contentedsouls

So we trundled off on Friday morning and found we were third in line at the first lock and 3 more waiting to come down – that was 4 more boats than we’d seen in the previous 48 hours. We turned into the backwater to the Halte Fluvial at the village of Millery in glorious hot sunshine. A pleasant enough spot except it was right by a smallish but busy and noisy road. I trundled off with the dogs for a looksee whilst G set up the satellite dish (Grand Prix weekend).

That was it – nowhere to walk the dogs, couldn’t let the cat out and, therefore, couldn’t open any doors or hatches and it was hot. I have absolutely no idea why he moored there – we never moor alongside roads – so I humphed a bit; then I humphed louder; then I humphed louder and more frequently. Finally, ‘would you like to move?’. Yes I would please.

So we moved across the river to a huge island where I could play Robinson Crusoe with the menagerie for the weekend and beat the boundaries; still a few blackberries left and tons of sloes. Both Friday and Saturday were scorching and it seemed crazy to be sun bathing whilst autumn leaves fell on the lounger! Saturday night though the storms moved in and obliterated the telly signal – it rained most of Sunday too but we weren’t too fussed and G did a slap up Sunday lunch whilst I pushed some paint about indoors. We were away just after 9.00 on Monday morning in quite thick misty fog – it was really cold and I resorted to long trousers, woolly hat, gloves and scarf. Wow, what a contrast.

I liked the approach into Nancy – we did this once before in a hire boat 24 years ago and I remember ….absolutely nothing! A variety of permanently moored boats with a couple of quirky ones. The ‘shed’ boat can be purchased for 30,000 euros if it takes your fancy. 2 lift bridges operated automatically and we were moored in the centre of Nancy by 12 o’clock. A cruise of exactly 3 hours.

We spent the afternoon having a look round but were decidedly underwhelmed. I like the ‘muriels’ though – not one of those windows in that building are real.

We went back in again today to the old quarter which was much nicer. We also ran the gauntlet of a conker hailstorm in the park – it really was raining conkers! I know it’s steeped in history and has some amazing architecture, but it’s not for us so we’ll be moving on in the morning.