Histoire d'eau DIARY - May 2015

The barometer has plummeted. Rain. Cold. Strong wind. Not nice. Still moored in Sauvoy.

(Oh, by the way Deb, it is not helpful to SMS me that Melbourne is having a glorious run of weather; 23 degrees, clear sky and sunshine. Not helpful at all!)

Fortunately today is a public holiday and the locks are closed. We are hunkered down in Sauvoy with some good food and wine and a good book.

We met a couple of very kind ladies today who were walking along the canal. They gave Pete a small bouquet of flowers; Lily of the Valley. It is good luck and good health to pick and give these flowers to someone on May 1st. The ladies had never met or even seen us before, but they were wonderfully kind enough to go out of their way to give us this gift. There are some very nice people about that you bump into when you least expect it.





























Demange-aux-Eaux:
Saturday May 2nd, 2015.

Left Sauvoy today at 9:00am; weather good in the morning, but PM rain. We have been keeping our cruising to about 4 hours per day - plenty of time in our schedule to get to Paris by June 8th (when we have our booking in the Arsenal), while giving us time to enjoy the cruising and the ports at which we are stopping.

We arrived in Demange-aux-Eaux at around 1:30pm. It is a nice little mooring, below lock one after the tunnel. Bucolic is I think the correct word. Very "Constable-ish".

At around 3:00pm Peter & Margaret (on "Matilda") passed us. They did not stop, but carried on toward Paris. We could not convince them to pull over and stay at the mooring (I believe they are meeting family and are on a schedule that is tighter than ours).

We walked in town around 5:00pm, but although there are some shops (quite sparse, in fact), none were open. Fortunately we are well stocked up from Toul, and there is plenty in both the larder (& freezer) and in the cellar.

Basically, given the inclement weather in the last day or so, today has been yet another afternoon of reading (with perhaps a glass or two of red, to quell any sense of frustration due to the enforced inactivity).





























Naix-aux-Forges:
Sunday May 3rd, 2015.

This part of the canal is quite rural and quite beautiful. I had forgotten how pretty it is (our last cruise through this area was back in 2008). The only issue to easy cruising we experienced today was in a pound in which the water level was very low; we only had about a foot clearance above the bottom of the canal if we stayed in the centre. Fortunately we did not pass any other boats in this section so could stay dead-centre all the way. This low water level seems to have been an oversight on the part of the VNF. With all the recent rain it's difficult to conceive that the water was low due to a shortage; more likely the VNF have set the flow rates incorrectly at the locks above and below the pound. We tend to take for granted the behind the scenes management of the canal and the accurate levels in each pound, but when you think about it, if the VNF don't get the flow rate at each lock just right, then some pounds will over-fill during the night and flood, and others will void their water-levels overnight and be empty in the morning.

The weather while cruising was OK again, however the weather was not entirely with us when we stopped for the day. Raining again! (Therefore, reading again, ... and red again.)





























Ligny-en-Barrois:
Monday May 4th to Wednesday 6th May, 2015.

We had a nice easy run into Ligny-en-Barrois this morning. Again, the weather in the morning, while we were cruising, was very good; light winds, sunshine, and reasonably warm (particularly in the sun). We arrived at around 11:30am and found an easy berth in the port. We have hardly seen a boat since we left Toul.

We walked into Ligny on Monday, after we arrived and had lunch at a restaurant in the square (at a place called the "Athenian"; it was OK, but perhaps picking a restaurant called the "Athenian" in a small French village was not a brilliant idea.)

On Tuesday we did a big shop at the local Supermarket (not bad), and then we ate again at another restaurant in the village square; with much better results. The food was excellent. The restaurant was called "le Cheval Blanc", and obviously, based upon the name, (you can't get much more French than "le Cheval Blanc") this was a much safer bet for good French food.

Looks like the weather has changed for the better. Excellent today (some wind, but it doesn't bother us since we are snugly moored up).

Tomorrow, we are expecting a visit from Don and Patty (from the barge :Maria"). They have been up in Maastricht today, in The Netherlands, visiting a ships chandler. While they are there they have kindly offered to pick up some new rope for us. Our forward lines are OK, but Pete would like something a little lighter and more plyable, and so Don & Patty will pick up 50 metres of just such rope for us when they are there. Looking forward to catching up with them.

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PS: Don and Patty delivered us a brand new set of forward ropes; excellent, heavier duty than our prior lines but lighter (Pete approved of this, finding them much easier to throw up to the high bollards in the locks). Don and Patty stayed for dinner - a great evening with friends.

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