Sommerviller (no croissants - but it’s France!)

FRIDAY 18 APRIL

Well, we’re finally back on board after being away for seven months.  We’ve never been away for so long but it’s reflective of our new lifestyle: we’ve decided to only spend a few months of the year on the boat giving us more time to spend with the ever-growing family, exploring other parts of the UK and enjoying village life in Flecknoe.  Courtesy of Polly and Lochlann our eighth grandchild is due in September hence the comment about the growing family.  Karen’s decided to join me in retirement, mind you that could change once she realises that she has no excuse to get away from me.  It does mean that we can spend more time exploring places we haven’t travelled to before.  As for Flecknoe, we’ve been most fortunate to have joined a wonderfully social village.  When we moved there, we never thought we would make such good friends and so quickly.  We want to spend more time getting involved, not just down the pub but in all the various activities on offer.

Meteorologically speaking it's been a strange winter and spring bringing forward the early emergence of the butterflies.  By the time we were ready to leave for France in mid-April we had seen eight species on the wing around the village.  Having seen so many different species already it certainly felt like we were heading for the boat a lot later than we have in previous years.  Not realising it was a bank holiday when we made the booking, we finally left on Friday 18^th April. As we left at three in the morning the roads were clear and the tunnel not too busy and we arrived in Calais in time for breakfast, taking advantage of charging the car whilst we ate.  We stopped a couple more times on the journey down, firstly outside of Reims and then for a late lunch near Metz.  After lunch we intended to do some food shopping but, as it was a public holiday, the only supermarket we could find open was a Greek one.

Regular readers will know that we often fall foul of French opening times, e.g. trekking to a brico (DIY shop) only to find it’s closed for a couple of hours at lunchtime.  Another foible is that every morning I have a pain au chocolate with my coffee.  As we tend to moor in the countryside, we are hardly ever within walking distance of a boulangerie, so we buy a week’s worth at a time and freeze them.  The Greek supermarket didn’t have a bakery section, so it meant that our first breakfast on board would be croissant free – unbelievable considering we were in France.

All was fine with the boat when we arrived and as it’s a blue job I went in first to clear the spider webs.  For some reason there weren’t as many as I usually find especially considering it’d been empty for seven months. We soon had the car unpacked and got the boat ready for cruising.  The cock up of French opening hours on the way down meant we would have to do a supermarket trip on Saturday morning before leaving.

SATURDAY 19 APRIL

We had a peaceful night’s sleep and couldn’t wait to get on the move when we woke to a beautiful sunny morning and the calling of our first cuckoo of the year.  We had to do the food shop first which meant a trip to the closest supermarket which was 21 miles away in Lunéville.  We set off for our first cruise of 2025 soon after returning and immediately felt at home on the water.  We were so happy and as it was a lovely day we went a lot further than originally intended.  Other than hotel boats, very few commercial boats use the canal we were on (de la Marne au Rhin est) and often we don’t see any boats on the move at all.  It always surprises us that non-commercial canals are kept open but fortunately for us they are.  For once there were a lot of boats on the move and during the day we saw nine in total which was great news.

Heading for our first lock of the day we were wondering whether our télécommande would still be working after being left on the boat all winter.  It turned out that it worked fine and we were soon going down the lock.

First lock of the day

The télécommandes on this canal are very simple with just one button that is pressed when alongside a canalside receiver a100 metres or so before reaching each lock.

Canalside receiver

When the signal from the télécommande is received, the lock starts operating and a series of lights indicates the state of operation resulting in a single green light once the gates have opened and the lock is ready for us.  Once in the lock one of us pulls on a lockside pole which continues the operation allowing us to leave when the gates at the other end have opened.

This was the first time we’d been on the boat without Buddy since we had to say goodbye to him last September.  We had constant reminders that he was no longer with us but at least those reminders were happy ones.  In fact there was a positive outcome of his not being with us, in that there was a lot more storage space as we usually carry a couple of 18kg bags of dog food as well as other paraphernalia needed when having a dog.

