Saturday 29th April 2017 Pont Tremblant to Fontenoy-le-Chateau 14.4kms 14 locks

Lock 21 Pont Tremblant and the pontoon mooring

1.3°C Sunny, clear blue skies first thing, clouds gathering later in the afternoon. Cold, only 9.5°C when we set off at 9am. Mike had been chatting with a man on the far bank of the canal who was starting a run, doing stretches before he set off. He told Mike he was going to run to Epinal and back (Mike said he’d never do that in a day – I said perhaps he’s a marathon runner?) We went to the zapper post, winded and zapped then went down lock 21

The old factory of Peaudouce who made nappies at Thunimont

Pont Tremblant. Alongside the control cabin there was a signpost for the towpath that gave distances in both directions. Epinal is 32 kilometers away!! The house was lived in, there were two Mercedes cars parked by it. 800m to lock 22 – a VNF van went past heading downhill before we were out of lock 21. Down lock 22 Thunimont, which had a good lock house, but it was shuttered and empty. Another 800m to lock 23 Usine de Thunimont with the long-time empty Peaudouce nappy factory alongside it. The factory buildings now all looked very forlorn – they were empty when we were here ten years ago.

Manual swingbridge at Thunimont

A VNF man in a van opened the manually operated swing bridge below the lock for us. 1.2kms to lock 24 Harsault. Mike zapped and the lock lights went to red/green, then nothing happened, so he went back and zapped again – it worked OK then. Nice lock house. Another 1.2kms pound lead to lock 25 La Colosse. No house at all. A white car with an unusual number plate went past, (88 Vosges is the department we’re in) 8888VS88 – the occupants, a man and a

Another jay 

woman, were wearing matching knitted green ganzies with badges on them – we wondered if they were forestry officers checking the forest from the towpath. 800m to 26 Forge Quénot, another shuttered, empty lock house. 900m to lock 27 Basse du Pommier, yet another shuttered, empty house. The lock houses here are too remote to be vandalised. There was a lovely little wooden footbridge over the river Coney. 1.2kms to lock 28 Basse Jean Melin. The VNF man in a van (a very cheery chappie) set lock 28 ready for us, no need to zap. There was a pontoon mooring above lock 29 Port de Bains and Mike had wanted to check if there was water – we could see a tap – but the keeper had set 29 for us, so we didn’t have chance to pause. Down 29 with the keeper working it from the cabin we were down much quicker than using the automatics. 1.2kms to lock 30 Montroche, which was also ready for us, but no sign of the van – must have gone for his lunch. The lock house was bricked up (near the town of Bains-les-Bains, so empty property was

Mike thought it was a rock -
nope, a large terrapin - basking

more likely to be vandalised by local delinquent youth. 600m to lock 31 La Manufacture de Bains, a shuttered, empty lock house. Back to doing it ourselves. A narrow stone lined cutting round a sharp bend took us to lock 32 Grurupt. I made some hot sandwiches for lunch. The house at 32 was lived in, there was smoke spiralling from its chimney. VNF workshops were close by. A family on bikes were having lunch using the picnic table next to the lock cabin at 32. 1.6kms to the next, the white flowers of stitchwort covered the canal banks with occasional splashes of deep red of red campion. Horse chestnut trees were not only in full leaf but were also starting to flower. Lock 33 La Pipée was where our man in a van lived. Problems with the lock, a branch was stopping the gates from fully opening. We went into the chamber and, as expected, it went “en panne” out of order. Our VNF man came out of his house and worked the lock from the cabin and Mike fished the log out so it wouldn’t float away and block the gates again. We apologised

