Progress Crévéchamps to Nomexy - Thursday 16

Waking in the middle of a forest, with the day dawning even colder than the one before and the water looking even blacker and the horizon obscured by mist is not a bad way to begin a journey as it turns out.

A Swedish friend is fond of telling us that there's there's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes, and I must admit as I pulled my damp woollen socks on again and put them in my damp walking shoes I am inclined to think that some of my "boating in wet cold conditions" kit is tending towards the bad side.   The other of us, or what I could see of her buried under what I think is every garment she owns, is taking no chances.  Even the most penetrating damp will only make it through the first fifteen or so layers.

We are of course planning a summer break in Iceland next month, and strange though this may sound, I have only today checked the average June temperatures for that country.   Twelve degrees maximums, five degrees minimum, which as it happens is about the same as France at the present time.   We should be well acclimatised by then.

Andrew and Trish managed to track us down at exactly lunch o'clock, which provided a few hours of respite to say nothing of drying in a warm restaurant, and a lift to our spirits (not that any lift was necessary), but their appearance did serve to emphasise the delightful pointlessness of the manner in which we have chosen to travel.

We left Lagarde on  Sunday, arriving in Charmes after six days of more or less non-stop travel, a little after noon on Thursday.  

They too arrived a little after noon on Thursday, but travelling by rented station wagon, and taking all the windy backroads, their journey took close to an hour.

They were warm and dry and listening to music, we were cold and damp and listening to birds, but we wouldn't swap!

Still Cold, Still Wet Nancy to Crévéchamps -16 May

When we travelled on the Canal de Vosges with Ria and Dave last year in the heat of summer, we marked the cool shady spots on the charts for future reference without thought for what use those notes would be if we returned at a time when the rain was unceasing and the temperature uncivlilised.    With new leaves barely visible in the trees, and so little sunlight penetrating the clouds that we were in a perpetual state of wondering what time it was, it was hard to believe we were in the same place.   It retained it's magic though, in a cold, wet, misty sort of way.

Speaking of magic, one day, we'll find out what it's like when a plan comes together, and I wonder when we do, if we'll like it at all.  

We did manage to leave exactly on time this morning after first attempting to remedy yet another newly acquired leak in Mr P's injection system, the result of which had cast such a pall over the harbour that even though the sun was barely visible, or in truth not visible at all through the smog we had created, that Remy the duty Harbour Master got himself into such a tizz he may well have evicted us had he not liked us so much, or perhaps had we not already been underway.

How could we have known that our departure was the closest we were going to get to being on time, and the closest we were going to get to seeing the sun for the entire day?   We entered the first lock exactly in accordance with our shedule, to be trapped within it's confines for an hour waiting for it's faulty gate to be opened.   An hour is not a long time in one's lifetime, but it is a very long proportion of a lunchtime, and a quick calculation after our release confirmed that we would be wise to postpone our previously arranged appointment.

Besides, we were having so much fun climbing a long flight of locks in the icy drizzle, why would we want to share our day with anyone?

Good times ahead! Crévic to Nancy

We didn't realise how much we count Nancy as yet another home home till we arrived and Stephane came out to greet us as though we'd been gone all winter, and the guy on the boat next to him whom we'd met in a lock sometime last year filled us in on everything he'd done, and then John turned up to make sure we were OK, and we suddenly felt that we'd cheated ourselves by deciding to stay but one night.

But we have a plan now.  Experience tells us that having a plan is a very very bad thing, although I suspect it makes for entertaining reading as one day after another we exactly fail to make successive destinations.

Georges will be waiting for us in Auxonne if we get there by month's end, and he's got a mate who knows someone who has a cousin who may be interested in peering into Mr Perkins inner most workings while we absent ourselves for a few weeks if we get there on time.  We didn't tell Mr P this, but somehow, call it engine's intuition, he already knows.   He's taken to smoking more than usual and spitting diesel all over his newly replaced injectors.

Hopefully I can stay ahead of him in the bolt tightening stakes, but it will be a race of attrition.

To make things worse, the sun came out this evening to taunt us all before the weather turns seriously terrible for the next week or so, or so the forecast would have it.

We are yet to meet anyone who has stayed in Europe over winter who isn't seriously despondent about the weather following an endless cold, wet winter, and now a spring which has thus far failed to materialise has done nothing to lift anyone's spirits.   But we can soldier on I'm sure, only one of us needs to be outside in the rain and the wind when we are working the locks, and with all the windows closed I'll hardly be able to hear her complaints.

They're Back! Bauzecourt - Lagarde - Crévic

I am not normally given to premonition, but I did voice on a few occasions over the past few days a nagging doubt about the readiness of Mr Perkins to transport us to far and away places.   

Unhappily perhaps my discomfort at his unpreparedness bore fruit this morning when I could not help but notice an alarming amount of water below the engine in a place where water should not be, and a much smaller but equally alarming amount of diesel fuel spreading itself all over Mr Perkins posterior. 

Happily perhaps once again the symptoms of his ills were plain to see and were able to be rectified without major catastrophe, although this did involve retracing our steps of yesterday, borrowing tools, coolant, Bill, and having to farewell everyone once again.

