Saturday 29th July - Pagny-sur-Meuse to Not Quite sure Where!

A long day today so we left at 9 a.m. - a bit cool and cloudy but with a promise of some sunshine later.  As we had a run of 14 km before our first lock Crew was able to just untie then retreat below to  get organised.  We are travelling through the Meuse valley....very pretty with gentle wooded hills.  No agriculture - just a few cows!  The brief today - just 13 locks and a 5 kilometre tunnel!  So far, so good....the locks all went to plan as once we had been through the first, all the rest were set to green and we were able to go straight in.  We had reckoned on the tunnel taking an hour but we managed it in about 50 minutes - an experience but a lot of concentration on Skips' part!  Our plan was to moor for the night on a pontoon just after the next lock but as we approached it was evident that there was not enough water for us.....we grounded and had to power ourselves out of it.  It was (literally) all downhill from there!  We frantically consulted the charts for an alternative mooring but the next possible looked to be another 11 locks and as we had already been on the move for  almost 8 hours that was not a good prospect.  We decided to find the first available spot on the bank but this proved to be more difficult than we imagined as the sides were sloping and made of concrete......not a good friend to steel boats!!  We got to our last lock of the day and we're about to exit the lock when the gates stopped opening......the pernicious weed had arrested them!  So Skip had to climb the weed infested ladder to call the VNF.  He arrived fairly pronto and opened the gate but we requested to talk to him and ask where we could moor for the night.  The usual Gallic shrug and a head scratch - the best he could come up with was against the wall just after the lock because he said that there was less water further on.......this is getting quite worrying!  Anyway, the long and the short of it was that we took his advice and moored with stakes - front in and back sticking out into the Canal!  Certainly not ideal but we were both so tired by then that we just had to stop somewhere!
After a couple of drinks and a shower each we were feeling almost normal although very tired!  So a corned beef salad was all we could muster for our supper.  A bit of TV and bed.

37.5 km. 19 locks. 9 hours

Friday 28th July - Toul to Pagny-sur-Meuse

We left Toul just after 9.30 a.m. with Crew feeling very nervous about how her neck would hold up although it was definitely feeling better......a corner has been turned!  Straight into our first of twelve locks today - no problem.  Approaching our third lock on a red and a green light, all of a sudden an alarm sounded and two red lights appeared...no go!  Typically it was the only lock with no waiting pontoon but within a couple of minutes a VNF man raced up in his van, screeched to a halt and had the lock working in seconds!  I wish someone from our Environment Agency could read this.....we keep a 27 foot cruiser on the river Nene at a much higher cost than here in France.  And that is for Aphrodite, which is 42 foot!  On top of that all the locks are either manned or automatic with a telephone at each lock in order to call the VNF in case of a problem.  I can only hazard a guess as to what the extortionate fee in Britain covers........no idea!!  Right, off my hobby horse now!!  Just before our fifth lock we had to stop to clear the filter as the Canal was thick with weed and again before our ninth lock......no cooling water coming out - just steam.  Engine overheating!  We made it through the next five locks and a short tunnel of just under a kilometre without incident and arrived in Pagny-sur-Meuse at 1.15 p.m.
Pagny is a very quiet village.....peace after the 'town noises' of Toul!  The Brits on the big barge behind us came to chat and gave us the info on the village - two restaurants, a pharmacy, coiffeur, tabac and a boulangerie......all of which closed until 7th August, except the two restaurants!  Luckily one of the restaurants sold bread.  We had a spot of lunch, then later Skip did a recce and decided on one of the restaurants for dinner.
A ten minute stroll took us to said restaurant - as Skip had said it was a truck stop as it was close to a motorway.......a first for us!!  For €14.50 there was a buffet for starters with as many trips as you wanted, then a main course and again, a buffet of cheeses and desserts.  Oh and as much wine (red or rose) as was required, filled from taps into jugs.  Very good value as the quality was pretty good too.  Needless to say the ratio of men to women was roughly 90-10 so Crew was chatted up by a few truck drivers!!  That hasn't happened for a long time!!!  We paid a supplement for two steaks which were a very good flavour but we asked for medium-rare and they turned up more or less 'blue' - we should have asked for them to be cooked more as we would like but we are Brits.....we don't do things like that!  It was a very unique and enjoyable experience nevertheless!
Back to the boat for a digestif, TV and bed.

