La Fôret (chariot factory)

Distinctive house styles in this part of France

THURSDAY 19 MAY  

We left really early for us on Thursday morning for a couple of reasons: one, thunderstorms were forecast in the afternoon and two, it was going to be another hot day.  We knew we’d left early as when we reached the centre of Saverne, most cafés didn’t yet have their umbrellas up.  It was a bit different at the town lock though as we could see traders' white vans, market stalls and people already trading.

Only sign of life was the market

After dropping down the lock we went past the port after which we were on the outskirts of Saverne.  Looking behind us we could see the chateaux on top of one of the hills that we walked up a few days ago.

Château Haut-Barr in the centre

The other château, Grand Geroldseck, can be seen to the left of the twisty pole for operating the next lock.  It wasn’t actually a twisty pole as it had to be pulled down as opposed to being given a twist.  It was the first time we’d come across a pully pole, and we wondered what else would be different about the locks to the east of Saverne.  Reaching the first lock, another immediately obvious difference was the weird set up of the éclusiers’ control huts as they looked like they had wooden sheds on top:

Most of the locks still had a lock cottage but one had been practically removed when a distribution unit was built next to it.  We assume that the planning permission stipulated that the front had to be retained.

Just the façade remains

The lock cottages are painted in the same vivid colours as many of the houses in Alsace.  The next lock also had a distribution unit next to it, but the cottage had been extended rather than being partially demolished.

This one survived

After six locks we arrived at Steinbourg where there was a port that looked like it had been recently revamped.  We pulled up at a pontoon to have a welcome breakfast, we couldn’t remember ever having gone through six locks before breakfast before!  We had a look around and there was a fancy machine where boaters selected the services required and then paid contactlessly.  Apparently, once the payment is made a code is displayed on the screen that is then used to open a keysafe.  The key in the safe is then used to access the rubbish and recycling bins.  We noted that there was a €12 daily charge to stay at the port and that included electricity although water was a further €2.

Breakfast at Steinbourg

We only stayed for 30 minutes or so at Steinbourg and soon after leaving we approached a large building that had a giant shopping trolley on its roof.  We thought at first it was a shopping mall which seemed a bit odd out in the open countryside.  As we neared the building, we realised it was a factory that manufactured supermarket and airport trolleys and the storage yards around it were full of shrink wrapped brand new trolleys.

Trolley (chariot) factory

When we reached a place called Dettwiller we stopped for lunch.  There were two moorings either side of a road bridge but the first one was for electric boats only, so we carried on to the second mooring.

Electric boats only

Moored at Dittwiller

We both felt it was just too hot and muggy to carry on cruising after lunch especially as the threat of rain had disappeared, so we stayed put at Dettwiller.  Later on, we had a slow and short wander around the town to stretch our legs. 

Centre of Dettwiller

We followed a road alongside the river Zorn and came across a dilapidated lavoir that had a corrugated iron roof – we believed it was the first we’d seen with that type of roof.

The war memorial stood in front of the church, and it was similar to the one we’d seen the previous day in Saverne.  We’d said that the one in Saverne was unusual as it wasn’t the normal pillar type but a sculpture of a female holding a dead or dying man.  This one at Dettwiller was very similar but it also had a couple of children holding the man making it even more poignant.  There was a stork nesting on top of the church in a purpose-built frame, presumably to stop them nesting somewhere inappropriate.

The war memorial, church and stork

On Thursday we cruised ten km down seven locks.

FRIDAY 20 MAY 

With the recent heat, Karen’s been leaving Buddy with me when she goes for a run but as she went well before breakfast on Friday, she took him with her.  Meanwhile I set out on the boat so I would be able to pick them up at one of the locks further downstream.  Since leaving Saverne and continuing eastwards to Strasbourg we’ve noticed the boat traffic has reduced.  Maybe the majority of hirers are attracted to the excitement of the inclined plane and the beauty of the Vosges countryside rather than going along the Rhine plain down to Strasbourg.

Leaving our overnight mooring at Dettwiller

I noticed that both the churches in the two villages I passed had storks’ nests on their roofs making me realise we haven’t seen a heron for the last few days.  It’s really quite strange seeing storks rather than herons fishing along the bank as we cruise along.  Another thing we’ve noticed is that there are more walnut trees around now we’re out of the hilly area and, as is traditional on other canals in France, every lock cottage now seems to have at least one tree. 

We’ve never managed to be in a walnut tree area at pickling season which is during June when the nuts are still soft and light green before the shells inside start hardening.  We checked a tree at the lock where I picked Karen up and there were plenty of small green fruits so in another few weeks, they should be ready, so hopefully we’ll be in luck this year.  Regular readers will know that Karen never misses out on the ripe nuts later in the year and harvests thousands of them during autumn.

Walnut tree at the first lock today

After picking Karen up we went down one more lock and then moored at a place called Hochfelden where we planned to stay for the rest of the day even though it was only 10.30am.

Moored at Hochfelden

During the afternoon we walked into Hochfelden to have a look around and had to cross the canal, three rivers and a railway line before reaching it.  By the canal bridge was a memorial to the crew of a Lancaster bomber that had met its fate on 3^rd February 1945.  The inscription said it exploded in the skies over the town which we assumed meant it had been shot down.  Only one crew member survived and, as with other similar memorials we have come across, the crew were either teenagers or in their 20s. 

