The online weather forecasts threatened rain for most of the day, but by mid-afternoon, nothing had really eventuated. But we kept ourselves busy with constant chatting and catching up with life stories and other news. By mid-afternoon, the threatening skies were clearing, so Craig and I decided to go for a walk in the old city, which ended up with us walking all the way up to the Citadelle. Along the way we poked our heads into Cathedral Saint-Jean. On previous trips, I had thought the Cathedral to be rather small, because it does not have much frontage onto the adjoining street. However, on going inside, I realised it was quite large, because it runs behind several other buildings which front onto the street. Google Maps describe the Cathedral as a "Historic Church with Ornate Architecture", and they were certainly correct on this. Anything that could be gold-plated was gold-plated (or at least painted gold!)

By the time we got to the Citadelle, it was approaching closing time for the day, so we didn't pay to go inside (this time). We walked around the public garden and across the drawbridge, but then turned and headed back down the hill.

Soon after we arrived at the boat, Rita arrived with Sarah (who had driven her from Besain, on her way to some classes in Strasbourg). We sat outside chatting, and were joined by Claude (from a neighbouring yacht Kiwi that was moored in port). He told us his story of just having bought the yacht in Sweden, and he was now taking it to the Med through the French rivers and canals , on its way to his final destination in Malta. However, being a yacht, his boat has a deep draft (1.3m) and on arriving in Besançon he found that the water depth in the tunnel under the Citadelle was also down to 1.3m. He wasn't willing to take the risk of becoming stuck in the middle of the tunnel, so he was waiting for the forecast rain to increase the water depth before he ventured any further.

Since he was on his own, we invited Claude to join us for dinner in town. And so around 1900h, we all walked into town and went to the cafe that was supposedly shut for meals, and had a great dinner of flammekueche (an Alsace pizza) and wine, while listening to a Paris Jazz band playing in the rotunda of the neighbouring parkland. A great introduction to Besançon night-life for Craig and Ginger, and another friend (Claude) met along the waterways.