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Le Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne – Sailing in December
Cold, wind, rain and humidity. Sometimes frosty mornings with frozen cords. These were our sailing conditions during the first two weeks of December. Of course we would prefer to sail during the warm, beautiful summer days, but this was the second year this canal was closed. We just wanted to go further north with our boat and this was the only solution we could do with our boat. We said to ourselves, as soon as this canal is finally open, we will pass it. So we can leave behind all the canals in central France, because they always have problems, and we can navigate the rivers, where we are sure there will be water.
The whole summer was hot and dry, but everything changed during the fall when it was raining and raining. A few days before our planned departure, the Saône river was in flood and navigation was impossible. What irony. But fortunately for us, the rivers, the canal and its locks were open and we were able to start as planned. But not for long, be careful, the canal is closed on weekends to « non-professionals ».
I was very happy my father-in-law and one his friends came to help us to pass this canal. The weather was bad, it rained almost constantly. We traveled 317 km and passed 136 locks in 11 days (one day we were no longer able to navigate). Our daughter got sick and she wanted me to be near her, so I can’t imagine, how we could do it without their help. I was so grateful to these two men.
The canal has many locks, is not very well maintained, there are only a few ports where you can find water or electricity. So we almost always docked in the middle of nowhere and used our generator to generate electricity. I remember a very friendly harbor captain in Chaumont, where we stopped because we needed to refill water, and he told us that this was the second year that they had closed the canal for summer, so business is not doing great.
We crossed the Balesmes tunnel, which measures 4820 meters and it took us an hour to cross it. I think this is the longest tunnel we had done with our boat so far. And a few days later we went through the Mont de Billy tunnel, which is 2302 meters long and it only took half an hour.
What I will always remember about this trip are the overflowing locks on the last kilometers of canal with plants and strong wind, where your fenders are completely useless. I’ve never seen this anywhere else.
I suppose we would appreciate and enjoy the canal and the towns there more in the summer, but that just wasn’t possible. We therefore sailed as quickly as possible to be able to close this chapter of life « in the south » and experience other adventures.
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What do we like and don’t like about living on a boat?
Living on a boat is amazing. If you once experience this kind of lifestyle, you can’t go back to « normal » life. But the truth is, it’s not for everyone. We have changed few marinas and towns and met many people with many stories and all kinds of boats. From luxurious to « how can someone live in that? » boats. And that is the best thing of living on a boat. You can meet all types of people with different backgrounds, from different countries, different cultures…
In the marina with your neighbors you create a unique community, you know each other, you meet them every day on the pier, you invite them for a drink, they invite you, you create friendships easily. If someone has a problem, we help each other. I think it’s very different compared to living in a house or an apartment where sometimes you don’t even know your neighbors.
Living on a boat gives you also the sense of freedom, it’s casual, laid-back, and independent. I constantly feel like I am on a vacation. You can do with your boat whatever you want, change the interior system, install solar panels, paint any color etc. Unlike the house or apartment when you often need a permission from authorities.
And in case you don’t like the marina or the city you’re in? You turn the key, start the engine and off you go. That is my favorite perk of all. I can’t imagine living in the same place. And in case of changing the house or apartment, you need to pack everything, rent a truck, move the furniture, unpack everything… We are moving with our home and all of our things, so there is no stress at all.
We like to move, travel, discover new cities and meet new people. Yes, it’s different than travel by car or plane. It takes much longer to travel from city A to city B by boat. But you can enjoy the scenery around you, the wind in your hair, sun on your face and you can stop wherever you want and swim in the river or make a barbecue. It’s more relaxed.
And I think it’s cheaper to buy a boat than a house or an apartment. Well, depends on the size of the boat and it’s equipment inside, but still… We got a good deal with ours and in few years we are debt free. With limited space on the boat, you also think first about what you really need before buying anything. Do I really need that new jacket? Does my baby need that new toy? Gifts from others? Please don’t buy us anything else. We don’t have a place! 😀
Along with the many benefits that offers life on the boat comes some downsides as well. There is no garden for example. We have a terrace, but our daughter can’t run around all day as she would in the garden. We have to go out to the park. Grow our own veggies? Not easy. The aromatic plants have to be enough, haha. There is water all around us, so we need to be more vigilant about where our daughter is and what she’s doing. There are many rules for her as well, which sometimes leads to frustration.
