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