The last of the Canal de la Marne au Rhin (Est) and on to the Moselle Embranchement de Nancy and the Canal Des Vosges: Nancy to Richardmenil.

Monday 22 May 2017.

16.4 kilometers, 19 locks.

Another fabulous morning brings the promise of yet another warm, clear and windless day, perfect for cruising and for tackling the string of locks ahead of us. But first we settled our dues with the harbour master, transferred our mobile contract to a nano card so that we could enjoy the monthly 100GB of data afforded to 4G enabled devices and then we were off, stopping briefly at the Intermarche to load up with sixty litres of diesel and then on to the Embranchement

and then the very wearying series of locks; wearying because they are almost all 3.15 meters high and that is a very difficult height for Lynn to throw ropes around the bollards, some of which you cannot even see, so aim is taken at the yellow mark painted on the lock wall and one hopes for the best. I suppose we should have climbed the ladder at each stop but it is easier to stay under power and deal with the inrush that way.

Tough cruising conditions!

A boat!

Finally we reached the summit and the next five ‘downhill’ locks were a doddle! Suddenly we had turned into the Canal Des Vosges and were at our mooring spot near the town of Richardmenil – we even have a small iron bridge behind us designed by a student of one Monsieur Eiffel!

Right outside the saloon window looking up to the village.

Dinner.

The town has very little to offer apart from a small but pretty well stocked CarreFour(great cuisses!),

a cave (a specialist bottle store - but no Drambuie or Chivas), a boulangerie and one or two other businesses. Be warned, the hill up to the town will defeat most eBikes!

The Hill!

And the view looking down.

Someone did not like this family.

The lady who came to collect our mooring fees (€7 for mooring and €2 for electricity – water is available from a tap but not one to which any of our connectors will fit)

said we were the first South Africans they had had visiting so as a memento we presented them with one of our SA beaded ‘flag’ key-rings.

We also met a Tesla driving Swiss guy who had retired from ownership of his brewery last year and who was trying to find some cruising friends (they turned right at the junction instead of left) - he left us a couple of his beers including one with a re seal-able (no idea why the font changed) top which he has patented. Why on earth does one want to close half a beer?!

With lovely weather forecast, we stayed three days and did more maintenance – stern decal removal and repaint (and were admonished by some bored busybody that we could not work on the boat because we were in a marina – with the nearest boat about 80 meters away),

And who might we be disturbing with our bit of stern sanding?

fitted grab-rails,  and attended to miscellany. A very, very fine curry for the mid-afternoon meal on our last day, a nap and then it was readying Elle for the trip to Charmes tomorrow.