Besancon - Isle sur le Doubs
From Cushla and John
Besancon is a wonderful place ! We have been here for 8 days now and have still only explored a tiny portion of it. The hilltop fort guarding the city is spectacular.
We were invited onto a 20m, 110 year old dutch boat owned by an English couple parked next door to us. Quite serious Antique collectors.
The glorious wooden panelled interior is decked out completely with antiques - in fact packed to clutter status with antiques, plus a dog and a cat called Ugly Pugly which was rescued from the snow with a kicked in head! The dog is better looking and an Irish wolfhound called Guiness.
Their boat is such that they have been asked by people passing by if they are ‘open’ - for business ! Even the boat’s dash board controls are housed inside an antique roll top desk which elegantly closes when not in use. Fabulous. So were the drinks and hors d’oeuvres. ;-)
We played pentanque with this couple and the couple from ‘Grey Kiwi' last night and afterwards went fishing for our umbrella that had blown overboard the day before. We thought the umbrella had been stolen until we heard from other neighbours that they saw it flying through the air with a wind gust.
Here we were, apre-pentanque - but before drinks on our deck - spread along the jetty, some on hands and knees, bums in the air leaning down to search for and retrieve our pink umbrella that was just visible at the bottom, upside down and handle upward. With a couple of extended boat hooks we managed to retrieve it without anyone falling in!
Later that evening we got on to Borat and KBW stories. Just imagine how that went ! :-))))
Our last night in Besancon and over a whisky on deck - with just the boys, this couple's story came out that even though they have been together for 23 years they are not married. The reason - He has been married twice before and therefore She said she won’t marry him because he’s ‘not very good at it’ ! We really like this couple and hope to meet up again sometime.
The heat is such that our air con is struggling so we decided some white shade cloths for the sunny side of the parked up boat was the answer. After scouting around the city for suitable fabric we next visited a sewing shop to ask if we could hire a sewing machine for the day. We had to pay the price of the machine, 350 euros, as a security deposit, then 30 euros hireage for a day. Success! Basically just oblong shapes, hemmed to which John then hammered eyelets into the corners for fixing them with oki straps. I think we are all done now - Waitui has all the bells and whistles to qualify as 3 star accommodation and she looks pretty smart on the canals!
John amused the heck out of passengers on a passing sightseeing boat today. He was hanging out the washing up on deck (yes, really doing domestic chores) so grabbed my bra and started a bit of a pantomime with it !!! They all fell about laughing, pointing and cheering!
Here in Isle sur La Doubs is a photo of us parked right alongside the restaurant we dined at with friends - a mere 3 metres walk to bed afterwards. There was a terrible out of tune singer to an otherwise reasonable pop band, to which we all danced, - they played until 2am! We coped by having another bottle of wine on deck!
The best parts of today were - seeing a Noddy Gnome reading a book in a garden and - the red carnation John bought for me! So French!
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