Canal Marne de la Rhin to the Sarre: Nancy to Port "Aquavac Plaisance" near Diane-Capelle

18 August to 23 August 2016

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

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.

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.

The marina from the restaurant.

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!

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,

and on to Gondrexange

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.

The Moselle to the Canal de la Marne au Rhin: Metz to Nancy via Pompey

14 to 17 August 2016

61.3 kilometers, 6 locks, 2 lifting bridges.

14 August: Metz to Pompey: 49.8 kilometers, 4 locks, 6 hours.

15 August: Pompey to Nancy: 11.5 kilometers, 4 locks, 2 lifting bridges.

On our way to Metz we had noticed a lovely halte fluviale at the small town of Pompey and decided it would make a perfect stopover on our return trip. At the first lock we were joined by a Belgian flagged cruiser and, after quite a wait, another lovely old cruiser

crewed a young couple - they had just bought the vessel in Germany and were taking it back to their home somewhere in the south of France. However being fairly new to boating and possibly not wanting to push their engines, they were quite slow between locks which made for a longer day than it otherwise would have been.

Passing Pont-a-Mousson we saw the children-filled Gewa which had been moored near us in Sillery but whose owners we had not met.

Gewa

It takes all types...

The small pontoon at Pompey is lovely

Duck!

but there is not much to the town itself

Look right...

...and left.

and, being a Sunday, the place was dead anyway so we spent the remainder of the day doing chores.

A late departure on Monday morning saw us through the big lock at Frouard followed by a sharp turn to the right and into the small but at seven meters, relatively high, Ecluse du Jonction Frouard and then we were on the Canal de la Marne au Rhin branche Est and winding our way south to Nancy where we just managed to squeeze into a vacant mooring in among some very tatty liveaboards (with a couple of equally tatty owners, one of whom had a disgusting habit of urinating down the side of his boat in full view of everyone)

Take your pick.

Get knotted.

in the Port de Plaisance St Georges.

The Captainerie

The bridge above the captainerie

Nancy, with its fabulous Sanislas Square, is a gorgeous city and the square is the most perfect place to sip a coffee and watch the world go by.

Place Stanislas - words fail...

After three lovely days of exploring

Gardens

Basilique Saint-Eprve

The beer cafe Le Ch'timi - great.

Truffle salami at Les Freres Marchand

Black pudding with sauteed potatoes - yum!

Ancient city gate

The light show in Stanislas Square - not as good as Toul though

Art Deco splendour

The Museum of Fine Arts on the Square - not
to be missed.

it was time to head off again but in the happy knowledge that we would be passing through Nancy again next year.

Salut!

An aside: On a mooring opposite us was a boat with a familiar name - La Rose en Vie - owned by John & Brenda Davison who had given us much advice when we were going through the process of buying a boat. However, when I tried introducing myself to the person whom I thought to be John, I was told that he was the new owner and that John had recently died. Brenda had sailed La Vie en Rose to Nancy for them (the new owner had no qualifications) and had left that day for her hotel where she would overnight before travelling back to England - I was most disappointed at having missed meeting her but later that evening the new owners arrived at Elle with none other than Brenda in tow - she had left her tickets aboard La Vie en en Rose and had returned to collect them. They joined us for sundowners which was lovely (but the wife seemed not keen at all about the prospect of spending time on a boat). Good luck with your plans Brenda and maybe one day we will see you aboard your own boat again!