Wednesday 19th April 2017 Pagny-sur-Meuse to Villey-le-Sec 26.1kms 17 locks

Dutch barges moored at Lay-St-Remy

-1.1°C Sunny first thing, clouding over before lunchtime, with a very cold, cold wind blowing. We set off at 8.30am – it was still only 2.5°C. 3kms down the canal from Pagny there was a huge rubbish tip and upwards of fifty birds of prey circling over it, buzzards and kites. Several Dutch barges were moored at Lay-St-Remy, our alternative mooring for yesterday. We’d got a green light for Foug tunnel, 867m long and it was lit throughout by orange sodium lights along the elevated, fenced, narrow (used by towing tractors until the 60s) towpath on our right. It took ten minutes. The top

Foug tunnel

lock of the Foug flight was ready for us, deep at 5.02m (it replaced two shallower ones) and operated by a resident keeper in a high cabin accessed by some fancy staircases. All the locks were close together - 14 down to 17 were the Foug flight, then 18 to 24 were the Écrouves flight and the bottom five 25 to 27bis were named for the town of Toul. Black clouds were gathering again, but we only had short light showers. Jets were flying low again, making lots of noise, Mike saw one suddenly climb almost

Lock 14bis Foug

vertically and another doing spins. Lock 24 had no electricity, so a VNF man plugged a gennie in to work the top end, then hauled it to the bottom end to provide power to open the paddles and gates. The moorings in the basin at Toul had changed a lot since we last saw it. The big fountain had gone and there were new pontoon moorings, which were practically full. Sensors above lock 25 activated the lock (it used to have a keeper) and the lift bridge was also automatic (and slow) we had quite a queue of cars waiting to cross it after we’d passed through. Below lock 26 there were Dutch

Basin at Toul

barges three abreast at the Lorraine Fluvial moorings. Round a sharp right hand bend and down lock 27bis then turned right on the Moselle (canalised) heading upriver. A couple of kilometres to the first lock river lock, 53 Toul. There are two locks side-by-side, old (38m x 5.20m) and new (185m x 12m). Mike called the keeper on VHF. He said he had one big boat to come down, we could use the big lock when he’d come down. We tied up in the access to the old lock to keep out of the way, out of the wind plus there was just nowhere else to tie up and wait. There was a big pile of floating rubbish

The liftbridge in Toul

below the lock and a crow had just helped itself to a dead fish. A heron came to investigate and the crow flew off with its fish, not wanting to share its lunch. The heron looked at all the rubbish and must have seen something it thought was edible as it tried to reach it from the towpath, but its neck was quite long enough and we couldn’t help but laugh when its wings started flapping as it slipped and almost nose-dived into the floating crud. The old lock started emptying and the keeper opened the window of his cabin, high up above us, and shouted for us to use the old lock. OK. Centre rope on

Toul from below lock 27bis

bollards inset into the concrete walls. A 4.4m lift and the boat rose quite gently and we lifted the ropes on to three successive bollards up the wall as the lock filled. The big boat was just entering the big lock as we left. We carried on up the old canalised river past a silo and emerged on to the river a couple of kilometres further upriver. A 700 tonner was just finishing unloading his cargo at a sand quay on our right and beyond him there were three old péniches tied side by side

Leaving lock 53 Toul - old lock on left new lock and keeper's cabin on right

and an old tug attached to a

very rusty empty pan. 9.1kms upriver to lock 51 Villey-le-Sec (lock 52 disappeared when they built the new lock, which replaced two old small locks). The river here is beautiful, gently winding through forested hills. It was cold and the wind blowing down the river had a huge chill factor, it felt like mid-winter. Lock 51 was ready for us, five bollards up the wall to lift the boat 7.20m. The young keeper came down from his high cabin to chat. No much traffic about. Asked him if we were OK to moor overnight above his lock, we were too cold to continue to Richardmenil, where Mike had hoped we’d moor tonight. He said

Gave up - too cold - moored above lock 51 Villey-le-Sec

yes, no problem, don’t get ill he said, he told us there was an epidemic of gastro-enteritis about and several members of his family had got it. There were small bollards at the end of the quay (reserved for trip boats, but none about). It was 4pm. Hurry up and get indoors and warm up. No French TV again but UK satellite OK. No Internet so no bogging (and I didn’t get chance to do it yesterday so now I’m two days behind)