Canal des Vosges

After enjoying a few days with frequent cruisers Jackie, David and their lovely daughter on the Haute Saone we entered the Canal des Vosges at Corre. We attempted this canal several years ago but had to turn around because of low water.

First stop was Fontenoy-le-Chateau which was the last stop on our previous attempt. It’s a lovely little town with, yes, ruins of a chateau, a bar and not much else.

The canal is beautiful, unusually weed-free and with lovely spots to have a picnic or spend the night.

And locks. Lots and lots of locks. Not that we’re complaining…. they were all working.

We passed through two swing bridges that were built in the 1800s. The technology hasn’t changed: When a boat approaches a canal worker magically appears to push it around.

But locks. Lots and lots of locks. Our last morning we did 14 locks in 3 km. We were so efficient (and lucky), it only took us two hours.

We can always tell when we are nearing a city of any size because local artwork starts to appear.

We’re docking Decize in Epinal, sister city to La Crosse, Wisconsin, for a few days while we visit friends in another town.

3 thoughts on “Canal des Vosges”

  1. Glad to hear your comments about the Canal des Vosges. We are going S, currently in transit on the Canal de Saint-Quentin and we’re trying to plot the best suitable depth, lesser weed route. (Lots of water weed on the Saint-Quentin, which is problematic for our shoal draft but twin keel sailboat.) Is there a chance we could exchange notes?)

    Like

    Reply

    1. Hello. We are still in Epinal (got waylaid by a festival), heading north tomorrow. We had planned to go to Nancy but have family plans that will require turning around before that. As we mentioned in our blog the Canal des Vosges is amazingly weed free and water does not seem to be an issue (the C. des Vosges has a reputation of closing before the fall due to water shortage). Not sure what your options are. We were on the C. de Champagne in 2024 and it was very weedy. We have seen a couple of sailboats on the Vosges but we only draw 0.9m so can’t say much about water depth for sailboats.

      A good source of current information is the Facebook group “Women on Barges”. It is a closed, international group open only to women. It is a supportive network that has been invaluable for getting up to date info on the state of a waterway. My wife will post a question and we usually get several replies with a day or to.

      Like

      Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.