Canal du Rhone au Rijn

Part 1 – Dole to St Vit
Monday 15 August 2016

The canal du Rhone au Rijn

The Canal du Rhone au Rijn, as it’s name suggests, connects the Rhine in Germany to the Saone and thus eventually to the Rhone in France.
It follows the valley of the Doubs River and is the canalized sections of that river. The river was once the commercial route for bringing logs down from the mountains to the shipbuilding cities as far afield as Marseille and Brest. These days there is virtually no commercial traffic, and we certainly haven’t seen any working barges yet.

Doubs River

The canal is quite narrow, but very beautiful, even shady, which was a blessing as the weather was hellishly hot – well over 30 C if I remeber correctly. There is a lot of weed in the canal – not good for the cooling water intake!

Weed on the canal

It is also relatively shallow, which is why the speed limit is about 6 km/hr. If you try to go faster, you actually waste fuel, and cause erosion to the banks.
And of course loads of fishermen, of all ages! Fishing seems to be the French national sport, though I have yet to see anyone actually catch a fish!

Fishing on the canal

Ranchot

I planned the part from Dole to Besancon for over three days, around what I thought were the larger towns, and to keep the boating day short. Ranchot would be the first stop. The locks and remote all behaved well with only one hiccup at Lock 62 – The lock sequence activated, we got the red/green get ready lights, the gates opened and I approached slowly expecting the green go ahead, which never seemed to come. Suddenly the alarm sounded and we had 2 red lights!

All stop at the lock

We moored up at the waiting pontoon, and contacted the control via the intercom. In a few minutes the familiar lockie van arrived. To cut a long story short, the lockie found that a tree branch was lodged behind the one lock gate, which prevented it opening 100 % This triggered the alarm and stopped the whole sequence. She sorted it out and we were soon on our way. We arrived at Ranchot, which was indeed a pleasant mooring spot, well ahead of schedule. A stroll up to the expected shops was a disappointment! One boulangerie, with very little left to offer. So we carried on boating, towards the grand sounding Port St Vit.
Normally I am a bit snap-happy and photograph everything, but in our haste to get on, I never took a single photo at Ranchot!

Passing Roche du Nenon

Port St Vit

There was indeed a jetty. But it was occupied largely by derelict boats, and very little water under the keel. But we managed to moor there, having avoided the sunken rowing boat, and loads more weed.
A 2 km walk to the town – and all the shops were already closed, as it was apparently a bank holiday. So we gave up the idea of any shopping and enjoyed a pleasant, quite evening on board, dining on left-overs, with of course the obligatory glass or 2 of red wine. Heaven on earth! (Shangri-La is very aptly named)

Canal du Rhone au Rijn

Read Karen’s version of events see her blog here