Safety instructions -
how to change a light bulb properly

for interrupting his lunch, but he said it was OK he’d finished anyway. 600m down to our last lock 34 Amont Fontenoy. The cyclists, who had been lunching at lock 32, came past, waving. Lock 34 let us in, then broke down – the top end gates didn’t close properly. I started searching for a phone number and Mike tried calling on the lock cabin intercom. Someone eventually answered him and said there would be someone with us shortly. I spied some wild strawberries growing in the lock wall and liberated some to grow in a pot on our roof. A new VNF man in a van arrived and Mike told him the gates hadn’t closed properly before it went en panne. He operated the lock from the cabin controls and the gates didn’t fully close. He tried it again and they did that time – he said he thought he was going to have to do it manually! Trust the last two locks of the day to be naughty, we’ve had no problems for ages. Winded and tied up opposite the town quay and the Le Boat hirebase with a British flagged little tjalk  in moored in front. The tjalk had ropes around trees – you get fined for doing that in Germany and the Netherlands! Mike knocked pins in behind the concrete bank edge. It was 2.45pm. Got settled down.

More ducklings

Mike went for a nap and I caught up with the log – two days to do. Checked the Internet and phone – after nothing all day through the forests we now had full house on

VNF workshops at Grurupt

Internet and phone. That’s us secure until Tuesday.

Moored at Fontenoy-le-Chateau

An old footbridge leading to derelict mills nr La Pipee

Friday 28th April 2017 Girancourt to aby 21 Pont Tremblant 12.8kms 19 locks

Our mooring at Pont Tremblant

-0.3°C Sunny but cold, clouds in the afternoon and the cold wind picked up. Winded and set off at 9.05am (we’d winded when we arrived to moor on the quay so we could have the side doors opening on the water side). A small yacht, two cruisers and a DB (a bit scruffy, but looked lived on) were moored at the end of the quay by the lock and VNF had put an old tug on the bank – set in concrete. Down lock 2 Girancourt (again all locks dropped 3m approx.) The lock house was very smart, lived in. 1.3kms to lock 3 Barbonfoing, no house. 600m to lock 4 Launois, whose house was bricked up and

An old VNF tug set in concrete

slowly decaying. 1.2kms to lock 5, the start of the flight called the Descente du Void de Girancourt. The edges of the canal banks were covered in marsh marigolds and the first sandpiper of the year went yodelling its way down the canal in front of us. Seven locks, one after the other – the first, lock 5, was named Void de Girancourt, it had a barn to the right hand side and a big old farmhouse and barn on the left. The next lock (6) had no house, nor 7, but 8 had a beautiful house below it (not a lock house) and there was a nice quay with rings and picnic tables. Locks 9 to 12 (12 is the next one beyond the end of the flight) were all linked so

Good French to English & German translator required by VNF!!

no need to zap although the old posts were still there. The post above 9 was very close to the lock so I zapped it from the bow (Mike usually zaps from the stern) then the next to zap was lock 13. We passed a DB coming up in 10 as we’d just cleared 9. Lock 11 had a posh cabin for the VNF crews to have lunch in - Mike went and had a look through the windows - it was equipped with tables and chairs, plus a microwave and there was a picnic table outside in case it’s not raining. Lock 12 Brennecôte was ready for us. Took a photo of the notice in the lock cabin window,

Old lock house at 14 Port de Thielouze

which had been translated into the most appalling English, bet the German translation was just as bad. Another shuttered, empty lock house. Back to zapping at lock 13 Thiélouze. Its lock house was in ruins, the back half of the roof had fallen in and the walls were covered in graffiti. Down 14 Port de Thiélouze – the large farmhouse close by the lock was up for sale. There were two old lock houses, the oldest had no roof or windows and the youngest was shuttered and empty. Made some lunch as we went down 15 Thillots, another shuttered lock

Very old lock house at 14 Port de Thielouze

house that needs renovating. Down 16 Méloménil, which was close to the village of the same name. The lock house there was bricked up, the big extended house on the other side looked derelict but as smoke was coming from its chimney so it must be inhabited. Down 17 Reblangotte, another vandalised lock house covered in graffiti. At 18 Uzemain the lock house looked renovated, but we weren’t sure if it was lived in - another house was for sale by the lock. Our chart marked a mooring with a water tap below lock 18, no signs of either, in fact the layby had yellow floating cones to indicate that

