From the middle of nowhere

The southern branch of the Canal de l'Est from Epinal to the Moselle River is busy with commercial craft, they move all manner of bulk goods. We found one that is familiar to us loading bright orange maize. 300 tonnes of cattle feed.

The canal is going downstream and has been following the Moselle since Epinal. It travels through some beautiful wooded country. Autumn colors are everywhere.

At Flavigny sur-Moselle the canal crosses the Moselle via a pont canal.

The river is becoming rapidly larger and the canal and river soon merge and the river becomes the main route. The size of the ecluses suddenly become very large.

The geography changes too as we travel through some very hilly land. The river valley is lined with some quite steep hills. Beautiful villas abound and the villages are very attractive. On one bank we were accompanied by a disused railway line that seemed to be mostly supported on this beautiful stone viaduct that followed us for more that 5 kilometres.

We are approaching Toul and must leave the Moselle River as the appropriate harbour for Matilda is on the Canal de l'Est, (branche Nord). Access to the harbour is via a beautiful lifting bridge and around the battlements of the citadel.

Imagine having a couple of twenty four pound cannon balls coming at you from the fortified bridge in the background.

This type of structure really bought home to us just how long these canals have been used in Europe and their importance to trade.

A few days in Toul then Wednesday 2^nd November we are out on to the Moselle again for the final run to Nancy. The river was again in quite hilly country giving rise to some wonderful scenery. It takes a horseshoe bend around the village of Liverdun. This beautiful bridge and a second one almost the same, carries a railway line across the river and through the town.

The Chateau de la Flie a Liverdun looks out over the river.

We are in the waters now occupied by big freight barges and ones like this are seen all the time on the big rivers. This one is filled with about two thousand tonnes of processed scrap metal. It is being taken to a processing plant further up river that we passed a few days ago.

Early afternoon and we leave the Moselle. The Meurhe River meets the Moselle at the town of Frouard and we take the branch. Immediately we enter the canal de la Marne au Rhin via a 10metre deep ecluse. Nine kilometres later and we are in the Port of Nancy. Entry to the port from downstream is regulated by two bridges, this one lifts vertically, enough for us to pass underneath.

For the mechanically minded just look at the size of the three-stage ram that is lifting the roadway - there are two if them.

A half an hour later we are moored, rafted up, stern to the wharf where we will stay till next cruising season.

Christmas is coming up and we have family joining us. There will be stories to tell then.

So, we will keep in touch.

Epinal and beyond

Sunday 23^rd October at 0830hrs we left our mooring on the Canal des Vosges downstream of Ecluse 8 where we had to stop the day before. We were on the way up from the Saone, headed for Epinal and about to have the hardest day working Matilda to date. Eight ecluses to the summit pound which is 10 kilometres long, then fourteen down (including one “en panne” (broken)) to the embranchment d'Epinal and then 3.3 kilometres to the port of Epinal, a shallow winding canal. Taking Matilda through 22 ecluses was a huge day and at the end of it both Marg and I were absolutely bushed.

The port has recently been completely rejuvenated. Old warehouses and hard-stand areas have been removed and wonderful facilities and parkland established in their place. A number of boats were moored here and shut down for winter and we were fortunate to moor along the main town wharf, easy walking to the centre of town.

Epinal is a good mixture of the old and new. The cathedral has the evidence of about three rebuilds and in some places the old walls and battlements are very obvious.

And just across the road, an ancient stream through the centre of the town has been turned into a white water course for modern canoeists.

All these modern sporting activities proved rather boring for this old fellow guarding the historic library.

An interesting little sidelight to our visit, we were approached by two media studies students from a local college who wanted to include our home – Matilda, in one of their projects. We were interviewed and photographed as part of their paper on the different living environments of various people. We hope they did well!

Wednesday 26^th, off again. The canal des Vosges is now following the Moselle river through a wide and open country of rich pastoral soils. The plains are a result of ice age glacial activity and the soil is under laid with massive deposits of rocky gravel. This is quarried and used for many building products and industrial purposes. Barges on the canals are used for it's transport in many places but this is the first time we saw some purpose-built ones specifically for a particular run. Looking as though they were designed by a committee they looked strange but did their job very successfully.

