Thursday 7th April 2016 Euville to Maizey. 30.3kms 6 locks

Grain silos at St Mihiel

6.3° C Sunny spells, mostly cloudy, a few spots of rain. Cold wind. Tights and woolly hats and gloves on  again. Mike went out in the car to get some bread for the freezer. Locks lights came on at 9.05am. Mike walked back to the zapper post to activate the lock and we set off at 9.10am. Down 3m in 5 Euville lock, which still retained a smart lived-in lock house and a wooden shed for a lock cabin. 5.5kms to the next lock. After one kilometre of canal the river joined the canal from the left. It was flowing at around 3kph, so

Old preserved lavoir (clothes washing place) at St Mihiel

we were flying along at 9kph. The river poured over a new hydraulic weir on the right and we were back on a canal length into the town of Commercy. Several cruisers were moored by the first houses and the quay by the builder’s merchant’s yard had been improved for boat moorings. The long pontoon was empty but there were five campervans parked next to it. As we left the town behind, we passed a working factory producing steel wire, large coils of it were stored outside. Into lock 6 Commercy, again the lock had a well maintained lock house that was inhabited. Dropped down another

Smart houses at St Mihiel

3m. 5.9kms to the next. The river joined the canal for just 1km, we went straight through a sloping sided flood lock back on to the canal leading to lock 7 Vadonville. A Dutch barge called Leo (NL flagged) was just leaving lock 7 (second boat moving since we left Condé). A beautiful rural spot to live in a lock house. We were soon in and down another 2.5m. I phoned the controller at Verdun and booked to start the manually operated locks next day at 9am. 6.9kms (all canal) to lock 8. Noted that Sapigny had added a 10m pontoon to its extensive mooring quay. An old railway track followed the

Dames de Meuse rocks

canal on the left, well overgrown with weeds and almost hidden by trees. Beyond the railway the busy D964 road ran along the top of a low hill also hidden by trees. On our right were wide flooded water meadows. A sweeping left hand bend took us under the railway, then right and back under the railway again then another left hand bend. Two locks followed, very close together. 8 Han (3.2m drop) and 9 Les Koeurs 3.25m drop. Made a cuppa as we went down a short canal length before the next river reach near the village of Bislée. In a wide part of the river there was a small island with a resident nesting swan. A pair of black kites flew overhead following the river looking for

Moored at Maizey

dead fish. One of the channel markers, a red can, had come adrift and was on the wrong side of the river, we ignored it. We passed to the right of the first large island at KP244, then the river poured over another new hydraulic weir on the left as we entered the town of St Mihiel (pronounced san mee-yel). There was a sign by the weir indicating a portage point for canoeists but the weir was now fenced off so we wondered whether they gave keys to the canoeists – I think not. Under a bridge, through some stop gates and we were in the middle of the town. Down lock 10 St Mihiel, (smart lock house) a drop of 2.9m and back on to the river for 4kms. Mike took a few photos of the empty pontoon moorings and the scenic twenty metre high rocks called Dames de Meuse as we left town. Back on a canal length, we went through more flood gates and tied up at 2.20pm next to an old stone quay by an old dredging tip now covered in weeds, opposite a cattle farm. A quiet spot, not far from the village of Maizey, we hadn’t moored there before. The quay was rough and overgrown with weeds but it was quiet. Unloaded the moped off the roof and Mike went to move the car on to Consenvoye. Central heating on later as the temperature outside dropped sharply.