Port Sainte-Marie (last port of call)

THURSDAY 17 JULY 

We had a long day ahead of us on Thursday so set off straight after breakfast to start on our journey along the canal de la Marne au Rhin (est). The canal used to be one continuous waterway for 313 km from the river Marne at Vitry-le-François to the Rhine at Strasbourg. After canalisation works on the Moselle at Nancy in the late 1970s, a 23 km section was made redundant and the newly canalised Moselle replaced it. This split the canal into roughly two equal sections, the east and the west, the former being the one we would be travelling along for the next week or so. The red lines delineate the east and west sections of the canal.

We’ve previously travelled along it in both directions quite slowly so have explored most of the places along the route and therefore don’t expect to do much exploring on this trip. Apart from the 15 km leaving Strasbourg it is a most picturesque canal going through popular tourist destinations such as Lutzelbourg and Saverne. In addition there’s a boat lift at Arzviller, a couple of tunnels and an 15,5-metre-deep lock. I know most rivers have locks which are deeper but it’s unusual for a canal. These aspects make it very popular with hire boaters and there are several rental bases along its length.

I didn’t take many pictures during the day, but this was part of the large pleasure boat port in Strasbourg …

…and here’s hotel boat Calibri coming out of one the locks.

Rather than tie up in a recognised mooring that would probably have other boats present we moored up a couple of kilometres short of Hochfelden using pins.

On Thursday we cruised 29,5 km, up 11 locks, saw one hotel boat, two private boats and, most surprisingly, only one hire boat.

FRIDAY 18 JULY  

We awoke to the promise of a very warm day but at least we had a hazy sky as we set off.

It seemed that every new view we saw as we cruised brought back happy memories of when we travelled along the canal before. Being a popular hire boat route, VNF have done a good job of putting in moorings at most villages and making them attractive with picnic tables and brick-built barbeques.

It is possible to hire electric boats and every so often charging points had been installed, clearly marked that only electric boats could moor alongside.

Below one lock we went past an old barge towing loco shed that had positive and negative signs above the doors. Although we've see many of these sheds, even a couple still with electric locos in, this was the only one we’ve seen with this signage. When we first saw it we couldn’t find out why the signs were there and we still don’t know why.

As the day went on the wispy clouds turned into those cotton wool types that never seem to go in front of the sun to obscure it. Approaching Saverne we passed an office building and part of the planning permission must have stipulated that the façade of the lock house should be retained.

In the centre of Saverne was a large port, the first half of which was taken up with a good-sized hire boat base but as with the others we’ve seen this year, very few looked to be out.

Opposite the port stood the 18^th century Château Rohan and we could see the gardens were set up for concerts. Looking later we found that a festival was running for three nights with live bands in the evening. For some reason that we couldn’t fathom it was called, ‘les alpagas bleus’ (the blue alpacas).

After the port we turned left and had to wait with a hire boat for the lock in the town centre to be readied. There used to be two locks in the town but at some point in the past they were combined into one so, being a deeper lock, we had to wait quite a while for a boat to come down.

Soon after leaving the lock we moored up for the day outside the VNF office with lovely views of the hills, through which we’ll be travelling for the next few days.

Once we’d secured the boat we went for a walk around town which we’ve reported on before (click here to read our blog entry from 2022 in a new tab). The town hall was bedecked with extra tricolours following July 14^th but neither of us could recall seeing it previously.

There was more evidence of the festival in the main town square with a band playing so we found space in one of the bars on the square to listen to the music and admire the wooden alpaca.

Whilst we were having drinks we did see a couple of real alpacas being led around but were more fascinated by an old French couple. The band was playing covers of well-known music from my era so I enjoyed being able to tell Karen the names of the bands and numbers they were covering. The couple were dancing all the time, whatever the style of music from Deep Purple’s Child in Time to Pink Floyd’s Breathe. We found it a really touching scene.

On Friday we cruised 19,5 km, up 11 locks, saw one private boat, one hire boat and locked up with another and saw a few others pass once we’d moored up.

SATURDAY 19 JULY 

Leaving Saverne the canal follows the Zorn river up to the summit at Arzviller. As the hills are steep and close to the river, the valley is also shared with a road and a railway line. Here the railway is crossing both the road and canal.

