Canals with Character

We were given a 'zapper' at the Lock called Desert just outside of Vitry-le-François - this apparently operates most of the locks on our route but not all. Others, are worked by radar, twisting pole or travelling eclusier. We were also given a very detailed instruction leaflet for the 5km tunnel which lies ahead of us. Unfortunately it was in Dutch. We are none the wiser. But no doubt all will become clear when we arrive there (or not). 

The journey yesterday to Orconte was pretty uneventful.  The pilot book warns that the locks fill right to the top in this stretch of the canal which makes life interesting when you're locking up as we are.

Orconte was a very pleasant halte which we shared with a Dutch camper-van (we should have asked them to translate our tunnel leaflet!). Apparently it costs 8€ for water and electric and showers. Unfortunately nobody turned up to collect the money and open the showers - but we did have electric for the night.

Today more overflowing locks - we thought we may well float off into the chicken run alongside this one.

We were accompanied for the day by various members of the VNF (the French equivalent of British Waterways).  All the guys were really helpful and seemed to take great delight in speaking rapid French to us because we had greeted them in their own language. With a a bit of effort and a lot of sign language we managed to communicate our plans for the day - they need to know what time we start and where we plan to moor up at the end of each day. We think they actually accompany us because many of the locks don't seem to quite operate as they should…. their remedy is to go into a shed, pull out a control unit and plug it into a lock gate to release us from the lock. Many of the traffic lights are broken and when you use your zapper to start the lock operating, nothing happens for 3 minutes, then you're startled by very loud bells ringing and eventually the gates begin to close. 

Today we had our first lifting bridge....

This one had to be operated by the travelling VNF guy who had earlier kindly taken our lines in St Dizier, where we stopped for lunch. We had thought that we might stay overnight at St. Dizier but the mooring was a bit industrial and even the sight of the famous Miko ice cream factory nearby could not tempt us - it was overcast and drizzling - if the sun had been shining it might have been a different matter. Instead we pushed on to Chamouilley - no facilities but a really nice village with grassy banks and picnic tables (we think picnic tables usually indicate an 'all right' place to stop). 

Our VNF guy turned up on his scooter and told us exactly where the nearest shop, bar and restaurant could be found and arranged to meet us tomorrow at 9 o'clock