Toul: Wednesday 01/05/2012 to Tuesday 14/05/2012:
Normally when we get to France we 'de-winterize' the boat as quickly as possible, and then leave our winter port within a week or two; not that our 'port d'attache' experience is not good, its just that we like to get our cruising season started as soon as we can. Of course sometimes that means travelling only a few kilometers to get into a dry-dock or a slip-way. Occasionally there is work that needs to be done on the boat, or we want to install some new equipment, or simply we need to have the hull surveyed, as we did last year to comply with both our insurance requirements and the prerequisites for the European safety certificate (the TRIWV).
This year has been the exception. We've been here in Toul for almost four weeks. The reason? Well there are several. Firstly I was not well for almost two weeks and was not pleasant company for much of that time (or so I'm told; apparently I would not have made a good travelling companion). Secondly, once I had fought off the 'Grim Reaper', we found that our refrigerator was not working properly. It managed to get down to around 8°C to 10°C; not really cold enough. I think around 4°C is considered the correct operating temperature. We were also worried that if it would only get down to 8°C in May, what would it be like in August with guests onboard and with drinks going in (warm) and out (cold) all the time. It seemed time to buy a new refrigerator.
So, we took the hire car and started to look for a refrigerator that would fit into the space in our galley; we have a 'built-in' fridge. We couldn't find anything, so we started considering moving the cabinets around in the galley to make space for a larger stand-alone fridge. It was starting to seem like a kitchen renovation was on the cards, rather than simply the purchase of a new appliance.
Fortunately for us Don & Patty came to the rescue. They visited the Cora (a large French department chain) in the nearby village of Houdemont and picked up a catalogue of Refrigerators that are specifically ENCASTRABLE refrigerators; that is, refrigerators specifically designed for 'built-in' spaces. The catalogue came with lots of fridges, each with their size indicated (Height x Width x Breadth) as well as the size of the space required to house them. Once we knew to ask for 'encastrable frigo's everything became easy. We easily bought a replacement at a Darty store, another French chain that specialises in household electricals. The people there were terrific. We ordered and had delivery within a few days. The two delivery guys came when they said they would, unloaded the new fridge and put it into the space where the original once once stood, and even took the old fridge away, for free. We were very happy with the final outcome, and although it's been so cold here that I wondered whether we needed a fridge at all, I'm sure we'll also be happy when we get some warm weather.
The other item we ordered and had to wait for was a new SIM card for the internet and the wifi device that it runs in. We now have that also, giving us 5Gb of download per month instead of our current 3Gb. The new device is also 4G rather than our current 3G and believe it or not costs €10 a month less!
Anyway, its taken us four week to start cruising this year ...
I think I mentioned last month that we weather has not been good this year. They had a cold winter in Europe, and especially so in the UK I believe. Well, it hasn't improved much in May (so far). We've had lots of rain, with only a few sunny days. The long-range forecast for the rest of May doesn't look much better; rain, showers, low cloud and cool. If you can believe the long-range forecast we'll be waiting for June to see some good weather.
At least we're doing better than boaters further south. I've heard on the grapevine that the River Yonne has only just opened after two weeks closure due to flooding, the Canal du Centre and the Roanne Canal are closed due to breaches in the canal (the ground is sodden there). I believe that the Burgundy Canal is closed as well, due to flooding in Dijon. I presume the river Ouche is flooded. I guess that also means the River Saone will be running fast.
While hunkering down in Toul we have also met some nice people with whom we've had the chance to have a meal or a drink. Don and Patty (on Maria), who we've known now for 10 years, Frank & Penny (on Westfries), who we met last year, and John and Michelle (on Le Gannet) who we've met for the first time this year.
The local wine is not bad; there is indeed an AOC of "Cote de Toul". It'll never surpass Burgundy or Bordeaux on the ladder of great French wines, but as a very good and drinkable local wine we found the Gris is very well priced.
(It's a white, almost, but not quite a rosé, that's made with lightly crushed red Gamay grapes).
Pete also spent some time taking photographs around Toul. The town's produced some wonderful displays of tulips and other flowers in its squares and gardens.
Well we got away today in rainy and cloudy conditions; the weather is still not good, but it is at least being consistent and is arriving exactly as forecast. The run from Toul down to Liverdun is only about 4 hours but at least we have started our cruising for the year. Liverdun, where we've stopped for two nights (we don't want to overdo it), is a very pretty place, even in the rain. After the first series of locks you are on the Moselle River which runs through some wonderful countryside. I thought the Moselle might be flooded or at least flowing fast, but our run downstream so far has been quite placid.
While Liverdun is a very peaceful place to stop, you do however have some pretty big traffic on the Moselle. We seem to be getting three or four large commercials a day, hauling scrap metal.
