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Showing posts from July, 2019

Wandering slowly Downhill

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This canal is only 50km or so long but it has 74 locks for us to tackle.  They're all downhill which is easier but you still need to get into an efficient pattern.  300m out and you see a single red light.  Press the remote control and that changes to red and green as the lock is prepared.  By the time you get there, it's just a green light.  In you go, lift the blue rod and you're down and out it less than 10 minutes. But it doesn't always work that way.  Too often, we arrive at a lock to find 2 red lights.  That means the lock is 'en panne' and is not going to respond to anyone unless they're in a little white van with the VNF logo on the side. Leaving Ligny, we decided on an early start to 'beat the heat'.  The locks switch on at 7am for commercial traffic and 9am for pleasure boats.  But there's little commercial traffic and plenty of pleasure boats were starting then.  We found the 'deux feux rouges' at 7.30.  Calling VNF...

Getting to the top

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We turn right onto the Canal de Rhin au Marne.  Lots of canals have names like that - it's because they start by making a river navigable by adding weirs and locks.  Then they link them together by building canals that link the river valleys together in order to make long distance routes.  That's the tricky bit as you have to climb up a valley side and find a water supply to keep those boats afloat. There's often a tunnel at the summit when they ran out of water and supply and that's where we were headed.  Stopping in Void, a nice man from the waterways people popped along to discuss our plans.  It all seems very personalised.  He took away our lovely remote control because that one only works on the Meuse. The next morning we head up a chain of 12 locks to the summit.  These ones are dead clever.  You break a light beam at the bottom and then all the locks are automatic and waiting for you as you get there.  A nice waterways man popped...

Getting Crowded

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Time to get cruising again after nearly 10 days tied up.  Once you've lugged a few shopping bags, you learn to take advantage when you're near supplies.  Here we are after a visit to Monsieur Leclerc's establishment 300m away.  Fortunately his trolleys don't lock when you leave the car park.  It's getting rather hot so we stock up on refreshing soft drinks (and just one or two beers for special occasions). My, doesn't that roof look good? We need to book a time for the locks out of Verdun so we visit the office.  We want to avoid the 9am rush and suggest 9.30.  Non Monsieur, neuf heures s'il vous plait.  So, we arrive at 8.30 along with half the population of Holland.  At about 9.30 we get through the lock.  C'est la vie Francais. It's an important day.  Son-in-law Chris is dropping off Marille the Poodle for a fortnight's boating while they head to the Riviera. We've given him our target mooring.  At lunchtime we turn...

Getting Things Done in Verdun

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Carry on south and further up the Meuse.  Automated locks come to an end but helpful folks from the VNF whizz up and down in their little white vans to operate the locks for us.  They're usually on their own and it's polite to hop out and help open one side to save them running around.  It's getting hot too and the lock keepers always appreciate a bottle of beer passed over as we leave.  This interesting lock has sloping sides which must have been a bit challenging before they installed the handy floating pontoon which makes it really easy! We're headed for Verdun and will be staying for a while.  Julie is heading to the UK for a week carrying out Grandma duties.  Rob has a very large (and expensive) can of white paint that is to be applied to the boat roof. There's a very nice harbour in the centre of Verdun.  It's completely free and that includes water and electricity.  And there's plenty to see and do in Verdun.  It's therefore alw...