Since last night was so quiet and peaceful, we decided to stay another day at Rigny, with Rita continuing her study while I pottered around on the boat, and then we could go for a ride in the afternoon. So I gave the decks a long overdue wash, and then cleaned the sides of the cabin. While the roof of the cabin has needed painting every few years, I have never needed to paint the sides of the cabin. But they were starting to look a bit grubby. After a couple of hours with Zif, they were looking spotless.

In the afternoon, we decided to ride into Gray along the river. The Guide Fluviale showed two route possibilities, one on each side of the river. We decided to take the route on the northern side, since it appeared to cling to the river all the way into Gray. So we headed off over the bridge into Rigny and immediately turned left to follow the river. The bitumen path turned into a gravel path as soon as we left Rigny, but it was still in pretty good condition. A while later it became more of a track than a bikepath, but the views of the river made it worthwhile. However, as we got to the silos near PK 285, we were confronted with a high wire mesh fence right down to the river. The path shown in the Guide Fluviale no longer existed (if it ever did). Undaunted, we thought there must be a way around the fenceline, so we turned right, away from the river, and through the scrub (where it appeared others had gone in the past). But this just left us in what appeared to be a rubbish tip area for the adjacent factory, with a locked gate in the mesh fenceline giving access to this area. So we pushed our way further through the scrub and eventually came to another fence along a small roadway. Luckily this fence was just a wire strand fence, and the corner post where it met the wire mesh fence was not in the best condition. So we managed to lift our bikes up and over the fence to get onto the road. We checked on GoogleMap and found that this little road would take us to another road leading directly into Gray, so off we went.

We rode across the bridge to the southern side of the river, and then up to the base of a hill, on which the old part of the city was located. The hill was too steep to ride up, even for Rita, so we locked our bikes together in a back street and then walked up the hill. We reached the top of the hill right next to an old Chateau which was now functioning as an Art Gallery.

They currently had an exhibition of Titouan paintings, so we decided to go inside and have a look. Titouan Lamazou is a French painter who specialises in paintings of women and girls from many cultures around the world. We had seen one of these paintings as part of advertising posters around Gray, and it looked interesting. So we paid our entrance fees and went inside. As usual, it was good to see the look on the face of the attendent when they ask our nationality to record in their log book - clearly they don't get many Australians attending, but they all have friends or relatives who have been to, or lived in, Australia!

As we found out after we had looked at many of his paintings, Titouan was very good at painting eyes (and capturing the persons mood therein), but like many artisits he was not so good at painting fingers.

Before we looked at his paintings, however, the gallery attendant suggested that we might want to watch a 30-minute video on the life and times of Titouan. Even though it was all in French, I understood enough to follow the story. It was interesting to see the subject he was painting, and then the result of the painting, to appreciate how well he captured their personality and mood. Equally interesting was to see his parallel life. Early in life, he had an interest in sailing. When going to some Pacific Islands to do some paintings, he accepted an offer to sail there with a friend, since there was no plane access to some of the islands. He enjoyed the sailing so much that, on returning to France, he bought a sailboat for recreational purposes. This got him hooked, and he progressed to bigger and bigger yachts, and started to do some competitive yachting as part of a crew. To cut a long story short, he eventually progressed so far that he became world champion solo ocean race sailor. It was amazing to see someone who was at the absolute top of his game in two totally different pursuits (he was also a very competent photographer).

After we left the Gallery, we went for a walk around the old part of Gray on top of the hill. One of the highlights of Gray's old town is the Mairie, with its amazing Burgundian tiled roof. These tiled roofs are widespread throughout the region, especially on church spires, but this is one of the largest and most spectalular examples. We were starting to appreciate Gray a bit more.

As we left the old city and walked down the hill to our bikes, we saw a reminder that Autumn was indeed coming.

After our experience with the bike track on the northern side of the river on our way into Gray, we decided to ride back to Rigny on the south side of the river. Although it was further away from the river, it was sealed all the way and virtually free of traffic.

As I rode behind Rita, I noticed an interesting behaviour. When professional cyclists reach behind their back, they are normally searching for a water bottle, or similar. But Rita was reaching for the fresh baguette we had bought in Gray, which was rapidly losing one of its ends!

When we got back near our barge, we continued riding along some of the rural lanes and further up the river, just to see what was there. It was only the rapidly disappearing sun that forced us to everntually call it a day and return to our peaceful mooring.