The morning was sunny as the guests on Grand Victoria prepared for an excursion to see some of the local sites. We were in no hurry to leave Pontailler, so we loitered around the boat until about 1130h, when we took in the ropes and headed north again. The first highlight for the day was soon after we passed through Ecluse 18, and went past the blue bridge over the entrance to the Champagne et Bourgogne Canal, which leads north to the real "Northern France". It looked enticing, but we continued on to Heuilley and beyond on the Saone.

After re-entering the River Saone just past Heuilley, we passed a little mooring at Port St Pierre carved out of the surrounding forest, which looked very inviting, with several people swimming in the river. But the mooring was filled with two boats, so we just made a note in the Guide Fluviale for the return trip as potentially an interesting place to stay for a while.

About an hour later, as we approached Ecluse 17 near Apremont, I noticed two swans feeding in the shallows as the river diverged away from the lock. I tried to get a photo of them, as the water was only halfway up their legs, but they were too far away. But I needn't have worried, because before I knew it, they were flying across to greet a barge just emerging from the lock.

Amazingly, the barge emerging from the lock was a Piper Barge called Svanen (Swedish for Swan)! How did the swans know that one of their flock was emerging from the lock?

We continued on, still scratching our heads, until around the next bend we arrived at the village of Mantoche. The Guide Fluviale's description of the town was very complimentary, and while there were a few boats in port, there was still space for many more. But we had heard lots about the next town of Gray, so we just marked Mantoche in the Guide as "a place to moor", and continued on to nearby Gray.

When we arrived in Gray, my first impression was that it was aptly named. It didn't look very impressive at all, and while there seemed to be ample mooring sites, none of them looked very appealing. I wondered why so many people had recommended Gray as a destination. So we kept moving though the lock and on past the town. By now we were starting to wonder where we might stop for the night, and on checking the Guide we saw that there was supposed to be a mooring at Rigny, about 5 kms upstream.

So we continued on and, after passing through Ecluse 15, we sighted a mooring up ahead on the left. But as we got closer, we saw that it was already occupied. Fortunately, as we got very close, we saw that it was only a small boat and that we could squeeze onto the mooring as well. Phew!

We went for a walk over to the village of Rigny, but it wasn't all that extraordinary, so we enjoyed the sunset from the bridge over the Saone and then returned to the boat for a quiet dinner.