News for October 2006
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We do try to keep to a routine updating the Web site towards the end of each month but sometimes things get in the way of that routine and this month is one of those occasions. We have spent an action packed two weeks in England with a chunk of that time looking after 3 under 18's. Well, on the last day of our responsibility one of them became 18! We didn't manage to visit everyone that we would have liked to have seen but even so we clocked up over 2000 miles on the hire car. Now we are back on Idling By and quickly settling into a different way of life.
Last month we reported that we were heading for Nancy. When we arrived, initially there was some difficulty in finding a place to moor in the pleasure boat marina. There was space on the pontoons but they were too short to accommodate a 57 foot boat. We spent a night moored up with the big commercial barges and the next morning we found a slot in the marina by the hard quay and established ourselves for a few days. We were not disappointed with our first view of the town of Nancy which is the capital of the Lorraine. Stanislas Square was wonderful with the ornate wrought iron and gilded gates. The square is surrounded by recently cleaned buildings with some spectacular architecture including a smaller version of the Parisian Arc de Triomphe. Close to the square we found a lovely narrow street just full of restaurants and buzzing with atmosphere. Whilst at Nancy we had a couple of days of heavy rain which resulted in the river alongside the canal flooding but we were safe to continue with our boating although not exactly as planned. The intention was to continue through Nancy, visit Toul and gradually make our way towards Epinal......best made plans! Unfortunately the lift bridge allowing boating traffic in the direction of Toul had broken down so there was no choice but to retrace our steps. There was a slight delay to our departure from Nancy when a gentleman decided that he wanted a discussion about British politics and the popularity of Tony Blair and the proposed time scale for his departure. We had to disappoint him in admitting that we did not have any 'insider information'.
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Having taken advantage of being able to moor up outside a supermarket to stock up we made our way towards our first lock of the day. The telecommande, 'zapper', didn't work. Diane was already off the boat ready to rope up at the lock but unfortunately we had chosen the wrong side of the canal. There is a stretch of water with double locks (side by side) but now there is only one that is used. The one that isn't used is fenced off and access to the other lock is impossible. With a lot of manoeuvring Diane was on and back off the boat on the appropriate side only to see the lock in action. A VNF man who just happened to be at the lock had recognised that there were some problems and set the lock into action. He wanted to verify the telecommande and insisted that Paul threw it to him from the boat which was at the bottom of the lock. We were concerned about breaking the casing but Paul conformed and tried to gently throw the zapper which reached the height of the lock wall and went 'pluff' into the water. No sight of this zapper until we started to move out of the lock when it resurfaced and was collected out of the water. Hope that they manage to get it to work again.
Our next port of call was at Richardmenil where we handed in our 'zapper' and booked ourselves in for a 9.00 hours start the next day. Well organised as ever the lock keeper (eclusier) was there to welcome us to our boating for that day. He worked with us for a major part of the day through 15 locks and an interesting foot bridge which he swung open to allow us passage through to our next destination Charmes. He was efficient, pleasant and always had a ready smile as we entered and left locks.
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Whilst we were moored up at Charmes there was a marathon which was well patronised. The port area was a useful car park for spectators and runners so the Sunday was a busy day for visitors. Whilst at Charmes a couple of young men came into the port specifically to look at the boat which once again reinforced the curiosity created with a narrow boat. We have probably seen about eight narrow boats during our 18 months in France. It is certainly a good conversation starter and provides a lot of contact with people and an opportunity to discuss boating which inevitably leads onto other discussions.
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We enjoyed our stay at Charmes but then came the time to contact VNF (Voies Navigable de France) to arrange our ongoing journey to our winter destination. At the first lock we were asked to move fairly close to the front of the lock as a second boat was expected. As we were going up the lock we would have preferred to be towards the back. Fortunately for us the other boat didn't appear which made our ascent in that and subsequent locks fairly easy. A lunch time stay at Thaon meant that we avoided two of the three large gravel barges that travel back and forth through 3 or 4 locks. We were by that time close to Epinal and the day had gone without a hitch, then we came to our very last lock for this boating season. It was impossible for Diane to get off the boat beforehand, high canal banks in some instances and water too low on others. Paul decided that he would use the ladder in the lock and Diane would take the tiller. By the time Paul had climbed the ladder the bow of the boat had drifted to the opposite side of the lock and so there was a complete reorganisation of ropes and the boat which left us on the opposite side of the lock to the blue bar which needed to be pushed up to activate the lock. We were pleased to see someone from the VNF appear who kindly did the necessary with the blue bar. Safely through the lock we then had a very gentle cruise to the Port of Epinal to set ourselves up for winter. We have started to do some exploring of the area and have found a delightful short walk through a park area to a supermarket and thanks to someone who stayed here on his boat last year we have visited an excellent bakers. Lots more to explore over the coming months and so hopefully we will be able to tell you more about Epinal in future up dates.
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