Morverc'h: Powerless at Nancy (9

Autumn Rain for Sainte Marie

We descend the great Rechicourt lock in beautiful afternoon sunshine with Wernher, partner and the Albatros, and set off for the lovely mooring at Port Sainte Marie. We haven’t even completed the pound from the lock – less than 15 minutes – and the skies blacken. By the time we make the next lock it is pouring and stormy.

Houston We Have a Problem

We have to get “plug in” at Sainte Marie for power, as for last week or so we have noticed we have a problem with our charging from the domestic alternator. We call Duncan at Lorraine Marine. It may just be a loose connection he says, but where and how to find it. I’ll look at it when you get back here, he offers. We now have to plan it so that we can keep finding power points.

Sunshine at Xures

We want to miss Lagarde, however, and we can’t face the horse flies and there is no power at other placements. So we push on to Xures. They have just finished some very fine moorings here, but when we have tied up we discover that the power is not being commissioned until next season.

Xures is a quiet but pretty little village, with a strange but sad monument in the middle to whole families transported during the war, but little to explain it.

A Grey, Rainy Day

While our first day at Xures is beautiful the next turns to rain again, and in search of power we move just a few kilometres on to Parroy, which has a beautifully set camping site and mooring run by the local commune. We can settle in here for a couple of days.

Moored at Parroy

Again this is a very pleasant village but the centre has more about the travails here and at Xures in 1944-45. There is clearly a particular history which is only partly told.

Sentier du Memoire

On the walk back there are many trees and flowers and little pathways. This wild outgrowth on the side of the road was particularly enticing.

Wild Apples and Blackberries

History Lessons at Parroy

Back at the mooring we get to meet up with Mme Lysiane Anstett who is the manager of the mooring and the campsite. She is a very thorough lady but quite engaged and informing. She explains the particular tragedy of Xures. She lends us some local histories which were quite fascinating accounts of oral memories of families who were deported but mostly made their way back.

Histories of Parroy and Xures

We enjoyed our two days but now onward to Nancy. We are worrying how we will maintain our power batteries but Lysiane kindly gives us some tokens for power at Einville, in case the shop to get them there is not open.

Worrying about Power

We manage to get four hours of power at Einville. We phone ahead to Nancy and book a mooring with power there for two days ahead. So with what we take on at Einville we think we can survive two days, and take a delightful stop at Crevic as we did on the way out.

Leaving Crevic we go through Dombasle and Varangéville, where we pass through six locks where the gates are made of plastic to avoid rust. It seems it works. It might catch on.

A Plastic Lock at Varangéville

And then on through St Nicholas and into Nancy itself.

The Chateau at St Nicolas du Port

Miscommunication at Nancy

We arrive at Nancy and the harbour master is not the one we had previously or whom we spoke to on the phone. He says he has no record of our booking and any way no spare spaces. But we find a kind Frenchman who is happy to let us moor alongside him. The harbour master agrees we can do this. Phew! We plug in with our domestic batteries showing 11.9 (for a 12 volt battery range).

The plug-in is great, but the barge we are moored against is about 4 foot (1.2m) above our decks. We can clamber up, but the dogs can’t. Shady relaxes in our arms as we hoist her up for a late night walk. But Topsy considers this undignified, and fights and tussles so that she almost falls 6 foot into the canal, and we are quite exhausted. At least getting them back on is easier.

Next morning at 7 am we unplug (now having our batteries reasonably charged up) and chug out of the port and around the corner where the dogs can easily get off on to the canal quay. But a few early morning walkers and joggers look intriguingly at us, wondering no doubt if we are doing a moonlight flit. But a good stiff walk, breakfast, and off we go again.

Liverdun Sadly Not for Us

The canal out of Nancy is gentle enough. We drop onto the Moselle. As we round the bends at Liverdun the wind and rain kicks up quite fierce. With the wind now lashing away we seem to making hardly any headway around the bends, with both wind and river flow working against us. One kilometre seems to (does almost) take half an hour.

We head for the run into the Liverdun cove. It is completely deserted. The entry is quite narrow with large reed beds on either side making it very difficult to manoeuvre. There is just one long, right angled steel pontoon, and then the walk to land is about 50 metres over meshed metal. We are not going to carry the dogs that far and they cannot walk it.

We decide to give it a miss. But if getting in was difficult, getting out was .... well, a nightmare. But nudge, nudge, slowly, slowly, we finally made the open river.

OK then, non-stop to Toul. It is late in the day and we are very tired. We moor up at the pontoon opposite Lorraine Marine, check in with Duncan who will come to look at the alternator tomorrow, eat supper, walk the dogs, and crash out for the night

Entering Toul

Resolving Problems

Duncan tests the alternator and it seems to have gone completely. Luckily we can plug in at the Port de France where we will winter, and Duncan will replace the alternator over the winter. [That is another story.]

A Beautiful Autumn at Toul

Anyway, now we’re home for the winter. We have a lovely few days at Toul, though mainly cleaning up and winterising, and then leave the boat in the tender care of Tony and Jean-Pierre at Port de France, and Duncan at Lorraine Marine.

As often here the afternoons and evening are warm and sunny. We have some beautiful evenings.