July 20 to July 28th                                

 

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July 20
Tuesday                                                                                                         
Igney.
Moved up to lock mooring in morning in light rain.
Moored up to peniche proof moorings - 1 ring and 3 pins - and settled down to await lunch party.
Cleaned boat, inside and out.
Put chairs out under tree near boat and waited! Very lucky - spot very nice and totally suitable.
Then sadness - found we had left 2nd of Natal Parks Board 1 litre beer tankards on lockside yesterday after hurried resumption of service after lunch. First was left on R. Soar the day we took delivery of Albert, in exactly the same way.
S. and A. arrived at 2.30 - we had lunched by then - having rung us twice for more directions, after loosing their tel/text directions and the way through not having a map.
If anyone else even vaguely considers looking for us without AT LEAST the Michelin 1:200,000 road guide (which has the canals marked and named) they will be given directions that will lead them either to Warsaw or Edinburgh - or both. BE WARNED!
Very pleasant gossipy lunch, slow informal and relaxed. Fun.
They left at 1900 to continue their drive to England.
Had yet 1 more attempt to get into "Paul's Page" on the web. Cost a bomb, but no go.
"Error 401, author has not supplied authorisation for accessing page".
Weather very varied - morning rain cleared up then wind, sometimes cool, and sometimes war.
Lunched in the boat, but sat out before and afterwards.
 
July 21
Wednesday                                                                                                
Igney to Griport.
Got going well - lovely having clean tidy boat - and got landed with having to buy a dreadful toy man waving Dutch and French flags when the wind blows him from the L.K. who has let us stay on his extended lock mooring for the last 36 hours.
We would have had to have tipped him, anyway, so this counted - which Grandchild will be the victim?
A very "ordinary" day, in that this part of France is Alsace-Lorrainne, hence Teutonic in it's thoroughness and tidiness.
The canal is straight and evenly dredged, and highly organised - even though it is in a terrible (by French standards) state of tattiness, with badly fitting and leaking lock gates, worn out - or nearly worn out (good for another 25 yrs by English standards) lock gear, etc.
The countryside has changed to industrial, but the French seem to have a knack of building or establishing factories so that they don't blight the countryside.
The overall impression is green fields, into which someone has dropped the odd factory (mostly abandoned now-a-days, it has to be said) and cleaned up very carefully after themselves.
The canal runs in a sort of corridor of green - trees, fields, etc.
The Moselle River, in whose valley the canal, railway and road all run, is being steadily dug up for gravel, but even the gravel pits and machinery seemed reasonably unobtrusive. The lorries are very obtrusive - why can't the gravel go on peniches?
Progress was steady, and to others probably intensely dull, but we enjoyed it, and Albert does like deep water.
We negotiated some 13 locks, covering about 20 - 25 kms. As every single lock had a L.K. this is hardly a long and exhausting day.
Came onto rain for the second half of the morning - really hard - but having vented it's spite (don't know why, there are no hire boats or companies here - we are in Indian territory) packed up, turned fine, and just blew a hooly instead from behind (S. as everyone knows, as they now have adequate maps)
Bought bread at first lock in morning, from a bakers 200 miles from canal and lock - I am sure he said "cent metres"- , but as bread buying is sacred - as well as everything else such as meal breaks, conversation, etc, L.K., other boat with us, and the rest of France, just waited for us! Good stuff, also the Quiche Lorrainnes that is where we are now, so they are good.
Lunch at Charmes. Dirty great linear mooring bank at caravan park with people gobbling over the chance to take our mooring fees. Moorings full of indeterminate boats.
Went on a bit, onto the "wrong" side and moored up in lonely state, and had lunch.
Hate people and moored boats on camping sites - they always look self satisfied "we got here first, and plugged in the electricity, and the water"- prefer solitude.
Moored up for night in a sort of "glade" of enormous mature trees, with more trees and bush running down to and beyond, the river (which is out of sight).
Far side of canal, as so often, is a relatively busy minor road, but we can live with that now, we can still sit under the trees with our drinks being driven mad be the computer and mobile phone.
Peniche went past at 1845 very slowly, but still tore our pins out. This just seems a fact of life. We see a max of 1 per day! There used to be at least 40.
 
