GLASTO 2017

We didn't go to Glasto this year, we gave our tickets to Martyn & Charlie. This didn't stop us watching it on Soraya wherever we are. In Strasbourg actually. A couple of late nights, a substantial volume on the hi-fi and lots of communication with family and friends who are there or are often there. All good fun.

Margaret & I watching? So much to watch.

The Foo Fighters. They were great.

SAVERNE - ROSES AND CHERRIES

Saverne is a really nice small town. One of those places that just works. A good port plaisance with a very helpful Capitaine and support team. As we were staying longer than expected because of the music festival, we explored the sites. Châteaux, coffee shops, Super U, all the normal things. We were recommended to go to the Roseraie de Saverne. They are into roses in Saverne and each year they have a Concourse de Rose. It's a big competition with entries from all over Europe. The rose garden is impressive, if you are into roses, which I quite like (not in winter). The trouble was it was too hot with 37 deg. C in the shade, it takes the edge off the spectacle. So off to a cooler place.

Margaret assessing the scent in the Roseraie de Saverne.

Coolness was found in form of a shady coffee shop terrace and ice creams.

A rare photo of Geoff eating an ice cream. Not his normal domain, come back Fischer all is forgiven.

All that rose eduction and degustation made us think about food. On the way back to Soraya we saw a wild cherry tree literally laden with cherries. On with some old clothes, cherry picking can get very messy, and on with the harvest. There was no shortage. A few kilos later it was back on board and it's stoning time!! A couple of hours later 9 jars of cherry jam. Definitely a baguette tomorrow morning.

Some of the canal bank wild cherries about to be turned into jam. Yes the hands are still red.

21st JUNE, A DATE FOR YOUR FRENCH DIARY

Whilst not very well known it's worth looking out for. If you happen to be in France at this time, look out for 'Fête de la Musique'. It is a nation wide event in medium to large towns where for one evening various stages are erected around town and there follows an evening of varied music, all free. There was even a stage on the quayside of the port plaisance. The Fête usually takes place on 21st of June.

Margaret outside Chateau des Rohan in Saverne accompanied with a bit of rock.

We stayed in Saverne for a couple of extra days for the festival, it was worth it. There were 8 stages covering a range of music genre from rock to jazz to blues to coral chant to pop to salsa. All good quality, all very different and great fun. We had our own mini-Glasto!!

A very small courtyard stage at Place Monet, focusing on 'Chansons Françaises'.

THE ARZVILLER INCLINED PLANE

Well, this was amazing. We'd seen photos of it but they were nothing like the real thing. The Arzviller inclined plane was built in 1969 to replace 17 locks over 4km with a total drop of 44.5m. The 17 locks were a problem for the canal traffic as they were so close together, which made navigating very difficult for 38m peniches. It was also too narrow for the barges to pass. It would take a day to navigate these locks and the barges coming the other way would have to wait. This became such a problem for the bargees that a solution had to be found. 

The Arzviller Inclined Plane.

The mechanism consists of a moving tank like a huge bath tub (caisson) that you drive into. It is balanced by counterweights which are connected by cables drawn by electric winches. The tank moves sideways up or down the inclined plane and is sealed at each end, so completely watertight. It uses very little power as the counterweights balance the caisson which is always the same weight with or without boats in it. (Displacement of water, Archimedes Principle etc.......) You then just drive out into the canal. 

Here we go into the caisson, ready to go down.

We were going to go down the inclined plane two years ago when we left Nancy but had to completely reroute as it was out of action for nearly 2 years. The caisson jammed, trapping a boat and releasing a hugewamount of water down the valley. This was repaired over a few months and then the caisson twisted and was damaged badly a second time. Now it seems to run well and efficiently. It was a great experience.

Boats in the caisson.