After a couple more locks we were passing the only settlement of the day of any size, a village called Lagarde which, as well as having a large hire boat centre was home to two war cemeteries.  We’d visited both previously and as with all war cemeteries we’ve visited both were meticulously maintained; one was for French soldiers and the other housed Germans.

Approaching the hire boat base at Lagarde

Other than Lagarde the journey was very rural and the weather was warm even with cloud cover for much of the day.

We finally moored up at a place called Hénaménil and were soon settled in for the evening.  When we arrived, there was a family fishing just a little further downstream and, as usual, they were very friendly.  One of the big differences we’ve found between boating in the UK and in France is the attitude of fishermen.  I am generalising of course but in the UK fishermen would rather not have boats passing and consequently little love is lost between them and boaters.  In France, the opposite is true, and we are always welcomed with friendly waves etc.  Apart from the culture difference it may be that French canals are a lot wider and deeper so passing boats don’t disturb fish so much.  Not being a fisherman I don’t know whether that is remotely true or not.

Saturday night mooring at Hénaménil

On Saturday we cruised 18.5km down seven locks, saw two private boats and seven hire boats.

SUNDAY 20 APRIL

If you’re following our travels here is a map of where we plan on cruising this year.

Yesterday we started east of Nancy, travelling along the canal de la Marne au Rhin.  When we reach Nancy we will head southwest to St Jean de Losne on the canal des Vosges and the River Saône.  We will then go northeast up the Doubs valley to Basel, then north down the Rhine to Strasbourg with a quick detour to Colmar. Finally, we will head west back to where we started.  The whole journey covers 560 miles through 313 locks, seven tunnels and up one boat lift.

When we arrived at the boat on Friday one of the first things we noticed was that it wasn’t covered in leaves.  Invariably our winter moorings have been in wooded areas but this last winter we weren’t near any so that was a great advantage as clearing dried on leaves is not a pleasant task.  The other thing we noticed was that our French courtesy flag was in tatters.  We have a series of flags from European countries because an EU marine law dictates that a courtesy flag must be flown when in each country’s waters.  Luckily, we had a spare French one so before we set off for the day I swapped them over.

Before...

…and after

It was a grey morning but as it wasn’t raining we set off after Karen returned from her morning run.  We heard during the day that Flecknoe had gorgeous weather so we were rather jealous. 

Grey skies at Bauzemont, the first lock of the day

Going through Einville-au-Jard we were reminded that this was where Karen had retrieved one of her best walnut hauls. You’re probably well aware of Karen’s fascination for walnuts and harvests them in the spring when they are still soft so she can pickle them.  It’s the autumn when she really comes into her own and will disappear to search out likely trees to harvest the ripe nuts.  Anyway, the walnut tree in Einville-au-Jard was on the offside by an old grain silo which meant that there was no access to the general public and so a few autumns ago Karen got a great haul.  She has since said it wasn’t the best as, although there was a great quantity, they weren’t really of the size she prefers.

Walnut tree not yet in leaf

Walnut trees are one of the last to leaf in the spring as can be seen in the above picture.  At the other end of Einville-au-Jard was a modern salt factory with a restored ‘sondage de la saline’ or ‘salt sounding’ which performed in a similar way to derricks in oil fields. 

Timber structure on the far left is the salt sounding

As we approached Crévic it started drizzling so we stopped for lunch to see if it would pass over.  About an hour later the sun came out and we had a very pleasant afternoon cruising a bit further to Sommerviller and moored next to an old loco shed. 

Moored for Sunday night in Sommerviller

Like Karen with her walnut obsession, I have a few too and also some we share. One of mine is finding vestiges of the times when electric locos towed barges in northern France.  The shed behind our boat would have housed six or eight of these locos when they weren’t being used.  The rise in use of diesel motor powered péniches gave rise to the abandonment of the towing service in 1973.

No doubt in future blogs you will read more about our obsessions, especially those peculiar to France.

On Sunday we covered 17 km down five locks, passing two private boats and three hire boats.