Given the quietness of the location and the comfort of the beds, we slept in till 0900h. Then it was time for a leisurely classic French breakfast of croissants and coffee. We then had a look around the hotel and discovered that Elizabeth was a talented quiltmaker. Her Australian Christmas quilt brought several smiles to our faces.

Having explored the Hotel, we then decided to explore the town, especially the old lock behind the small port. This lock was built as a bypass for some of the more difficult parts of the Saone south of St Jean de Losne. It has now been bypassed by an even longer bypass to the south-east.

The lock was large and a strange shape with a “though lane” on the right and a holding area within the lock on the left.

The small port in Le Chatelet is located in the southern entrance to the old lock. The Hotel is the building at the top left with the white end walls.

As can be seen in the map below, the new bypass starts just north of Seurre, and ends south of St Jean de Losne. Le Chatelet is located on the old Saone, just at the end of the navigable section of the river. It is therefore accessible from Seurre. We will keep this in mind for future barge travels in this region.

Elizabeth had mentioned last night that they had some hire bikes that we were free to use, so we decided to go for a bike ride today towards St Jean de Losne. We headed up along the old bypass canal, and then followed the riverbank to Pagny-de-Ville, then headed toward Pagny-le-Chateau till we reached the new bypass canal. As we rode over the bridge we saw a boat heading south, which we later identified as Red Jim. We remembered this name because of the name of Captain Jim at Port Moissac, who we had spoken to just yesterday.

We then rode north along this canal, seeing white swans in the side creeks and in the main river itself.

Eventually, after a couple of hours, we arrived at St Jean de Losne. We were hungry and thirsty, but it was just after 1400h, so we were unsure about getting something to eat. But Rita found a cafe/restaurant run by a Swiss guy who agreed that he could provide us each with a salad, so we took a seat. The views of the big boats on the other side of the river were an indication of what we can expect in a couple of months when we barge up here.

As we were tucking into three of the biggest salads we had ever seen, we heard a convoy of motorcycles coming over the bridge. Before long the noise increased, as the Harley Davidson Club of Neuchatel arrived at our cafe for lunch!

Many parked their bikes next to ours.

They then joined us in the cafe for lunch, and Rita and Ruth donned their sunglasses to fit in with the crowd. Despite appearances, they were a nice bunch and Rita struck up a conversation in Swiss with one at the next table to learn the story of how they came to have lunch in St Jean de Losne.

After lunch, we went to look for some shops to grab some supplies before we headed home to the Hotel. While we had some problems finding the shops, we saw some interesting road signs along the way. Not sure, however, whether the French dogs can read signs!

We then went through the St Jean de Losne port and on the way out Rita discovered some manual locks, and tried to see how they worked.

We then started the ride home along a different route (paved roads rather than gravelled bike paths), passing one of the biggest haysheds I have ever seen.

A bit further on, Ruth found the deer sign she has been trying to photograph for the past couple of days, but we were always going too fast in the car.  Now we were going at the right speed.

On the way back, I lagged behind because i had switched bikes with Rita, but eventually we switched back, and as we approached the final destination, I broke away from the peloton (of three) and arrived at the hotel in plenty of time to get a cold beer before the others arrived.

I also got the chance to say hello to the resident hotel cats, who were cute as.

When the girls arrived, they also ordered drinks (tea for Rita and beer for Ruth). It didn’t take long for the little black cat to be up on the table trying to drink the milk for Rita’s tea. But his head was too big to get into the jug.

So he looked for a larger glass, and found one containing my beer! Ruth’s reaction was unrehearsed and priceless. I didn’t even know I’d captured it until I was reviewing my photos later in the evening. Since then, it has gone viral! The kitten's reaction was even better than Ruth's. As soon as it tasted the beer, it leapt vertically into the air, coughing and spitting all the way up and down. As soon as it landed back on the table, it scurried off. No more beer for it!!

As we were reading a local newspaper, we saw that tonight there was a Night Market at Auxonne. So, Rita and I headed over there, just to investigate for future reference. It wasn't as big as other Night Markets we had been to, but the locals seemed to be having a good time.

As we were lining up to buy some food, a guy just ahead turned and asked where we were from, since he had recognised our accents. Turns out he was from Tasmania, and was working on a barge doing some renovation work. He got the job when a friend of his had to pull out at the last moment.

After we finished eating, we thought we would head over to the port and have a look around. As we walked over, we passed someone who turned around and said “Tony!”. Turned out to be Bruce “Surfcoast” Munro, who we had met a few times at the Melbourne Barge Meetings. Turns out it was his barge on which the Tassie guy was working! After chatting for a while, he continued his search for food and we went to look at the boats in port.

We soon found his new barge “Matilda” and saw the Tassie guy chatting with the people on the barge moored next to them.

Port Royal was pretty crowded, so we were glad that we had already made a booking for a winter mooring.

We then headed back to listen to the band, but left shortly after as they were playing little music, with the lead guy on piano doing a lot of talking instead. We were glad to arrive back at the hotel, for a good night’s sleep after a busy day.