That afternoon we moored at Nomexy, for a late lunch. A good mooring so we stayed the night. In the afternoon we wandered to the other side of the river to Chatel sur Saone, a village built on a high vantage point. There has been a castle and citadel here for over 1000 years. Finally derelict, it was all covered with a car park for a nearby government building in the 50's. It is now being excavated and it's history unfolds.

We stopped at Charmes for lunch and in the afternoon we explored the town. This poor town has had a tragic history through the centuries with war and famine right up to its near destruction (again) in the 2nd WW. The church showed signs of damage from the second world war. The steeple had been rebuilt with a modern concrete structure that was already showing the ravages of time. A sorry sight. However other parts of the town were very pretty especially with the autumn colors. 

We moved on in the afternoon and finally moored on the edge of the canal virtually in the middle of nowhere

From the middle of nowhere we will leave you. 

Till next time, when we get to Nancy, so keep in touch.

Off to Nancy

It was a lovely autumn day as we left St Symphorien on the 13^th October and after waiting for the eclusier to set ecluse #75 for us we entered the Saone at about 10.30am. We were on our way to Nancy where we will spend the winter.

We followed the original river course in a northerly direction and every now and then we entered a deviation to get past a shallow section or where there were rapids in the river. The banks were generally rich farming country and the quality of the stately historical homes bore this out.

After passing the city of Grey we entered the Derivation de Savoyeux which had a tunnel that we had to pass through. Large in section and only 643 metres long, we considered this tunnel “a piece of cake”. Being veterans of the Pouilly Tunnel allowed us to scoff this one off.

But wait. Don't be too hasty there was more in store. Another tunnel loomed on the Derivation de Saint-Albin. This one was slightly longer – 681metres but was approached by a 2 kilometre winding cutting – very difficult to negotiate and only one way at a time.

By this time the Saone was becoming – in parts – quite a small river. There were times when it was quite narrow and twisty and times when we felt that we could talk with the neighbours.

We reached Corre at the confluence of the Saone and the Canal des Voges and after entering the canal stopped at a pleasant mooring to tour the town. Next day after leaving we were stopped by a cute swing bridge operated by a one manpower machine.

Our next port of call was Fontenoy-le-Chateau, a village that for centuries had been a centre for lace making and embroidery. Today an attractive but sleepy spot that appeared to be full of retirees from around the world. It nestled into the valley and the canal wound very tightly between the hills.

We cycled from here to the village of Bains les Bains. Famous for its hot mineral springs, the population of the area have travelled here since Roman times to “take the waters”. All we wanted was some groceries and access to an ATM to get some folding money.

We were approaching the summit of the Canal des Vosges and would soon descend to the town of Epinal where we will spend a few days.The summit pound is some 300 metres above the Saone and we were stopped three ecluses before the summit by a manual one, that had no man to work it. We spent a cold and frosty night in this lovely setting. It will be Epinal tomorrow.

We will tell you of Epinal next time,

- so keep in touch.

Shortening the "to do" list

We arrived back at St Symphorien sur Saone around 1.00pm Sunday 28^th August.

Some things had changed and some things were still the same. Boats had come and gone throughout the season and now the regulars were were coming home to roost. Over the next few weeks we saw the comings and goings of many vessels and people we have met as we had wandered the canals. Most of them were heading at this time for their winter moorings, to be closed up and “winterised” against the forces of nature in the French winter.

The canals in the southern areas of France are primarily tourist canals and they close during the winter months. Commercial barges can still use them by arrangement with the authorities – the VNF, who may supply a lock keeper to accompany the barge on it's journey. It is interesting these days that even with the popularity of the canals the VNF's primary source of income from them is the supply of water to industry, as cooling or manufacture, to farmers as irrigation and to the numerous electric power stations we have seen. Even older canals no longer navigable, are used as water courses.

We had a list of things to do with Matilda that seemed to grow every time we checked. The main things were some work on the engine, replace the canvas covers around the stern verandah, rebuild the chimney for the wood fire, set up the insulation on the coach house roof and paint the cabin deck.

We also did some touristy things as well and one day with friends Alan and Ann, we drove in their car to Nuits-St Georges to visit the Cassisium, a cassis distillery. Cassis (or black currants) have been grown and distilled in this area for at least a thousand years. This factory takes as much of the crop they can get and makes a beautiful range of liquers with them. Everyone knows Crème de Cassis.

