12th - 21st June 2017. Shopping at Fains-les-Sources, then on to Tronville, Givrauval, Pagny-sur-Meuse, through Mauvages tunnel to Toul, where Andy fixed the engine.

We moved on the next morning to Fains-les-Sources, to the shopping mooring. It is tricky to tie up there, but it is very near to the supermarket, hardware shop and a garage for fuel too.

The village of Tronville was a much more pleasant place to spend the night.

The fortified church has been there since the 12th century.

On the far side of the village there were several lovely properties.

For a couple of kilometres we battled our way through this thick weed. Andy says that it is the worst weed that he has seen in 50 years of boating, with the whole canal a solid mass of it

At Givrauval the word mansion comes to mind!

We found a long walk up through the woods behind the village.

It was an attractive place to stay, on our own privare jetty.
I know! I must try and remember to take photos before we are leaving!

Our walk took us to the other side of these woods.

After a couple of quiet days, we moved on towards Mauvages Tunnel, but the engine started overheating seriously, so we had to stop, and drifted about in mid-canal for a while. Monsieur from VNF had been waiting for us at the tunnel entrance, but returned to find us, being none too pleased! However, once the engine had cooled down, we went on through the tunnel, accompanied by Monsieur.

Boats used to be towed through Mauvages tunnel, but now it is Monsieur on his bicycle!

The river Meuse is below us here. We had planned to go down the Meuse at Troussey, but the top five locks are closed just now, due to lack of water. Hopefully they will be open later on. Meanwhile we continue on the Marne au Rhin (Ouest)

At Pargny-sur-Meuse we had our own aquarium, with all sizes of fish. Andy ordered a new hose for the engine, to be collected at Lorraine Marine at Toul.

Most tunnels have lights, but we came through Foug tunnel before 9am, hoping that no-one was coming the other way! Luckily, no-one was.

In Toul our engine was again too hot to continue, so we drifted in to wait on the city walls.

Having arrived at Loraine Marine, Shannon was straight into the water. We had to wait a couple of days for our hose to arrive, then Andy fitted it. More trouble with overheating, due to the leaky filler cap, was sorted by making a new washer out of an old football of Shannon's. She didn't really mind!