Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Back to Nancy



Peter M was leaving us to visit friends in Denmark. We were on our own again and continued from Strasbourg, slowly up the Canal de la Marne au Rhin towards Nancy. (Consider this, “up” used here may not be considered correct. We were actually travelling in a westerly direction. We were going upstream along the canal, gaining height in each lock we passed. In a few days we would start to travel “down” after we crested the top of the hill. Is it correct when we say we have travelled down the Rhine, when we have been travelling up in a northerly direction? All too confusing!)

We would slowly make our way to Saverne where Peter M would join us again.





At Souffelweyersheim we cycled through the countryside and came across this fortification. It is called Fort Rapp and was built between 1872 and 1874 by the Prussian general Von Moltke. It was one of 14 fortifications built around Strasbourg after the Franco Prussian war. The very different names of the towns and villages indicated the changes in the history of this part of France. The fort is now a museum but unfortunately was closed when we were there.



We passed through some very productive farm country and were intrigued by these mounds of what looked like large roundish lumps of dirty woody roots. Potato-like but they were 20 to 30 cm long. It was sugar beet, ready to be trucked to the local mill and processed to sugar. More than 80% of Europe’s sugar comes from beet.



We moored in a small village Waltenheim-sur-Zorn which had some lovely old houses. The photo does not show it but none of the walls of this cottage were either straight or vertical. Probably been like it for years.



The corn harvest in the area was in full swing and bin loads of the grain were arriving continuously at the silos near our mooring.



Saverne was our next major stop and we found a very well run port in the harbour in the middle of town. The other side of the port was dominated by this palace, Le Chateau des Rohan. It was built in the 18th century as a residence for the Archbishops of Strasbourg. The 140 metre wide building of red Vosges sandstone replaces the smaller Chateau Vieux on the left that was built in 1417. It is now a community building housing a school, a library and many other facilities.





Peter M arrived back on board and we departed Saverne on the 19th October. The canal actually crosses the main street in the old town and this deep ecluse at the crossing always has a crowd of on-lookers.







We stopped at Lutzelbourg and found this shop absolutely full of magnificent cut crystal. Peter and Marg had been here before but they were still impressed with the volume of beautiful works on display. Serge Wurm, the artisan, was working at the time. It goes without saying that a few purchases were made.





The Arzviller Inclined Plane lift was built in the late 1960’s to lift barges up the eastern face of the Vosges Mountains.

It replaced 17 locks over 4 kilometres of canal which gave a gain in height of 44.5 metres. This had been a massive bottleneck and barges could take 2 days to clear them.

The lift has been out of continuous use for almost two years following two mishaps. We have been anxious for it to re-open so we could make this trip.



Compare the support structure with this photo taken in May 2012 and see the extent of the repairs and strengthening that has been carried out.



We were soon on the top of the Vosges range where the canal runs through a large series of lakes. These etangs du Gondrexange were developed in the middle ages by monks as fish farms. They cover over 700 hectares and are a haven for fish, birds and other wildlife. Some of these etangs were almost drained to replenish the canal after the failure of the Arzviller inclined plane in 2013 and the area beyond Matilda was still over 2 metres below its normal level.





As we travelled down the canal, we realised that we were passing lots of spiky bushes on the side of the canal. They were covered with little dark blue fruit. We realised they were sloes so we had to stop Matilda and bring her bow amongst them. Peter M and Margaret harvested about 2 kilos of these bitter fruit which are now mulling away in jars to become Sloe Gin!

Foraging this season has given us cherries, walnuts, figs, apples and now sloes.





We were now back in Nancy and took a quick tour through the city. We bought Peter M’s train ticket to Paris and wandered back through Place Stanislas .







There was a crafts display in the old Hotel de Ville and quirky gardens in the Square. The Town always seems to have displays like this around this time of year.



Peter M took his train to Paris next day and was on his way home to Oz.



We were alone again. Winter is settling quickly in France and we were getting prepared. Two cubic metres of firewood and a thousand litres of heating oil should see us through.

There will be more to tell so we will keep in touch.