Canal de Marne au Rhin (East), Moselle,
Canal des Houillieres de la Sarre, River Saar
Well, we’ve done the home to the UK bit and we are back here in tolerable Toul. Our narrow boat friends, Jean and Mike arrived for a couple of nights with us but there wasn’t really time to go for a boat trip so we showed them some of Toul instead and they gave us a lovely meal in one of the town restaurants.
We have re-met, and at last introduced ourselves to John and Sonya of Chocolat, who are wintering here and seen various other crews come and go. John and Sonya came for coffee and chat just before lunch and then we set off for Nancy. We moored for the night on the Moselle at Liverdun and were treated to a beautiful sunset, followed the next morning by a lovely mist-shrouded river scene, which slowly resolved itself into clarity as the sun drove off the vapour.
Nancy, our next port of call is a lovely city and having begun to suss it out, as we have on our trusty bicycles, we wonder if perhaps we should have been wintering here rather than at Toul. Too late – Alex has signed the contract, but our original plan had been to look at Nancy before we committed. Unfortunately, circumstances (mainly Louise worrying we would find ourselves without any mooring at all!) meant that was not possible, so we are where we are.
Nancy has the most wonderful Stanislas Square, which is like a central hub to the city. We were told that a magnificent light show is displayed in it at night but we missed the end of the season by a week!
However we have been treated instead to an amazing floral exhibition in the square, which has been arranged to celebrate 150 years of horticulture for the city’s parks and gardens.
Architecturally, Nancy has a wealth of buildings and elegant squares to offer and we hope to explore it further by car this winter, or by boat in the spring.
We are on a round trip, which takes in Nancy, then heads east for a bit before turning north for Saarbrucken in Germany. Then we head northwest for the border of Luxembourg and eventually head south again into France and back to Toul.
We are taking it very, very easy as usual, and the best bit so far has been the 16metre, yes 16 metre deep lock which was built to replace a flight of 6 locks. We spent the night at the foot of this giant lock in countryside as far from habitation, railways, airports, roads etc as you could hope to get. We had a choice in the morning – dash through at 9 o’clock or wait until 12 o’clock after the two commercial peniches had gone through at 10 and 11. We awoke early so went through at 9.
Instead of turning north at the junction, however, we motored on a short way to a village called Xouaxange where we were told there was a ruined tower, an interesting 15th century church and the remains of a château. We found a 10-foot high single wall, which was all that was left of the tower, the church was (unfortunately) forgettable, and of the château we found no sign. So instead we set off to ride to what was said to be one of the most attractive villages in France - a mere 12 km away! The road was very much up hill and down dale and when we eventually got to said village, we really could not see what there was to be said for it.
We had a tea and a coffee in a rather sleazy bar/pizza café (the far nicer place was just round the corner out of sight!) and started to wend our way back on a different route, which looked as though it might be more level. And after a few kilometres, Lo and Behold! We found a cycle track following the road on what had been a railway track. This was absolutely fantastic – excellent surface, no cars, no hills, no signage! But in due course we got to our canal about 3kms from the boat. Unfortunately, the road went under the canal and there was no obvious way up to the towpath – and we did look, did we not. So we ended up doing a 6km detour via unmarked roads till we eventually got back saddle sore and weary. What fun!
Autumn has truly arrived with very cool mornings, often misty, warming up by 11ish – sometimes lunch on deck – warm enough to sit out till 4.30 and then wham! very cold evenings and dark early – though not as early as at home being one hour ahead here.
So after the little sojourn off our route in Xouaxange we set off back onto our original course and arrived at the start of a set of 15 locks which were to be operated manually by a roving lockkeeper or two. We set off to go through the only manned lock (No 1) but arrived 15 minutes early in order to top up our water tank. We hadn’t used much but reckoned a refill is always worth doing when it’s available. The supply was painfully slow so at 10 o’clock we gave up on water and packed the hose up in readiness to leave. Now bear in mind we are in the lock doing this, under the beady eye of at least two lock keepers, but we waited and waited and nothing happened. We were not being penned through. At 10.15 Alex eventually attracted the attention of monsieur l’eclusier, who somehow hadn’t realised that we had been ready to go for the last quarter of an hour! Apologies, apologies, and off we went, but the canal was narrow and shallow so we could barely manage 6kph. At one point, we saw the lockkeeper who had gone ahead to prepare Lock 2, coming along the towpath in his van to see where we had got to! When he saw us as he came round the corner, he did an about turn and headed back to Lock 2 to wait.
When we eventually got there, there was another boat already in the lock waiting for us! They must have been waiting for ages but they were fine about it, and we locked through together until we got to Lock 14 at Mittersheim where we were going to spend a couple of nights. A lovely spot to moor – peaceful, free to moor, with water and electricity at 2€ for 4 hours, which if you time it right is quite reasonable.
While at Mittersheim we read that in a medieval village not 6 kms away, was a working watermill, a chateau with magnificent helicoidal staircase, an ancient bridge, and a hospital with ramparts. Does this begin to sound familiar? When we got there (uphill and down dale again) the château was closed, as was the Tourist Information office, the watermill inaccessible, and of the hospital we found no trace. Maybe we found the bridge, but it just looked like a bridge! However the medieval centre was rather splendid and after all probably worth the ride!
So we are now just about to enter Germany for the next stage of our round trip – with some trepidation. Keep watching this space!
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