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