Pagny-sur-Meuse to Pompey

38 kms, 1 tunnel, 18 locks

We left our mooring at 8.30 this morning because the “ouvrages” (locks/bridges/tunnels) open at 9 am and our first “ouvrage” of the day was a tunnel. We got there a couple of minutes before 9 and – nothing, no lights on in the tunnel and no red/green lights to allow entrance, because there are no entrance lights at all, also no sign with a VHF channel or telephone number.  We waited till 9 and as nothing happened and it’s a short tunnel (800m) so we could see the other end really well, we just continued through.  At the other end there is a lock within few hundred metres but the red/green lights were just dead.  We could see the next lock in the chain was showing a red light so obviously the first one (and tunnel?) was out of order.  Hmm, what to do.  I called the VHF channel. No reply.  I eventually found a telephone number for the VNF (Voies Navegable de France) and a lady answered, she got the message that we were at a lock that was out of order but she could not work out where we were.  It seems I had got through to the main VNF desk for the whole of France!  She kept asking what department we were in, well I had no idea, somewhere between Champagne and Lorraine!  That didn’t help.  After a 10 minute struggle (in French!) she said something that sounded very reassuring and said goodbye.  I was not convinced that anything was going to happen. Then we saw a VNF van driving down the towpath so we flagged them down and explained the problem.  Ever so helpful, as usual, he called someone and 3 minutes late a van appeared, the driver rushed into the control house and the red light came on, then red/green and the lock started to fill.  Hooray, some 30 minutes after stopping at the lock we were in business.

Approaching the Foug tunnel

No lights apart from our spotlight

The view aft,with no spotlight

Port de Plaisance at the eastern end of the tunnel

Waiting for something to happen

Aha, we have lights

4.4m rise/fall

Exiting the locks

All the way along the smaller canals the water level has been very high

All ran smoothly until we got to the second last lock in the chain (of 12) and again there were no lights showing at all.  Just as we were getting concerned a VNF van pulling a trailer with a generator appeared. 2 chaps jumped out with extension cables, and magic boxes, hooked them all up to the lock gates, lights appeared, the gates opened and in we went.  Once tied up in the lock they explained that vandals had destroyed the control room:  broken in, stolen the electronic equipment and computer and then set fire to the remains.  But also we would have to wait for another boat that was coming down the chain of locks. So we lost another 15 minutes or so. 

Men at work

The burnt out control house

Sharing the lock

Toul - the old town walls on the right

An interesting bridge in Toul

Then we were out onto the mighty Moselle River.  It is really wide and for the first time in many days we saw big commercial barges again and even shared a lock (185m x 12m, cf. the 38mx5m locks we have had for the past 5 days or so!) with a 100m barge. Unfortunately, it moved a lot faster than us so we had to wait at the next lock, another half hour lost.  By the time we stopped in Pompey it was much later than we had intended!

On the Moselle River - big commercials

The Moselle is very pretty

And very wide 

We have stopped for the night at a small pontoon just before the turn back onto the Canal de la Marne au Rhin, but the east section this time, to Nancy and ultimately Strasbourg (but we are not going that far – this time).

The pontoon mooring at Pompey

A view of the Moselle river with the pontoon on the right

Then a quick walk to a Lidl supermarket (about 20 minutes away) for some much needed groceries, it is over a week since our last stock up at Douai.  Barbecued sausage for dinner, and bed.