A Jay searching the leaf litter 

it was shallow. Cross that one off! Down lock 19 Charmois l’Orgueilleux, yet another vandalised lock house. A cold wind was starting to pick up as we ran down to lock 20 Coney, named after the little stream whose valley the canal now closely follows - our last lock of the day. There were two VNF vans by the lock, one had a trailer and an orange plastic boat which they were about to launch into the canal above the lock. A man on rollerblades and stopped to chat with the VNF crew. One of the VNF men came over to have a brief talk with Mike to ask where we were going, etc. We winded again

Old house at Melomenil

and moored on a 20m pontoon above lock 21 Pont Tremblant. It was 3.15pm. Satellite TV was OK, but no phone, French TV or Internet.

More modern extension of the same house at Melomenil

 

Wednesday 26th April 2017 Nomexy to Girancourt 26.3kms 25 locks

Lock house at 22 Igney - not even an anchor remains -
at least the house is still standing!

2.3°C Grey clouds, rain on and off all day, getting heavier in the afternoon. We set off at 9.45am, only 1.3kms to the first lock 24 Héronnière (all locks still about 3.00m lift). Bois de l’ Héronnière on our right on the 1.8kms pound to lock 23 Vaxoncourt. A short distance to lock 22 Igney – a photo in Hugh McKnight’s book “Cruising French Waterways” showed a picture of a house surrounded with anchors and flags, wooden storks and paintings of boats – all gone,

along with the keeper, a former

Graveller Feldspath winding,
bows to the left, stern end swinging towards us

péniche skipper and his family. 1.4kms to Lk 21 Plaine de Thaon. There was a winding hole and a loading place for gravel from the gravel pits along the Moselle. A modified péniche called Feldspath, with steering from a wheelhouse in the bows, came towards us then turned sharply into the winding hole right in front of us as if we weren’t there! Charming. A VNF lady in a van went past. The lock house at lock 21 was bricked up. Lock 20 was renamed L’Abbatoire – it was called Thaon–les-Vosges in our guide book. On the very short

Gravel boat entering loading bay specially
designed for it - and speed

pound we passed another modified péniche called Quartz and passed a cruiser, called Wander-Lust moored on the quay before lock 19 L’Usine de Thaon. 1.5kms to lock 18 Chavelot and we passed the third graveller, called Mica. Came to the conclusion that Thaon was not a quiet place to stop with gravel barges flying back and forth all day long. Had some lunch on route to lock 17 Prairie Gérard. We passed the place where the gravel boats unload by crane and the gravel is taken away from the canal on a big conveyor belt. There were also 

The rear end of Quartz, adapted peniche
heading downhill, about to collect more gravel

big piles of sand and another conveyor belt on the Moselle side of lock 16 Chavelot. Lock 15 Cote d’Olie was hidden around a sharp right bend under a bridge and there was no repeater light triangle, so Mike backed up to the light so he could see when it changed to green. The arm leading to the town of Epinal went off on the left after lock 15, the junction was on a very short pound, with the start of the fourteen lock flight of Golbey in front of us and we noted that all fourteen were linked but also 15 was linked to them – so if you want to go to Epinal (from either direction, up- or down-hill) you have to notify VNF to reset

Just one brave soul moored on the quay at Thaon-les-Vosges

the locks. All the previous locks had been activated using a telecommand aimed at a zapper post which flashed to say it had started the lock working. The fifteen work one after the other. On the junction there was a VNF office and workshops (with fourteen vans parked there) a VNF man came out to ask where we were going, Mike told him before he asked the question. Lock 14 had blue plastic experimental gates (which had been there over ten years so they must still be working OK). I lifted 

Last of the three gravellers, Mica,
steered from wheelhouse in the bows - heading towards us

the blue rod (corroded with rust so it was stiff, hard to move it) and the lock eventually started filling. These locks are slow and in need of maintenance with loads of holes in the concrete walls. Lock 13 had a concrete skim over part of the right hand wall and the width had been measured and recorded on the wall in eleven places, all were well under the standard 5,20m, some places were reduced in width to 5,13m making this very tight if not impossible for some péniches. The house at 12 was bricked up and covered in graffiti. Under a railway bridge, the gates at lock 11 were vibrating badly, making a deafening noise until the paddles opened. A longer

