 |
Under the bridge of Pompey on the Moselle river
|
 |
No mooring close by, so Betty does not want to buy the castle.
|
 |
We are still in the Lorraine region as our courtesy flag shows.
|
 |
We enter one of the large size Moselle locks.
|
 |
After only a few hours river cruising we leave the Moselle and head back into the narrow canals.
|
 |
The entrance to
Toul; even the canal bridge seems fortified like the rest of the town.
Toul is surrounded by the Moselle, the South
Branch of the Canal de L'Est and the Canal de la Marne au Rhin
|
 |
In the port of Toul we meet a colorful Tjalk from the Netherlands.
|
 |
The cathedral St. Etienne of Toul constructed in the 13th century. |
 |
Vauban, the military engineer of Louis XIV, designed the immense fortifications around Toul
in 1700. |
 |
On Wednesday morning we leave Toul and continue our climb steadily up towards the summit
level. |
 |
We pass over the Meuse river
|
 |
... using a narrow canal bridge.
|
 |
Our
mooring for the night in
Void. |
 |
The church of Void (no it is not a new religion!)
|
 |
The last few locks heading up to the summit level; here a view back downstream.
|
 |
On the summit level we will pass through one of the longest canal tunnels of France. It is
the 4'875 meter long Mauvage tunnel.
Years ago small trains pulled the barges through the tunnel. Now this electrical vehicle is pulling
itself on a set of chains through the tunnel.
Barges are tied to it, but are supposed to run under their own power through the tunnel. We are instructed that the
ropes are just for safety and security.
All seems ready, the VNF employees connect to the power lines above and ...
|
 |
Désole! The connection to the power line breaks, and
all comes to a halt. Scratching heads ...
We are told that an electrician will come soon to fix things as the drivers
of the tug are not allowed to touch the electrical wires.
The electrician arrives, but does not bring any spare parts, so they rig something together and assure us 'any moment now'.
No problem doing some `bricolage' as it is only 600 Volts we are dealing with!
|
 |
Amazing! About half an hour later things seems to work again and we set off.
|
 |
Behind us another barge; French but he did not seem to understand that he has to run under his own
power and be pulled by the ropes only in an emergency. So we seem to also pull him through the tunnel.
|
 |
The last daylight we see for about 90 minutes.
|
 |
The
passage goes well and we tie up for the night in
Demange-aux-Eaux. |
 |
High clouds indicate that the evening might bring another thunderstorm.
|
 |
And sure enough, just a few minutes later the heavy downpour start.
All is tied up securely as Betty lost her favorite pot of Hot Chilies just last night in a similar
storm.
|
 |
Nice to look at, but unfortunately not a very deep harbor, so we move on and
finally stay in
Ligny-en-Barrois. |
 |
With all the rain, the water level in the canal is much better than last year.
|
 |
Confused? Just a lock followed by a drawbridge.
|
 |
A long
stretch of manual locks, so we are accompanied by two lock-keepers on Mofa's. |
 |
A word
about these manual locks. See the
red-white bar? It connects to two lower doors and so the lock-keeper has to
turn one handle and use all her/his strength to open both doors at once! |
 |
Dark green trees and bushes line the canal.
|
 |
The Ornain river passing through
Bar-le-Duc, our stop for the weekend.
|
 |
Bar-le-Duc has a new, lower, and an old, high, town. Old Renaissance buildings line the
roads and plazas of the Ville Haute.
|
 |
The Eglise St. Etienne by night.
|
 |
After
Bar-le-Duc we continue our cruise down the canal with the MANY locks. 25
locks on Monday alone! Betty and Shari
are becoming pro's at lassoing the bollards with the ropes.
Shari waits, throws and DID YOU SEE THIS! |
 |
CHAMPAGNE! We leave the Lorraine and reach the goal of our 2004 cruise!
We will stay in this region for some time and then slowly start heading down South.
|
 |
North or South?
Starboard (Right for Thomas): North towards Reims
Port Side: South towards the Saône ...
|
 |
Passing the sign we have completed the 312 km and 158 locks of the Canal de la Marne au Rhin, connecting
the Paris Seine basin with the Rhine valley.
In addition we passed through four tunnels
and one boat lift.
The canal started in Strasbourg at 132m above
sea-level, reached 273 meters in the summit pond of the east branch of the
canal. The locks brought us down to 189 meters when we entered the Moselle
and at the Mauvages tunnel we reached with 287 meters the highest point of
the cruise. 70 locks later we are at 98 meters, the lowest point of the
Marne-Rhine canal.
We enter
Vitry-en-Francois the end of the Canal de la Marne au Rhin and the
beginning of the Canal de la Marne a la Saône.
|
