Unexcused Absences France 2015 - Week 1 Recap (he said)

France 2015 – Week 1 Recap (he said)

by Kent 25 Jun 2015

After our delicious and fun Sunday evening of pizza with the locals at “Le Snack Pizza” (at our winter port of Lagarde) we set to work Monday morning on the 2015 boat projects. The big ones were to change the oil and secondary fuel filter, replace the old primary fuel filter with a modern Racor one, and replace the kitchen countertop. I had five days set aside for projects, with the hope of setting out on our 2015 cruise Saturday afternoon.

Old countertop on the way out

New countertop (and old sink) in place

The extra-cute Citroën ‘Dyane’ rental car at Lagarde

Other than a few minor roadblocks (pipe fittings that didn’t quite fit, and getting an 8-foot long countertop home from the bricolage – 50 km away – on the roof of the rental car with no roof rack), we finished the projects on time and even had an extra day to drive to Champagne to pick up a few cases of our favorite Champagnes from last year, a Zimmerlin-Flamant Premier Cru and a Nowack Brut.

Reward for hard work; wine tasting (and buying) at Oeno-Tech

We also visited a caviste (wine merchant) in St-Nicolas-De-Port (south-east of Nancy) and stocked up on some fantastic new (for us) wines. We stepped out of our Burgundy comfort zone and picked up two different reds from Bordeaux, a lightweight red from Épineuil (a little-known wine village in Burgundy), some white from Rully, and a Chardonnay from Languedoc. We also acquired, in trade, two bottles of Petit Chablis from the owner of our winter boatyard. We had given him a case of wine to garder (keep) for us over the winter, and apparently the temptation of a Givry 2012 Pinot Noir was more than he could stand. We’re quite proud of the fact that a Frenchman thought enough of our wine selection to nick a bottle. But I think two Petit Chablis for one Côte Chalonaise red is a decent trade. Note to self: next year, ask him to garder not just the case, but the wine itself.

First day’s cruise

Saturday afternoon, fully loaded with fuel, water, supplies, and wine, we set out east on the Canal de la Marne au Rhin. First night was a beautiful rural spot just past the Saar Canal junction at Gondrexange, and close to the little hamlet of Xouaxange (neither of these town names can be pronounced). After a happy hour of delicious French cheese and Champagne and an episode of “sheep TV” (very similar to “cow TV”, in which a herd of quadrupeds wanders around their pasture eating, chewing cud, and moo-ing / baa-ing), and after a fruitless search for a boulangerie (the one in town was normally open Saturdays & Sundays, but not these Saturdays and Sundays), we ate a delicious boat-cooked meal and fell asleep.

First night out – grilled veal stuffed with pork sausage

Sunday’s drive was a rural stretch with 13 locks to Mittersheim. We arrived very late in the day, way past boulangerie opening hours, so I had to get creative. Fortunately, from our first canal charter trip in 2007, I remembered there was a camping park nearby. And camping parks usually have a snack shop selling things like steak-frites (steak with fries), la pizza (pizza), and sandwichs Americaine (definitely not like any American sandwich you’ve ever seen). I rode over and asked/begged for a few sandwich rolls, and the proprietor was nice enough to sell me a couple, so a two-day-without-bread crisis was averted.

The 50 foot deep lock at Reichcourt

Monday we entered the Saar Valley, which became apparent when I looked at the town names in this stretch; Saaralbe, Sarre-Union, Sarrebourg, Sarreguemines, Saarbrücken, Saarlouis, Saarfels, Saarholzbach, and Saarburg. Yikes. The Saar Valley (Sarre in French) was a major industrial player in the 19th and 20th centuries. Coal and iron mining plus steel production dominated this area between the Franco-Prussian war and a few decades after World War II.

La Maison des Têtes (the house of heads) in Saaralbe

We spent Monday night in Saaralbe, Tuesday night at a rural mooring in Zetting, and then got back in the “Saar” theme by staying in Sarreguemines Wednesday, Saarbrücken Thursday, and Saarlouis Friday. Dad arrived Wednesday afternoon for his annual canal boat visit, and only had one small wrench thrown into his travel plans; the final train connection in Saarbrucken was too short, and by the time he bought his train ticket and got to the correct track, the train was pulling away. Fortunately, Saarbrucken runs a tram system that connects to Sarreguemines, so he was only about half an hour late.

Guest parking spot in Sarreguemines

Thursday day we continued north on the Saar and crossed into Germany, and spent the night in the medium-sized city of Saarbrücken. We timed our visit perfectly because Friday morning we hit their regular farmers market. And what a change a few kilometers and a national border make; gone were the baguettes and French cheese, and in their place popped up incredible pretzels, fantastic sausages, and delicious beer. We made a point of taking Dad to a big grocery store so he could search for beer labels to add to his 3000+ label collection (but not before adding the bottles’ contents to our digestive systems).

The Saar River at Saarlouis

Later we continued downstream (north) and arrived late into Saarlouis, where we parked with our new Swiss friends, Erwin and Anna, whom we had met a couple times during the past few days and who were taking their almost-annual canal charter trip. We shared a long and delicious happy hour, so delicious that there was really no need for a proper dinner.

Völklinger Steel Works Museum

Saturday morning, after a visit to the farmers market and the beer store (a large warehouse filled floor-to-ceiling with lots of different beer), we hopped on a train and backtracked to the town of Völklingen, where we had hopped to stop with the boat but where we were turned away by the vigilant wasser-polizei (water police) because there was some waterfront festival that weekend and for reasons known only to the wasser-polizei, boats were not invited (?) to the waterfront festival.

The monorail system for carrying the loaded iron ore hopers

Völklinger was on my must-see list because it is home to an immense, defunct steel mill that shut down around 30 years ago. The mill was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site, and is now a very popular museum. The self-guided tour winds for over four miles in, around, through, and on top of the steel works. It was fascinating to see up close the scale of the machinery. It’s one thing to see a large industrial plant from a distance, and quite another to be able to poke around through the guts of the works. Definitely worth the somewhat pricey 15 Euros to visit. Even the on-site food (grilled bratwurst) was delicious.

Top of the steel mill; vent stacks for the furnaces

After our steel mill visit we motored a quick half-hour down-river to a nice little boat harbor and yacht club in Dillingen. Our 13 Euro fee included water, electricity, showers, and wi-fi. Our first week of cruising ended with a delicious home-cooked meal of wurst mit spätzle (sausage with German egg noodle dumplings). As much as we’ll miss our daily French baguette for the next few weeks, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with daily German sausage, pretzels and beer.

Week 1 Numbers