The unloading place for the gravel barges, abv lk 17

pound lead to lock 10 (all the lock pounds so far had been very short but wide to act as reservoirs for times of busy lock working) and the old piling was rusted away leaving gaps of about 10cms in each panel. Bits of wood stripped of bark went floating past. Astounded, I said to Mike, look beaver snacks, we haven’t seen any like that since Germany! A VNF van followed by a woman in a van marked “hygiene” were stopping and going into each lock cabin. Mike hopped off at 9 to have a look to see if he could see what they were inspecting – rat 

VNF HQ above lock 15, opposite the branch to Epinal

traps! Must be nibbling the lock control wires!!  DB Corriculum from Den Haag came down lock 8 and the crew waved as they passed in the rain. Several of the next locks had beautifully restored lock houses. I made Mike a cup of soup as it was getting decidedly chilly, under 4°C, and still raining heavily. At lock 5 Mike took pictures of proof there were beaver here, a chewed-off tree stump, pencil shaped so no doubt who did that and a tree with loads of bark missing, all on the lockside. Lock 3’s house had a long extension along the side 

Plastic gates on lock 14 Golbey flight

facing the lock, it had huge shuttered windows all along the length of it like a conservatory, very smart. Lock 2 had no house at all and the top lock house was lived in, two children in rain gear watched us lock through from the tail end bridge. The rain still poured down. Just after 4pm we set off on the 10.9kms summit pound at 360m ASL. The pound was low, down by about 30cms, showing the extent of the great big holes in the old piling. A lovely winding pound, better appreciated in sunshine. A large canal reservoir at Bouzey is 

Plastic gates on lock 14 Golbey flight

supposed to keep the top level full. At 5.35pm we arrived at lock 1 Trusey, the first of the 46 locks dropping down to the river Saone at Corre. Zapped and we had a short wait while it filled, I lifted the blue rod and we dropped down 3m then moored on the quay below behind a German DB called Martin II that we’d seen several times on the way, there were a couple of other cruisers too, moored on the long open

Beaver damage - demolished tree at lk 5 Golbey flight

quay at Girancourt. It was 6pm.

Mooring in the pouring rain at Girancourt

Sunday 23rd April 2017 Plaine de Charmes to Nomexy 13.3kms 8 locks

Moored at Nomexy
 - FB always shows the first picture - I know it's out of order
but in future I will make sure it's the pic I want to see on FB
Sorry for the rant!

-0.4°C Sunny and much milder. Mike did several repairs that have needed doing for ages - the drinking water tap for one. I chatted with (my old UK boating and shopping partner) Yvonne on Skype as usual. We decided to push on to Nomexy as the weather was so much improved. Set off at 12.40pm. Again all today’s locks had a 3m lift. Up lock 32 Plaine de Charmes with a black kite circling, looking for dead or dying fish. On the next pound we passed an Eau Claire hire boat going the opposite way. 1.6kms to the town of Charmes. Up lock 31 Charmes where there were far more

Boats moored at Charmes

campervans than boats. The layby before the bridge was full, two large DBs (one offering B&B – Chambre d’Hôtes) plus a couple of cruisers. Among the campervans was one that could easily do the Paris-Dakar rally. A short pound took us to lock 30 Moulins de Charmes. It always happens – a man and his dog watching proceedings from the bridge across the tail end of the lock and, as Mike reversed to slow down and stop, the wind picked up enough to blow the bows across to the other wall. No way of hooking the brackets supporting the

