Sunday 26th May - L’isle-sur-le-Doubs to Montbeliard

We left somewhat after 9 a.m. on another beautiful sunny day.  Unfortunately the weather forecast for the familys’ visit is not so good, which is such a shame as we’ve had wonderful weather over the last week.

A similar day today but with slightly fewer locks - most of them are 2 km apart.  For our first 6 locks everything went swimmingly well but as we approached a lifting bridge, there was no obvious person in attendance, so we had to tie off at a waiting pontoon.  As soon as we called a lady appeared and lifted the bridge for us.  But worse was to come!
On approaching the next lock (our seventh) the green light refused to appear and the gates remained stubbornly closed - we could see that the top gates were indeed open.  After trying to call without apparent success, the system started working, as if by magic and we were able to enter the lock.  However the lower gates refused to close completely and once again we were unable to lock through.  On calling the VNF for the third time today, we learned that it was lunchtime until 1.30 p.m. - it was now only 12.40 p.m.!!!  So frustrating but as we know, everything stops for lunch in France!  So, as what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, we had our lunch sitting in the bottom of the lock!  The VNF lady didn’t turn up until 2.25 p.m. (it is Sunday after all and, to top it all, it is the French Mothers’ Day!).  This is turning into a long day!!
Then the next lifting bridge should have been operated by our ‘zapper’ but all we got were two red lights - the same VNF lady arrived soon to put things right again......it’s not Friday 13th is it??
We finally reached Montbeliard at 4.15 p.m. - a long day!
After two fairly heavy cruising days, we didn’t have much energy, so Skip went into town to find a takeaway pizza.  He had quite a trek but returned with a pizza flavour we’ve not had before.........chicken tikka!!  Not ideal but in fact quite tasty!
So a quiet evening in front of ‘Vera’ and not too late to bed.

23 km 11 locks 7 hours