Alsace Lorraine - Canal du Marne us Rhin - Self Drive Cruise

[ayebee]

This is my first attempt at a trip report, after some interest was expressed in another thread.
I don't usually focus on airline seats or food etc, so this is more about the canal cruise.

Getting there
The core of the holiday was in Alsace - Lorraine, so we booked our Singapore Airlines in and out of Frankfurt.
At the time it was a A380 from / to Singapore, but that was changed to a B773 starting 2 days before our MEL departure. The consolation was the A380 was moved to the Melbourne – Singapore flight.
Our SIN-FRA flight SQ26 (17 May) had a medical diversion to Istanbul, delaying our arrival in Frankfurt by 2.5 hours, which provided some excitement (stress?) on making a pre-paid train from Frankfurt to Munich (why you may ask … ), but that was of little consequence considering the medical emergency. After the passenger left the plane with the IST ambos we were advised he was OK.

Our routine is to stay somewhere for a few days of chill & recover from travel and jetlag.
In this case we decided to head over to Malta to see somewhere new.
We stayed in Senglea in a very nice but strangely named Snop House Hotel. It has only 6 rooms and very personal. We had the top front room looking out over the rooftops.
More information about our stay if anyone is interested.

One pic of the view from the Snop House roof terrace.


Then it was on to Strasbourg.
I expect most know Strasbourg as an attractive city with rivers through the centre, and plenty of tourists.
Our Hotel Bristol was functional, comfortable and lacking any wow factor. It is directly opposite the main station, which looks like a giant slug in daytime but reveals a classic station building when lit at night. We had not included breakfast so went wandering for classic French café / patisserie offerings.



We caught a regional (TER) train from Strasbourg to Lutzelbourg (about 30 minutes and EU12) where the Locaboat base is about 10 minutes walk from the station.



The Boat Rental
Our boat was a “penichette” style, model P.1180FB.
The FB means flying bridge, which provides an upper deck with steering position in addition to one in the saloon, and seating with awning.
There were 3 bedrooms with ensuites. They are very cosy and beds are small and firm.
Search Locaboat if more info needed on various boat options.




When planning the trip we had 2 couples as definites, but chose the 3 cabin model on chance another couple would join us.
That didn’t happen but the extra room was useful for our luggage. Made it more expensive but still manageable.
Extra hands would have been useful for locks etc as well.

Show me the money !
We rented for 17 nights, which is probably longer than most hires.
By booking last October, we got an early bird rate.
With E/r at times I paid deposit and balance that worked out at $12,000 for the basic rental.

There are also other charges.
The standard terms includes a Euro2000 insurance excess damage deposit payable at collection, plus cleaning, fuel used, and bike hire.
They offer a “package” that covers cleaning, unlimited fuel, one bike and a reduced insurance excess of EU500. The package was about $1900.
Given we probably fewer kms per day than an average hire, it may have turned out cheaper to pay at the end but I thought the reduced insurance exposure was worth it and I feel it made the final inspection at hand back a little less picky.

So our total hire was $13900.

Dividing by 17 nights that is about $820 per day or just over $200 per person per day.
If we had used the available beds it would be $136 pp / day.
That seems ok as covering accommodation, transport and entertainment.

There were some additional charges if you moor at a port, where you can have shore power and water, on-shore toilets and showers (which we never used).
Locaboat recommended every second day to have shore power to ensure batteries were charged, and top up the water tanks.
We found port charges varied from about EU15 to EU25 per night. One night at Niderviller was EU30, and it was nowhere near the fanciest.
We ended staying 3 nights in Nancy and 2 in Saverne as these were convenient ports in nice towns.

Boat Pickup
Locaboat check-in was from 2 to 4pm.
I did the paperwork and we had an extensive briefing and tour of the boat and its various features. Normally this would include a short training cruise, but we elected to do this next morning as we planned to stay the night at the base, for various reasons.

This where we started to find out that some of the information we relied on was invalid.
Locaboat promote their hires as “license free” and had previously advised a possible cruise which included a section on the Moselle River, but when collecting the boat we were advised we could not go on the river without a license. Ultimately it was not a major issue for us going out and back, but could be if your itinerary relied on a river section on a one way rental. Best get that clarified before locking in your rental.


