Days of our Lives

A few days ago we moored for the evening at a safe spot just through lock number 30. In many ways it was an unremarkable ‘wild’ mooring. However, we were moored against a user-friendly wooden platform, long enough for two boats (a Swiss boat was next door). There were good rings to tie the boat up to and a supply of good quality water. All of this was free. So far as we know the locals have provided this for the benefit of boaties knowing there could be a spin off for the community.

It was a fairly strenuous 3-4km cycle into Bains-les-Bains starting with a long uphill slog. Part of the journey was in the shade of a forest, the next part was past newly mown hay. It is quite an experience to be gulping in warm air heavily scented with the smell of freshly cut hay as you struggle to get to the top of the rise. We checked out the Office du Tourisme for local info and wifi options, (where we successfully checked email messages also for free) and wandered about the village to learn about some of the impressive history. After all, our cycling took us along a road named, ‘La Voie Romaine’. As the name of the village suggests, Bains-les-Bains is famous for its baths (like the city of Bath in England). Apparently Roman soldiers noticed steam rising from the ground and set to and developed the resource, which became quite famous.

We also checked out the supermarket. With our back packs and bicycle baskets well laden with purchases, we relished the downhill ride back to the boat. When we got back we did our favourite quick-and-easy cooling down manoeuvre which is to change into togs and pour buckets of cold water over each other. This is followed by sitting in the shade, in our wet togs and enjoying a cool drink. As we were quietly sipping our evening drink, an amazing sight came into view. Words cannot do justice to describe the craft that tied up 30 metres behind our boat. The photo will give you some idea of why we were so taken with this astonishing craft. It can only be described as a nautical version of a gypsy caravan. Every bit of space on the deck was covered with all manner of clutter. It looked very top heavy and we wondered how it could possibly cope with some of the more difficult locks.



There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason for the price structure of the moorings. Some are free and include water, electricity and showers. Some have a graduated price structure i.e. a basic mooring charge, with extra for water, extra for power, extra for showers. Some charge a flat rate so you may as well hitch up to power and top up your water. Sometimes the Office du Tourisme staff are proactive in this area, convincing the local authorities to provide mooring, power and water for free on the basis it would encourage boaties to stay and spend money in the village. Last year we spent a week in Tonnerre with mooring, power and water for free. At that port you can stay for free for up to 3 weeks, and yes, we did spend money buying materials for work to be done on the boat and, of course, food.

We stayed in Epinal for three nights partly because we were tired and partly because we were so warmly welcomed by the Capitainerie and partly because the mooring, which included power, water and showers cost only 4 euros a night. We might well have stayed longer and done some work on the boat but we had arranged to meet friends in Nancy and couldn’t hang around too long. The day we arrived we had had a longish day which started with a trip to the supermarket in Girancourt. We used our Ikea trolley to cart our gas bottle to refill and borrowed the supermarket trolley to cart 60 litres of diesel back to the boat. We then went through our last ‘up’ lock for a while and motored 11 km across the top of the Canal des Vosges before going down a staircase of 14 locks. Halfway through there was a brief but spectacular thunderstorm. Because the locks are set up for you, you really have no choice but to just keep going but it did mean that C got a bit of a soaking. Fortunately, we had no trouble with the locks in this stretch of the canal. It was wonderful to creep into a strange port and have a gentleman wave us into a mooring spot and then help us to tie up. It was even more wonderful to hear how cheap the moorings would be - with everything included!

We were near the centre of the town with ready access to shops. There were gaily coloured tents next to the port in preparation for a sizeable cycle race the next day. We enjoyed watching an interesting troubadour with donkey and cart walking along the quayside playing jolly tunes on a recorder. (The troubadour was the one playing the recorder not the donkey.) Quite medieval really.


Currently we are close to the German-French border and thankfully in an area where there are no hire boats on the canal. This means less competition for mooring spots and a little less to worry about - hire boats are not fabulous to share locks with. Some boats are piloted by people who allow quite young children to steer boats into locks with some unfortunate collisions. Even worse, those parents do not see any reason for the recipient boat owner to get tetchy. I would like to see their reaction if a child drove into their car back home and most boats would be worth many times the value of a family car!

Apart from the lovely Bruce and Sue from the US that we moored next to in Auxonne, we have not met native speakers of English. There are many speakers of French, as you would expect, German, Dutch, Swiss dialects and fewer others eg Spanish, Italian and some Eastern European countries. Last year we met many more people who could speak English. Fortunately Catherine has the French well and truly under her belt and her revision of the German language is going ahead in leaps and bounds. Spending three hours stuck in a lock with a German couple gave Catherine’s German a real boost.

While it is true we have had the odd bit of bad weather we have, on the whole, had wonderful sunny days, many of them very very hot with temperatures in the 30s. As I write, we are moored in Charmes, a village that has not had a charmed life. According to the guide it has over the centuries suffered repeated invasions, sackings, famines and plagues. Very little in the way of ancient buildings remain and those that do are treasured. It is an unusually cool and showery day so we are making the most of the opportunity to get some jobs done without breaking out in an uncomfortable sweat. We have arranged to meet friends in Nancy so will have to continue navigating soon, it may be that the friends will have to meet us in Toul. We try to be accurate with our estimations of where we will be at any time but some things are out of our control eg weather and troublesome locks which cause unavoidable delays. Our timetable is very much an inexact science.