SANS PERMIS

Margaret has found her perfect boat hire company. She's looked at Locaboat, Navig France, Nicols, Canalous. When this recent hire company arrived in port there was no competition. It's a strange rule in boating on the inland waterways of France that if you have no experience and no idea what you are doing you can hire a boat and after 10 minutes instruction, off you go. Hence the 'Sans Pemis', 'Without Permit'. There again if you own a boat you need all the qualifications and for those you need experience. Must be a logic somewhere. Whereas in the UK you do not need any qualifications whether you hire or own a boat.

Hapimag. Well it seems to be working.

MUSÉE DE FAIENCE

Before leaving Sarregumine we were recommended to go to the Musée de Faience. What is Faience? Well it's also known as Majolica. Are you any the wiser? We weren't. Sarregumine was once the centre of Faience, with the whole town being actively involved in its manufacture or support roles. For those of you that are still guessing what Faience is the photograph below says it all.

Winter Garden of the apartments of Paul de Geiger director of Sarregumine faience c1900. All ceramic.

He decided to have a complete 'Winter Garden' made in illuminated pottery to showcase his factories. The room is now a historic monument and is mind blowing, everything is ceramic, stoneware and porcelain.

We particularly liked this piece as we were moored within this view to the left gatehouse.

Centrepiece for a dining table.

The musée is really a memorial to the town's history in ceramic production. They did illuminated tableware but there real excellence was the large fantasy pieces and monumental pieces.

A reproduction of a satirical sketch from a Paris magazine, huge, about 7 metres across.

The pieces were used in shops, breweries, spas, cafes, restaurants as they were hygienic, decorative and did not loose their colour. Well, that's enough history for one day.

HARD WORK ON THE SARRE

Well I have said it before 'someone has to do it'. The Canal de la Sarre is very relaxing, time to chill.

Having a glass or two and a game of Triominos, dominos with 3 sides a huge amount more difficult.

Geoff in the the evening sun with his usual tipple.

Well it all gets too much stress, navigating, sun, good food, interesting new friends, did I mention the Mercurey Premier Crus, probably not as we are just testing very small clos Rully.

THE BAGUETTE MACHINE

Everyone knows that in France one has to buy a fresh baguette every day. The problem is that most boulangeries close at least one day a week and as we are always on the move we never know which day it will be and it can be any day. Many times we've arrived at the boulangerie for our morning bread and found it's their closing day. I've cycled 10 km round trip before now just to find the boulangerie closed. Very frustrating! However we found this baguette machine which never closes. So we had to try it out.

Geoff getting the fresh baguette out of the machine

Very efficient. It only took 15 seconds and was warm and fresh. We've had a lot of baguettes since we've been in France and I'd rate this one pretty highly even though it came out of a machine.

MORE CHEESE

Regular blog readers will know we comment on cheese. Whilst I realise this is not everyone's subject we like a new cheese on Soraya. Our enforced stay in Sarrreguemine generated a cycling trip into Germany. So far so good. We came across a supermarket, BM Market, and thought it would be interesting to check out any new/different foods. They had many varieties of wurst, a surprising amount of ethnic food, virtually everything in super sized economy format and a fridge full of tinned cheese.

Tinned cheese! I think not.

Is was straight back to France for a chunk of 18 month Compté Fruité.

Good news we have just been informed that the canal breach has been sorted, the canal refilled so we are off.

STUCK BETWEEN A LOCK AND A HARD PLACE

As blog readers will know we stop now and again not for reasons within our control. We got back from a trip to a wedding in Antibes, which was superb. Upon our return we by chance met the Capitaine and exchanged the usual pleasantries, which included a normal 'when are you leaving', we replied tomorrow. A while later a knock at the door. Sorry I forgot to tell you there has been a canal breach in a pound a few locks upstream, where we are headed. Out with the maps to confirm exactly where it is. Yes it is only 7km away!!! No point setting off.

Enchanting ceramic work on the restaurant Brasserie du Casino next to our mooring.

