Monday 5th June
Fouchécourt PK 381 to Corre PK147 (Canal des Vosges)
20km/4 locks/ 3.5hrs
We left Fouchécourt at 9am and had an easy trip to Corre. We were sad to see the end of the navigable Soane but we may well return this way later in the year. The lock that took us onto the Canal des Vosges is a manned lock, we arrived just after 12 noon and there was a red light showing so we thought maybe we would have to tie up and wait until after lunch, but just as we’d almost tied up we noticed the light had turned green and we were through the lock and moored up by 12.30pm.
We had a lovely evening in the sun, and had dinner at the restaurant at the port, just a simple meal but it was fine, and nice to support the local businesses, we always complain when they are shut or closed down!
We decided to stay on Tuesday as the weather forecast was not good, it was very wet and windy and we had a big thunderstorm late afternoon. We managed to walk to the local supermarket to top up our supplies in between the downpours .
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| The first lock on the canal des Vosges, we are sadly leaving the navigable river Soane |
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| 15 euro a night to moor here, with water and electric, the bank was rather dilapidated |
Canal des Vosges (Canal d'Est)
Corre PK 147 to Selles PK 137
Corre PK 147 to Selles PK 137
9.5km/4 locks/2 hours
At our first lock the clicker control seemed to go well at first, the light started flashing on the receiver box by the side of the canal, which showed it had accepted our command, but then as we went past it, it stopped flashing, and we couldn’t see the lock as it was around a corner. So we cruised along the canal to be able to see if the lock had been set into action, but NO, the red light was showing. So we had to reverse back along the canal to be able to point our controller at the receiving box to re-activate the lock. We only knew it had worked when we cruised back to the lock to see the red and green lights on to show it was getting ready for us to enter. Luckily after this bad start all the locks worked perfectly for us.
When we arrived at Selles, we couldn’t just cruise through, it was such a great mooring. So we decided to stop even though we hadn't cruised that far. There is a boulangerie that also sells fresh fruit and veg etc.
It did get quite windy in the afternoon so we were glad to have moored up.
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| A very easy control for the locks, only one button to press, the red one! |
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| You point the control at this and if it has worked the yellow triangle on top of the box flashes |
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| A lovely quiet spot to moor. We saw the space station fly over later that evening, it was a beautiful clear moonlit night |
Selles PK 137 to Fontenoy-le Chateau PK 125.5
12.5km/7 locks/1 drawbridge/3 hours
We arranged for the drawbridge to be opened for us at 9am and the VNF was there dead on time.
The canal is very pretty, very wooded, with a river flowing nearby most of the time. There were some sharp corners, we met on cruiser just before a tight bend so that was lucky. The canal coming into Fontenoy was very picturesque and narrow, but it opens up to a large port.
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| The canal is right next to a small river called the le Coney |
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| A narrow section to negotiate on a 180 degree corner |
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| Arriving at Fontenoy-le-Chateau |
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| Once you are through the narrow section there is a large mooring area at Fontenoy le Chateau
Friday 8th June 15
Fontenoy PK 125.5 to Port de Bains (Pont de Coney) PK119.5
6 km/6 locks/2 hours
There was maintenance work going on at Fontenoy with a power jack working so we knew we wouldn’t have wanted to stay there for the day even though the forecast wasn’t great. So we had short (wet) cruise to Port de Bains, we were moored up by 11am. There is a Italian restaurant at the mooring so we had a lunch there and managed to dodge some of the heavy downpours.
Saturday 9th June
Port de Bains PK119.5 to Pont Tremblant PK111
8.5km/8 locks/3 hours
We woke to a lovely sunny day. Another barge left early ahead of us so we delayed our departure to 9.15 and were out of our first lock at 9.40am. We had another great cruise; it is such a pretty canal, with not much traffic. As we came out of lock 22 there was an empty pontoon in a very nice spot so we decided to moor up. Its great not having a strict plan, or deadline, so we can stop whenever we fancy.
  
Our peaceful mooring was invaded by a fishing competition when we got up Sunday Morning
Sunday 10th June
Pont Tremblant PK111 to Girancourt PK97
18km/19 locks/6 hours
We were very hot and extremely tired when we arrived at Girancourt. It’s quite a large port with lots of mooring spaces but nothing much in the village. The supermarket was closed Sunday afternoon and Monday morning.
Monday 12th June
Guincourt PK97 to Epinal
17.5km/15 locks/4 hours
We left at 9am and just one ‘up’ lock to go through and then after an 11km lock free section all the subsequent locks were going down, much easier. It was a very simple trip down the chain of locks, 14 in all, they worked perfectly and we were moored up in Epinal by 2pm.
 
We stayed for 4 nights in Epinal and thoroughly enjoyed it. There is a wide selection of shops, a supermarket within 15 mins walking distance, boulangerie about 10 mins walk away, big choice of restaurants, and a very helpful tourist office.
  
One day we cycled 6km to an American Cemetery and Memorial at Dinozé. There are 5,255 souls buried there, it was a very moving place to visit. We were glad we made the effort to go and pay our respects.
  
The French and American flags were placed on this grave to honour a soldier Charles Waddell
who was killed on this very day 14th June 1944
On the Wednesday evening, Sharon and Alan (barge Drumsara) and Ken and Marion (barge Tammy) came to us for drinks, and we had a very enjoyable evening. They both departed this morning, they are both going in the opposite direction to us, we will be leaving on Friday.
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