Pargny-sur-Saulx to Bar-le-Duc

28 kms, 25 locks

Below zero again this morning (it has been every day for the last few days) but we needed to go to supermarket.  So with temp at 1.6 degrees Ian got the bicycles off the deck and off we went, actually it was not nearly as bad I was expecting. 

Leaving Pargny-sur-Saulx

At 9.30 we cast off and headed off for – well, we weren’t really sure.   We hoped to get to Bar-le-Duc but it was 28 kms and 25 locks away.  At the second lock we had to wait for a commercial barge travelling in the opposite direction. 

Who is that holding us up?

 It was Poulbote, the third time we have seen them in 3 days.  They travel in convoy with a barge called Poulbot (!) but what I like about Poulbote is the slogan painted on his hull.

A recent acquaintance - Poulbote

Rien n'est impossible - Nothing is impossible

It was a long day, it got warmer and warmer and I soon had to apply sunscreen, lip protection, sunglasses and sun hat. Even so, by the end of the day my face felt like it was burnt to a frazzle.

The canal is very attractive, very curvaceous.  Soon we were met by a lock keeper who checked that we had a telecommande, which comes into play at lock 55, and gave us a brochure about the rules and regs of the waterways in the Nord-Est and with a useful map. The telecommande came into play at lock 55 and made it oh so easy. 

Flat countryside, small locks, nothing else besides

Very curvey canal with some 90 degree S bends

Huge fields of rape, which we have been seeing for some days

Sheep with very long woolly coats and huge curved horns

It's getting hillier

A lift bridge, we haven't seen one of these since Belgium

We kept calculating and recalculating to see how far we could get today, and about mid-day we were met by a new lock keeper who asked our destination – Bar Le Duc, I said, and the die was cast.

The quay at Fains-les-Sources, our optional stopping place today, but already no room without rafting up.  Good decision to go on to Bar-le-Duc

Well, it all went so smoothly after that, he travelled ahead in his van and prepared each lock so we could just mosey on in, no delays at all, and we arrived at the Port de Plaisance at 16.30.

Well, isn't this charming?  I guess it's a nod to the little locomotives that used to pull the barges through the tunnels

Getting into big city territory

Tied up at the Port de Plaisance at Bar-le-Duc

Very pretty but with a multi track railway line on one side and highway with trucks and sirens on the other, it is not that peaceful

This is a pay marina so Ian went to office to pay the dues to find a notice saying that the port is open from 1^st April, and a handwritten note next to that saying it opens on 30^th April!   So another free mooring with free water and electricity.  What a treat!