July 22
Thursday                                                                                                        
Griport to Richardmenil.
Woke up, put kettle, switched on phone, muttered bet nobody paid the slightest attention to my efforts to "tidy up" communications with the family, and with a triumphant squeal the phone proved me wrong.
Couldn't miss this, so logged on very quickly before starting. 3 e-mails, each one of which gave us the gravest cause for concern as to the managerial abilities, general competence, and common sense of our offspring and their cohorts. Good fun, anyway - warm glows???
Wandered off up canal, as usual passing numerous spots that would have made far nicer stopping places than the one we chose.
Weather distinctly cool and autumnal - grey and overcast, chilly wind.
Into first lock on our own - they are about 1 to 2 kms apart for this entire canal - but no joy, along came a yacht to huff and puff and generally drive us frantic with their bits of string, and knitting to connect them to France. They were Swedish (?) yellow cross on blue flag? We don't fly a flag at all - Narrow Boats do not have flagstaffs, and do not have flags - vulgar.
Motored on through quite pleasant - but not very "French" country - canal lined with trees, so not easy to see what was going on.
River Moselle on our right in floor of wide valley, with endless gravel workings - but not very obvious or horrid till looked for.
On left, normal rural scene into which someone had dropped the odd factory, with a road running alongside the canal.
11.00 a heavy rainstorm hit us - this is becoming regular - and we continued in wet weather mode.
Stopped for lunch no where in particular - but very nice none-the-less.
After lunch came upon one of those ridiculous things that make this country such fun.
Across the canal was a footbridge - height about 15" above water. Originally, probably just planks on 44 gall drums.
Now it is proper XPM mesh walkways, with side rails, totally safe for little Etien or Ettienne, mounted on steel cylinders (floating in the water) exactly the size and shape of 44 gallon drums. Suspect they just fabricated cylinders around the original drums, and inside are the rusted remains.
There is no warning of this bridge, and it is almost invisible from the water. Too bad -
On arrival, having tried to bring the boat in to the side, but found the edge is only about 6" deep, an ugly little man in an ancient Renault 4 drives up with colossal flourish (it is still pissing with rain), wishes all and sundry "bon jour" and proceeds to release various levers, wind up wires, and pulls the "bridge" across the canal.
Through we go, and within 3 minutes, there is a lock, with same gentleman - surprised his car survived - winding the lock as though nothing had happened. Extraordinary - not a sign, not a "no parking", not a thing
Only thing to do is pretend likewise that there is nothing unusual, and as it was still pissing, we did just that.
Ever onwards - we like this sort of traveling - all the locks seem to have family parties running them, so I don't even have to get out of the boat.
Things got more complicated on the approaches to Nancy.
Moored up for night at very nice, not over busy, moorings at place called Richardmenil - nice moorings, but no electricity and no water. (we needed neither)
This could be the answer - keep the moorings simple, cheap, clean and uncluttered with modern technology - one can usually get water in every 10 to 18 locks - within walking distance of your shops, and away you go.
This place has all usual shops, and crew from every single boat went up.
In our case cornflakes and canard mush (super dead duck pate) and TUC biscuits.
Think we'll sleep well to-night, the only "cloud" is Veronica Glover (now Ochiltree)'s visit, with husband and 5 year old hyperactive son.
 
