Vitry-le Francois to Pargny-sur-Saulx

19 km, 7 locks

With a shorter day ahead of us today I ambled off to the Boulangerie (Bakery) at about quarter to 8.  On Sunday mornings in France normally the boulangerie, if nothing else, is open. But not this one.  But fortunately the Intermache supermarket was open from 9 to 12.30. All I needed was fresh bread but I ended up with a multi-cereal loaf and 2 “raisin snail” pastries.

We eventually left at about 10.00

Green weed just below the surface, we left with minimal use of reverse gear

Inching past the barges at the entrance

We did make serious contact with the bushes too

and soon we were onto a new canal: Canal de la Marne au Rhin – the canal that connects the Marne River to the Rhine.  This is a very long canal, over 300 kms, that connects the Seine basin to the Rhine at Strasbourg. It goes up and down valleys and watersheds with 158 locks, 3 tunnels and an inclined plane.  It is divided into 2 sections: the western section goes from Vitry-le-Francois to Toul and the eastern goes from Frouard to Strasbourg. A section of the Moselle River connects the two.

Right now we are only concerned with the western section and we started with Lock 70, ie locks before we reach the top of the watershed 86 km away where we will go through the Mouvages Tunnel, 4.8 km long.

Narrow, winding and lots of greenery

A lock close t a 90 degree bend

At lock 68 we were met by an “eclusiere” (person who works with the locks) and she handed us a telecommande (Ian’s favourite bit of kit) which we will need after lock 55,

Our eclusiere

We haven't had one like this before - only one button: Up

Until then they are all automated.  Great fun.   300m before each lock there is a “magic eye” which you pass across and it triggers the lock system.  The light changes from red to red/green, the lock empties, gates open, we go in and then I have to trigger the rest of the sequence by lifting the blue pole.  Easy peasy and very fast, each lock took about 10 minutes

Yet another aqueduct, I think we passed over 3 or 4 today

The lovely free mooring at Bignicourt

Overlooked by this imposing chateau

By 13.30 we had tied up at the “halte nautique” at Pargny sur Saulx.  

A restful place, apart from the rather noisy group of young men fishing at each end of the dock, with really  dreadful electronic music blasting out of their portable radios.  Oh well, at least they weren’t looking for someone to shoot/stab/blow up.

This afternoon was spent doing domestic chores like laundry, vacuuming, cleaning windows,etc.  In the evening we settled down to watch the Motogp race from the USA, and barbecue some chicken.