Given that we were now into Autumn, it was not surprising that it was a little bit foggy in port this morning. But it soon cleared to a blue sky and we were off and heading up river on the Saone. It was nice to be running on a wide river again, even if we did have to share it with several other boats.

Indeed, many of the boats on the river today were fishing boats; the river was loaded with them, and so when we arrived at the first lock we asked one of the fishermen what was going on. He responded that there was a competition going on today among Auxonne fishermen, hence all the boats.

Our first stop today was at Lamarche, where we stopped for lunch. Although we have been past this town several times over last few years, we had not stopped there until earlier this year when we caught up with the Patmores on Drumsara.

After lunch, we decided to go for a walk around Lamarche, probably up to the twin-spired church. But as we walked we got distracted by other paths and signs, and found a lake with a view across to the church. We then walked under a high bridge on a disused railway line, and found another bigger lake. While we could have walked much further, we just put it into our memory banks to explore further on another day.

As the day was slipping away, we headed back to the boat and cast off to head further north. After a very pleasant cruise, we arrived at Pontailler, where we moored on the stone steps for the evening. We went for a walk up the river to a point opposite the boat club, then back to town and to the patisserie where we got some goodies for dessert this evening and some bread for tomorrow.