We visited at the same time as a bus load of Dutch hospitality students and were plied with all manner of samples at the end of our tour. Hard to take!

The mists and dew in the mornings reminded us that the seasons were moving on and we set ourselves a deadline of departure for Nancy before the 14^th of October. Our major projects were complete but we did not finish our painting. The deck looks a bit like a spotted animal where we have patched blemishes in preparation for a good final coat. It will have to now wait till the spring.

Thursday 13^th October, departure planned for 10.30. We notified the lock keeper the day before of our plans as we were entering the Saone river and they like to know. At 11.20 he finally left his cottage and set the lock for us – French!

Never mind – Nancy, here we come. More next time and till then,

We'll keep in touch

Besancon and back.

As we mentioned last time we left Ali and John at Dole. They left for Paris on Saturday 8^th October. We departed on Sunday and headed to Besancon. After departing at about 0930 we travelled upstream sometimes on the Doubs river and sometimes on the canals built to bypass shallow and rocky sections. These sections often were just parts of the river cleared to a depth with nothing more than a simple wall dividing the channel from the variables of the river.

We decided at lunch time that we would settle for the night and we found a lovely mooring at Ranchot where the local Marie has set aside a specific area for vessels our size. Thoughtful people!

Next morning, off early and we arrived at Besancon early in the afternoon.

Surrounded by high hills and a loop of the Doubs river there has been a town here since before Roman times. They called it Vesontio and since then it has been invaded by many forces from the Barbarians in the 1^st century to the Germans in the 20^th.. They included the Spanish, Austrians and the Prussians. To offer the town protection, King Louis XIV built a massive citadel on the hill behind the city and this, with four other forts on the other surrounding hills, (costing him a massive fortune) all stand today. The citadel was used infamously by the Nazis as a prison during the second world war.

We climbed the hill and spent an interesting morning touring the well preserved buildings.

Part of the citadel is occupied by a zoo which was set up late in the 19^th century Attractive in a way but small and cramped by modern standards. The great apes have the best situation. They roam free in the large area that would have been the moat protecting the entrance.

After a stay of two nights we headed back to St Symphorien as we had plans to do some work on Matilda that would not wait.

On our leisurely trip back down the Doubs river, we looked at things and country that we had passed on the way up. One spot was a “nature” mooring at the start of a deviation at le Maroc where we stayed a full day and found the stop most relaxing. There was a partially deserted factory which had used the canal for transport of product and we did little more than ride to the local village and get shooed away by the occupants of the factory.

We spent a night at Ranchot again utilising that thoughtfully provided mooring and had dinner at the local Auberge. Lovely surroundings and ambience and Peter was served the toughest piece of steak that he had ever experienced. Three medalions of eye fillet that even the sharpest knife available could not cut. We are spoilt in Australia with the quality of our meat!

And so back to St Symphorien and those jobs on Matilda.

We will be off to Nancy for Christmas in a month or so.

Until then, we will keep in touch.

The way to Dole

We had a strange mooring at Chalon sur Saone, we were told that we should be welcome at the pleasure boat harbour but when we looked, there was no room for us. We found a derelict commercial wharf not far from the centre of town, which was at least 15 metres high. To get to this height we had to moor alongside a recessed stairway in the face of the wharf and climb up to find something to tie to. We had to haul our bikes up to the top with ropes. Ali and John did most of the bike hauling – they are young and fit you see, and it was easy for them.
We stayed in Chalon sur Saone for a few days, then headed north on the Saone river for St Jean de Losne. We spent a few days on “the steps” there and showed Ali and John around the area we had called home for almost 6 months before we started on our dream. We then continued north and entered the Rhone au Rhin canal. Ah! the observant amongst you say, "you are back home at St Symphorien” and you are right! But we don't stop because we are on our way to show Ali and John the sites of Dole.

The observant amongst you will also note that the photographer must have been off on another assignment again.

Next morning we were up early – as were the ballonists, and we went off to investigate the town.

Ali and John left us at Dole.We put them on a TGV high speed train for Paris. They were off to Ethiopia in Africa to continue their volunteer work.

Marg and I continued up the Rhone au Rhin canal departing Dole the next day, Sunday 21^st August. We wanted to get to Besancon and next time, we will show you this wonderful old city.

Au revoir till then, Keep in touch.