As I write this, I notice that the rain has stopped; the first break for almost 48 hours. Fingers crossed. (I don't want to jinx the situation, so I wont talk anymore about flooding).
We exited Liverdun this morning in the rainy and cloudy conditions to which we are becoming accustomed; the weather is still wet, but neither the flow on the Moselle nor the water level seem too bad at the moment. The run up to Pont-a
When we arrived we pulled into a very nice mooring on the Pont Technique, which the port captain had told us that she had reserved for us, and which had a good water and electricity supply. Since the whole trip down the Moselle from Liverdun was in pouring rain we were pleased to moor up and to spend the afternoon just reading a book, with a drink and with the heater on. It's not a cheap mooring at €17.50 per night, but we didn't really care; we were in port and warm and dry.
The most disconcerting aspect of the mooring however was the mark we noticed on the pylon that supported the floating jetty we were tied up to. It showed the water level in October 2006 ... .
Later in the afternoon the rain stopped and we went for a walk in town.
On Saturday we awoke to blinding sunlight. Not sure what had gone wrong with the weather, but it had stopped raining! With just a little sunshine we were elated, over the moon and optimistic about life in general, but on inspecting
The town was hosting a "beach volleyball" competition. They had converted the whole of the centre square, which is a considerable size, into a series of sand beaches and set up a number of volleyball courts.
We watched the competition for a while. It looked like a draw of local teams, some from the town and some from around and about; some could play well and some had obviously assembled their team as a one-off, purely for this competition. It was fun to watch because the competitors seemed to be having such fun. After seeing a few games we had a drink at a cafe in the square and then walked around the rest of the town. There were plenty of billboards up, advertising other events scheduled for the town; choral events in the church, orchestra visits to the town, and other varied activities. Although this is only a small country town, the local authorities seem to have done a great job in organizing plenty of interesting civic activities for the locals.
Sunday was a quiet day; but the rain returned. Big time downpours! We did the best we could given the circumstances; we found a good restaurant and had a long Sunday lunch. Nevertheless, the rain was getting serious. The river started to rise and so we discussed our options and decided to put our plans to visit Germany (via the Moselle and Saar rivers) on hold, and instead to head back to Nancy. This takes us off the river system and back into the canal system, which is better regulated and much more reliable.
We have some friends coming to visit us, both at the start of June and mid way through June, so we can't afford to be
Our trip from Pont-a-Mousson to Nancy was uneventful, although again very wet - the rain continued and was quite heavy at times. There still however seem to be plenty of large commercial boats along the river. They are not phased by a little rain I guess.
When we arrived in Nancy we moored up in front of the Japanese Water Gardens (as we always do when visiting this port). There are no facilities here (water or electricity), but it's a free mooring and since we don't need shore facilities, having a generator and a water system, we like this mooring a lot. It is well situated for access to both the centre of town and the local supermarket.
We spent some time here planning the trip to Strasbourg; booking some mooring along the way; some time shopping (well Pete did); we visited the Excelsior for a stunning lunch and did a little work on the boat.
We left Nancy today and headed toward Strasbourg; first stop, Crevic. On the way there the canal passes over the Meurthe, the river that flows through Nancy and is a tributary to the Moselle. It was flooded, like most of the other rivers around this part of the world. When we saw it we felt pleased with our decision to change our destination to Strasbourg, particularly so when Don and Patty called us and told us that the River Saar in Germany has also been closed due to flooding. It was on our original itinerary.
There is not much in the village of Crevic, like a lot of the villages we pass, but it has a nice grassy mooring with plenty of freshly painted yellow bollards and there is a 'depot de pain' in the village that supplies the locals their bread.
One thing that Crevic has delivered however, is some welcomed sunshine. I don't want to jinx it, but we had sun when we arrived and even more when we left on Friday morning!
The route to Einville is through some pretty country. This time of year the rape seed is flowering and adds plenty of bright yellow to the colour of the hills (rape seed produces canola oil and obviously offers the farmers who grow it an early summer crop).
Einville must once have had a railway line connecting it to the world. It's not there now - no sign even of where the tracks might have been. However in the "Place de la Gare" there is a little one room brick building that I suspect was the original railway station.
We only cruised for an hour and a quarter today. We need to do some walking while the weather has improved. There's a pizza place in town that we might try tonight (love French Pizza).
I am still trying to squeeze in time to do the web-site, and I'm happy to report that its quite warm here in the wheelhouse as I finish this post.
The weather I think is finally improving; while the forecast is for a couple showers over the next week, there is also a prediction of several sunny days..
We arrived in the village of Lagarde today and found a good mooring in the port, with electricity included. It's a boat-hire base for Navig-Fluvial, so you have to pay, but since it's a pleasant mooring and there is a good restaurant right in the port, a mere 30 metres from the boat, then it was worth it (even though a little expensive at €28 per night).
