Many people have asked about our Locaboat canal trip June 24 through July 6, 2016 in France. Here are my notes. They are not too detailed, but just enough to get you exploring for your own trip!
Our flight arrived at 2:30 PM in Paris. Took about an hour thru customs and collecting our luggage. $16 taxi to hotel. Oceania. Beautiful pool & bar in the lobby. They speak quite a bit of English. Saw that flight crews like this place too. Small room but big shower, wonderful water pressure and very comfy bed and pillows. Walked into town. Beautiful church and gardens. Dinner across the entryway at Nautical. Had a perfect dinner w an extraordinary bottle of Bordeaux! Tomorrow is Sunday so the town bakery is closed so we’ll have to wait for our first Parisian croissant.
$71.30 taxi to gare l’est train station
Next time fly and and stay at Holiday Inn right across the street from train station.
Train ride a little over 3 hours. Stayed at Hotel Grad du Nord. Clean, quiet, very nice people. Sunday night so many places closed but found a place for dinner and wine. Woke up at 5AM and walked the streets. Beautiful park with bridges, statues, park benches and lots of grass and flowers. Found Luke warm coffee across from the train station but it was desperately needed. Most places opened about at 6AM. Lots of patisseries! Bought a few more groceries to add to what we ordered delivered to the boat plus beer, wine, and water.
6/27 Monday: 30 minute taxi to the boat. 45 euros. 2 hours of instructions and off we went. 2 hours after 2 locks and a tunnel we moored in Traves. 10 euros.
Biked into town and ventured inside the beautiful church.
6/28 Tuesday: Headed out after breakfast to Ray-Sur-Saone to the castle on the hill. Parallel parked, had lunch on the boat and walked up the hill. Don’t miss the pet cemetery on the way back! (Tours are on Sundays.)
Moored at Seviex. Rode bikes into town and purchased goat cheese from a shop owner & visited her baby & mama goats and horse. Small shop we picked up dishwashing liquid & fly squatters. Headed into town & took a peek inside the beautiful church.
Dinner on the boat, card games, fresh tarts and wonderful red wine. Lots of mosquitoes!!!
After 2 euro showers walked over the bridge and up to the channel tunnel. Wonderful photo ops there!
6/29 Wednesday morning we had coffee and headed out after biking into town and found the boulangerie to be closed.
3 hours to Gray. Rigney would be a cute place to park and take the bikes into town. The bike path follows most of the river and only a few times veers into the countryside. At the Rigney lock, the water was shooting out the walls as it went really, really low. The window on the back bedroom was open and we sailed away with the sheets tied off the back and in Gray, drug the mattress up top to dry in the sunshine.
Where to hook up was a little confusing in Gray. We passed on place and went thru the lock, thinking there’d be a very large moorage. Ended up doing a u-turn and tying up right along the river. Had to move a second time because the electrical cable couldn’t reach the outlet.
Biked towards town and had lunch on the river bank. Rose’ and SNAILS!!
There is no charge for electrical or water at Gray. The tie up location south of Gray fits a few boats and looks very peaceful. It’s a ways from town but still bikeable.
Rode around town and up to the old city, bought fruit and cheese at the vegetable market and a fresh flower bouquet. Dinner out. Had foie gras and wonderful wine.
6/30 Thursday: Rained most of the night but dry by morning. Grocery shopped across the street at the super market and headed towards Mantoche. Beautiful riverside lawn, small town, big church with modern stained glass windows. Longer lock that fit 3 boats.
Had lunch on the boat and headed to Heuilley-sur-Saone. Very quiet river with very small summer cabins along the way. Parked along the bank with no electricity. (“Ziss is not zee way to boat.”) Biked into town to the bakery shop and then beer at the local pub. Bart made artichokes!
Fished for a bit, rode bikes and went to bed around 10 or 11.
7/1 Friday: Woke up to sunshine. Bikes. Campground. Headed south to Pontailler-dur-Saone. Beautiful huge church and old buildings. Saw a pizza vending machine. The meat market had amazing ham which we had sliced paper thin. The patisserie was open too!
Headed north towards Mantoche. Very, very sunny and hot. Sleepy river time! The locks fill up (instead of drain) as we head north so there are lock keepers to grab your line with a hook. The water comes rushing in so you better be holding your rope keeping the boat up against the wall!
Gray: Tied up where we did a few days earlier but this time no other boats. Filled the water tank and strolled into town. Had dinner on the boat. Duck confit out of a can. Baked the potatoes in the duck fat and goat cheese then pan seared the duck.
7/2 Saturday: Woke up to cloud covered sky and lovely morning breeze. Had hot coffee, croissants and jam for breakfast. Went grocery shopping and headed up river to the longest cruise of the trip (5 hours). There is a market Saturday morning. Stopped at Rigney and walked into town during a light drizzle. Wandered the grounds of the Chateau Rigney Hotel and visited the church.
Had lunch on the boat of amazing Jamon Blanc, goat cheese chèvre, and fruit. The valley is famous for their cherries. The melons are very sweet and when the pear is ripe it is perfect, no grainy texture.
Headed north again to Soing. There is only room for 3-4 boats and if you want to plug in, your cord had better be long. Otherwise, there are certainly places to stake all around here or in the canal. The dock runs along a lovely park with a kids playground and a ping pong table! In town there is an Eiffel Tower replica, a bar and restaurant the looks to the river and the prettiest most restored church we’ve seen. There is no bike trail to Charentenay – you have to ride on the road. The first part is pretty uphill (so the ride back is awesome!). Took about 1 1/2 hours round trip. There was an art exhibition going on with food and wine and an accordion player. At night it is so dark the sky is filled with sparkling stars. (Sun goes down around 10:30. Comes up about 5:00.)
7/3 Sunday: In the morning we rode around town again and fly fished a bit. There is no boulangerie or patisserie even though the map says there is. (We saw the for sale sign.)
Headed north again and at our first lock out, the young lock keeper was selling local cheese for 5 euro which we bought. When we opened it it looked very commercial and in a very American way, thought we’d been duped. Upon tasting the cheese, we died and went to heaven. It was runny and gooey like the middle of a warm Camembert.
Pulled over for lunch of ham, pate, cheese, crackers and fruit.
Watch for little white signs with numbers on them as they are marker numbers to tell you where you are on your map.
South of the bridge we staked and road bikes into Rupt-sur-Saone and rode bikes to see the chateau with the dungeon tower, orangerie, the wine cellar and the kennel. There’s a mean caretaker lady there so don’t get her dog a barking or she’ll come out of her house and scold you!
Riding across the river bridge to Chantes where there are lots of cows and a locked up church.
Docked back at Locaboat in Scey-sur-Saone. Being that it was Sunday everything was closed except for the restaurant which had amazing foie gras! Rode around town which is very, very cute. Beautiful old homes, college, and a camping area. (If the train wasn’t so early on Monday morning, an idea would have been to overnight outside of the Locaboat harbor.) No water to hook up to here and the boat is empty but they do have showers here.
Locaboat checked us out so that was the goal. (The reason the thruster never turned on was the button had to be pressed TWICE.) Heading back to Paris today!
When putting in your order to have the boat stocked before your arrival, you may want to add: Fly swatter, Bug repellant, Binoculars, Garbage bags, TP ,Dishwashing liquid, Drinking water
We’ll do another trip someday. Maybe the same canal or perhaps another spot!
See you in the locks!