14 km. 12 locks. 1 tunnel. 4 hours

Thursday 27th July - Toul

By the time Crew was compos mentis, Skip was already on his way to the boatyard with the new fenders he had bought.  They needed inflating but he was unable to use his compressor to do the job as it didn't seem to have enough power.  This meant, of course, that Crew had to make her own tea!  What is the world coming to!!  He arrived back with a great crash of four enormous fenders, fully inflated, landing on the deck......never a quiet life for Crew with Skip around!
The weather is, to say the least, very disappointing - overcast and occasional light rain.  Tomorrow the forecast is much better, so that is our departure date -we cruise to Pagny which involves 12 locks, close together over a distance of just 14 km.  It's going to be a good test of Crews' stamina as the neck problem is far from sorted......watch this space!!
We had a late lunch on the back deck and just tootled around for the rest of the afternoon. As there is a dearth of good restaurants in Toul, Crew offered to cook two of the steaks we had brought from home.......just as well as the weather deteriorated badly around seven o'clock and it absolutely chucked it down (certainly not forecast) and we had to batten down the hatches!!

Quiet evening with lovely steak dinner and a bit of TV.  Action stations tomorrow......groan from Crew!!!

Wednesday 26 th July - Toul

Crew woke no better than yesterday - worse if anything so we went to the Capitaine to ask about a physio.  He gave us an address so off we went, hoping to combine our trip with some lunch.  We arrived at the physiotherapists but as he didn't open until 2p.m., decided on lunch first. Toul is furnished with plenty of bars and snack cafes but not much in the way of good eateries so we stopped for a quick drink at a cafe in the main square......we are now remembering it from 5 years ago!  We did a trawl of possible lunch places and decided on a very ordinary cafe which served us steak
tartare, chips and salad........tres ordinaire!  The staff made up for it somewhat, however- the waiter was very friendly and helpful.....so much so that we acquired two more maps of the town to add to our collection!  We had plenty of time to waste, so when the waiter served us with complimentary schnapps after our lunch, we took our time with it.  Crew was definitely feeling very mellow for her visit to the physio!!  I'm not sure if it's obligatory but after some heat treatment, a little massage and the placing of some 'special' tape around Crews' neck, the pain seemed to be worse.....maybe it has to get worse before it gets better - here's hoping!!
A bit of a siesta and a few little jobs before settling down to some TV and bed.

Tuesday 25 th July - Toul

We arrived here yesterday just after 1p.m. to a wet and windy Toul (much as we left it!) but managed to unload the car between showers.  We usually buy plants in France for the deck but this time decided  on bringing them from home - that was quite fun when they decided to search us at the Chunnel port!!   'Ooh, you have a garden sir!' Hmm......yes we do!!Although there is allegedly wifi here it doesn't work even though we are adjacent to the Capitainerie so Skip needed to go and sort out his French bank account in order to resuscitate his Orange SIM card.  This he did and even came back with a huge pizza for our supper......Crew too tired to cook!!  Watched TV and bed.
Looking at the long term weather forecast it doesn't look as if we will get away before Friday as we have some long, hard lock days ahead of us and doing that in the rain is not an attractive prospect!  So a few more jobs in order to get shipshape and a call to the nearby engineer to investigate our heating problem.  He arrived around midday, as promised (he is English!) and agreed with Crew that the thermostat is the problem.  So he went off to source a new thermostat and came back around 5 p.m., installed it and......hey presto!  We have heating at last!!  Crew had woken up with a pain in her neck which, unfortunately worsened throughout the day so cooking dinner was somewhat of a trial!  The thought of all the ascending locks in the near future didn't  appeal much either!!  Hopefully it will improve tomorrow.  Another lazy evening in front of the TV and bed.