Isolation. That is always the biggest topic between the people living on the boat. In summer it’s hot in the boat, in winter it is cold. You can use the air conditioning in the summer, the heating in the winter, but as soon as you turn them off, the temperature rises (or falls) very quickly. Boats are not as well isolated as buildings. And you can try anything, they will never be the same.
And the biggest disadvantage for me is maintenance. Everyone who lives on the boat knows the saying « the normal state of a boat is when something is wrong » 😀 There is lot of maintenance and sometimes problems. To me, that’s a downside, because it means Mario has to spend his time fixing, cleaning or changing something. But he likes to do that, it’s his hobby, so is that really a disadvantage? 😀
I could find more pros and cons of living on a boat. Just like people living in the house, apartment, camping car, etc. Most of our family and friends can’t imagine our lifestyle, but that’s because they have never tried it and they feel comfortable where they are. And that’s okay. As I said at the beginning, this is not for everyone.
If you want to see more pictures and more of our life and adventures, go check our Instagram LIFEALONGTHERIVER and hit the ‘follow’ button.
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Vacation in Ardèche
We decided to take a last minute vacation in the beautiful region of Ardèche. This gorgeous part of France is full of wilderness, stunning gorges, rivers surrounded by breathtaking mountains, zigzag roads, small medieval villages, French culinary delights and of course wine.
We stayed in a small Airbnb house, lost in the forest, far from civilization and the tourists. Each day we took a winding road with beautiful mountain views to explore popular spots around.
First we went to the very popular Vallon Pont d’Arc which is the natural stone bridge. There are small beaches along the way and you can see the canoes pulled up to shore. It’s the most popular activity in the area, I guess, because you can see them everywhere. The second thing you can see everywhere are campsites. You can see Dutch and Belgian car plates all around. They travel far from home, but it’s no surprise there’s plenty to see and do here.
Other day we visited small beautiful villages Vogüé, Balazuc and Labeaume. It is easy with the car, they are not so far from each other. Vogüé is ranked among the most beautiful villages in France, it is located in a limestone cliff and you can walk through many narrow alleys and arches of stone. You can walk up to the chapel and enjoy stunning views of the village and the beautiful natural landscape.
Balazuc is small medieval village perched on a cliff overlooking the Ardèche river. You can discover the place walking through charming labyrinth of tortuous streets, many arched passages, arcades and stairways. Not so baby buggy friendly though. Another attraction is a river bathing on the nearby beach with beautiful view on the cliffs.
Another village with character is Labeaume. Situated along the river, at the foot of steep limestone cliffs. Take a stroll around the picturesque maze of little streets, with covered passages and fine stone facades. By the edge of the river, the big square is shaded by hundred-year-old plane trees. It is the perfect place to have a drink in the summer heat. Not far from there is a bridge where you can enjoy a superb view of the whole village, surrounded by cliffs.
Next day we visited one of the most beautiful cave in France, La Cocalière. The constant temperature inside the cave is around 14 degrees, which was so refreshing. As well as the usual calcite concretions, stalagmites and stalactites of various shapes and sizes you can see here also fine draperies, or stripes of calcite, with semi-transparent growth striations hanging from the roof. Also stunning are clear or blue-tinged water of the natural pools. The cave is pretty long and the visit is around one hour long. But best part for our baby girl was the train at the end which takes you back to the reception area.
We saw many beautiful places and landscapes here in Ardèche. Even just driving around in the car was an amazing experience. I would recommend to visit this french region to everyone who loves nature, hiking, canoeing or beautiful small medieval villages. There is so much to see. Even hundreds of photos cannot show the true beauty of this place. It is just better to see it with your own eyes.
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Forced stop for few months
We were ready to continue our travels. My captain Mario came back from work. His sister came to navigate with us. We started the motor in the morning to sail more north through the Canal de la Marne. And just to be sure we called the authorities if everything is fine. But we’ve got the worst news. The canal Champagne-Bourgogne is closed. There is not enough water in the canal. Last winter was dry and since then it was not raining so much. We have to wait probably until the autumn when it will reopen. We were discussing what we will do next. We had few options. Will we stay in Auxonne? Will we sail more south and enjoy the summer sailing around Lyon? Will we go back to Mâcon where we started? We discussed our possibilities. But the best option we could do is go back to Mâcon, because we have payed for the place until the end of September. We leave our boat there and we can go visit family, go for a vacation by car and discover other beautiful places we can’t with the boat. And that’s what we choose to do. At the last minute we booked the car, the house and we go for a vacation in the beautiful national park of Ardèche. Stay tuned! 🙂
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Visiting Auxonne
Or should I say staying in Auxonne? Me and my daughter stayed here for 2 weeks while my captain Mario went to work. You can stay with the boat in the marina or on one of the pontoon which are closer to the city. You can pay for electricity and water. The only disadvantage here is that there are jet ski during the weekends and you will have waves all day long. The evenings can be loud also.
