June 2024 – Part 2 (16th to 30th)
0
0
We began the second half of June leaving our mooring at Bains-les-Bains, and moving on along the canal through ten locks and one swing bridge until we reached our night’s location between locks 18 and 19 at Uzemain (aka Forges d’Uzemaine) with a long concrete quay edged by grass and woodland, quite a pretty little area. Once again, Pip was still struggling so we kept exercise to an absolute minimum for her and, of course, Casper, who was more than happy with that. In the afternoon we took the opportunity of practicing some rope throwing and bollard capturing, and felt that went quite well (fingers crossed, but time will tell).
After a quiet, somewhat rainy night, Nicki took the dogs for a walk and as Pip seemed much happier, took them on a longer trek through the forest, thankfully Pip seemed to be much improved and more interested. On their return we released all the ropes and were off, immediately entering ecluse 18 at 9.10am.
The weather was mainly overcast with a few short blasts of fine rain, and started off well, until we reached lock 14 when our lock remote controller wouldn’t operate the lock gates. With no other option, we rang the VNF and about half an hour later an operator arrived to help us out. Off again we headed to the next lock, no. 13, and despite the lights being red, entered the lock and then couldn’t get the gates to close behind us … another call to the VNF and our friendly operator was soon with us again to solve the problem (a piece of wood lodged behind the gate preventing it from opening fully such that the next phase could be triggered). At the next lock was a notice stating that the remote control should not be used from locks 12 to 9 as those were all triggered automatically once the first lock was activated. All in all, a very different day to previous days!!
Eventually however we made it to Girancourt after traversing a total of 17 locks, with no other boats passing us in either direction all day. Possibly our quietest day so far.
Girancourt was fairly small, so our walk into the centre didn’t take long, but there was a supermarket where we could pick up a few items, and a nice walk along the sides of the canal with the dogs … thankfully Pip seemed like she was back to normal.
The next morning we were rudely awakened at 6.30am by a large, noisy machine mowing the grass along the quay next to us, so by 8.55am we were ready to depart. The day started off beautifully warm and sunny, but it just kept on getting hotter for the following five hours of travelling along the Golby flight of locks (14 in all). These merely needed to be activated at the first lock and then the rest opened and closed automatically as we approached them. Very near the start we were joined by a cruiser for the day – one of its crew was cycling along the towpath and at each lock he was there to assist with both boats’ ropes and in operating the filling etc of the locks which was much appreciated as the hours passed by.
Finally we passed through the last lock on this flight and hung a right onto the Épinal branch of the canal, passing along some quite narrow sections before cruising into the port of Épinal.
Interestingly, the gates to the final lock, 14 Golbey, were curved. Not something we’d come across before.
Once in Épinal, we nabbed a great mooring along the quayside and park and set ourselves up for a brief stay. What we hadn’t expected was a paddle boarding class of youngsters having a great time close to the barge, and just across the park from us we soon realised we were lucky enough to be close to a white water training centre which extended out to the Moselle river on its other side.
Our first outing in Épinal took us out of the park onto the other side of the Moselle river, turning back across one of the several bridges towards the barge.
Later that evening we walked a little further towards the town and came across a lovely little park area in front of the Maison Romaine (a Pompeian style house built at the end of the 19th century as a replica of an ancient villa), and we were lucky enough to photograph it just before the illuminations we turned off. The park is apparently well-known for its lovely rose bushes (more than 500 varieties!), which did look and smell gorgeous.
The following day we set off to visit the Parc du Chateau to wander through it’s medieval garden and the ruins of the chateau. The route we followed took us along the main road and up a very long flight of metal and concrete steps set against the cliff wall (around 323 steps) … except we’d managed to take a wrong turn up there, so had to walk back down (yes, another 323 steps). Having retraced our steps we realised where we’d gone wrong and soon found the correct entrance which was via a long uphill path, and much less stressful on the legs. Once reaching the top, the views across the city were breathtaking, and all that effort was well worth it.
Leaving the park we walked down to see La Tour Chinoise, a tower built in the style of a Chinese pagoda (built 1805, restored in 2011) to cover a staircase linking the residence of a local Tax Officer to his private garden, the parc du Château! Exhausted after all the walking and climbing, we headed into the centre for a much needed sit-down with coffee and cake, before continuing our exploration, which included a peek into the huge church – La Basilique Saint-Maurice – with it’s striking stained glass windows, and a brief wander into the nearby covered market. At this point we decided to return home, and walked alongside the Moselle river where we saw the amazing kayak/canoe slalom course which has held world ranking competitions over the years.
The following photos show: Top row, left to right – A 5 metre x 7 metre steel sculpture representing a flat arabesque / Le Tour Chinoise (chinese tower). Lower row, left to right – A bronze cast two finger victory sculpture, a symbolic gesture meaning that the quest for liver is never ending / View of the Basilique in the centre of town.