We could see five castles in various states of repair on the hilltops after Saverne as shown in our guidebook. When we came along before we walked up to four of them.

After a couple of locks we were leaving Alsace and entering the Lorraine region. Just before the next lock we passed hotel boat Janine on its seven-day cruise between Lagarde and Strasbourg.

As the Zorn valley became steeper the locks were more frequent. The lock cottages were all of the same style and we thought they were quite attractive but nearly all were now uninhabited. They also had extended three sided porches, I presume so the lock keeper could see when boats were coming if he wanted to be protected from inclement weather.

The lock cottage above had a sign next to its entrance and it piqued my interest from the lock as I could see it mentioned the date of 17 April 1891. I went over to see what the rest of the words were and realised it was a joke sign saying that on that date nothing interesting happened there.

It became cloudy as we approached Lutzelbourg and it really was quite dark as we moored up.

There was a bit of rain during the afternoon but nothing appreciable and it reverted to a pleasant sunny evening. As it’s a popular tourist destination, Lutzelbourg was very busy with boats and by lock closing time we were in a long line of moored boats.

On Saturday we cruised nine km, up eight locks, saw seven hire boats, three private boats and one hotel boat - a busy boat day.

SUNDAY 20 JULY 

After saying that Saturday was a busy day, Sunday was even busier. It wasn’t surprising really as the stretch we travelled during the day holds much of interest for visitors. As well as being picturesque, there’s an inclined plane and two tunnels to negotiate. Other than the canal du Midi in the south, it’s probably the most popular destination in France for hire boaters. It was warm and muggy as we left Lutzelbourg through one of the town’s two locks.

After four locks we were in Arzviller, the site of an inclined plane, or boat slide as many people prefer to call them. This particular one opened in 1969 replacing the last 17 locks that rose 45 metres to the 33 km summit of the canal. These old locks are a tourist attraction in their own right as they were built against the cliffs and were so close together that some of the pounds were barely long enough for a 38 metre péniche. The lock cottages are very attractive too, some of them built into the cliff faces. Click here to read our report of our visit in 2022 in a new tab.

Passing the bottom lock of the 17 redundant locks

The link to our blog entry above contained pictures of the inclined plane in operation and also the winding gear housed inside the building at the top. Being a tourist attraction there were dozens of people at the top watching the boats going up and down. As we arrived a trip boat was just getting to the top but as soon as it exited, the caisson that carried it was sent back down to pick us up.

A hire boat came up with us and Karen remembered this time to see how long it took to make the ascent, surprisingly it was only three minutes. Apparently, it used to take the best part of a day to go up the tricky locks even when they used electric towing locos in the latter years before the flight was replaced. This 1955 photograph shows the railway crossing the fourth lock up and an electric loco pulling a péniche out of the lock. 

This is looking down from our boat at the top before we left our caisson:

After a couple of kilometres we were at the top of the 17-lock flight and therefore back on the original canal - this was the top lock and its cottage.

Next was the 2,3 km long Arzviller tunnel controlled by traffic lights as it’s only 5,1 metres wide which just accommodates the standard 38 metre péniche. The railway had continued up the valley with the canal and runs through a tunnel adjacent to the canal tunnel. We didn’t have to wait long for a green light and after exiting the other end we went into the much shorter 475 metre Niderviller tunnel. Exiting that tunnel we were in a large basin that used to be the wharf for transporting the tiles and bricks that were made nearby.

We moored up for the day under darkening skies and distant rumbles of thunder. It did rain for 10 minutes or so but soon cleared up leaving another pleasant afternoon and evening.

The cruiser moored behind us had a VNF notice on it saying that they would declare it abandoned if not moved within three months of the date of the notice. The three months were almost up so it would be interesting to know what VNF end up doing.

On Sunday we cruised 12 km up four locks, up one inclined plane, through two tunnels, saw four private boats, a hotel boat, a trip boat and too many hire boats to count. 

MONDAY 21 JULY 

While Karen ran to Sarrebourg to pick the car up from the station and take it to Xouxange, I took the boat there to meet her. The car was at Sarrebourg station, some way from the canal, because of my ill-fated attempt to leave it at a canalside station last week. I’d bought a ticket from Gondrexange to Strasbourg via Sarrebourg only to find when I arrived at Gondrexange station that it was now a private house and that trains no longer stopped there. Our timing worked pretty well, and it took a couple of hours to cruise the 11 km to Xouxange and Karen had already parked up and was walking along the canal to meet me.

