Bayon (No commercials they said)

Early morning view of our mooring at Épinal

Saturday was the third day on the trot that rain had been forecast for most of the day.  It was also the third day on the trot that the forecast wasn’t correct, and it ended up dry albeit with some cloudy spells.  Well, that wasn’t quite true as it did start raining at about eight o’clock on Saturday morning but stopped within an hour by the time we wanted to venture out.

The Moselle splits into two as it runs through Épinal forming a large island on which part of the old town stands, the other part of the old town lies to the east of the island below a hill overlooking the city.  A branch of the canal des Vosges runs down to just north of the centre and is the route we followed when we brought the boat down on Friday afternoon.  The Moselle feeds the canal des Vosges via a channel that diverts water from the river.

Our first objective was to visit the tourist office which was a 15-minute walk upstream into the old town and where we could get information about walking trails to follow around the town.  On the way, we passed the feeder channel which had an elaborate automated mechanism for ensuring debris didn’t get into the canal by the means of a hydraulic grab that pulled rubbish up a sieve contraption.  It seemed a bit strange as the detritus was fed along a chute straight back into the river.

Water can be seen running out of the chute

The tourist office was a success and as well as a couple of good trails to follow we found an interesting booklet on the history of the canal and river and their association with the town.

Walking down to the tourist office

Our first stop was at the 11^th century basilica where it was difficult to get a picture as stalls and barriers were being erected around it.  We found out later that this was in preparation for an event in town later in the day.  

Next, we needed to work out which way to follow the trail as it was circular.  The only way to do this was by having a beer in outside one of the bars in the Place ds Vosges.

Place des Vosges

We decided to follow the route in a clockwise direction and headed for the old castle at the top of the hill overlooking the town.  It was originally built in the 13^th century as a private residence and then fortified in the 16^th.  It is now nothing but ruins as it fell into disuse and stonework gradually removed during the 18^th century for other building work in the town.  It was a good stiff climb to the top and we had some wonderful views over Épinal and the Moselle valley.

We came back down the hill by a different path and ended up walking into the top of a Chinese building which housed a staircase back to ground level.  The building was erected in 1804 by the then owner of the castle and its grounds.  He lived at the bottom of the hill and wanted a flamboyant approach to the staircase that gave him access to the castle from his garden.

Staircase concealed inside the pagoda built by Christophe Doublat in 1804

Several places we’ve travelled through as we’ve come up the canal des Vosges have a history of glassware manufacture and we’ve been looking for a memento to buy.  We struck lucky in Épinal and bought four wine glasses that had been made at a glassworks down at Passant-la-Rochère, a place we visited when we were at Corre at the start of the canal.

After visiting a few more historic sights and monuments we had a relaxing lunch in one of the squares where we were asked for our passe sanitaire for first time.  The law in France is that all bars and restaurants have to check each customer’s passe sanitaire before allowing them in.  While we were eating, Karen made a wry comment about our travelling habits.  We spend weeks getting to a large town or city and then get itchy feet and want to leave for the open countryside after a day sightseeing.  Whereas, for many people, the opposite is true and they take a day getting to a large town or city and stay for a week.

After lunch we went to cross over the Moselle to follow the second trail which was around the part of town on the island.  As we neared the bridge, we could hear the sound of drums and klaxons and could see a march heading in our direction.  The French love a demo and this was an anti-vax-for-children march.  Unlike the UK all children over the age of 12 are being vaccinated over here which makes some of the stats interesting.  The French vaccination rates are higher than those in the UK but if you take into account that the base for the French figures is the population of 12+ years old and the UK 16+ then the French figures are even better.  This is all strangely contrary to the popular press reports of the French not wanting to be vaccinated.

The side of town where we followed the first trail

Most of the attractions on the island part of town were of an arty nature and not easy to understand.   One sculpture contained a display commemorating the fall of the Berlin wall.

Although the piece of wall looked like it had slipped

One street contained a large bronze statue of two fingers which was rather startling when walking in one direction.  It was made in 1989 to celebrate the bicentenary of the French revolution.  The tow fingers represent the never ending quest for liberty.

The Moselle was much narrower on the far side and large boulders had been placed in the channel to form a canoe slalom course.