This situation is exacerbated by the fact that three locks downstream the lock is under full restoration and will not be in full working order until September. So we are in Sarrreguemines for a bit longer. Lucky it's a pleasant place. We are literally stuck between a 'lock' and a 'hard place', a dry canal. I suppose we could navigate the 13km back and forth. Perhaps not.

ALIENS OR WILDLIFE?

Do we have Aliens in our midst? Probably not but we really don't know. Descending a lock recently on the Canal de La Sarre these strange 'growths' came into view down to approximately a metre below normal water depth. They were soft to the touch. Out of all the locks we have been through we have never seen them before. Hard to know if they are organic or not. There were hundreds, with sizes ranging from a few centimetres to about 10 centimetres across. All very strange.

Aliens or something more down to earth.

Additionally on the Canal de la Marne au Rhin last month we came across these 'globules' oozing out of the side of a lock. All very odd and I am sure organic, approximately a centimetre in diameter. No I did not touch them.

Green globules.

Not quite as alien like as the top photograph. However that is open to one's own opinion.

DELUSIONS?

When is a barge not a barge? When it's 'Majesty of the Seas'. This bizarre barge is about the same size as Soraya but a 'scale' model of an ocean going cruise liner. With life boats hundreds of fake port holes, engine exhaust etc.

Majesty of the Seas.

Not sure where you steer from? I think you have to squint through the tiny row of windows on the apparent bridge. The scale is deceiving as those windows are only about a foot, 30cm, square.

Another delusion on the Canal de la Sarre was this timber boat. It was listing severely. On discussion with the owner, a German, he informed me that 'it had sprung a board and was about to turn into a submarine!' I asked was the boat old? 'No I have just built it'. Bit of a conversation stopper as it looked derelict, totally unseaworthy, listing badly and don't even consider the aesthetics! The list he informed me was self inflicted as he had weighed down one side of the boat with oil drums filled with water in order to 'lift' the sprung plank above water level. The bilge pump was working flat out. I can understand what he was trying to do but the quality of the whole boat was......there was no quality at all. The conversation continued and he had built the boat to get away from life. He wanted to be totally independent away from modern life, politics, multinationals etc. and be at sea away from it all. I did think he will achieve his goal by being away from it all at the bottom of a canal in France!

'I built it myself.'

SNUGGLED UP TO PAULINE

We arrived in Sarreguemine with the hope that we could moor up and leave Soraya for a week while we went to a wedding in Antibes. We selected Sarreguemines as it seemed to have plenty of mooring, a railway station and a car hire firm which gave us options for travelling south to the Med. The problem was that it was all taken by private boats permanently moored. It was virtually on the German border so we carried on briefly into Germany, don't mention the grounding! to see if there was additional mooring across the boarder, there wasn't. We decided to turn around back into France and find a place. It didn't look hopeful. On detailed inspection we saw a space that was almost big enough with a boat at one end that obviously wasn't used and more importantly could be moved. So we went for it and moved the unused boat a few metres along. What we didn't realise at the time was that this was a private Club Nautique and where we had moored was the permanent space for two boats which could appear at any time. There was nobody around so we settled for the night and hoped we'd see the Capitaine, whose office was in a Dutch barge called Pauline, the next morning.

Nestled up to Pauline.

The next day was a public holiday (Whit Monday), no sign of the Capitaine!  I phoned him and got a message that he would arrive late afternoon. Not good for us because if he said we couldn't stay we would have to go elsewhere, maybe a days travel away and no station nearby. All we could do was wait and hope. However about midday a small boat moored up and out got the President of the Club. No problem he said, you can't moor here because the boats that moor here are arriving shortly but you can raft up against Pauline for as long as you want!! Great, we moved straight away with his assistance and here we are snuggled up to Pauline. Very secure and the railway station about 500m away. Antibes here we come!

For those blog readers who receive this by email it's worth clicking the highlighted 'Europe on a Péniche' title at the bottom. This will take you to the actual blog with all previous posts and our current location.