A few of the campervans at Charmes.
One on the end is an all-terrain vehicle - wouldn't like its fuel bill

rods to pull the boat back to the correct side as too many have been damaged by people putting ropes around them, so VNF have changed brackets for square blocks flush mounted on the lock wall. No real problem though, I just shoved the bows back over to the pole using a short boat shaft. As we left lock 30, on an unusually long pound (2.5kms), we passed a DB called Dolfijn heading downhill, its crew waving as we passed. There were quite a lot of dead trees (I think they were elms) along the canal near Vincey. Cyclists were out in force heading towards lock 29 Vincey, including one who we thought must be in training for the

Loads of dead trees along this canal

Tour de France as he was dressed in lycra for it and was shouting to move others aside so he could go as fast as possible on the tarmac cycle piste. Not appreciated much by the families on bikes. Up lock 29 then 2kms to lock 28 Portieux, still lots of Sunday afternoon cyclists. The sky was full of aircraft con trails, plenty of people off on their foreign holidays – or coming back! A short pound to 27 Fouys – Mike nearly lost his wooden seat in the lock as his jacket caught on the edge and flipped it

Lots of old quays too like this one

overboard. He paused to fish it out with a short shaft. Lock 26 L’Avière had had a new lock wall, just the one side was new concrete, there were masses of gongoozlers around the lock. Mike went up the ladder with the centre rope. There were three families – they all said bonjour but didn’t offer to make conversation, he was most disappointed. Up lock 25 Nomexy, another one with one new lock wall in concrete - our last lock for the day, and we moored on an empty old quay with little bollards and old rings, plus a picnic table which was occupied by one young man, his loud radio and his dog –

Moored on our own at Nomexy

we went to the furthest end. Set the TV up then got the moped off the front deck. A man who lived opposite the quay was walking his little French bulldog and he stopped to chat while we put the bike together. Asked him who he thought would win today’s first round of the Presidential election – Madame le Pen we asked? No, she’ll come third he said. After quite a long conversation, Mike went to get the car and Monsieur said he would guard his wife (me!) for him. Best offer I’ve had in years! Sorry, nice to meet you, but I can't stay here chatting all day - I’ve got “work” to do – and he said au’voir and continued his walk with the little dog. I went indoors and did the photos and log ready to blog.

Saturday 22nd April 2017 Bayon to below lk 32 Plaine de Charmes 10.4kms 6 locks

1.2°C Grey skies, but the wind had died down quite a bit. Mike went to try and get some coal

First new ducklings!

and boulets as we were fast running out and more cold weather had been forecast. First we looked online for Bricomarchés and found two close by, one in Charmes and one in Mirecourt. He went by car and found neither had any coal. He came back to the boat to tell me the news and went on to Lunéville, the Brico was a Mr Bricolage and he got three 4kgs bags of charcoal boulets at 7,50€ each and a pack of brown coal briquettes 5kg for 3,50€ - all far more expensive than we usually pay, but when no proper coal is available what else can we do? While he was away I got up to date with the blog and did the chores. Mike was back at 12.30pm and at 1.00pm we decided to move on

Derelict building across weir into the river-
but what are the two vertical walls on the left for?
Any ideas?

even though it was very quiet and peaceful at Bayon. After no boat movements all day, there was a cruiser coming down in lock 38 Roville as we were getting ready to move, so we waited until he’d gone past and into lock 39 before we set off. 1 km to Roville, up another 3m (all the locks have a 3m lift). Mike asked me to look for photos of the mooring quay we used in 2002. Photos back then were 35mm and we had digitised the prints. We went digital photographically in

A close up of the walls, note they are
at 45 degrees to the house wall

2005. We’d only taken two 35mm photos in July 2002 and neither of them were of a quay. Shows how careful we were when photos were (relatively) expensive. When we first arrived on to “The Mainland” we had a film roll of 36 done in Belgium and nearly fainted when they cost £22 for prints back in 1993! After that we found it was much cheaper for us to send them back to the UK to Prontaprint. Up 37 Chaud Rupt and I made a hot sandwich of fried spam and egg for lunch. Up 36 Bainville. First signs of life! Cyclists and walkers and a bunch of not very happy looking paddlers. Up 35 Gripport closely followed by 34 Moulin de Gripport. Mike shinned up the ladder with a rope and chatted with the VNF man at the lock house. He told Mike they have no péniche traffic now, he didn’t say why but I think the guy at the silo had the answer – too expensive. As we neared the next lock there were cars and fishermen everywhere among the flooded gravel pits and right by lock 33 Socourt there were wooden chalets and a big car park almost full of cars. Fishermen’s paradise! We stopped above Socourt, tied to an old wooden edged quay just before the next lock Plaine de Charmes as we didn’t want to stop in Charmes which has a quay for boats