Children having fun in the river

We heard the sound of a piano being played as we walked along one street and were soon confronted by a piano being towed by a bike.

We then realised there was yet another ‘demo’.  This one was highlighting the need for recycling and consisted mainly of families on their bikes many dressed up in costumes related to recycling.  There were hundreds of bikes on the demo, and we then realised what all the preparations were for by the basilica.

Walking back along the left bank we visited the rose gardens.  Roses have never been a favourite of ours but taken individually there were some stunning blooms.  Our eldest daughter Sophie and her husband Yanos are really into roses and will travel miles to see a specific variety.  The beds were arranged by colour although the picture below doesn’t show that very well.  Sophie & Yanos were really pleased with the close ups and associated descriptions we sent them.

The rose garden

While on children we were really excited to hear that our youngest, Polly, is pregnant and expecting our third grandchild next March.

Also, while reporting on non-boating things both my Dad and Mike Fielding responded to my request in the last blog update for an explanation into why many factory roofs were built in an irregular fashion.  Many thanks to both and here is Mike’s comment on that blog entry:

The 'sawtooth' roof profile for industrial buildings is to bring light in. Windows are easier to weather-proof when they are vertical or near vertical, hence the non-symmetrical shape. It means that light can flow in along each 'valley' in the sawtooth, and because it is repeated many times, the result is a lot more (and even) light than simply having windows at the end or side.

By the time we returned to the boat the clouds had rolled away completely and we were left with a lovely sunny afternoon and evening back in the port.

Three camper vans had arrived on the other side

We were up early on Sunday and after disposing of our recycling and taking on water we were soon on our way.  Karen and Buddy walked along the towpath back to the junction with the mainline and then got on at the first lock. 

Crossing the Moselle just before the junction

The gates on the first few locks were unusual in that they were curved rather than being flat. 

Curved gates

When we first got onto the canal des Vosges, I mentioned that apart from a short section, all commercial traffic had ceased on the canal.  We’d been looking forward to reaching the section in question as four specially built boats plied their way back and forth, through four locks, taking on and unloading aggregate from a quarry.  We were particularly interested as they apparently had their cabins at the front.  When we reached the unloading quay, we weren’t disappointed as one of the boats was being unloaded and indeed we could see the cabin was at the front.  We also realised that the cabin was a lot smaller than usual and that would be because they were ‘day’ boats and didn’t need the driver to live aboard.  On a stretch of a few kilometres we suspected the drivers lived locally although it must be pretty boring operating the same short journey every day.

One of the reverse layout commercials

The boats were built to Freycinet standard, the smallest commercial size, at around 39 metres but for some reason we couldn’t fathom they looked even shorter.  We only saw three of the four boats and surmised that the fourth (if it existed) was off for maintenance somewhere.

A closer view of the cabin at the front of the second one

We were soon through the section with the commercials when we were suddenly confronted with an unexpected, standard commercial, coming around a bend.  Clearly, the reports of no commercials was no longer true.

Our first ‘real’ commercial on the Vosges

A different approach to using light on an industrial building

For once we had no problems at any of the locks during the day and they continued to be most benign.  They were all around the three-metre mark in depth not that the depth really matters when going downhill as we don’t have to worry about using lines.

As we were cruising all day, Karen had put a chicken in the slow cooker so we could have a roast for dinner.  We stopped for lunch at a Châtel-sur-Moselle and ironically the mooring was in the shade.  Normally that would have been ideal, but we rather needed the solar panels in the sun to keep the slow cooker going whilst we had lunch and visited the town.

Unwanted shade at Châtel-sur-Moselle

After a bit of manoeuvring, we managed to get the boat positioned so one and a half panels were in the sun and were then able to leave the cooker on and go exploring.  Walking over the bridge across the river we could see the remains of wooden piers of an earlier structure.

Walking over the Moselle into town

At first the town seemed fairly modern and with not a lot to see then we came across an aged sign above an archway.

Signs to ramparts and fortress

We walked through the entrance and were surprised to come out the other side and see the remains of fortifications.

The old walls covered quite an extensive area and it seemed incredible that we hadn’t noticed them when walking into town. 

We then came across a sign telling us we were on the site of one of the most important castles in all of Europe which seems to be a common claim or theme amongst all the castles we visit.

