Monday 4th April 2016 Longeville to Naix-au-Forges. 17.9kms 19 locks

Below lock 32 Tannois

10.0° C Grey skies light rain, black clouds in front, blue skies behind. Set off at 8.55am with the brolly up and waterproofs on. Had a short wait for lock 33 Maheux to empty. House at this lock had long gone. 785m to 32 Tannois. Beautiful valley with low wooded hills. The rain had stopped and the house alongside the lock had bedding hanging out of the windows in true rural French style. 500m to 31 Silmont, a short wide pound with fishermen trying their luck just below the lock. It started to pour down. I made a nice hot cuppa to keep the chill out. 1000m to 30 Guerpont which had also lost its house

Watery skies at 31 Silmont

long ago. Across the wide open fields to the left the traffic on the N35 was busy. Mike rescued a pair of mating toads from the lock and put them in the canal where they could lay eggs closer to the bank, they would have drowned in the lock eventually as they wouldn’t be able to get out. 695m to 29 Bohanne, again no lock house. 550m to Tronville, its house remained standing, strong and stocky but with bricked up doors and windows. The new itinerant (man-in-a-van) came to chat with Mike but  he couldn’t understand Mike's French. I was busy catching up with the washing up. Factory estates backed

A surviving set of three rollers for passing tow ropes under a bridge

on to the towpath along the next long pound. 2076m to 27 Chessard which was full so we had to wait while it emptied. Again no house. 610m to 26 Nançois another which had lost its keeper’s house. The industrial estate continued along the canal. Mike fished another toad out of the lock, a large female having difficulty swimming. He put her on the low concrete edge above the lock but when we left the chamber she was back in the canal and still struggling to swim. 600m to 25 Velaines, which was empty and had a lived-in lock house. On the other side of the road from the lock

A cheeky tame crow

house was a substantial house with purple shutters which we supposed, judging by the size of it, to be a rural auberge. Not so, maybe it was once upon a time. There were gongoozlers on the bridge over the tail end of the lock. Still the industrial estates backed on to the canal. 1385m to lock 24 Maulon, its old house was empty but the lock was full so we had a short wait. 640m to 23 Villeroncourt, again no house and the lock was full. Some interesting houses overlooked the lock from a sloping wooded bank on the

House high up the bank at Villeroncourt

right. 509m to 22 Ligny, passing the port de plaisance where four cruisers and a converted péniche were moored in the little basin and three campervans were parked by them. VNF workboat Aquabus was moored opposite the basin just below lock 22. The lock house was inhabited and there were gongozlers picnicking alongside the lock. Black kites soared high overhead as we set off on the 1398m pound to lock 21 Gainval, a shallower lock at 2.4m than the usual 2.6/2.7m and another house in use. 703m to lock 20 Gréves (another 2.4m lift) which was full so another short wait while it

Donkeys curious to see a boat

emptied. Another black kite flew low this time, right over Mike’s head but he didn’t see it until I pointed it out to him. 730m to 19 Givrauval. Below the lock there was a floating box pontoon plus a picnic table, bench seat and a bin to tempt plaisanciers to stop a while. The lock house had been extended over the years and was inhabited. 1380m to lock 18 Longeaux, the last zapper activated lock. Its lock house was abandoned, doors and windows bricked up for a long time. Fields all around the canal reaching to the distant wooded hills. 1580m to 17 Menaucourt. The sensors

Church at Girauval

under the railway bridge on a bend didn’t activate the lock, it remained with just a red light. I phoned Bar-le-Duc. The controller said OK no problem and immediately the red changed to red and green and the lock started emptying. We went in and I lifted the rod, nothing happened. Mike said he thought we hadn’t passed close enough to the sensor which was on the right hand side of the lock entrance and the operating rods were on the left. Backed out, hovered by the sensor then went back in again, this time it worked OK. Immediately above the lock was another aqueduct over the Ornain.

Bricked up lock house 18 Longeaux

Two girls on ponies came across the aqueduct and clattered over the metal gangway over the lock hydraulics on to the towpath. 725m to 16 Nantois, no house, surrounded by fields and woods. There was a lone fisherman above the lock whose car was on the towpath by the lock. The sun came out and the temperature soared up to 22° C! 1130m to our last lock 15 Naix-au-Forges. The sensors worked OK again and the lock emptied but Mike missed the  entrance sensor, this time it was on the

How the VNF fix locks by remote control
 - antenna on lock cabin - lock 16 Nantois

left, the same side as the rod! A woman was watching from the bridge over the tail end as we backed out and went in again. It worked, even though someone had somehow managed to get the rod out of its brackets and it was flopping about. Mike said call the controller on the intercom and tell him we’re stopping. I tried it, but no one answered. Meanwhile Mike had taken the boat up to the quay just above the lock and was attempting to tie up except the wind had blown the fore end out, by which time I’d caught up and gave him a hand to moor. It was only 3.15pm but the next stopping place was a further five hours travel. Set the TV up and gave him a hand to get the moped off the roof. He put the moped in the car and went to Euville then came back on the moped.