 
July 23 
Friday                                                                                                        
Richardmenil to Liverdun (via Neuves Maisons and Toule)
Day started cool, overcast and breezy.
Early start at 0945 from a completely empty mooring - everyone was away before us.
Gently along to "Nancy Branch", stopped outside lock - gates half open - and hooted for L.K.
The Richardmenil/Neuves Maison/Toule/Liverdun/Nancy complex of rivers and canals is something like a large square with 20-25 km sides, joining up canals or rivers that enter or depart (or both) at each corner.
Our intention was to arrive at the S.W. corner, nip up the West side through the "Nancy Branch (up and over the top - 2 flights, one up and one down).
As said, this we did, (intended) hooting at the gate of the first lock.
The L.K. came running from the first lock along the South side - "you can't go up there - commercial traffic only".
"What do we do?"
"Go all the way round, or go back from whence you came"
OUCH!!!!
She was a pleasant girl/woman, and after we had studied the maps and found every single one said, quite clearly, that she was right - decision time had arrived.
It was 10.30, and we could go, or go back.
We had not even thought of going round, so had not read up on it, and if we had known we were going to go round, we would have started a great deal earlier - maybe.
So, of course, we set out to go round - there must be somewhere amongst the steelworks and scrap yards to stop and sleep over to-night.
First leg was up - or was it down - the Moselle, past enormous factories, steel works, scrap depots, cranes of every variety, rail sidings, served by, and moored up to, huge freighters - proper ships - that even made peniches look small, and made us look as though somebody was studying us through field glasses the wrong way round, preparatory to putting us in a match-box.
We passed through a couple or 4 locks of a size suitable for 3 or 4 freighters at a time - frighteningly huge - several acres, with control cabins far away in the air, controlled by faceless ones.
In fact, they were really quite harmless, as locks go - we just sat next to the wall (initially with a rope, but latterly not even with that) and gently dropped 7 metres.
It was quite a grind this part of the Moselle, getting progressively colder and windier. The country side - where not so far away as to be invisible - was neat and tidy factories, farmland and thick forest.
In view of the uncertainty of our sleep over site, we reckoned we should not stop for lunch, but should get on with it - there was no-where to tie up to, anyway.
Albert was pulling like a Trojan, and we found ourselves in Toule in early afternoon, having negotiated that bit of the Moselle from SE of the square to the W. corner. After some tricky map reading, we negotiated the locks and canals round to the E. corner in and about Toule, and started pounding down the stretch to the N.E. corner, along the "Moselle canal", again through frighteningly large locks - we went through one all on our own, and the L.K. looked out of his cabin and waved and grinned. Was he taking the Mickey?
Eventually - after some 40 odd Kms we arrived at a potential mooring on a river ox-bow lack at Liverdun.
It was super, empty, quiet, clean, and completely quiet. It was hidden from the river by high steep banks, and had neither water nor electricity, so presumably was unknown and unpopular as a result.
Weather, which had been cold, bleak and pretty ordinary, cheered up, and we had drinks outside on bank.
 
July 24
Saturday                                                                                                
Liverdun to Nancy.
Good quiet night - woke to misty day that usually promises heat. Relief after yesterday when we were wearing trousers and fleeces.
On down river, spectacular scenery - as yesterday, but not appreciated then - of steep hills right down to the navigation, heavily wooded, except river valley bottom, where industry and gravel workings had established themselves.
Lots of boats - even the occasional hire boat - about. Principally, though, slightly formless Belgian and German cruisers - very beautiful and clean - that explode like kicked over ants' nests in locks, and knit themselves onto the lock bollards, while their boats skate about like water-boatmen bugs. One insisted on putting our rope over a bollard in a 10 metre lock, and when it obviously would not reach to come back to us, and was quite incapable of knotting it, told us proudly that his ropes were 50 metres long. We took our rope in, coiled it and left him to get on with his knitting - should manage a good cats' cradle with 50 metres of mooring line at front and rear.
Nice run down into Nancy, complicated enough to be interesting, nice weather, nice scenery, and nice environs.
Checked out Port de Plaisance, mooring available, but wind too strong to be safe to go in.
Remained outside moored up to towing path opposite, and sizzled in the sun, but cooled by strong wind.
Went out in evening to cafe in town - very good, and incredibly cheap - Fr 320 including tip for fillet steaks, pudding, and wine.
Mooring in marina taken up, so stayed put - somewhat hassled during night by youngsters running up and down towing path shouting and yelling.
Sleep interrupted.
 
July 25
Sunday                                                                                                          
Stayed in Nancy.
Reckoned we would have to move, or Albert would sizzle, in spite of increasing wind.
Moved before breakfast onto concrete mooring on end, but no sooner tied up than little man arrived wanting money.
Found no water available, so no point in staying.
Pulled out, moored in shade on opposite side, and had Sunday breakfast.
After breakfast S. went for much needed bread - totally finished for first time this year.
Then went up 2 kms to Total Station that was supposed to sell diesel to boats.
Shut for Sunday.
Back to possible mooring in Malzeville - a few metres N of Nancy marina/Port de Plaisance.
Plenty space, well shaded, but a bit seamy. Stayed on for 10 minutes, then remembered we had left 1 chair out at breakfast mooring.
Shot back down, but got held up at lift bridge.
Left boat and walked. Found chair in lonely state on towing path - Hurrah.
Back once again to Malzeville.
Snoozed day away till late afternoon, then walked into Pepiniere Park. Enormous, wonderful park with something for everybody - flowers, trees, lawns, sports, funfair, cafe, bar, etc. Millions of people promenading, neatly dressed, no litter, babies, toddlers being played with and admired, youngster canoodling (quite physically) and everything pleasurable and unstressed.
Lovely and very skilful flower beds, rose garden, and all overshadowed by enormous very old trees.
Back to boat for drinks, but traffic on neighbouring road that had been quiet all day was beginning to wind itself up, so as sun had dropped, went about 50 metres back onto canal beneath some trees and re-moored out of earshot of road, which had turned out to be one of main roads out of Nancy.
Drinks on grass, finally, after 5th or 6th re-moor of day.
 
