Monday 10th April 2017 Soulanges to Pargny 26.6kms 10 locks

Old lime kilns near Vitry

5.1°C Sunny start, cold, clouding over mid-morning. Loaded boat El Passo from Nancy came up Soulanges lock at 8.40am, followed fifteen minutes later by Florimonde, also loaded and from Nancy. We set off at 9.15am, slowly so as to give them a head start. We passed an empty called Espoir (lovely new paintwork) moored by the cement works, the crew came out of the wheelhouse to chat as we went past. Up lock 3 Couvrot. I cleaned the front doors with Cif to get all the winter dirt and paint marks off as we went on to lock 2 Lermite. After lk2 I made a cuppa as I thought we’d gone through lock 1

Old loading quay near Vitry

(senior moment). Had a short wait below lock 1 Vitry while the second of the two péniches went up the lock, when he cleared we followed. Took photos of the old lime kilns. The burned out chandlery/fuel depot hadn’t changed since we were here last year. Finished the Latèral à la Marne and went straight on at the junction on the Marne au Rhin, with the Marne à la Saone to our right, the latter remains closed until the end of the month. No more turn poles as this canal is equipped with boat operated

Water thundering over top end gates Marne au Rhin canal lock

photo electric sensors. We went slowly so as not to catch up with the commercials. Gerard phoned to say that our parcel had arrived with the lunchtime post. I asked him to leave the parcel in the box and we’d come and pick it up next day, told him to hang on to the key as we’d got the spare. Up lock 70 St Etienne. Just 1.8kms to the next and we could see that both boats were below the next lock. We let the wind blow our boat against the non-towpath side (our right) and attached to some old logs in the bank and had some lunch. Three quarters of an hour later we carried on up the canal, up lock 69 Adecourt. All the locks here weir over the top end gates therefore they are normally kept full,

Long field of colza, vivid green and yellow

so, with the lock empty there was a fierce flow over all the top end gates. On the next pound we met Adria, a German boat from Saarbrucken, (more lovely new paintwork) which was coming down empty, its skipper came out of the wheelhouse to say hello as we passed – he was still on his mariphone. Lakes had been formed along the river Saulx between the canal and the road, and a young lady with a long lens on her camera was taking photos of some swans. Round a sharp left hand bend to lock 68 Bruisson, over an

Beautifully restored Chateau de Bignicourt (rear view from canal)

aqueduct over a small stream as we left the lock and a gentler right hand bend beyond it. The first section of this canal has a majestic row of ancient plane trees along the towpath side. 2kms to lock 67 Ponthion, then made a cuppa on the longer pound 4.5kms to lock 66 Bignicourt. There was an immense field of ripening colza, bright yellow and vivid green. Two dead deer were floating in the canal before lock 66 in a wooded section with high piled edges. Below the lock there was a VNF tug called Asterix on the

VNF tug with added pusher bow

plaisance mooring. Four very loud low-flying fighter jets went over as we started on the 2kms pound to lock 65 Etrepy. There were no lights on at the lock. We saw a VNF van arrive and soon the gates opened and we had a green light. Chatted with our man in a van as the lock filled. Turned out the two boats in front were only going as far as lock 56, where they would unload and head back down the canal. There were two more boats coming tomorrow. Told our man we were only going as

Moored on the quay at Pargny with a VNF tug and pan

far as Pargny today, then probably stopping the next day while we went to collect our post. Up lock 64 Pargny and tied up at 5.45pm. Spent ages getting the satellite access between the trees. A man came to tell us there was no water or electric, but there was a charge of 5€ and he said he would come back later (he didn’t). We already knew the water and electric were cut off as we’d looked under the bench seats and found spider nests.