Paddlers

with all facilities. Mike said when he went past in the car the moorings were full and boats were doubled, moored side-by-side and there were lots of campervans at the same spot where the facilities are shared. They also charge for car parking throughout the small town. Last time we were there (in 2007 with Billybubbles) we moored towpath side and Bill was incensed that they charged boats (7€/night)1€ more than

Moored by a very old quay near Charmes

campers (6€/night) for exactly the same facilities. A VNF van went past just after we’d tied up, but he didn’t stop.

Thursday 20th April 2017 Villey-le-Sec to Bayon 35.4kms 10 locks

Arched supports for railway nr Villey-le-Sec

-3.9°C Colder still, sunny clear blue skies with a very cold wind. A 700-tonner loaded with scrap went past heading uphill at 8am. We set off an hour later at 9am on a long pound, 13.1kms winding through the beautifully forested hills of the upper Moselle valley. Neuve Maisons, lock 48, lifted the boat 7.20m. No posh floating bollards here, we lifted ropes up five sets of bollards easily as the lock fills so gently - no ropes are really needed. The keeper came down from his tower to give us a telecommand for the canal de l’Est branch Sud – or the canal des Vosges as it is now called. First thing he

Mooring for trip boats at Maron

did was to tell me off for not wearing a lifejacket. Easy to fall in, he said, and hard to get out in the immense chamber. OK, next time I’ll remember. We continued chatting, answering his questions about narrowboats (first time he’d seen one by all accounts) and showing him pictures from old Waterways World magazines. He said he had to go as there was another scrap boat due to come up. Above the lock was a large steel works with a scrap-unloading quay where this

Neuves Maison lock, last of the big locks on the Moselle

morning’s boat, German named Nauta from Wesel, was unloading his 700 tonnes of scrap metal. Further on there was a long line of railway wagons loaded with coils of steel wire and a Dutch boat called Thalia (110m x 11.4m 3,110 tonnes) was loading coils. Recycling on a grand scale. We could hear the lock keeper on the radio apologising for the delay to the skipper of the next scrap barge, telling him how he’d been talking about narrowboats with some English people. We were on to the Canal de l’Est now, 2kms to the next lock, 47 Messein. There was a huge winding hole

German 700-tonner unloading scrap at Neuves Maison steel works

(turning basin) and a zapper post below the lock. What a difference - 185m x 12m locks, now 41.3m x 5.20m (slightly longer than standard Freycinet gauge of 38m). The first lock was a shallow one at 1.6m lift due to the lock enlargement works on the Moselle from 1979. Back to lifting the blue rods. There was a cruiser above, pirouetting in the wind, waiting to come down. First hire boat of the year, it was from Navig’ France (from the eastern Marne-au-Rhin). Above it a

Scrapyard dumper truck in a cloud of dust Neuves Maison steel works

2.3kms pound, the canal was wide with houses all along the left bank then into woodland. Up 4m at lock 46 Méréville where there were several VNF vans parked as the house is the base for the itinerant lock keepers because it was close to the junction with the embranchement de Nancy and so they have three directions of canal to look after. Looked at the moorings that we had been heading for the day before and decided to push on as there was no parking for the car. A bit further on there was a new mooring at the little town of Richardménil, we paused to take a look, 6€ for mooring anothe

