; it was an old monastry (I think - I was kind of over the religious business that is the "Way of St. James". Good price again - €80; (I had more of a money lender's interest in the hotel at this stage; rather than that of a Christian pilgrim).
It's main claim to (historical) fame is that on March 1st 1493, the Pinta, one of the ships from Columbus' voyage to discover the New World returned to Europe and arrived in Baiona, making the town's port the first to receive news of the discovery of America.
The rally people organise moorings and some excursions from the ports of call for all the yachts on the 2010 Rally Portugal. It's quite a good way to cover the coast, as you are still free to sail independently (though most tend to sail in the flotilla). On the second day we were there,and luckily after the weather had improved, they organised a tour to Porto; to the Taylors Winery, for a port tasting. It was a good day, and after the tasting we wandered around the old town and had a great (and very inexpensive) lunch.
From here we sailed to Leixoes and after a night's stop-over, on to Figuera da Foz.
Figuera da Foz has a good port and we had a rest day there, during which the Rally Portugal people organised another tour, this time to Coimbra. Coimbra is home to a public university whose origins can be traced back to the 13th century. It's a major University town in Portugal and has a truly magnificent old library, which we were privileged to visit. It was a fantastic place and something completely different, from my point of view as a tourist, to the normal churches and churches and churches ...
We sailed from here to the next port at Lazare and after an overnight stop there, we pushed on again to Peniche.
When we arrived at Peniche we were lucky to get a mooring as a storm had wiped out the pontoons that we were to stay at. Fortunately the Customs & Imigration people allowed us to stay on their jetty. (This was fortunate, as Helen had come down with a stomach bug of some sort and was not in great shape).
Happily Helen was feeling better the following day and we organised our own way to visit the old town of Obidos. Another interesting place. The town is situated on a hill and is still encircled by a fortified wall. The streets still have their mediaeval layout, with squares, walls and a massive castle. It is compulsory to try the local cherry liquor known as ginjinha
The old castle has been turned into an Hotel, where we had a very good lunch with some wine from the Obidos area.
Oieras is at the mouth of the Tagus River, just outside of Lisbon, which provided us with easy access to Lisbon via the local train line.
Lisbon is a great city. We could only spend a day there but we had a great time just walking about. The city is built between two sides of a narrow steep valley and has a number of trolley-cars and elevators that take you up to the higher levels in the city centre.
This is our jumping-off point with Helen & Iain, as they will be taking Alma to Malta over the rest of the summer.
From Oieras Pete & I caught a train back up to Povoa to pick up our hire car (we'd left it in the port there), and headed back to France.
The sailing has been really excellent with plenty of sunshine later in the trip and plenty of wind (28 knots and 3 metre swells from the north - which made our southerly journey interesting and fun). We caught up again with good friends, had some good food, and did some great sailing.
Our thanks to Helen & Iain for their invitation to join them on their trip down the Portuguese coast.
The two interesting places we visited on the way home were:
We managed to buy some local wine (Ok ... but not likely to threaten "Jacob's Creek"), and some beer with "Tournay" on the label (turned out to be Belgium Beer!). Just the same, it was a bit of a kick to take a photo of Pete going into the village ... and a couple of minutes later ... leaving the village!
Not a big place!
St. Jean-de-Losne: Wednesday 23/06/2010 to Thursday 24/06/2010:
We are now back from Sailing and on the River Saone:
Fragnes: Friday 25/06/2010 to Saturday 26/06/2010:
We arrived in Fragnes, about 5 kms into the canal, to find some old friends Tom & Trish (on boat "Elizabeth") already moored at the port. Also in the port were Don & Laura (from boat "Largo" - who we last saw in Besancon in 2009), Jack & Jodelle (on their new boat "Deja Vu") and Eric & Sudi (on their boat "Oldtimer").
Rully: Sunday 27/06/2010 to Tuesday 29/06/2010:
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