THINGS THAT MOVE

We have lots of aminate things on or adjacent to Soraya. Recently on La Canal de la Sarre it's been libellules (dragonflies). How many species are there? This seems to be dragonfly and damselfly central. Very hard to photograph but luckily this one decided to land on the windscreen wiper whilst I was navigating.

A Downy Emerald on the windscreen wiper.

We also have some more invasive species. At a recent lock this family arrived and were very keen to take up residence in Soraya. With a bit of persuasion they stayed ashore.

Desperate to get on board or what?

THE BIG ONE

Not the prettiest thing in France but technically very impressive. The Réchicourt 2 lock on Le Canal de la Marne au Rhin (Est) was built to replace 6 locks that took up to 6 hours to transit. This now takes 30 mins. On the downstream side it's an ugly wall of concrete, on entering under the guillotine lock gate, wow...

Waiting for the green light.

It has cathedral proportions and it is big, taking us up 15.4m, the largest of the French Freycinet canal network. A normal lock is in the order of a 3 metre rise.

Inside, so let's do it.

Good news, it's floating bollards so relax as we float up to the sky.

Not too stressed.

Did I mention the Germans? They were squeezed in behind us and did not tie up correctly and were tossed around like a cork in a vortex. They were not happy, with a lot of 'Kaput' and Germanic swearing! When we arrived at the top the conversation I had with the Éclusier was very much 'If they don't tie up correctly what do they expect?' They did quite a bit of damage to their boat. My main job was placing a large balloon fender on the back of Soraya to stop their spinning boat damaging itself or Soraya.

Yes the Germans are behind us.

The guillotine lock gate coming down.

COMMERCE

Just so you don't think it's all pretty places, restaurants, food markets, wine and cheese we do travel through industrial areas and with commercial sized vessels. Recently on the Nancy Boucle we rose out of a deep lock and into a large basin surrounded by scrap metal processing yards with a huge crane. To give you an idea of scale the barge in the photograph is over 100 metres long.

Load me up skipper.

Further along the Moselle we encountered this 110x11m barge travelling at 12 kph. Breathe in and keep steady.

Well he was not going to move over so we had no choice.

No, we didn't get involved with the bankside vegetation but it was close. The good news, since we installed AIS (Automatic Identification System) on Soraya we can see on the dashboard computer display what is coming towards us, with size, speed, number of personnel on board etc. even what they are carrying. Just as important they can see us with all the same information, ie. 2 people, beer, lots of wine and some interesting cheeses. So they and we know who is round the next corner. Excellent.

CHILLING OUT AND A QUICK CHANGE OF PLAN

We were having a lovely cruise from Metz to Pont à Mousson and then towards Nancy along the Moselle. It's a very wide river with hardly any other boats around, so you really can relax and chill as you motor along.

Geoff chilling at the helm

Although the locks are large they are all manned, so a VHF call to the lock keeper and the locks are all prepared and set for you. This lock was 110m long, 11m wide and 8m deep. As the lock is large it's obligatory to wear life jackets as seen in the photo below. Fortunately they have floating bollards that you tie onto and just hold the rope as you ascend, so a bit of sunbathing while you wait!

Margaret leisurely attending to the ropes as we ascend.

We had planned to arrive in Nancy that afternoon and had about 10 km and 2 locks left to go, so a couple of hours and we'd be there. However, as we surfaced in the lock the lock keeper came across to see us. He informed us that the lifting bridge as you approach Nancy was closed and would not be repaired for at least a week! Merde!! That meant a detour of around 50 km and about 25 locks. Well, you can never plan too much when you're on the canals. So off on the detour meant cruising until about 6pm that evening and a 9-10 hour day the next to get to Nancy.  It was a very pretty route and there was part of it that we hadn't been on before. So we arrived in Nancy a day and a half later. No problem. It was nice to be back in Nancy where we met up with several friends that we'd known when we wintered there 2 years ago.