We bank moored for the night in an old barge halt where we had stopped before , the only difference this time was that the bread van didn ’ t visit !
The objective on day 10 was to reach the summit . Since our journey south in 2010 the manual locks have been automated so while progress is improved we did miss the bronzed young students who operated many of them during their summer leave ! Nineteen locks to the top ( VNF required at one – again quickly sorted ) and again a warm , pleasant day .
A lunch stop with a small supermarket nearby was an ideal opportunity to replenish the ‘ fridge and the ballast .
Knowing that there was plenty of bank mooring at the top we pushed on arriving at Chaumousey at 15.45 . However , a small landing stage presented itself and it was ours for the night .
The canal here is at roof level ; from road level it is novel to see boats moving between rooftops , not that there were many boats around . There are pedestrian tunnels under the canal so it is easy to access one side of the village from the other – very useful when the boulangerie was opposite .
We drank a toast or three to our achievement thus far , more or less on schedule and looked forward to the descent when it is much more comfortable in the locks and easy to get lines on the bollards .
Another fine day but thundery conditions threatened later . Our morning cruise through the rooftops and passing by the summit reservoir with no locks for 7km was very
enjoyable . The descent is then relatively sharp as we joined the valley of the upper reaches of the Moselle .
The locks are very close and are set up to operate in two “ chains ”. Sometimes the VNF ask for your intended start time so that they can programme the operation of the locks to suit and also to accommodate the movement of other boats .
In these instances that didn ’ t happen so on entering the first lock ( they are about 200m apart ) the second automatically prepares itself .
Progress , in theory , is smooth provided you play the game and keep going . We have been caught out when another boat in front has obviously moored up or even turned round ; then every lock can be against you – very frustrating is the polite way of describing it . However , all went well and 20 locks were negotiated in about 2 ½ hours .
We passed the short branch canal to Epinal and reached our mooring by the park at Thaon-les-Vosges just after two o ’ clock .
11