July 26
Monday                                                                                               
Nancy to Crevic.
We moved last night to avoid the main road out of Nancy we were moored against.
The spot we chose - not more than 50 metres from original mooring - quiet, in the shade, comfortable mooring, little traffic - turned out, at 0500, to be just opposite the dispatch gate of a factory, and not far from a busy set of traffic lights.
Al hell broke loose about 0530, but we managed to survive - not much else we could have done!
Civilised breakfast, although sun was beginning to heat up, and the off back up to yesterday's Total fuel station. This time it was open, and yes, they did sell "gas oil" to boats.
Method was totally logical, and very French. No long hose with nozzle on the end reaching into boat's fuel tank - no, that is much too easy.
A long open pipe arrived on the boat, from through the fence between the service station and the canal, and across towing path. Said service station was set up on the road (of course) which was quite a few feet higher than the canal - say 20 feet.
The other end of the open hose emanated - through a shut off valve - from what looked like a milk churn on a stand, situated comfortably close to the roadside diesel pump.
One states the exact amount of diesel required. This is pumped into the milk churn thing.
The valve under it is opened, and the contents drain into the boat. Quite painless.
120 litres, 570.48 francs. We estimate that consumption is now about 1.25 gallons a day, which is the same as last year's average. The increase this year from start of season's Ave. of 1 gall a day is probably due to fast hard running on the wide rivers, and the wider deeper canals with fewer locks. i.e. we are going faster!
It is a super feeling knowing the diesel tank is full - Ratty had 60 galls capacity, Albert a mere 40, so it can be a worry, although we do carry 2 X 4.5 gall jerricans full.
We can always buy from a normal service station by using funnels, and carrying the jerricans across the road - but so far we have avoided this chore.
Set off, after this, on our journey, out of Nancy, but it was one of those days.
Through the first lock, and there just half a field away was a supermarket - and we reckoned we were going to need one in the next 3 or 4 days.
So tied up, long gossip with council employee cutting grass, over the field to a "hole-in-the-wall", and into the air conditioned super market. (it was very hot outside)
Bought heavies - milk, beer, water, loo paper, Cote de Rhone (Missed out on the 5 litre casks of red Vin de Pays, they contained "a mixture of wines from Several European Union Countries"- couldn't stomach that, so left it, there are some very strange countries in the E.U. growing some very strange wines. Romania still isn't sure which is dry white, and which is anti-freeze) and all usual things, and took trolley across field to boat.
Unloaded, but by now lunch time in locks, which means lunch time for Albert, so found some shade, tied up and had lunch.
Bank was a little squalid - fishing station - and outlook largely pebble dashed factory wall, but considering reduction in quality of mooring that we have accepted in the last few days it wasn't bad, and at least it was cool, without the constant hot hooly that has been assaulting us during the last few days.
Dragged ourselves away, and through next lock. Managed final domestic chore, and filled water. Feel we are now complete. Questioned lock keeper re the Nancy Embrachement - see day before yesterday, we were at the top end of the branch from Richardmenile that we hit on Friday morning, and at the spot we should have arrived at by Friday lunchtime.
No, it was reserved for commercials only (1 a day - 1 per 2 days?), and we were not made aware of why! Possibly water - it is very heavily locked - but more likely just custom and plain French logical cussedness. It really didn't matter in the slightest, and we certainly would have hated to have missed the last 3 days. The trip amongst the "big boys" was definitely "something else". Possibly in 3 years' time it will be opened to pleasure boats?!?!
On through, or rather back to, the very pleasant fields and villages country we haven't see since we set off up the Saonne, although there is a very definite German flavour in everything now - the people are apparently totally bilingual.
Through a hugeous/ginormous soda factory - all railway lines, towers, conveyors, and rows of trains and peniches awaiting loading.
After next 3 locks manning gave over to "automatiques" - i.e. zappers. Just as well, as the L.K.s in the manned locks took themselves far too seriously, and made us tie up, although the guy in the one where we watered took the hose when we were finished to fill his kids pneumatic swimming pool in his garden.
Trotted back into country - saw first Friesian (Friesland) cows on whole trip - for another 5 - 10 kms, found a nice bit of grass and shade, and after a busy day knocked off for drinks, letter writing and snoozing in chairs.
Whilst running by the railway line, waived to engine on railway line - engine driver, and his 3 small kids in cab waved back and tickled horn. We were nearly blasted out of boat - but surely only in France does engine driver take kids in engine cab.
Discovered that many country churches ring the hour twice - 3 mins before and 3 mins after. This, of course, is totally logical - first time tells that there is plenty of time, so do nothing - second that you are too late, so continue doing nothing.
 