Returning to the boat we carried on cruising and as we came out of the first lock, we met yet another commercial, this one was unladen. 

We found a place to moor just after a place called Vincey.  A small area of offside bank had been cut back and turned it into an ideal spot for sitting outside for the evening.

Cheers!

A little way away were a few houses and first a young couple and their little boy came over to investigate.  A little later on a couple, who turned out to match our ages, appeared and spent approaching 30 minutes in conversation with us.  The conversation covered all sorts of topics including the first world war, pleasure boating, and the demise of rural industry. They were such a lovely happy couple that our poor French didn’t seem to be a hindrance.  They also explained that the patch we were moored on was mown especially for fishermen, so we prepared ourselves to get up early on Monday morning to leave if need be.

Sunday sunset

On Sunday we cruised 14 miles down 14 locks.

With another sunny day ahead, we were up and off early on Monday morning even though there were no fishermen.  Well, Karen and Buddy set off on a run and I picked them up a few locks further on. We planned on a mid-morning break at Charmes so we could have a look around but arriving at the port we could see all the moorings were fenced off.

Then we noticed Helen & Dave were moored there and had found a way through the barriers.  They came out when they heard our boat and told us to moor up alongside them.  Another Brit couple were moored behind them, and we had a quick chat as we slowly passed their boat to moor up against Brontë.

Moored alongside Brontë

After coffee on board Brontë we had a walk into the town of Charmes which was one of those places that was practically destroyed in each of the three recent major wars to affect France, the 1870 (Franco-Prussian) and both world wars.  Looking around the town there really was a mixture of buildings and some of the rebuilds made it almost eastern European in its feel.  First, we walked along a millstream that ran parallel to the canal and had a couple of old mills on it.  The buildings here were definitely older and walking across the millstream we noticed a lavoir sitting on the banks.

Lavoir beside the millstream

The mairie was doubling as a vaccination centre and definitely more modern along with the apartments on the road opposite.

Maire/vaccination centre

The ages of the houses on the roads running off the high street were definitely a real mixture.

Returning to the boat we set off again and were soon going down the lock in Charmes which was unusual in that it had a lock cottage; so few seem to have them this side of the summit, completely the reverse to the Saône side.  A couple came out of the cottage to chat, I think it was probably a son and mother.  We received all the admiring remarks we get from people who’ve seen few if any narrowboats before and then the guy started talking about our flowers.  He was a gardener by trade and told us the French names for each plant, many like the black eyed Susan being direct translations. 

The gardener and his mum

Still waving madly

We were noticing how the character of the canal had changed over on this side.  It was quite a contrast in that it was more open and even when the hills were closer, they didn’t feel like they were encroaching.

We crossed the departmental border from Vosges into Meurthe-et-Moselle, named after the two rivers.  I hadn’t realised how long and thin the new département was until looking at the map and realising it runs up to the border with Luxembourg.

Leaving the Vosges

At the final lock before stopping for lunch, the gates wouldn’t open so after a while Karen got off to try her jumping trick.  She hasn’t had to do this for a long time but luckily it worked, and her actions started the mechanism going again and the gates opened.

Karen jumping on the lock gates

We pulled up for lunch at Gripport and while we were eating a VNF van turned up.  After the usual pleasantries the éclusier told us that the gates at a couple of locks hadn’t closed behind us, so he’d had to reset them.  He asked if we would wait until the gates were fully open before leaving locks.  This was fine and good practice but being in a narrowboat the temptation is sometimes too great, and I admit to sometimes creeping forward too far too soon.  Of course, I apologised and as the guy was quite amiable we had a quick chat about our journey before he continued on his way.

Lunch at Gripport

Ironically, at the first lock after lunch one of the gates wouldn’t open as a large log was stuck behind it.  I was true to my word and didn’t head straight out but as soon as we realised the gate wasn’t going to open fully, we went anyway.  Of course, with the lock in that situation, the out of service red lights came on which would alert the control centre that there was an issue.

After another hour or so we moored up for the day at Bayon.  As we were tying up our éclusier came past again and we explained about the red lights and our conundrum.  He’d already seen the funny side and said he hoped he would see us when we travel the final part of the canal tomorrow.

In a very shady Bayon for Monday night

On Monday we cruised ten miles down nine locks.