This time we were away almost two hours earlier so this evening we find ourselves amid the Colza fields a very satisfying fifteen kilometres from home, having spent nine hours today getting here.

I wonder how long it would take us to get to the moon. 

They're off! Lagarde - Bauzemont

We really should be off we thought, and while those around the port have seen our getting off "first thing" performance before, by the time three in the afternoon arrived, few of them thought we were serious.

We were.  Deadly so.  The cloud cleared just briefly enough to snap a photograph of the first lock through the windshield to mark the occasion and we were off, into what was in the blink of an eye to become a bleak, windy cold apparently atypical spring day.

It felt terrific to be on the move, just as terrific as it had staying in one place in fact or maybe just  ever so slightly more.   We hadn't left ourselves enough time to go terribly far, but we spent the night a respectable thirteen kilometres away in the quiet of the Moselle countryside.

Quiet except for one miserable cat, which, if thoughts could kill would have expended all nine of its lives as it tromped around our decks because it could wearing what we took to be some sort of feline version of working boots.  But it was bitterly unpleasant out, with a wind and single digit temperatures, so we stayed snug inside content to let it do whatever it wished, taking consolation that it was not as warm as we.

Open all hours Vergaville

When Jacques had suggested last week that we pay a visit to an artisanal cheese maker in a nearby village, and in the same village a new cafe which was run by several artists that looked quite promising, and that Saturday lunch time would be a good time if we wanted a lift, we thought it would be rude of us to do anything but accept.

Jacques and Maggie's car is too small for six but fortunately Aileen and Grahame had the use of their rental car for just a few more days so they tagged along, intent on sharing one of our much boasted of quintessential travel experiences.

As we turned off the road to enter the main street of the village it became apparent that something was quintessentially wrong in the way it usually is when we are involved with anything that is required to be open for business.  The first hint of this was the sign which said "road closed 200m".  The second hint we received two hundred metres later when we discovered that the road was indeed closed.

After much zigging and zagging, an alternative route was discovered, as was the cheese farm and the sign on it's gate which quite unequivocally noted that said farm was indeed closed today  and could we please go somewhere else.  This we duly did in direction cafe.    Unfortunately direction cafe involved turning into the other end of the road that we had previously been advised was closed, and the cafe apparently out of sympathy for the road (open seven days) was quite clearly not at all open for this Saturday lunch.  

A neighbour advised that the cafe would actually open later in the evening if we'd like to come back then for lunch, and by then the village fete would be in full swing a rollicking good time could be ensured.   This did explain the closure of the road, and the filling of it with all sorts of carnival rides and stalls, seemingly abandoned and appearing for all the world as though it were some sort of surreal movie set.

But we didn't linger.  We found another town, had a stunning lunch and for far too long into the evening had a rollicking good time of our own without having to close a road.

Finding excuses not to go Lagarde

Perhaps we could have left today, but that would have entailed bolting everything back together in a hurry, or going out in miserable weather, or worse still, it would have entailed missing lunch tomorrow.

Bill did appear with the tools to connect the gizwitch in the gear selection setup, but almost as suddenly as he appeared wandered off carrying a blue metal part and shaking his head and muttering something.

While he was off beating something into submission with a shifting spanner, I set about trying to find the source of the air entering the water pump with equal lack of success.   We may have both been on the verge of actual swearing for a time, particularly after  Mr Perkins made it quite clear that his is very happy indeed to be still spitting as much smoke as he was before we gave him his new injectors, but in the end he seemed to sulk into submission, and after a good deal of sputtering and banging on his part as well as perhaps some actual cursing in an old engine kind of way, he began to turn the actual propellor.

With very little confidence that he will remain his happy self for the duration of our summer, he was none the less pronounced "ready to go".

Meanwhile in an apparent attempt to avoid witnessing any fracas involving, two grown men and an old engine the other of us had taken the kind offer of a ride to a place called "Ikea" and was apparently completely occupied for the day, deep in women's business and oblivious to the goings on back at the ranch.

Housekeeping Lagarde

Whoever it was that wrote "age shall not weary them" should perhaps have added the post script - "But staying up late playing cards with a pair of Kiwis night after night may well leave them a little tired."

It's a public holiday again today, this time to celebrate Ascencion Day and we thought for a time we may well complete the housekeeping and get underway tomorrow, but that was before we failed to wake up bright and early and decided we needed to relax for perhaps just one more day.

Somehow we knew at the time we thought about leaving this week, that it was a thought wasted.  We have been waiting for a few days for Bill to finish a few rush jobs for others and get back to complete some definitely not rush jobs on dear old Mr Perkins and he has thus far failed to appear for long enough to do them.  Thankfully he has the knack of appearing "just in time" so we are certain that all will be well at exactly the time we make up our minds to depart.

Besides we have an invitation to explore a particular cafe in a village nearby at about lunchtime on Saturday, and it would be remiss of us to waste such an opportunity, so perhaps we shall leave come Sunday, and just do a little tidying up in the mean time.