Slow boat to the Saone

On the third of April 2013, we prepared to depart Nancy for the first outing of the season. Peter M was still with us as was our French friend Thomas. He said that he hasn’t been on a boat on the canals since a day trip when he was at school. He was coming a few kilometres with us and would ride his bike home from the other side of town. The day before was busy with final purchases and the tidying up of loose ends. We had visitors for afternoon drinks. Phil and his daughters, Jasmine and Samara (from Imagine next door), Thomas and Stephan also joined us.

Typical of these occasions, with the help of another bottle or two, afternoon turned to evening and Marg fed us all. A good hearty bolognaise.

10.00 hours on Wednesday 3rd  and we departed the Port of Nancy and immediately into our first “ecluse en panne”- a lock that should have worked automatically but didn’t. The VNF were called and soon we were off again.

We turned off the canal de la Marne au Rhin  into the embranchment du Nancy – a bypass canal that skirts around the city, basically a short cut to the canal du Vosges.

Thomas left us here and we continued on. 

After a night “green banking” on the embranchment, we were soon on the Canal des Vosges headed south. That night Marg prepared a lovely meal. Ocean trout with potato, carrots, mushrooms and a winter cabbage. The cabbage was  given to us by Thomas and was grown by his parents. We had never seen it before, an interesting vegetable with a good flavour and texture. Over the next few nights we had it in a number of meals.

 

This canal follows the Moselle River as it climbs toward Epinal and at one point we crossed it on a “Pont Canal”.

We moored at Charmes, a delightful town that has a long history of being pillaged over the centuries. Every invader seems to have almost destroyed the town including the last world wars. It now seems prosperous enough as the scene below would indicate.

While we were here this enterprising entrepreneur came past on his cycle taking orders for pizzas which he returned with a short time later.

Next morning we moved on to Nomexy and re-visited Chatel sur Moselle. We had spent a short time here on our first trip to Nancy. There are ruins here of a fortification which was commenced in the 11^th century and expanded almost continuously until it was ordered to be destroyed by King Louis XIV in the 17^th century. It was then partially blown up but mostly filled with thousands of tonnes of rock and earth.

We were very fortunate to be shown over the reclaimed structure by some members of the family of the archaeologists who headed an association formed to recover the Chateau.

Over 100,000 tonnes of earth and fill have been removed from the ruins. By filling these chambers they were preserved rather than destroyed and their condition now is pretty much as they were when the Chateau was abandoned.

Next day, off again, soon we were close to Epinal and off to our left, the Embranchement d’Epinal follows the Moselle to the city. This has been closed for some months as there are repairs being done to a pont canal that crosses the river. The water level where we were had been lowered by 1.5 metres. Matilda would be close to the bottom and the going was very slow.

The rain continued and the rivers were running quite quickly. Fortunately the level in the canals is controlled and we had no problems.

But the commercials kept coming.

We were  descending in a valley alongside a stream that was to become the River Coney. A little known river but all the way there were signs of industry and prosperity from the past. We saw numerous quarries and mines around the valley and hillsides and many villages had buildings that had been factories.The village names  like le Grand Fosse – (the Great Quarry), Forges d’Uzemain - (Uzemain’s forges), les Forges and la Manufacturer tell the story of their past history    

The stream between these buildings had been a water race, turning a mill wheel powering machinery in the buildings. Now a running torrent in the rain.

We stopped one night at Fontenoy le Chateau which had been the centre of lace manufacturing in France. A very attractive town but now mostly derelict. It is a shame to see the effects of the world wide problem of population gravitation to the big cities.

On April 13 we arrived at Corre. The canal meets the Saone River here –  called the Petite Saone in this location. With all the rain, the river was in flood at about 2 metres above its normal height and was officially closed to navigation. We took the opportunity to stay still for a few days. 

The stairs at the front of the lock continue down to its entrance.

The port and facilities here are run by a Swiss couple and most of the boats in their port are Swiss owned. A super market close by was used to top up our supplies and with the weather finally looking like spring had arrived, we relaxed and took in the ambiance.

Shortly we would be out on the river headed for St Jean de Losne and there will be more to tell

So, we will keep in touch.