The main employer in the town is the Meteor brewery which has been brewing there since 1640.  The current brewery is a bit of a blot on the landscape, but the odd old building survives. Looking for old pictures of the town I was rather thrown by the fact that many road names didn’t exist.  It was then that I realised that they were probably given French names when the town was returned to France after WWI.  In fact, many of the street names had the German equivalent underneath.  Some were similar as in this street:

And others not so obvious:

Hell means bright in German

It tickled me that the German names of the rivers had been retained with the definitive article being replaced by the French equivalent:

While on street names we saw a sign graveyard in a council depot, but it wasn’t possible to gain entry to obtain a better view:

The mairie was a nice-looking building but it lacked the Ukrainian flag.  We’ve realised that mairies don’t seem to fly the flag in this area but haven’t found out why.  Maybe it's geographical or maybe the temporary change to the rules to allow the flag to be flown alongside the mandatory Tricolor and EU flags and the optional departmental one has been revoked .

There were lots of pretty buildings in some striking colours:

Walking up to the church at the top of town

We stayed back at the boat for the rest of the afternoon, and although it did try and rain three or four times with the odd rumble of thunder it never amounted to much.  This was rather good as we would have stifled if we’d had to close all the doors and put the windows back in!  Later in the evening the wind got up and some of the gusts were so strong that we moved many of the plant pots onto the rear deck for safety as some of them are still quite young and tender. 

On Friday we cruised eight km down four locks.

SATURDAY 21 MAY 

We set off after a late breakfast heading for a place called Waltenheim-sur-Zorn, a strange mix of French and German words.  As we left Hochfelden we pulled in at the VNF base where recycling and rubbish bins were provided.  We thought about taking on water but felt a bit guilty as the tap was outside their offices and, even though they were closed for the weekend, there were notices prohibiting mooring for anything other than rubbish disposal.  Next was a rare sight on this end of the canal, a commercial quay still in use.

There was another commercial port a bit further on, but this was clearly closed down and being used for residential moorings with no room for passing boaters.

The weather was a lot kinder for cruising and really quite pleasant being in the mid-20s.  It wasn’t long before we reached our destination and got ready to moor.  At first, we tried to moor alongside a pontoon set perpendicularly into the cut.  We soon realised it wasn’t going to be possible, with the stiff breeze that wasn’t in our favour, without making a complete cock up of it in front of the gongoozlers.  Not only that, we would have been sticking out quite a way across the width of the cut which wouldn’t have been prudent being as the mooring was shared with a hire boat base.

Moored at Waltenheim-sur-Zorm

The hire boat base was actually quite small and only two boats were in although there was probably room to moor another four or five.  The two that were in were being cleaned ready for new guests and they left during the afternoon, so we’d probably made the right choice not to be in the way by being stuck out.

We spent a lot of the afternoon planning in more detail our potential next leg of the journey after Strasbourg.  We’ve already decided that we want to head south up the Rhine to the French/German/Swiss border near Bâle/Basel/Basle/Basilea.  On the way up we’d like to branch off onto the canal de Colmar and visit the, apparently, picturesque town of the same name.  We will then head south-west through places like Mulhouse, Montbélioard, Besançon and Dôle.  Depending on how we get on up the Rhine we may even take a detour into Switzerland before going to Mulhouse.  The big question though is will the flow rate be too much for our boat?  We already know that taking a narrowboat down the Rhône to the Med has to be done in the knowledge that it could never make it back up.

Pink: 2022 so far.  Maroon: Next leg?

It’s always strikes me as funny when a river runs northwards as the tendency is to say that boats would be going down rather than up when heading south like we’ll hopefully be doing on the Rhine.

On Saturday we cruised five km down two locks. 

SUNDAY 22 MAY 

Germans moored up behind us on a private boat during Saturday evening and they were up and ready to leave at 7.00am, normal lock opening time at this end of the canal.  I say normal opening time but had noticed the lights weren’t yet on at the lock in front of us.  I was outside adjusting our solar panels for the morning sun so had a quick chat with the guy and he was convinced they open at 7.00am on a Sunday.  I wasn’t so sure so went indoors and checked the VNF website which confirmed the locks didn’t open until 9.00am on Sundays.  I showed our German neighbour, but he wasn’t convinced, and said he is often along this stretch as he moors just over the border on the Rhine so he should know.  In the end the lights came on dead on nine as I expected and we were left on our own.

On our own at Waltenheim-sur-Zorm at nine o’clock on Sunday morning

Before we continued our journey, we went for a walk around the village and then crossed over to the other side of the canal to complete a circle.  The stonework of the buildings is still the brown Vosges sandstone that we’ve been seeing for the last couple of weeks and even the water trough was made out of the same stone.

Trough dated 1865

The inscriptions on the lintel of the doorway below are a reminder that this was a German village when the stable was built.  The inscription reads, “The gate and stall were built by the honourable men Gross & Mettlinger in 1905”.

Honey is produced here now

Some of the houses in the main street

The church

There were storks’ nests on quite a few of the houses and we could see two young in one at the top of a telegraph pole.

We had a quick coffee break when we got back and then set off for La Fôret where we arrived in time for lunch.  The mooring was in a commercial quay that’s still in use but there were three or four bollards at the far end where private boats were allowed to moor.

Tucked in at the far end of the commercial quay

After lunch we went for a walk in the Brumath forest and by the time we returned the sun had gone and it had started feeling really muggy and felt like rain was on the way.  It didn't arrive but we did hear it a couple of times during the night.

We spent the rest of the afternoon investigating the water flow on the Rhine and having a few phone conversations with fellow boaters.  The weirs on the Rhine from Strasbourg down to the border with Switzerland near Basel generate hydro-electric power and the flow is understandably kept quite high between some locks.  This makes it really difficult for narrowboats like ours to fight against the flow and it wouldn’t take much for our net speed to be really low.  That in itself would be OK on a very short journey but with two 40 km journeys to do between overnight stops we could end up cruising all day and night or even going backwards.  On top of that the fuel consumption would be astronomical.  The net result was that we decided that we won’t go up the Rhine after all so will have to do some more planning after we reach Strasbourg tomorrow.

On Sunday we cruised six km down three locks.