We are having the most wonderful experience. The countryside is so beautiful and since we left Basel, the path has been mostly away from roads. I never expected that the route could be even better than the Donau path. At least in its consistent beauty and peace. The path has been alternately along the “Rhone to Rhine canal” and the river Doubs.

Oh and a fun bit a day or two earlier was the little ferry in Basel

We did not know anything about the canal. Now we have found out that it has 112 locks. Of course we saw the locks and, following the canal from east to west, each lock raises the level. At least for the first stretch. Then we noticed that unexpectedly the levels were going down. Searching on google, we found that the canal is “an important watershed canal”, in other words it connects water that is heading for the Mediterranean with water due for the North Sea. It is a reminder of our previous trip where we followed the canal linking the Danube with the Main and then the Rhine. Only there it was a much bigger deal. There were lot of barges and the locks were massive. In the Rhone-Rhine canal there is hardly any traffic.

In Besancon they dug a tunnel for the canal through a mountain in a previous century, with a very narrow cycle path next to it. As it happened we were in the tunnel at the same time as a tourist boat, from which emanated scary sounds and ghost-like songs, as if ….hahaha.

Tonight we are on a campsite by a lake. Had a lovely swim and were subsequently told that they do not allow swimming anymore because of a polluting event in Besancon. We are still alive and had food in the campsite restaurant. Are still sitting there and are treated to a kareoke performance.