Today dawned cooler and gave no premonition of what was to unfold later in the day. This morning we were moored near Ecluse 29 on the River Doubs, just downstream from L'Isle sur le Doubs. We often refer to this lock, one of our favourite mooring places, as "Volker's Lock" after we met a 74 year old German guy there in 2019, as he was cycling back to Germany after a little trip to Marseille. This morning we were preparing for a long day's cruising south after we had given up again on getting to Strasbourg this year, given all the canal closures so far due to low water levels. As I opened all the doors, and pulled back all the curtains in the wheelhouse, I saw someone standing on the towpath, who said "Do you know who I am?". Yep, it was Volker. Now 77 and just starting another cycling trip down to the Mediteranian. What are the chances of meeting him in exactly the same place, 3 years apart, when we only stayed there overnight? We talked for a few hours and had coffee, during which Rita insisted he take one of her sunhats as a memento of our meetings, and then he was on his way again, with his solar panel providing energy for his radio blasting out Boney M music!. Wonder when and where we'll next meet him. To say that Rita was happy to see him would be a gross understatement!!

Anyway, while Volker was on the boat, Rita took a phone call, and it was from a policeman in Strasbourg. He told her that he thought they might have found our campervan! It turns out they were keeping an eye on a guy up there for other reasons, and suddenly he started driving a campervan around. So the cop checked the WatchList to see if any had gone missing in their area, and found the notice that the Auxonne police had put on there on July 15 about our stolen van. The make, model and description matched, so they pulled him in, and got in touch with us. Over the course of the next few hours we exchanged information and photos, until we were fairly sure it was ours. The thing that convinced us that it was our van was the photo of the bike rack that we had bought for the Scenic. They had changed lots about the exterior of the vehicle, but had failed to get rid of the interior contents, which enabled us to identify the van as ours.

I then took a train from there to Auxonne, to pick up our car and then drive back to L'Isle sur le Doubs. Since I was now feeling in a somewhat better mood, I began to notice things around me in a more favourable light, such as the views of le Doubs from the train as I headed from L'Isle sur le Doubs towards Besançon, where the train basicically follows the river in the valley between the cliffs.

I even appreciated the artistry and patterns in the cemetry just south of Besançon!

I was also impressed by the young guy who got onboard with his Rideway electric scooter, which he proceeded to fold up and place in the luggage rack above his seat, then connect it to the power point beside his seat to charge its battery from the train's power supply as he made his trip. When I got the Scenic back to L'Isle sur le Doubs, I parked it under a light in the railway car park with line of sight from the barge (perhaps we were getting a little paranoid about vehicles being stolen!).

So he said that we needed to get up to Strasbourg ASAP to do a formal identification and reclaim the van. So we did a U-turn and headed back to L'Isle sur le Doubs on the barge, where we moored at the Supermarket mooring near the station. The photo below shows the station at left, Kanumbra at centre-right and the supermarket parking lot in the background.