As often happens in French towns and cities, we were woken by the church bells at 0700h (but then went back to  sleep till 0900h!). Deluz has bells that ring 24/7, on the hour (with the number of bells giving the time) and on the half-hour (with a quick ding-ding). On the hour, they repeat the chime about a minute later, just in case you didn't hear it the first time (or you forgot to count the number of bells). At 0700h and 1900h, they follow up with extra musical chimes that last a few minutes, just to celebrate the start and end of the day. These days (nights) we tend not to hear the bells after we've fallen asleep. But our brain must be waiting for the 0700h bells to tell us to wake up again.

As I was sitting on the back deck with a morning coffee, I heard someone on the path speaking French, and on turning around I saw it was the guy from the neighbouring boat, so I gave him my best "bonjour". He must have thought I spoke French, because he kept talking to me in French! I recognised the word "boulangerie" and thought he was asking me if I knew where the boulangerie was (since we have never been able to find it). When I gave him my hand signals for "I don't know", he twigged that my French was not perfect. So he started speaking in broken English, and what he really said was "I am going to the boulangerie. Would you like me to get some bread for you?". Since we had enough bread on board, I declined his offer, but I was very impressed by the fact that he even asked. I don't know whether it's the French, or the fact that he is on a boat, but we often encounter that willingness to help (unasked) over here. A while later, I saw him returning to his boat, empty-handed. Perhaps he, like us, was unable to find the boulangerie.

While the town of Deluz does not have much to offer, the mooring is very restful and the surrounding countryside looks very interesting. So this morning Rita used one of her Randonnée apps to find a walk in the local area. We found one that visited a local chapel, so we made a cut lunch and packed a couple of small bottles of water, and off we went following the trail.

We walked though the town and then up a slope through some bushy vegetation. Soon we reached the chapel noted on the map. It was a warm day so we spent some time sitting in the shade. But the walk had not been as long as it looked on the map, so we thought we would continue and on looking to the north we saw a promising hill to climb.

So we headed over that way and found that it was through a much more established forest area. The track was long, but not very steep, and in generally good condition. After about an hour we reached the top, where it suddenly fell away to the river below. The view was spectacular.

We stopped for lunch in a shady grove, and explored the ridgeline a bit further. But since we didn't really know the area, we thought it might be best to stay with the area we knew and start heading back towards Deluz. We got to the head of the trail we'd come up on, but decided to go back down another track along the ridgeline. Given the ease with which we'd made the climb, compared to its description in the Randonnée app guide, we figured we'd be able to handle the walk/climb down without too much trouble. So we selected a couple of sticks from the side of the path that would make good climbing sticks, and started off. Most of the climb down was pretty easy, except for a few sections which were more like climbing The Cathedral at home near Taggerty. On the way down, we met a lady, who must have been in her 80's, who was making the climb up. She looked as fit as a fiddle. She told us that the walk along the ridgeline, beyond where we had got to, was fantastic, leading to a couple of other peaks with fabulous views in all directions. We'll keep that in mind for when we next get back to Deluz.

We eventually emerged from the trees to fields just above the town of Deluz, and sat down in the shade to enjoy the view of the town from a different angle, with our mooring next to the chimney at centre left.

We then wandered through the fields and the town, and took a deviation to go to the Port Cafe for a drink and an ice-cream. On the way back to the mooring, Rita found her favourite boat, as we had in 2019. We couldn't resist another photo to send to the band back home.

I then took of a photo of the boat at its mooring, with the mountain we had just climbed in the background.

Later in the afternoon, Rita went for a swim in the Doubs, while I stayed on the boat. While I was sitting on the deck, I kept seeing two groups of cyclists going past; one older cyclist setting the pace and one junior cyclist. Initially they were close together, but after about 20 laps around the village, the younger ones started to fall behind. No doubt, however, it was good training for them.

In the evening, there was a great sunset over Deluz, with many changing shades and shapes of pink and gold. It was hard to tell which was the hest photo, but this one should give you a good idea.