Along the Canal

Lutzelbourg
It is a nice town strung out along the valley and canal.
We had decided to stay the first night at the Locaboat base to make finding dinner easier at a local restaurant.
Relying on the Locaboat info we had planned to do grocery shopping in Lutzelbourg but found the place had closed with COVID and never re-opened.
To complicate matters it was the start of a long weekend for Whit Monday where literally everything would be closed.
We had bought some basics not needing refrigeration in Strasbourg, and with luck there was a farmers market Saturday morning. The excellent boulangerie provided superb croissants for breakfast plus a stock of “emergency baguettes” which we froze now knowing we could not assume easy supplies in the days ahead.

Lutzelbourg had a few places to eat, and we chose fanciest place, being the pleasant terrace of the Hotel Restaurant des Vosges for dinner.
The meal was ok if a little pricey for the offering.
Lutzelbourg also had a ruined castle on the hill above it. We explored that later, on our return pass through the town.

Arzviller Boat Lift
Day 1 on the canal and we had our orientation with the Locaboat guy. He took us through the first lock (up) west of Lutzelbourg and was apparently satisfied we were sufficiently capable to take it from there. (More about lock sequences later).
Just a few kms and 3 locks from Lutzelbourg we arrived at the Arzviller Boat Lift.


The boat lift opened in 1968, it is something of an engineering marvel.
An inclined plane raising boats 44.5m over about 130m replaced 17 locks over a 3.6km section of the old canal.
We stopped for a wander around then simply got in the queue and took our turn after just 2 cycles. Apparently you can wait a long time in peak season.

 

[ayebee]

continued ...

Arzviller Tunnels

From the top of the boat lift there is an unusually long 32km “pound” without a lock, where you emerge from the forested Vosges valleys into the plateau with expansive farmlands.

Just a kms from the lift you arrive at the control point for the Arzviller Tunnel. They are one way, and you announce your presence by mooring towards the sign advising this where you are detected either by radar or CCTV monitored remotely.
We were lucky again, and waited maybe 20 minutes before several boats came through the tunnel and we got the green light.
There are 2 tunnels, the first being 2300m, and the second 480m. Given the 3km speed limit you can understand why you may need to wait longer than we did.


the railway and canal are close together



Further west
After a quick look at Niderviller port, we continued west at a steady 6 or 7kmph.
We had 16 days to enjoy the canal, but we also had arranged to meet friends in Nancy a few days later.
We overnighted at Gondexange where next morning (Sunday) we discovered an excellent boulangerie with a good fridge selection of meats, cheeses, wine as well as usual croissants and baguettes. The locals queuing behind us for their morning bread were good natured and mildly bemused.

Gondrexange to Lagarde

After Gondrexange the scenery alternated between lakes and forests until we arrived at the Ecluse de Rechicort, another engineering marvel. This is a more conventional lock, but deep, with a level change of 16m. It replaced 5 of the original locks.
Once more it was a case of getting in line and taking our turn. The wait gave time to moor the boat and have a look at the old locks, and watch a cycle of the new one.
At this lock the VNF lock operators give you a remote control that works for the locks we would use to the west, and back. You would give it back at the Moselle River, if you were going that far.
Using the remote at each lock provided more confidence that your presence was recorded.



More on locks later, however one basic action is that once into the lock there is a control point. Generally, 45 seconds after entering the lock, the blue light starts flashing and you then raise the blue pole for a few seconds to activate the sequence. You are often sharing a lock with another boat, so make sure everyone is happy first.
There is a rather loud beeping sound, but don’t be alarmed. It is just the indication the lock gates are about to move, then everything happens automatically.
At this point you just need to be happy with your ropes.




We moored in the Lagarde port to get power and water.
Being Whit Monday, the “Capitainerie” was closed so it was a matter of working out the self-serve screen to pay and activate the power. That was quite a struggle given the screen tended to go blank and was very faint with the setting sun behind. We got lucky with a pop-up bar in the village, but as expected we dined on board.

 

[ayebee]

Nancy

The next night we overnighted in a rather industrial Dombasle sur Meurthe, where we found a pizza place, then made the dash into Nancy.
Nancy has a nice port not far from the centre of town.
It is a rather surprising with notionally around 100k inhabitants, but gives a the impression of a much bigger city.
I believe the broader urban area is more like 500k.
The city centre is superb, particularly the Place Stanislas city square, on par with just about any in Europe.
It is named after duke Stanislas 1 of Lorraine, and King of Poland.



From there through the arch Héré you come to the older part of town and the Ducal Palace of Lorraine, now a government building and parts of the old fortifications beyond.




There is also much art deco influence. We had dinner in the art deco Excelsior Brasserie. The décor was more impressive than the food and service.
Dinner al fresco the next night at Frères Marchand was less fussy and better overall.



Nancy is well worth a visit.

