Although I was tired after finishing the MicroGrid report, I stayed up till after midnight for the ritual Pinch'n'Punch routine on the first of the month, but Rita was awake to my intentions, and we had to call it a draw. After that I certainly got a good night's sleep and didn't dream of MicroGrids. But over breakfast I was thinking about the next steps in the project, and a need to conduct a full cost analysis, including quantification of the benefits of increased reliability of power supply that might be created by an islanded MicroGrid. Such increased reliability can be achieved by an islanded MicroGrid, but at what cost?

In the late morning, we drove to Auxonne to put the Scenic back in the parking lot next to Vanumbra. I noticed that the heavy rain last week had left a "tide-mark" on the tires of the van, since it was parked in the lowest spot in the car park. While we were there, we checked in with Port Captain Alain to collect some mail, and on the way out we heard a call from one of the moored boats, and it turned out to be ex-Port Captain John, who had just arrived back from Australia after two years absence. So we went across to his boat and had a good chat about what he had been doing in Australia and what his plans were now that he was back in France. But we couldn't stay for too long as we had a train to catch back to Besançon.

When we got to Viotte Gare in Besançon, we had a bit of a walk back to the boat, but it was a pleasant surprise, as the city had created a scenic promenade as the entry way to the city from the train station. The view of the Citadelle from the high ground near the station on the other side of the river was impressive.

Even more impressive was the view across the river to the row of buildings bordering the Doubs. I had never seen this before, and didn't even know these buildings existed, even though I later discovered that we had seen them from the other side several times when going to La Plancha and other places in the past week. Now I understood why many people said that entering Besançon by boat by coming around the Doubs loop, rather than going through the tunnel, was more impressive. Both are impressive, and neither should be missed.

As we crossed the river and walked through the middle of these buildings, we saw that stall-holders were just packing up after a big market day. When we got back to the boat, I topped up the water tank, and while I was doing this I realised that the bow of our boat was very popular with the local fishes.

We enjoyed a homemade pizza for dinner on the back deck, with entertainment provided by the musicians playing in the nightclub across the river next to the swimming pool. They continued to play till long after we were asleep for the night.