Albon was up early at 0500h, milking the cows on his farm, despite the rain which continued till mid-morning. Rita and I then drove across to Auxonne, about 40 minutes from Besain. Auxonne, on the River Saône, is where is plan to move the barge to next year, so that we will be closer to Switzerland, thus enabling Rita’s mum to come across and spend some time on the barge with us. The marina at Port Royal is relatively new (opened in 2011) and is located immediately adjacent to the Military School where Napoleon did his initial training. While the marina is connected to the Saône  it is based on floating pontoons which have a rise of over 5m. From the look of the walls surrounding the Military School, that should make it able to cope with the seasonal flooding that happens on the Saône. The port is also relatively close to the railway station at Auxonne (top right of photo below), with just a 20 minute trip to Dijon, where Rita hopes to do some study on Music Therapy next year.

Photo Credit: Google Maps

We inspected the marina and found that a large number of smaller cruisers were moored there...

but there was also plenty of space for larger barges. The advertised capacity is 150 boats, so hopefully we will be able to secure a place for the winter of 2018-19.

As we were inspecting the marina, the skies were turning darker and we could hear thunder rumbling in the distance.

So we decided that we would remove ourselves from this exposed location, and go for a walk around town and find somewhere to eat (and take cover, if needed). Auxonne looks like a pleasant town (with an interesting history), with all necessary services. It is also relatively close to Paris, being just 2 hours away by train. One of the things I liked were the interesting rooflines that could be seen in the town.

We stopped for lunch at La Renaissance cafe and found it to have a nice local atmosphere. They also had a big screen showing the start of the Singapore GP, where rain was creating a challenging situation, with one Ferrari taking out a Red Bull Renault and another Ferrari before the first turn!

After walking around the town a bit more, we hopped back into the car to drive to Bern via Dole, Besançon and Pontarlier. Along the way, we stopped at Ecluse 62, between Dole and Besançon on the Doubs River/Canal. We will have to get used to the different locking systems up here, with “tirettes” being used to control the locking process from on board the boat, rather than having to get off to push a button at the control house. Finally, we will be able to use some of the things that the Murrell’s talked about in the training course in 2011.

After a couple of hours driving, we crossed the border, bought our freeway vignette, and reached Bern to be greeted by heavy rain (possibly from the same weather system we had seen earlier in the day at Auxonne). After dinner with Mutti, we settled down to play our traditional game of “liar's poker”. She showed she is not slowing down mentally, as she cleaned us out again.