 

[ayebee]

The Way Back

Nancy was our turn around spot, so it was time to head east, however having made our rendezvous with friends we now had a more leisurely schedule, but our aim was to stop at different places.

The Basilica of St Nicholas de Port is visible from quite a distance, so investigating the town made it out first night stop, though the nearby train line was a little noisy quite early in the morning. The town turned out to be rather interesting, and we found a small market with produce, local honey and “chicken and chips” for dinner.




The next couple of days we moored away from towns and made it back through the mega lock at Rechicort. We again visited our favourite boulangerie at Gondrexange before backtracking a little to head north on the Canal de Houllieres for the day before backtracking and mooring at Houillon port, the name of our boat.



Next night was at Niderviller port, which turned out (for some unknown reason) to be easily the most expensive port at EU30 for the night.
At least there was a pleasant Auberge de Tannenheim restaurant close to the port.





We took the opportunity to check out the Vallée des Éclusiers, that is the locks replaced by the boat lift. The old lock keepers houses have become cafes or B&Bs, and maybe the homes of artists and crafts people. This is where the distinctive red Vosges sandstone was shipped to be used in many buildings like the Strasbourg cathedral.


From there it was another passage through the tunnels and boat lift, and another night at Locaboat Lutzelbourg.


The next morning was the opportunity to climb up to the ruins above the town, before heading for our next destination.



With our 17 day hire, we had time to overshoot Lutzelbourg and go down another 10 locks and 12 kms to Saverne, which was well worth it.

On the second last lock before Saverne we finally saw “three reds” on the lock gates with 6 boats waiting ahead of us. Some conversation with other crews established the VNF were aware and on their way. We had a chat with the engineer and advised the lock was fine, except it had become “confused” with its state (the computer said no) so they were going to manually operate it while they got it back to normal. So after a few cycles we were on our way with the VNF guys still with their heads down various pits.

 

[JohnM]

Lovely!

 

[ayebee]

Saverne

The Saverne port was rather busy and initially the Capitainerie only wanted to allow us 1 night, but with a little cajoling and moving the boat to a different position we got the 2 nights we wanted. Either way, we could probably have moored around the corner on the canal for the second night, but it was convenient to stay in one place.

Arriving Saverne



Interestingly, there seemed to be some boats near us who seemed to be “semi-permanent”.
BTW, backing into a boat width mooring can be a little stressful for newbies, but all possible by doing it slowly and taking care. Bow thrusters are wonderful.

Saverne is another impressive town. The Chateau de Rohan is directly opposite the port. In fact, if you look at the map/ aerial view, you can see how the canal was put through right beside the palace, and the port created across the original grounds.



The town of Saverne is behind the palace, which is now a municipal building and facilities, plus a museum (which seems rather obsessed with one local famous person who was significant in establishing the European Union and parliament).





We took an early morning hike up to the Chateau de Haut Barr (The Eye of Alsace), where nearby there is a restored Tour de Telegraph Chappe, part of the earliest forms of “networking”.



Then around lunchtime it was time to head for the 10 locks uphill through the Vosges valleys to Lutzelbourg.

The first lock out of Saverne is quite deep and slow, and has a rather long cycle. It had quite a queue during the morning but when we left around lunchtime we only waited one cycle.

Our trip back to Lutzelbourg actually took us longer than we expected as the lock sequence seemed to be disrupted (see notes on locks)

The smallest boat we saw - even had room for the dog, though it would get rather wild in some of the locks


Tonight was pizza night, and it was pretty good. Just arrive early as we did as the place ended up having a lot of people hanging around waiting for a table.

Departure
The standard arrangement with Locaboat was to hand the boat back between 8 and 9am, so best to be there overnight to be organised.
They inspect the boat to determine there is nothing to worry about re the insurance.
We had done the obligatory stripping of beds and putting in bags provided, plus the dishes and a general tidy up.
The inspection focussed on the toilets ensuring they had not been blocked, and the solid rubber bumper strip around the sides, presumably to check we had not hit anything too hard.
All good, nothing to worry about.

We had planned for the 10.06 train and were at the station ready to go when we noticed it was cancelled. Never mind, the next train was 11.35, which would get us tot Strasbourg in time for lunch.





From There
After a night in Strasbourg, we
- bus to Frankfurt & flew to Prague for 3 nights
- train to Brno for 2 nights
- bus to Krakow for 3 nights
- train to Warsaw for 3 nights
- train to Berlin for 4 nights
- train to Frankfurt for 1 night
- flew home on SQ via Singapore

I can add some info on various hotels etc for those place if any interest.