July 27
Tuesday                                                                                                   
Crevic to Einville.
Had a horrible thought in middle of night - we had a "zaaper" for going upstream, but when we read the instructions in French (they usually give the instructions for this sort of thing in French, German and English) we realised that the translation into English was a trifle loose.
On this canal, there are posts with zapreceivers (Boxes on posts that receive the zapper signal, and initiate the first part of the locking process) about 100 metres up stream of each lock, and zapreceivers on a different wavelength on posts on the downstream sides. Our zapper was an upstream one only, it only did the locks from the downstream side, it would not operate the system when going back downstream.
This was potentially disastrous, it meant that once we had ascended through a lock, there was no way we could go back down through it again.
It was vital, as we had 2 sets of visitors to be entertained on this section of the canal, that we should have unrestricted backwards and forwards access.
Therefore, at Lock 20 at around 0945 as we went through, contacted "control" on the safety phone on the wall of the lock cabin.
Explained problem to disembodied - but quite interested - voice, who said wait there, and somebody would come out.
Waited and waited - no-one. Went up to 19 and tried again. Still no-one. All very relaxed about our problem except ourselves.
Finally into 18 where found an itinerant L.K. who knew all about our problem. He went and phoned control, who said we would be met at 17 by "garcon" with necessary gadget.
Now lunch time, and hot.
Arrived at 17 - no-body, except nice dog (bitch) towing the village idiot around on a lead. He (the V.I., not the dog - she just put her nose into crotch and barked) knew all about our problem, and he phoned control, who sounded surprised that we really wanted a comingbackdownhill zapper, but would send one out in 5 minutes.
45 mins later 2 charming fellows in V.N.F. van arrived with downhill zapper.
Much relieved and proud holder of 2 zappers (normally they dish out bilingual zappers on these occasions, but none available).
Turned round - we had not actually "mounted" lock 17 - and returned to Einville - 2 kms back.
Bright hot sun, and strong wind.
Moored up opposite village moorings under a tree to doss and await the Ochiltrees (Veronica Glover that was, with husband Ian, and 5 yr old son Jamie)
They were 2 hours later than promised arrival time - not bad for this sort of meeting.
Moved over to village quai after 2nd tel call confirmed arrival time, and met.
Loaded several cwt of assorted camping kit, arranged meeting place with Ian and car, and left again upcanal for 3 bridges.
Set up camp - what a performance - all the tent pegs were of soft aluminum and bent when hit with the mallet (which was plastic, anyway), and had picnic supper based on boat.
Good fun - but a mite stressful, with small hyperactive boy.
 
July 28
Wednesday                                                                                                             
Einville to Lagarde.
Country now much less "French" and more like Salisbury plain with huge farms and fields.
Grain harvest in full swing, and some stubble already ploughed in.
Last night, tractors - particularly muck spreading ones - continued until dark at 21.30 - quiet little road became very noisy at times.
Arrived at Lagarde (a hire boat base - Rive France), after untidy day of too-ing and frow-ing with changing crews in boat and car. Loaded all camping and personal kit (including lego and toy soldiers) onto boat and abandoned car.
Went up two more locks above Lagarde.
Lagarde now considered as base, as due to meet AndrewandClaire there to-morrow.
Found nice camp site and mooring, and maneuvered boat in with much forward and backwards.
Disaster - during last maneuver, accelerator did not accelerate. Engine changed gear happily, but engine refused to run faster than idle speed. Lever just flopped about.
Completed tying up operation with stomach in boots, and lips very tight - how can any individual - particularly a male one - reach middle age, and still be totally incapable of connecting a rope to a peg to such an extent that he just stands and holds it, asking what should he do?
Spent 3 sweaty hours finding that the throttle/accelerator cable was broken, thus preventing the engine doing anything but idle, and making a plan with one of the Fireball's shrouds so that at least we could get back to the hire boat station at Lagarde and plea for help.
Lovely supper - nice campsite/mooring, lovely evening, but worried all the time by engine prognosis.