Next interesting stop on our way back to St Jean was the huge boat lift at Arzviller. The boats are lifted the height of about 7 locks sideways up a steep slope. Unfortunately it was misty & raining so the view wasn't very good.
From there we continued to Nancy & then had to turn back & go the long way round to Toul as one one the bridges was broken & couldn't open. This involved a chain of 13 locks followed by another 5 so a fairly energetic day. The weather then got seriously rainy & the rivers started to rise so we beat a hasty retreat down to Epinal where the sun came out again.
Epinal harbour was very pretty & the old town worth the walk to explore. Val found a friendly lion in the rose gardens.
Moving on down the river Saone to Gray the rain started again. On arrival we found the jetty just under water but the following day it started to rise rapidly & we had to go back up through the lock to moor at the VNF workshop where we had to climb on to the roof to get off the boat. By late afternoon we had gone up about 2 foot & the only sign of the original mooring jetty was a notice board in the river - we had a lovely sunset as compensation!
The monday morning walks were still well attended - notice the big pile of sugar beet waiting to be taken to the nearby sugar factory - its a big industry round St Jean
We had a short visit to England at the end of November so all too soon it was Christmas. We were invited to Ann & Lawrences house for Christmas dinner along with Hazel & John. Dave & Pam came for pre dinner drinks & a good time was had by all.
Boxing day was spent on John & Hazels boat -its a full sized peniche as you can guess by the photo of us posing by the xmas tree.
We missed the New Years Eve party as we were in New Zealand but Dave & Tony scrubbed up nicely in their kilts