The next task was to drive back to Sarrebourg to get diesel and a few bits of food. It wasn’t many kilometres away so it wasn’t as mad as it sounds. To our surprise, soon after leaving Xouxange we saw a fuel station with a small supermarket next to it so we pulled in and got our supplies and we were back at the boat much sooner than anticipated.

It was good to get fuel by car as it avoids having to walk to a fuel station with a sack barrow and it was also good to be able to park next to the boat to unload the jerrycans. We then decided to carry on seven kilometres further along the summit to Gondrexange. When we’d been through before we’d found it impossible to moor our boat as the slides were sloping all the way through the village. Sloping sides are fine for hire boats and river cruisers with vee-shaped hulls of course. I’d been looking on satellite views of the canal and reckoned we could moor just outside the far side of the village so we decided to risk it.

Karen took the car there while I moved the boat. On her way she’d gone through a village called Héming and found a lavoir we hadn’t seen before, the first for some while.

When she arrived she checked out the potential spot and reckoned it was OK so started walking back to meet me. There was actually a line of bollards which made mooring even easier and we couldn’t understand why we’d never seen them before. Maybe they’d been overgrown three years ago. The mooring was nice and peaceful because it was between two lakes and consequently there were no houses or roads around. Here we are moored in the distance.

On Monday we cruised 18 km through no locks and saw two private boats and four hire boats.

TUESDAY 22 JULY 

We were going back to Flecknoe on Wednesday so Tuesday was going to be our last day in France for a while. We always have mixed emotions when we know that cruising is coming to an end but we soon adapt to living on dry land so know the feelings are temporary. Since April we’ve covered 870 kilometres through 303 locks and achieved three main objectives: 

• Travelled all along the Doubs valley

• Cruised on the Rhine

• Visited Colmar

We did this by completing an anti-clockwise circular route starting from Port Sainte-Marie (blue flag) on the canal de la Marne au Rhin to Nancy. We then went south to St Jean de Losne on the canal des Vosges then the river Saône.  Then we went northeast up the Doubs valley to Mulhouse, joining the Rhine near Basel. After a quick detour into Colmar we carried on down the Rhine to Strasbourg and then turned east on the Marne au Rhine back to where we started. The whole trip took 96 days and, assuming we’re not coming back this year, 2025 will be the year that we've spent the least amount of time over here since we came out in 2019. What with family holidays, the eighth grandchild due in September, walking in the west country and hiring a camper to tour Scotland we're just running out of time.

Even though it’s been a short trip this year and we’ve travelled half the route previously we’ve had a wonderful time and wouldn’t swap it for the world as they say. The only waterway along which Karen didn’t run was, for obvious reasons, the river Rhine. I reckon she ran the majority of the lengths of the rest and a lot of what she didn’t run, she and I walked together.

We awoke to what looked like a winter’s day: dark grey skies and drizzle that died out during breakfast. It looked the sort of day when we’re glad we have a wood burning stove, although fortunately it was summer so it was still warm and therefore the stove wasn’t needed. Karen drove to Port Sainte-Marie while I started taking the boat there. Once she’d parked the car Karen ran back to meet me en-route. The rain kept off for her run but she’d had an obstacle on the towpath to overcome at one point.

When I reached what’s purportedly the deepest canal lock in France, I could see that Karen had just arrived. The lock was ready but the gates weren’t opening so Karen went to chat with the éclusier and was told, that because of a shortage of water, we had to wait up to an hour in case another boat came along. Luckily, a boat turned up 15 minutes later so we were able to lock down together thus saving much-needed water.

Nearly at the bottom

Looking back at the lock fresco that was repainted earlier this year

The sky looked like this for much of the journey

We moored up in Port Sainte-Marie and spent the rest of the day packing the car and doing all those jobs that have to be done when a boat is left for a while. Only a couple of boats came by during the afternoon of which this was one.

On Tuesday we cruised 14 km down four locks and saw two private boats and four hire boats.

That’s it until we’re next on the boat – thanks for reading this far!