The Doubs: Montbeliard to Dole

Passing another Barge on the Upper Doubs.  A rare sight as not much river traffic up here.

I found an old copy of Huckleberry Finn in the boat, left by the previous owners, and as we travel along the more remote stretches of the Doubs, I can easily imagine Huck and Jim as they float on their raft down the untamed Mississippi River.  They often take a tumble off the raft as a result of a storm or a series of rapids, but come they come to no harm.  They have a lovely time in the water and do not come across any ‘no swimming’ signs or if they did, Mark Twain doesn’t mention it.  In August when it is scorching hot, and all you want to do it cool off in the slow moving clear water, it’s annoying to see ‘baignade interdit’ everywhere! You could fall in almost anywhere and the worst that would happen would be to get tangled up in water weed. We got in anyway! In fact the best way to find a good place to swim is to look out for 'Baignade Interdite' !

Church spire Hyèvre-Paroisse from a distance

It is useful for boaters (especially those new to river travel like us) to know in advance that proper moorings on some stretches of the Doubs are few and far between, and you can’t  pull in almost anywhere on a river, like you can on a canal, as the edges are too shallow to moor.  So mooring on impulse to discover a waterside village or do a bit of river swimming is not on the agenda!  The ports can charge what they like as there is no competition, expect 20 + euros a night in holiday season.

Bridge and lock at Hyèvre-Magny

Doubs near Hyèvre-Paroisse

Past Montbeliard the landscape becomes more undulating and somewhere near L’Isle-sur-les-Doubs the channel begins to follow the Doubs River for the rest of your journey as far as Dole near the Saone.

You also have the freedom of your remote control for the locks, and so you don't have those pesky lock keepers asking you where you are going the next day, what time you are going to set off and how far you are going - and you can stop when you want, or at least where you can without having to inform your lock keeper of your plans.

This sounds like I am being very mean to lock keepers, but to be honest, a lock keeper’s job here is quite cushy. They spend a lot of the day zooming up and down the canal on their scooters or vans and pressing a button to open the lock for you, (a job that on a lot of canals you do yourself), and then they stand on the lockside or in their little hut and wait with you whilst the lock fills or empties. When the last of the very infrequent boats have stopped for the day it is time to knock off, and in between this busy schedule there is of course the 12.30-1.30pm lunch time.

Lock staircase atValdieu

One of the lifting bridges manually operated by bridge keeper near Mulhouse.  Bridge keeper - another cushy job!

Five VNF staff here to help us through the lock! i.e.press a button to open the lock and another to close.

The churches whose spires in the Alsace were elegant spikes are now solid and square, curving to rounded pepperpot tops and covered in muti coloured tiles. Hyèvre-Paroisse, is a good example, beautifully situated if you are cruising the Doubs, but unfortunately I missed the opportunity to take a very good photo!  However, I must say that Hyèvre-Paroisse is really best viewed at a distance, and close up it’s a sprawling village all crumbling old buildings, rather hideous modernisations and a 1960’s hotel lit up in full neon like an American motel! Luckily we were moored up on a pontoon across the river at Hyèvre-Magny which was a charming cluster of old buildings, and the unusual turquoise metal river bridge and the lock.  

Hyèvre-Magny

From now on the scenery starts to get interesting.  If you were planning a trip to this area then from Hyèvre-Magny onwards to Baume les Dames and beyond to Besancon you are cutting through hills with beautiful limestone crags, fields of brown and white cows and corn in the narrow valley bottom. There are plenty of walking tracks and bike trails.

Although I’m no expert on French cities, I feel that I am well qualified to speak generally about French towns, (especially those in Burgundy and the Franche Comte) and have done so on this blog many a time.  They are just so depressing; ghosts of their former selves, with a few shops clinging on, the older buildings often looking down at heel and bringing in just a few tourists, and any real trade goes on in modern commercial centres on the edge of town. So it is with L’Isle-sur-les-Doubs and Baume les Dames, (although Baume has some interesting buildings) the two significant towns on this section of the Doubs, between the larger towns of Montbeliard and Besancon, which are big enough to retain a degree of their commerce in the old centre.

Villages on the other hand are often beautifully situated. Clerval, for example, which has a small beach, but unfortunately no mooring any more - it has silted up.  Roche-les-Clerval looking picture postcard from the river, and Hyèvre-Magny set within the forested hills. Unfortunately no photo of either.

Port Baume-les-Dames

Two large commercial barges passing us at the port Baume-les-Dames

Just before Deluz looking downstream

Deluz

Old paper mill Deluz roof caved in

Port Deluz

Above Aveney no port here

Mooring behind old barges just past Aveney

Residential barges at double locks near Aveney

Small pontoon at Rochfort sur Nenon

Sometimes you come across a little town that has everything you want.  The weather is hot and there is a place to moor, a place to swim and a little bar in the centre.  This place also had good views from the top of the cliffs.  The mooring place was sought after and we were lucky to tuck on the end (half off)  as the two other boats offered to move up.

We also found that our deck wash and pressure washer worked well together here, so we can now clean the boat with river water anywhere we like. There is an awful lot of cleaning to be done on a boat to keep it looking tip top - and maintenance too.  Quercy is 8 years old and looks almost like new, but there are always paint jobs, and things to fix. This time is was the toilet and the water guage.  Last time some gadget that controls the grey water pump.  Sanding down bits of the wheelhouse and repainting, touching up the blue paintwork, cleaning the decks and sides.  Dust and mould just loves to stick to the non slip paint on the top and the gunnels.  So now we have cracked this combination of pressure washer and deck wash we are very pleased.