Auxonne is a small city with small center, few bars and restaurants. I feel it is very sad there are cars everywhere, there are not pedestrian zones. If you have a kid is better to walk along the river. Auxonne is an important historical and military heritage site with the fortifications and towers along the Saône river. The town also pays tribute to Napoleon Bonaparte, who was a student here, with a museum about the famous leader and a statue on the beautiful Place d’Armes.
The city is nice to visit and I appreciated the fact it is located between Dijon and Besançon, so you can easily visit the region with train or bike. But two weeks was more than enough.
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Visiting Dole
I decided to spend the afternoon in Dole. We’ve already visited this city when we sailed from Strasbourg to Mâcon. But it is very beautiful, so I wanted to come back, as it is just 9 minutes train ride from Auxonne. Labeled as the city of art and history with its beautiful buildings and canals will surely take your breath away. Walking through the streets of Dole you can find many small shops with hand made products, like paintings, jewelry, clothes etc. You really get the feeling there are many artists living here.
Very romantic, but short walk along the Tanneurs canal is the perfect place for a walk. It is in this district that was born Louis Pasteur, the inventor of the rabies vaccine. You can visit his birth house which is a museum today. There are many nice streets and views, but as usual we finished at the playground, which was on the island surrounded by many trees, so we were nicely in the shadow. The afternoon well spent.
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Visiting Dijon
Oh, wow. So gorgeous. This city’s center is just beautiful. You can find here many architectural styles like Capetian, Gothic and Renaissance. It is famous for its mustard and gingerbread, we decided to try the second option. Everywhere you look you just want to take out your camera. Little M. loved playing in the fountain in front of Palace of the Dukes. We walked around for hours and again and again found more beautiful streets, buildings, churches and views. Just look for yourself.
Definitely worth visiting. We will for sure go back to Dijon before sailing away more north in few days. If you want to see more pictures from our every day life, you can find us also on Instagram.
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7th stop: Soing-Cubry-Charentenay, France
In Port sur Saône left our little help, the grandfather « papy », so downstream it’s just the three of us. It was great to have extra help and company during this first stage of our sailing. On the way back to Gray we decided to stop in this small village, because we didn’t want to navigate for hours and it looked really nice in the guide we have. The way there was very beautiful with lots of trees everywhere.
The problem occurred when we wanted to moor. It was too shallow for our boat. Because of the shape our boat has, it allowed us to moor at least with the front and we left the back of the boat more far from the land. We called it « the pirate docking ». There is an electricity and a small box where you should put the money for the village, if you used it. I loved the idea. They trust the people here.
The village is small but nice, especially the big playground for kids which our girl enjoyed straight after we docked. We had very nice view on the village and met nice people from other boats.
Mario swam little bit with our girl in the river for the first time, but she didn’t like it, she said it’s too cold. Actually it was refreshing in this hot weather.
The next day we arrived again in Gray where we stayed for two nights next to the camping with cheap price for place and electricity. We enjoyed small beach next to us and went to see a concert in the city center on 21st of June, because it was famous Fête de la musique in France.
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6th stop: Port sur Saône
To arrive in our final destination on Saône, Port sur Saône, we passed another tunnel – Tunnel de Saint-Albin. The entrance to the tunnel is not straight, but there are curves as you can see on the photo above. It was an interesting experience.
The marina of this city is small and looks little bit like not maintained. The boats are moored in many ways, but we found the place to moor. As a mother of a child I really appreciated the playground in the city next to the river which was big with many attractions. It is incomparable with Mâcon where is almost nothing.
You can eat good at restaurant next to the port, but the service was long. There is also a small park next to the lock with doe and lamas. Nice walk with a kid.
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5th stop: Port de Savoyeux
Just before arriving at the marina of Savoyeux there is 642 meters long tunnel. We’ve got refreshed inside in this summer heat.
The marina is small and there is just nature around. It is situated next to the nearby villages Seveux-Motey and Savoyeux that are not so far by bike.
We were lucky because there is a small pizza truck coming next to the marina two times a week, so we knew straight what we will have for dinner. Actually it was pretty good. If you want you can walk back little bit and follow the canal and you will find this nice view.
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Life along the river 