We had a very
relaxing, recuperating week at Epinal.
We had mixed weather, which was fine with us as we need the rain. There are concerns with low water levels all
over the French canal system. We had
some huge thunderstorms, with big downpours and we noticed the water level rise
a little in the port, which is all good news.
Also the inclement weather discouraged the youths of Epinal to hang out
late at night in the park so we enjoyed a nice peaceful time there. It was also very quiet boat wise, due to the
low water levels and this short canal section had been temporarily closed up until very
recently.
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| Lots of space at Epinal port |
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| Storm clouds gathering |
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| There was an American themed weekends at Epinal, good fun but very noisy |
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| The trucks loved blowing their horns |
As we are now
returning back along the canal des Vosges I’ll summarize our trip back to
Corre.
Monday 3rd
July
Epinal to Bouzey
PK 92.8
13.5 km/14
locks/2 hours 55 mins
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| Luckily we only met one boat as we went up the flight of locks at Golbey The flight of locks all work well except one but a VNF engineer was nearby so helped get the lock back into action |
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| Nice pontoon mooring at Bouzey |
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| A gentleman came and gave us a lettuce from his garden which was very kind |
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| It was a bit hot to walk all the way around this reservoir, maybe next time! Its just by the Bouzey mooring |
Tuesday 4th
July
Bouzey PK 92.8 to
Giranacourt PK 97.5
5 km/1
lock/55mins
Pete our UK
heating engineer came to service our boiler at Girancourt. He does a trip to
France every year to service his clients who have come over to France with
their barges. We heard on the canal jungle
drums he was near Auxerre servicing a Piper barge boiler, we managed to get him
to fit us in at very short notice.
Wednesday 5th
July
Girancourt PL
97.5 to PK 103
6.5km/7 locks/ 1
hour 50 mins
This mooring was
a lovely peaceful mooring, but no TV, mobile or internet signal. First time we’ve been totally off grid! Weather is back to being very hot again.
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| A very peaceful mooring, very hot though! |
Thursday 6th
July
PK 103 to
Thunimont PK 111.2
10km/16 locks/5
hours 45 mins
We left second
after a cruiser that was also moored at PK103, which meant all the locks were
against us and one lock didn’t want to open its gates to let us in and we had
to wait almost an hour for the VNF to come and fix it. I had got off the boat
when we first had the problem, as it so often happens there was no mooring to
tie up to before the lock and it was a little shallow, so Kev brought the bow in so I could jump off the boat. I tried to rattle the
lock gates to get them to open to no avail so I then called the VNF via the
intercom at the lock, and I was told someone would come tout de suite. But we were
still waiting 45 mins later with Kev floating around. So Kev got
off the boat while I held it with a rope and he went and gave the sensor on the
lock gate a little nudge with his foot and suddenly the gates went into action
and opened for us. We wish he’d done it
sooner!! He obviously knew where to kick it, rather than me randomly trying to make it work! We scraped the bottom a little
as we moved away from the side of the canal, to go into the lock. Not a nice sound hearing the propeller ping
on the bottom of the canal.
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| Kev hovered around for over 40 mins waiting for the VNF to arrive to fix the lock |
Our mooring we had wanted to stop at was taken up by the cruiser that left before us this morning so we carried on to PK 111.2 a not very pretty mooring but adequate. We were shattered as it was another very hot day and we’d not stopped for lunch, so we were very tired and hungry. A sailboat moored alongside us for the night as they were struggling with depth with their 1.6m draft, (we are 0.9m). They had sailed their boat across from USA so made our trip across the channel seem rather lame!!
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| We helped out a sailboat as the draught for them was too shallow to moor by the quay so they moored alongside us |
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| A sad derelict industrial building |
Friday 7th
July
PK11.2 Thunimont
to PK Pont du Coney PK 119
6km/1
drawbridge/5 locks/1 hour 15 mins
We had a simple
trip to Pont du Coney (Bains les Bains) and we were in time to have lunch back
at the italian restaurant at the mooring.
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| A lovely mooring Port du Coney (Bain les Bains) |
Saturday 8th
July
Pont du Coney PK
119 to Fontenoy le Chateau PK 125.4
5.5km/6 locks/2
hours
We enjoyed out
trip to Fontenoy and there was plenty of space for us at the large port. We stayed 2 nights at Fontenoy as the
forecast wasn’t good for the Sunday. We
enjoyed a big thunderstorm Saturday night. Well I did, Kev slept all the way through it!
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| Lots of space here at Fontenoy |
Monday 10th
July
Fontenoy le
Chateau PK 125.4 to Selles PK 137.5
12km/7 locks/3
hours 15 mins
Another easy
trip, it really is a beautiful canal.
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| An example of some the lovely views on this canal, a straight bit! |
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| Lots of trees and most of the the time a very smart cycle way which is extremely well used. We met one lady who had cycled all the way from Spain! |
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| A lock wall, looks like green velvet! |
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| So many gorgeous views I just keep clicking the camera |
Tuesday 11th
July
Selles PK 137.5
to Corre PK 147
10.5 km/ 4 locks/
2 hours
We decided to
moor back at the town mooring even though its not that pretty. The canal sides are bulging out and the grass
(stinging nettles) are overgrown with large piles of dog poo, and we are charged
15 euros for the pleasure!! We decided to only
stay one night. We walked to the
supermarket to top up supplies and we take a look at the Marina visitor mooring below
lock 46 and decide we will move there on Wednesday morning.
Wednesday 12th
July
Corre to Corre
marina visitor pontoon
0.5 km/1 lock/ 30
mins
This is a much
nicer spot to moor on a very smart pontoon, 18 euros a night and no dog
poo!! We have lunch at the marina
restaurant and very tasty it was too. We
decided to stay at Corre today mainly because it was forecast to rain a lot
today and it has, so good decision!
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| A great visitor pontoon at the marina, all brand new |
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| Very nice marina at Corre |
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| Notice the lake to to left of the canal, full of water this was when we went past beginning of June |
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| The same view as we came back beginning of July now empty of water, I hope we do get a good lot of rain to help the water shortage here in France |
