Client Travel Diary

There are certain stimuli that have the ability to transport us to treasured memories of people and places, for us the ringing of church bells and the cooing of doves bring us straight back to France regardless of where we hear them, 2 days ago the call of the cuckoo was captured as we passed through a forested section of the canal, the smell of freshly mown hay wafting from the fields along its banks, the red poppies that spring up everywhere, or when in Provence the purple scent of the lavender and the fields of golden sunflowers, the trees laden with black cherries, the markets overflowing with fresh berries and produce, these are the magnets that draw us back here.

I am sitting here on Wairua II, berthed beneath the tower of the Collegiate Church of Notre Dame and the bells are ringing out over the city, which triggered the reflective thoughts above. This magnificent church, built between 1509 and 1580 dominates the high ground of Dole overlooking the River Doubs, whose path the canal follows as it winds its way towards Mulhouse and the Rhine. The following quote encapsulates Doles's turbulent history.

 "Originally the site of a fortress built in the 12th C. to keep watch over the river, it developed through the 13th C. along the Roman road that connected Chalon and Besancon, and from the 15th C. it was the capital of Comte under Burgundian rule followed by the Hapsburgs. Louis XI destroyed the city in 1479, and Louis XIV finally included the province under the crown in 1678.”

We spent yesterday exploring the city at our own pace, we then walked down to the river where 2 remaining Romanesque arches of a bridge built in 1135 still stand having defied the floods over the centuries, the locals playing Boules in the carpark under the shade of the trees on the riverbank, finishing up at the lock in the canal as it leaves Dole where the plane trees meet over the canal itself allowing the dappled light to create a scene Monet would have been proud of.

An evening spent over Card Monopoly, the day closed out with the Collegiate Church floodlit above us.