The restaurant is called "Restaurant PK209", in deference to the kilometer post outside; we had an excellent meal.
We walked around the town but there's really nothing there outside of the port; not even a bread shop (the office at the hire base has basic supplies and serves as a depot de pain). There is a German WWI cemetery on its outskirts but we didn't have time to get to it - maybe on our way back.
There's not a lot in any of these villages, but I include photos only so you can see how beautiful this stretch of canal is, and also how different the villages are. While we are still in France, the churches and houses have a definite teutonic feel; squared up, clean cut (verses the ubiquitous French shabby-chic look), and remarkably colourful.
We did a bit of walking and some eating on deck (not something we've been doing a lot of...)
It was a nice change!
This stretch of the 'Canal de la Marne au Rhin' includes a rather special lock; the Ecluse de Rechicourt. It is is a 15 metre deep lock with floating bollards. It holds over 3,700 tonnes of water when full and was built in 1965 to bypass six former locks and to speed up the passage for commercial vessels through this stretch of water.
Today was an interesting day's cruising. We had two more out of the ordinary experiences to look forward to:
The pound at the bottom of the inclined plane is quite beautiful. We hadn't planned on stopping there but the weather turned wet again and so we pulled over. It turned out to be a good decision as the sun came out again and the vista was just spectacular. Judge for yourself.
We pressed on to Lutzelbourg today; another beautiful village with a very German feel. We've found that almost everyone here speaks both French and German. When we speak to people in French, the first thing they ask us is "Allemand?" That they immediately assume we are also German speakers might say something about the quality of our French ... but I'm going with the assumption that they are just more comfortable with the German!!!
The food is also changing, which we've enjoyed a lot. Dishes like Flammekuchen (a sort of cream based pizza), Choucroute (sauerkraut based meat dishes), and apple strudel are popular here. Also pork hock, venison, ... They are very big on potato dishes... Cream as well!
We've really enjoyed Lutzelbourg. We also met up with an Australian couple, Knud & Erica on "Linquenda", who have been on the water ways in France for nine years. We had a drink together, with their friends Pam & Andrew, and tried to work out how we had not crossed paths before. We've covered the same areas and yet have never met up. Go figure!
Tomorrow is the last day of May ... (where'd it go?) ... so its on to Saverne...
You can click here to go directly to the June 2013 web page ... click here for June 2013
Liverdun: Wednesday 15/05/2012 to Thursday 16/05/2012:
Pont-a-Mousson: Friday 17/05/2012 to Sunday 19/05/2012:
-Mousson is new ground for us, if you'll excuse the expression. We did visit the town by car last year, so we know there is a very nice port there. Pete gave them a call and booked a berth for us - we want to make sure that we have somewhere when we get there, just in case the river is up.
the weather forecast we soon realized that it was only to be sunny on the Saturday - more precipitation was forecast for Sunday (possibly even intensifying to heavy rain; for the rest of the decade).
Nevertheless we took the opportunity to go into town. There is a Saturday market in Pont-a-Mousson (which we visited); it was OK, but not in any way comparable with the one at Nancy. We bought a few supplies and found a very nice wine merchant, where we stocked up with a few bottles of special wine (for the visit of our friends, Adrian and Philippa, at the end of the month).
stuck on a river that is closed due to flooding. In addition to this, there is a chomage (a planned maintenance of the canal or the locks) scheduled for the French part of the Moselle for the first 10 days of June. If the river is closed that may force the VNF to change this date, and we could also end up stuck because of that. This, in addition to a weather forecast that is predicting rain for the next two weeks, as well as recently finding out that the Burgundy and Centre Canals are closed (collapse and flooding), the Yonne was closed, and not having any information of the rivers in Germany, we have decided to head for Nancy tomorrow and to make a trip across to Strasbourg on the Marne-au-Rhin Canal. We did this trip five years ago in 2008, and enjoyed it very much. We think our visiting friends will feel the same once they arrive.
Nancy: Monday 19/05/2012 to Wednesday 22/05/2012:
(I had some work done during the winter to replace all the cooling fluid for the three engines onboard {the antifreeze}, but unfortunately one of the jubilee clips was not tightened up enough after the work was done and we lost some cooling fluid into the bilge. No great harm done, as Pete noticed the drop in level before there was any problem. She told me that she's been checking the fluid every day for the last 10 years, and couldn't believe it when she noticed the reservoir was empty. "Well spotted that man!" )
Crevic: Thursday 23/05/2012:
Einville-au-Jard: Friday 24/05/2012:
Lagarde: Saturday 25/05/2012:
Sunday to Tuesday: 26-28/05/2012:
Over this 3 day period we stopped at:
St Louis Lift (pound): 29/05/2012:
Lutzelbourg: 30/05/2012:
or here to go back to the April 2013 web page ... click here for April 2013.
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