contentedsouls

Longeville en Barrois to Bar le Duc

I toddled into the town of Longeville yesterday morning for much needed supplies before the dreaded lunchtime curfew. I was determined to be ‘all chores done’ by 2.00 pm to sit and watch the ladies’ world bowls final. Although it’s quite a large place all I found was a bar/restaurant, tabac and boucherie. Not even a boulangerie. I managed to get eggs but no milk or vegetables.

We made some water this morning before heading off towards Bar Le Duc. I walked the dogs to the first two locks with the sun trying it’s hardest to provide us with our shadows. Baxter had had enough by then so I popped him back on the boat with G. On the approach to that lock MR crossed a pretty aqueduct over the River l’Ornain. Muttley and I had to get back on at the next lock due to a towpath closure where they were repairing the canal edge but, by then, the sun was fabulous for a little while, bathing this roofless barn and a tree laden with mistletoe in golden light.

By 12.00 we had reached our 5th and last lock of the day which, rather interestingly, had a road and lift bridge running below and immediately behind the downstream lock gates – quite weird as you watched the tops of buses drive across MR’s nose. Unfortunately I couldn’t time it well with the camera and only caught the woolly hatted head of a pedestrian and no vehicles.

The lock empties and then barriers stop the traffic before the lift bridge rises. So the lock emptied and we waited to see the bridge lift and the lock gates open….and we waited…..and we waited……and we waited. Bloody lunchtime again! A search through the small print of our Fluvia Carte said the lift bridges were closed for lunch until 12.30. It was 12.40 before anything happened (could have been 2.00 pm so not bad) so we sat at the bottom of the lock and waited whilst VNF food was consumed and digested. As for us, well you’ve heard of cup-a-soup; we had lock-a-soup. The next picture is taken looking back into the lock with the bridge raised. Heaven forbid you should raise the bridge and stop people from getting home promptly to lunch.

The second lift bridge responded immediately and lifted two sections as separate parts of a dual carriageway.

There is no doubt about it, we are going to have to adjust our body clocks to French time. It’s market day in Bar le Duc tomorrow – they’ll probably have closed and gone to lunch by the time I get there.