Nancy to Toul
Leaving Nancy we joined the Moselle River for a short stretch leading to the Meuse River, our alternative route to replace our originally planned Canal des Vosges. On both the Moselle River and the Meuse lengths of canal alternate with lengths of river.
The countrysida round the Moselle is beautiful, mainly mountains and forests, overlooked by the occasional town. As this is a major waterway the locks are enormous and several times we shared the lock with huge commercial barges. This is quite intimidating because of their size but they are reassuringly competent.
We spent one night along the river in a lagoon full of water weed and water lilies. The town nearby, Liverdun, is one of those which climbs steeply from the Moselle River. The climb is rewarded with a marvellous panorama over the Moselle Valley and forest. As David was busy doing other things, we don't have the photos to show you! Penny should have taken the camera but didn't realise how good the view would be (faiing as a photographer by forgetting the first rule of good photography, always have the camera handy).
We turned on to the Meuse River and Canal to reach Toul, again enjoying the Freycinet sized locks, at this point automised but manual further along the river.
Toul is another town where Vaubon built fortifications, in this case ramparts and a moat which encircled the entire old town. They are still in place, for the most part covered by grass. It is not clear if this was part of the original design or a later addition.
Toul was a Cathedral town in the middle ages, and it was here that Joan of Arc was dispensed from a proposal of marriage made by a young man from her home town of Domremy. Thus she was free to pursue her desire to lead the French in battle against the English. Most towns in Lorraine have a "Rue Jeanne d'Arc" to honour her.
In Toul we farewelled our friend Charlie who has been with us for a month. He was also a member of the crew on our 2006 voyage to Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands- and yet he dared join us again! He and his brother John (for one week) joined David while Penny was in Sydney on her grandmother trip, so David could keep travelling. Thanks Charlie for your excellent lock work, your great company, your culinary contributions and your unfailing good nature.
The water in the Meuse is very clear so we could see prolific underwater growth and even as we were travelling along we spied many little fish swimming around within it. There is a negative to all this growth- it seems to be getting wrapped around our underwater protuberances including the keel engine cooling system, so our engine is getting very hot. David has not yet worked out how to fix this without swimming under the barge, not a tempting prospect.
Pictures show:
Toul Cathedral (3)
Charlie and Penny managing the lines with 120metre barge in front
The beautiful Moselle River
Priority to the large barge just in front
Chateau at Liverdun
Best Regards,
Penny and Dave
