Wednesday 27^th May

We arrived back at Commercy this morning having spent Tuesday night at Sampigny, a small village that was well behind the WW1 frontline and the buildings are much older than at other places we have visited recently. We will stay here fof a couple of days and make everything shipshape for our visitors this weekend. D has already been to Aldi but found nothing exciting in the bins this time.

Mooring at Sampigny

Chateau at Sampigny

Saturday 30^th May

We left Commercy early, as we want to be ahead of the 3 Dutch cruisers that arrived yesterday. It is a half hour cruise to the first lock and we arrive spot on nine o’clock (lock opening time) the lock was empty and we went straight in. As the lock gates closed we saw a Dutch cruiser zooming up behind us behind us but it was too late to get in the lock.  A very nice lady lock keeper joined us at the second lock and we thought she would make us wait for the Dutch cruiser but instead she assisted us through (and the next couple of locks) and we were moored at Pagny-sur-Meuse before midday. Our visitors arrived this afternoon bringing goodies from England. We had dinner at la Favourite, a very popular truckers restaurant.

Sunday 31^st May

One tunnel, 14 locks and a swing bridge and we are back to our winter mooring in Toul. We have moor alongside an Australian barge we met last autumn. They are ripping out the centre of their boat to fit new water tanks and a new kitchen. Also in port is Jazz a boat we mooring alongside 2 winters ago, we have not seen them for 18months (so lots of catching up to be done).

Foug Tunnel

Iain on the ropes

Arriving back in Toul

Monday 1^st June

The weather is cold and wet and our visitors go by car to Nancy while we use our car to restock the boat with food and wine ready for our trip south. We have a very sociable evening on board drinking New Zealand wine, reminding us of our trip last winter.

Owned by a gastroenterologist?

Iain and Jill on Jazz

Leaving Toul

Thursday 4^th June

Our visitors left on Tuesday, taking our car with them. Maxine and Russell (the Aussies) came for dinner, as they still have no kitchen and last night Jazz and others came round for drinks. We now need to give our livers a rest!

We left Toul this morning and headed south up the Moselle. We went through two very large commercial locks, at the first a pair of cruisers came in behind us and disappeared into the distance as soon as the gates opened, we did not expect to see them again. An hour and a half later we arrived at the second commercial lock, the gates are open and there are the two speedy boats, more haste less speed! The lock keeper must have waited 15 or 20 minutes for us. These locks are too big to work for two small boats when there is a third on the way. At the end of the commercial section of the Moselle we enter the narrow Canal des Vosges with its small automatic locks. We have moored at Richardmenil, next to the speedy boats. Why were they in such a hurry?

Commercial traffic on the Moselle. Large Boats

and large locks

End of the industrial Moselle

Friday 5^th June

It has been a very hot day 42c in the sun and 32c in the shade. Too hot to move instead we put mosquito netting on the windows and shade cloth over the dog box. A Dutch cruiser arrived in the evening the couple on board are 80 and 81 and say this will be their last trip to France as arthritis is making it difficult to throw lines. For this reason they like to go through locks on there own so the do not have to tie up. We know they will travel faster than us between locks and suggest they leave first in the morning. We will follow 15 minutes later so they will be of out the first lock when we reach it.

Richardmenil

Fitting mosquito nets

Saturday 6^th June

We gave the elderly Dutch couple a good head start this morning but found them at the first lock. The lock had broken down and they had been waiting 30 minutes for the VNF man to arrive. When he did turn up he kindly agreed to help us both through two locks then there would be somewhere for us to moor and let the Dutch go off on their own again. Fortunately there were no more breakdowns although D did have to give one set of gates a good shaking before they would open. We moored under the trees at Roville-devant-Bayon. The shade very welcome as it has been an other hot day.

Crossing the Moselle

Agrosorus?

Mooring in the shade

First mooring pin of the year

Sunday 7^th June

A short cruise to Charmes today. The quay here is also a popular campervan stop and they share facilities with the boats. D spotted one spare electricity socket and Tesserae was plugged into it before being properly moored and just as well, a camper van arrived 5 minutes later. Our elderly Dutch friends are here, waiting for an engineer as one of their engines is overheating. They have a small cruiser with two engines, each the size as our single engine; no wonder they go so fast.

Charmes

Tuesday 9^th June

We travelled to Nomexy today with a German cruiser for company. In the afternoon visited the Fortresse de Chatel-sur-Moselle. The fortress built between the 11^th and 16^thcentury occupies a strategic location on the Moselle and belonged to the Count of Vaudemont (wasn’t he in Harry Potter?). At the beginning of the 17^th century it was besieged 9 times and finally destroyed in 1671. Since the 1970s volunteers have excavated the fortress and we were taken round the underground passages by young history of art graduate on work experience. In the evening a small German sailing boat arrived, on board are 2 adults a 9year old boy and a dog. Their entire boat could almost fit into our front cabin.

Mooring at Nomexy. Small German sailing boat in front

Fortresse de Chatel-sur-Moselle

Water trap at the back door

The back door

Old and new bridge

Wednesday 10^th June

The lock lights were on at 8am this morning so we had an early start and were through the first two locks before 9.00. Then things slowed down, we had to call the VNF at three locks, others worked but after some delay. We also have to wait for 2 commercial barges transporting gravel to pass by. These barges are an unusual design with the wheelhouse at the front. After 10 locks we reached the embranchement d’ Epinal a shallow, winding 3.5km into the centre of Epinal. Several other barges are in port including Sheiga Bay who we met on the Loire 2 years ago. Also the elderly Dutch couple and the German family in the sailing boat moored up behind us in the evening.

Peniche sabliere de la societe Sagram

Hot day in Epinal

Next to the small sailing boat again

Saturday 13th June

We have had a pleasant time in Epinal. Sheiga Bay had to delay leaving by a day as a bolt had broken off the prop shaft (boats are nothing but trouble). The German family left yesterday and Pendragon, who we met on the Meuse, took their place in the afternoon. This morning we had a leisurely lunch in a local restaurant followed by walk round the old town and a steep climb up to the parc du Chateau. Not easy after a four coarse lunch.

Views of Epinal

Sunday 14th June

Today we reached the top of canal des Vosges after a chain of 14 locks. The chain is about 3km and it took almost 3hours. We moored at Les Forges just after one o’clock. From here it is all down hill till we reach the Midi, we had a couple of glasses of rose with lunch to celebrate.

Top of the hill at Les Forges

Monday 15^th June

Rain, rain, rain! We crossed the summit and went through the first downhill lock (a bit over an hour) before mooring up for the day. The next possible mooring is 12km and 18 locks away, which would mean L standing out in the rain for three hours – it was never going to happen!

Canal cuts through the top of the hill

Trusey in the rain