Dust from the scrapheap at Neuves Maison steel works

r 2€ for electric and water “for domestic use only – not for filling boat tanks”??? How do they think boaters use domestic water then if they can’t put it in their tanks? Weird ideas some people have!) We carried on. Road traffic was noisy, the N57 ran alongside the canal and the A330 crossed it before we reached lock 45 Basse Flavigny. The lock emptied and sat with red/green lights on for ten minutes before Mike gave the gates a tiny nudge with our bows (well buffered by a very under-used button fender) and

Onion grab moving the scrap at Neuves Maison steel works

backed out again. The gates opened and we went in and up another 3m. Water had been pouring over the top end gates so maybe the lock had problems making a level. 1.5kms to the middle lock of three, buzzards soared and there was a lake on our right (the result of gravel extraction from the old bed of the Moselle), lots of them along the canal. We knew the top lock would be Haute (high) as the bottom was Basse (low) and we tried to decide what middle would be called. Turned out it

Coils of steel wire - transformed scrap -  at Neuves Maison steel works

was 44 Prieuré (Priory)! Had a short wait while it emptied. Up another 3m. The lock house had been renovated, quite recently by the looks of it, but didn’t look lived in. Houses along the bank including some old low little houses made of concrete with flat roofs that looked like they may have been two-roomed weekend and holiday places, but most looked long disused. An old cabin cruiser sat forlornly on the bank, also long disused. There was a long line of lovely old plane trees along the towpath.

And a 3,000-tonner to transport the wire - Neuves Maison steel works

Up another 3.2m at lock 43 Haute Flavigny and across a long aqueduct over the Moselle on to a 5km pound.  Made a cuppa. Noticed that the steel piling was rusted through on waterline for most of the length of the pound, which was on an embankment for most of its length. Lots of breaches waiting to happen if VNF don’t get some new piles in soon. The ever busy N57 was at the bottom of the bank. A large British cruiser went past, its skipper steering from the open top deck, earphones on, didn’t respond to our waves, nose in the air, we’re invisible again. Up lock 42 Benney, named for

Control gear for Haute-Flavigny lock

the forest we’d just passed through. There was a campervan parked next to the lock but it left as we entered the chamber. Another 3m lift on to a 1.8km pound. We saw the first drowned dead deer for ages, floating in the canal. Lock 41 Crévechamps had an area of big greenhouses to its left. We had a short wait while the chamber emptied then we went up another 3m. Lots of people out braving the cold wind to enjoy the sunshine, walking the towpath or the little road below it. Lots more flooded gravel

Aqueduct over the Moselle at Haute Flavigny

pits, some of which were advertising fishing. A German cruiser was moored not far from the next lock, its crew seated on the top deck facing the sun. Up lock 40 Neuviller, there were crowds of gongoozlers around the lock as there was a car park adjacent, ideal for walkers. There used to be a moveable floating footbridge (based on old oil drums) by the town of Neuviller, hoot and someone came out to move it, a unique oddity, but it had gone. It was quiet as the N57 skirted around the far side of the town. A little further on there was a large winding hole, long out of use as

Moored under the silo's loading gantry in Bayon

it was silted up – but a fisherman was casting out across it and almost reaching the towpath before dragging whatever lure (a bright red flapping thing) he had on his line back towards him before refilling it with bait and repeating the procedure. Lock 39 Bayon was slow to open, we thought we were going to have to nudge it. Loads of water flowing over the top end gates. Up another 3m and we moored by the silo loading gantry after asking a guy at the silo if we were OK to moor there. No

Moored on the silo quay at Bayon

problems he said, so we tied up. (He later told us that water transport is too dear for them now, so everything goes by lorry – they had a new gantry for loading boats and he admitted that it had only been used once - he said we could stay moored there as long as we liked!) There was a yellow hulled German cruiser moored at the far end of the piled bank, which looked like it had been there all winter. Later a British cruiser arrived and moored in front of us. The skipper told Mike he’d bought his boat cheaply as it was covered in green gunge that took him a long time to clean off. He told Mike had had a house in Croatia and was taking the boat there. Best of British. He said he had come from Calais to here in a week!