1st - 10th August 2017. On along the Canal de la Marne au Rhin (Ouest) via Void, the Mauvages tunnel and Demange-aux-Eaux to find lots of weed at Treveray. Moving on past Givrauval and Tronville to Bar-le-Duc.

On the approach to the village of Void, the reflections are really good. Sorry about the delay with this posting, but we have had internet problems.

Mauvages tunnel is 4,877 metres long, so we took turns to steer The Puzzler, doing 700 metre stints. Andy went first, so enjoyed an extra turn!

Many of the houses in the main street of Demange-aux-Eaux are similar to these, with a great depth back from the road.

We were able to walk down to the river L'Ornain here, and Shannon had great fun in the water.

We had a slow afternoon on Friday, for several reasons. Our first lock on leaving Demange was on double red, with a boat in the lock. Double red means a phone call is required to VNF, requesting help, and Monsieur duly arrived after 40 minutes. No-one knew what had been wrong. Our next problem was at lock 5, as we had missed the sensor when leaving lock 4. As The Puzzler is not as wide as most boats in France it is essential that we leave each lock on the side of the sensor, so that the signal can be sent to prepare the next lock. This might be either side of the lock, and we must have been on the wrong side! Monsieur arrived 45 minutes later to activate lock 5 for us.

As we approached lock 10 we could see the hotelboat La Nouvelle Etoile, apparently stuck in the lock. He edged forward, very slowly, and took nearly an hour to get out of the lock and past us. By then it was after 6pm and the lock was officially shut for the night. However, I managed to persuade VNF to operate the lock for us, which was good, as there was no place to stop above this lock.

At Treveray there was a great deal of weed, which had been all chopped up by the hotel boat's propeller, being low down in the water. Last night, when we arrived, the water level was down by about a metre, and the only way off our boat was by climbing up the plank at a 45° angle. However, today we are walking down the plank to the boat, with the water level back to normal.

No more boats were allowed to continue up the canal for 24 hours, until the, by now very unpopular, hotelboat was well out of the way. Passengers on this boat have paid 8000 euros a week to crawl along at a rate of one lock each hour! There were six boats at Treveray on our second night there, with several nations represented.

As we reach Givrauval, there is a terrific thunderstorm, right overhead. Later in the evening though, the weather improves, and the view over the wider valley can be seen, still in the sun.

At Tronville, we were involved in some inventive mooring, to find room for this Dutch boat. A quarter of an hour later, the French boat in front of us moved off! Our new Dutch friends then moved in front of us, but it would have been thoughtful if the French boat had said that he was leaving soon.

At Bar-le-Duc this placard shows the start of La Voie Sacrée which was of great importance during the battle of Verdun in 1916, being the only road out of range of enemy artillery. Day and night it was the scene of convoys of men and equipment which supplied the gigantic battle

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!