Navigating locks etc
Understanding the triangular 3 light signal is important.
One green is easy – move into the lock.
One red and one green means stop, but the lock is being prepared for you.
Two reds means stop.
Three reds means the lock is out of service, stop and moor for who know how long.

Various sections of the canal have different arrangements.

Between Saverne and Arzviller lift, they rely on you being "in the flow".
Heading west, at Saverne they detect you waiting for the first lock, then expect you to keep going to the boat lift. Similarly, from the Arzviller lift heading east towards Saverne.

However, obviously people stop and start along the way which can disrupt this sequence, for example if you stop for a picnic and another boat passes by it takes your spot in the sequence, and vice versa. Don’t feel compelled to keep going but start and stop as you wish.

If you arrive at a lock with red lights, and it doesn’t look like it is preparing for you (1 red & 1 green), then put someone ashore and walk up to the lock where you find an intercom.

Our experience was the person at the other end could generally understand English and was friendly.


From Rechicort to Nancy & beyond, you have a remote to register your presence.
Once you have the orange light flashing acknowledgement it is just a matter of waiting, which can take some time if the lock is waiting for another boat on the other side.

The first lock of the Canal des Houilieres had a rope hanging above the middle of the canal. Pull it down to register your presence, like the remote described above.
From there it was a sequence arrangement as per the Saverne to Arzviller section.

When we were waiting, most of the time we just loitered in the middle of the canal maybe 70m back from the gates, to save on the effort of mooring. However on some occasions the wind meant that was difficult so we just let the boat nestle against the bank where the wind took us. On a few occasions we actually moored up to the bollards usually available in the lock waiting zones.

My preference was to hang back a good distance to allow a reasonably long and stable approach to the lock, to avoid a lot of steering corrections close to the gates.
Be aware of other boats behind you. It is best to save water by sharing a lock even if you have to wait a few minutes.

The canal “Guide Fluvial” book is a must have.
Locaboat will lend you a copy, but I purchase one in advance to assist in planning.
While it is still good for the details of the canal, be aware the company that published these guides died and they have not been updated for many years. This means the canal details, distances, locks etc are all good, the information about restaurants, grocery stores, etc cannot be relied on. We even found google maps was not up to date with all the places that had closed and never reopened after covid.



Would I use Locaboat again?

This was our third French canal self-drive hire, and I suspect our last rental either way, but probably … yes.
We also had a week on a hotel barge on the Loire Lateral which was a combined bike and barge. Very enjoyable.
Our first self drive was Canal du Midi (Castelnaudary to Homps), where we had a large Le Boat “Magnifique”.
Next was our first Locaboat FB penichette (4 cabin / 6 pax) on Canal du Nivernais (Corbigny to Joigny).

We preferred the deck layout and accessibility of the penichette so went with that style and Locaboat for this cruise.
However, the boat we had this time was a bit “tired” compared to the one we had on the Nivernais. It was nicely presented, and spotlessly clean and tidy, but…
The biggest concern was the bow thrusters were prone to cutting out when you really needed them. At critical times we needed someone ready to reset the breaker (very inconveniently located under a bed) at a moments notice. I only wiped out one bumper on a lock gate.

Looking at the other boats on the canal,
Nicols boats looked the most stylish, and maybe nicest for a smaller group.
Le Boats all looked quite beaten up. Maybe that is good thing being “pre-disastered”.
Navig France looked like practical barges (but maybe only in Alsace?)

Check out French Waterways website where they have a good gallery of all the various rental companies.
It could depend on where you want to go and which companies have the most convenient bases.

 

[RooFlyer]

Fabulous, informative report, thanks!

 

[VPS]

Excellent first TR

I did a Nicols boat on the Canal lateral a la Loire and I don't remember having to pay to moor anywhere.

It's a great way to travel

 

[kookaburra75]

Thanks for putting this Trip Report together, it's given us a lot of ideas for when we do the Grande Tour in a couple of years, once I retire - MrsK having already got there. I have a soft spot for this style of cruising, including the narrow boats in the UK, so I appreciate the effort you have gone to.

 

[ayebee]

Thanks for putting this Trip Report together, it's given us a lot of ideas for when we do the Grande Tour in a couple of years, once I retire - MrsK having already got there. I have a soft spot for this style of cruising, including the narrow boats in the UK, so I appreciate the effort you have gone to.

Thanks.
Before the French trips we had 5 days in 2000 on UK narrowboat on Grand Union canal.
Happy to provide more detail if requested.

 

[ayebee]

In case anyone is interested, now have a video of the canal part of the trip