Mooring at Dole

Pontoon at Choisey. Nice village, huge commercial out of town centre 200 yards from boat.

Saint Symporiun - the end of the Canal

A place to see old barges is Saint Symphorian

Market at Saint Jean de Losne. Wednesday in Summer.

Belfort Branch Canal

As we approached our first automatic lock our chart book showed a choice of routes. Either carry on over an aqueduct on the Canal Rhone au Rhin or take the branch to Belfort a 10km section of canal that was started in 1882 and never completed. Unfortunately our  chart was out of date and the canal was totally closed a few years ago. The canal actually ran over 30km and included a tunnel, it was aiming to connect to the River Saone. Our out of date guide suggests that there were recent plans to finish it off, but that looks unlikely.

Actually I quite enjoy looking at old disused canals and railways and I know that there would not be any old canals or railways to explore if they did not close. But still it is a great shame to loose these assets.

We cycled the route up to and just beyond Belfort, again a really lovely stretch of waterway and most locks seemed in reasonable condition and all the pounds full of water. In fact some stretches still had boats and some live-aboard barges that must have just been left stranded when the canal closed.

Barge sitting on the closed Belfort branch canal

We had a look round Belfort and had lunch at a good cafe called Marcel et Suzon, simple but good.

Lunch at Marcel et Suzon

Leaving Mulhouse

Quite a pleasant mooring at Mulhouse, small, almost full, quite expensive.

Of course the highlight for me was the National Motor Musium with a very extensive collection of Bugatti cars. Strange I never really associated Bugatti with France, Italian name but it is French and very impressive engineering. Next time through if there is a next time the Train Museum.

Just one of the many Bugatti exhibits

Leaving Mulhouse the locks are still operated by an Eclusier who we had to book for a set time to start. We chose 11am and were told that it was insufficient to get to Dannemarie some 24 locks away if we left so late. It seems everyone heads there, but we were happy just getting to Elingen, moored outside a bar with signs to say open, but no sign of life.

Moored at Elingen

France is full of cafe's bar's shops and so on, often saying open 24/24, to me this means 24 hours a day and 24 days a week. But to them it seems to mean all day every day, except Sunday, Monday, lunch time, holidays, low season and when they don't feel like opening. So more often than not they are shut. But then when they are open they still look shut, so unless you try the door you never really know.

There are a number of lift and swing bridges on the canal, often a keeper stands there all day ready to close the road and open the bridge for every boat passing. On a good day that can be as many as four.


The following day we carried on, stopping at Dannemarie for lunch at a bar on the quay, excellent and very busy, mostly with cyclists.

Dannemarie Port

The canal path has been uprated to provide a good green route and it sees hundreds of cyclists, especially at weekends. After lunch we went through a ladder of 13 locks in just over two km, not as impressive as Devizes, but not bad. We ended up at Montreux-Chateau, the name sounded interesting and probably was the most interesting part. There was a restaurant barge moored at the port with a menu, but again no sign of life. We never did find a Chateau. So we cycled back to Montreux-Vieux, also an interesting name.

The next day, Monday we started descending and after lock number 7 were given a remote control to operate the fully automatic locks. We have encountered remotes before for locks, usually a small fob with a button to press. This one given to us by a lock keeper who handed it over said something in rapid French and disappeared, was in a large box complete with a charger, six buttons and instructions.


As we approached the next lock and opened up the box, we found that our instructions were in German. OK, once we understood how it worked then it was fine, but the device needs to establish a connection with the lock before you press any buttons. That was not initially understood, so we spent a while at the first automatic lock. By coincidence or more probably because, the boat behind us was German and they were given instructions in English. A quick exchange and all was well.

One of the automatic locks

Mulhouse

Mulhouse Port from the bridge near the Train Station.  The centre is 10 minutes walk through back streets

Central Mulhouse map. National Car museum is off map to the north.  We walked there and got the tram back.

Not rats! Koypues, we have never seen white ones before.  They did not open their eyes.

Wall Art Mulhouse

Wall art Mulhouse

Gorilla Gardening?  

Modern Shopping centre - the French love them - so do Brits come to think of it!

On the Rhine

Rhine Ferry above Rhinau

The Rhine is not what is was a century ago when is spread out for a mile or more in the watery plain between Germany and France.  Now it is a tamed raised channel with concrete sides and deep ditches to the sides. Massive 1960's built locks - you can guess how attractive they are beside large weirs which are EDF energy hydro electric power stations.

Jointed Commercial Barge

So it is all a far cry from the canals that we have been used to and in addition everyone speaks German Frist then French and none of the lockkeepers in these large locks speak English (not that I'm saying they should)

Wetland Nature Reserves near Rhinau

From your vantage point in this sterile channel you can't see much except the tops of the trees in the wetlands to either side.  Glimpses or the Black Mountains in Germany on the left as you go up and the Vosges Mountains in Alsace on the right.

On the Rhine

In a lock with Commercial vessel

We followed the maps in this book on the Rhine

In another lock behind large commercial

Waiting to go in.  Other boats coming out - notice start of cruise ship and in front an inflatable canoe!

Leaving a lock

We cruised from Rhinau to Niffer and stopped for the night in Breisach - the only place that it was possible to stop

Some Swallows took a rest on the boat. Nature reserve just before Mulhouse

Back on the Canal system heading for Mulhouse

By the end of each day on the two day trip our engine room was boiling!