Highs and lows in Ligny-en-Barrois

This is our second visit to Ligny-en-Barrois. It's a welcoming little town on the western edge of the Lorraine region with excellent port facilities: moorings for around 10 boats (some on a floating pontoon, some on a quay), an ablutions block and free wifi set in a park just two blocks from the main square in the centre of town. It costs just 5 euros a night and from here there is easy access to everything boaters are likely to need: a service station just metres down the road sells fuel and bottled gas, there are two supermarkets and a Lidl's discount food store, and there's a small hardware store. Unsurprisingly, it's a popular place to stop both for boaters and for those in camper vans, who share the space.

We arrived here on Friday late morning after a couple of hours of pleasant and problem-free navigating from Tronville, a village about 5km down the canal. When we arrived, there were four boats already here, which gave us a choice of spots. We chose to be to the pontoon with our stern against the quay as this gives us easy access to the shore out the back of the boat, especially when the platform on our stern and the quay are at more or less the same level. We can also lock the bikes onto the boat on the gunwales, which means they are both secure and easy to get to. For us, there is no better mooring. We were able to settle in quickly and immediately plug in to electricity and water. (Sometimes we have to wait for the harbour master to trip a master switch – and s/he may not arrive until late afternoon or evening). It wasn't long before J had the laundry under way and C was off to market to get provisions.

The first hint of trouble came in the form of an English boater, who came round from the next lock to tell another English boater in port that he was stuck in the lock and that there appeared to be water problems in the canal. A look at the side of the quay suggested that the level of the water had indeed dropped recently – by about 20cm or so – and regular checks of the depth-finder showed that it was slowly dropping further. Next thing, a Dutch boat that had been in to port for fuel and off again returned. They were unable to get through the lock and had been told by the VNF that there was a problem with the water level but that it should be sorted in 10 minutes or so. A big English barge then arrived in front of the lock and we could watch it waiting – as long as it stayed where it was we all knew that there was still a problem. Several hours later, it was still waiting and the little Dutch boat was still behind us on the pontoon. Another small Dutch barge had also arrived in port from Bar-le-Duc (downstream), leaving just one small space on the pontoon and one quayside.

Our boat is a low boat and when we are stern-on, we don't get a particularly good view of proceedings on the water. However, on Friday evening we were invited for dinner on-board River Holme. We've been sharing moorings, locks, food and drinks with Frank, the English owner, for the past week or so, ever since he allowed us to raft up (i.e. double park) to his boat in the crowded port of Pargny last Friday. His half-deck is at about the same level as our roof, so we had a splendid view from there...

At around 7pm, the normal closing time for the locks, the barge obviously gave up on the idea of getting any further that day and decided to find a place to moor (even though they were already safely rafted up to a VNF service boat opposite the port and looked to be happy there). After a couple of attempts, it found a resting place within the confines of the port against a grass bank...and that, we thought, would be that.

But no, at around 8pm, just after we'd finished our main course of Provencal rabbit with white beans (delicious!), more boats began to arrive – first of all there was a German boat, which fitted snugly into the space on the quay and then a small French boat, which was able to squeeze into the remaining space on the pontoon. It seems that they had been stranded on the canal bottom for some time during the day as the water had been emptied out of one of the stretches of canal. And even when they did get going again, it was at a painfully slow rate – with each section of the canal having to be topped up before they could proceed! Nor were they the last boats to arrive. Another French boat followed and eventually rafted up alongside our boat at our invitation – and a Dutch boat ignored Frank's offer to raft up and moored amongst the reeds beside the park, providing quite some entertainment in the process. It isn't easy to get off and secure a boat in such a position, let alone to get on and off it once you are moored. It was around 8:30pm by the time everyone was in and secure at the end of a long and trying day for many. Before we went to bed, we checked our depth-finder, as we'd been doing regularly during the day, and found that the water seemed to have returned to its original level, and since a pontoon rises and falls with the water, we didn't have to worry about adjusting our ropes.

That wasn't quite the end of the matter, though. When C got up the next day to go and get the morning baguette, she found that she could see far too much of the quay wall through the space at the stern and it was no easy matter to climb out of the boat onto shore. The water level had dropped 70 centimetres overnight!!! It wasn't too serious for us as we could still get on and off our boat – and our boat still had water underneath it, unlike some. It was a bit more of a challenge for those on boats further down the pontoon as you'll appreciate from this photo:

Needless to say the drop in water level was the source of much consternation and animated conversation. Navigation patently wouldn't be possible for several hours at best. Again, we were not affected by the blockage as we had no intention of moving on that day but others had to twiddle their thumbs and wait for the water to rise, which it eventually did. By lunchtime, those who wanted to travel upstream were finally on their way, although it seems that the first few locks upstream of here are still not working as they ought to.

The end of the pontoon - at the right height

There have been a couple of other highs and lows since we've been here. The temperature has been constantly swinging between the two, as it has been pretty much all summer so far. There's been a lot of what C describes as “Incy Wincy Spider” weather. And the people on the boat next door to ours had a bike stolen from their boat last night, which was not just a low for them but brought back memories for us of having our bikes stolen in our first season. Not the best moment for us.

It's Sunday afternoon now and we are still in Ligny. We've had our usual long Sunday lunch (a high point of every week) and are replete and mellow (seeing the world through rosé coloured spectacles). All going well, we hope to leave tomorrow. Our fingers are crossed but we are not holding our breath.