18 August: Nancy to Einville-au-Jard - 26.4 kilometers, 9 locks
20 August: Einville-au-Jard to Lagarde - 18.4 kilometers, 5 locks.
23 August: Lagarde to Diane-Capelle - 20 kilometers, 7 locks.
In somewhat overcast conditions we leave Nancy
and continue on our way east past open fields, factories and small towns
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| An aqua-viaduct over the River Meurthe |
until we reach the long stretch of quay at the town of Einville-au-Jard where we tie up.
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| The two cruisers have South African owners and the barge a Seychelles owner. |
A short bike ride into the town shows little of interest to be seen
but the church interior is lovely.
The next day we make the 9 kilometer ride to Luneville, erstwhile capital of Lorraine, to see the Chateau de Luneville built by Leopold, Duke of Lorraine to be his home and his 'Versailles of Lorraine'.
While impressive from far, the Chateau was ravaged by a fire in 2003 and only the east wing has been rebuilt but not restored to its 19th century glory by any means. The gardens too are beautiful from afar but somewhat unkempt.
The nearby chapel is gorgeous!
The town itself is pleasant and worth a visit.
On Saturday we finally cast off with our overwinter port of Lagarde as destination for the day. Lagarde is a surprisingly big marina being home to the NavigFrance hire boat operation as well as a 'boat club' business.
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| The marina from the restaurant. |
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| Elle from the restaurant. |
We finally got to meet the charming Jacques Lucas, a part owner of NavigFrance and the person responsible for the marina, who told us that Elle would not actually be in Lagarde over winter but in their other marina Port Sainte-Marie, three locks upstream. Unfortunately they were very busy and could not help with our diesel leak or gearbox issues.
There is very little to see in Lagarde and even the hotel was closed but the restaurant at the port had a good reputation so we gave the plat de jour a try - served at snail's pace by a rude waiter, the food was excellent.
We were also fortunate to meet John and Margaret Harwood (Margaret is a co-editor, together with Brenda Davison and Roger Edgar, of "Cruising the Inland Waterways of France and Belgium") whose Adelante was moored in front of us, as well as friends of theirs Colin and Joy who had passed us in their Irish flagged boat Fenevera' when we were in Thuin in June and who were also to be overwintering in Port Sainte-Marie. Thanks for having us aboard John and Margaret!
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| This strange one arrived and moored in front of us. |
Our time in Lagarde seemed to pass in a flash and four days later we were on our way again,
past Port Sainte-Marie, through the 15.4 meter high Rechicourt lock, the biggest on the French waterways apparently,
where we tied up (and handed back a computer we were charging for a Swiss couple on a hire boat who we had met while waiting for the Rechicourt lock) and planned to have lunch. The mooring was against a sloping wall and not the nicest so we pulled in the lines and did an about turn and headed for the Canal de la Sarre, eventually tying up in a marina adjacent to the hire base near the village of Diane-Capelle.
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