Now that the waterways are getting slightly busier, we are meeting up with more people, and during our four days in Èpinal we spent a few hours in the company of Karen and Bryan, Alex and Deb, John and Martha, Mark and Peter.
After an interesting and sociable few days spent in Èpinal, we set off again with no destination in mind, just planning on cruising for a few hours until we found somewhere to moor and eventually settling on a quay at the edge of Thaon-les-Vosges …. at that point as it had been raining a little and we were both tired, we were ready to call it a day. Not a bad place to spend a night, pretty close to a supermarket (always useful), with some open spaces nearby for the dogs’ exercise. There was a very large contingent of campervans about 50+ meters away, and in the morning a group of people enjoying breakfast under a covered area just outside of the boat.
Once the dogs had had a walk around the park the following morning, it was time to leave and we carried on along the Canal de Vosges, today heading towards the town of Charmes. The weather was much better today, not wet and not too hot, and we actually met a few more boats – maybe because it was a Sunday or the weather was better, but it’s been our busiest day so far on this canal!
Although we didn’t actually make it to Charmes, after about five hours of travelling we did come across a little canalside mooring and decided to stop there for the remainder of the day. In the morning we set off again in much warmer weather and slowly moved on until we came to a mooring area Roville devant Bayon, just after midday. The rest of the day was quiet and relaxed, with a couple of outings for the dogs.
Waking the next morning to beautiful birdsong, we began our day continuing along the Canal des Vosges, again with no fixed destination in mind and just enjoying the sights and sounds as we cruised. Eventually we crossed an aquaduct over the Moselle river, passing into lock 43 at Flavigny at which point we had thought we’d moor on exiting the other end of the lock. So far things had gone well, but suddenly we were stuck, the lock wasn’t emptying and we couldn’t move!
A quick call to the VNF and the wheels were in motion for help to come out …. although it was an hour before anyone turned up, and then the problem was quickly sorted so that we could carry on. The temperature was up in the late 20s/early 30s by then, and we could see the planned mooring just around the bend, so pretty quickly we had moored up and were in position for the night.
A lovely but incredibly hot journey today (26/6/24) from Flavigny on the Canal des Vosges, joining the Canal de la Marne au Rhin on our way to Nancy. We passed through eighteen locks over five hours of travelling, and finally decided to stop for the day just beyond ecluse 10 on a grassy stretch next to a cycleway, boasting two bollards about 17 metres apart.
Most of the journey went without a hiccup, although on turning onto the Canal de la Marne au Rhin the remote telecommander didn’t work so we called VNF on the radio and almost immediately an engineer arrived to deal with the ecluse. (We believe he told us that the telecommander doesn’t work at ecluse 5 of the Canal de la Marne au Rhin, it is only useable if you’re continuing along the Canal des Vosges to Toul – although we did have to bear in mind our lack of knowledge of the french language!). Anyway, approaching ecluse 2 the telecommander worked and we easily passed in and out of the subsequent 4 ecluses on this section of the canal (ecluse 5 to ecluse 1 in our direction of travel.)
Confusingly however, having exited ecluse 1, just 3 km further on we approached another ecluse 1, the first of a second flight of thirteen ecluses (numbered 1-13 in our direction of travel). Here we again used the telecommander, and from then the ecluses were all synchronised for our onward travels, which was all pretty impressive.
As mentioned earlier, we moored up just the other side of ecluse 10 – the heat and the long day had defeated us – and we settled in for the evening. Initially the salon thermostat was reading over 30 degrees, but we soon got that down to a more comfortable temperature.
Now heading to our last destination for June, we set off on another hot day and crossed into the Port de Plaisance of Nancy. The port looked very full as we reached the entrance, so we moved on a very short way and moored outside of some apartment blocks as a temporary measure, whilst I walked round to the Capitainerie to see if they could accommodate us. Happily for us he pointed out a spot right on the corner of the port, almost on a slipway, so I quickly got back to Shensi and moved her across into the designated berth, where we were planning to spend the following week.
We spent a good chunk of the following day trying to erect the bimini – despite all my best efforts to label each part, we still managed to get it very wrong on our first few attempts, but eventually we succeeded. And then the weather turned, not much sun but plenty of rain.
We took a walk into the town of Nancy on a few occasions, sightseeing, shopping and enjoying some of the atmosphere, finding a lovely Art-Nouveau brasserie to relax in near the station.
Nicki found a lovely riverside walk not too far away, very serene and perfect for a decent dog walk, and with a canoe/kayak slalom course along part of the river.
After a couple of days, we were joined by Janos and Rachel who were travelling in our direction on Czvargo, and they rafted up alongside us for a few days. Our first evening together saw us all wandering over to a nice little restaurant, Nonnas, for a great meal out.
