Canal des Vosges

Now taking its title from the Vosges area of France through which it flows,this canal was originally known as the "Canal of the East, South Branch". It is relatively new, built between 1874 and 1882 as an outcome of France's loss to Germany in the 1870-71 Franco Prussian war and the resulting annexation of the Eastern part of Lorraine. The Eastern end of the Canal from the Marne to the Rhine, and the Rhine too, were now in German territory so an alternative route was urgent. In fact, the Romans had made tentative plans to use this route for water transport and a similar idea had been proposed in the 18th century but not built at that time.

The Canal is about 122 kilometres long with 93 locks. So, like the Burgundy Canal, very heavily locked. The Northern end follows the Moselle River towards it source near Epinal which is not far from the summit. Then it closely follows the Coney River down the Southern end until that river joins the River Saone near Corre. The canal differs from many others in France because it winds almost entirely along the rivers. Other canals tend to have quite a number of straight sections- not the case with the Vosges.

This canal has come as a pleasant discovery for us, and we are very happy indeed that we made our impromptu decision to travel it. It flows almost entirely through rural land and thick forests. The rivers beside it are picturesque. The towns are mostly small and often an overnight stopping spot is in the middle of the forest, not good for satisfying our daily bread requirements, but very tranquil. The locks are automated and work well most of the time. When we had to call for assistance because of a lock malfunction a lock-keeper comes very quickly.

Moselle near the Canal There are two turning bridges, which were built in 1880. 137 years on, they are unchanged. The lock keeper cranks a handle to raise the bridge a little, then he braces his back against it and pushes hard to swing it out of the way, rolling on wheels, thus allowing a boat to pass. Pushing around 100 tonnes of bridge keeps them very fit, especially as some days they might do t twenty times.

Pushing the old bridgeThe canal is almost entirely used by pleasure boats and is very popular with people from many countries of Europe including Scandinavia. probably reflecting its position on the East of France. We saw only one British and one fellow Australian.  

Many of the towns can trace their origins to Gallo- Roman times with more permanent settlement dating to the 10th century. Since then they have been subject to many attacks from enemy troops. Perhaps the saddest history is associated with the town of "Charmes", with a current population of 5,000 people. It was decimated by plague and famine in the 14th century, burned to the ground by Charles the Bold in the 15th Century with most of the inhabitants killed; affected again by plague and famine in the 16th century, and in 1635, taken by French and Swedish troops who burned it again. After a time of peace, it was occupied by the Prussians during the war of 1870/71 and many of its people killed. In World War 1, a major battle took place in the town and 200 inhabitants died. In World War II they fared no better: on September 5 1944 the fleeing Germans captured 160 inhabitants and took them to the death camps where at least 100 of their number died. Since World War II the town has been rebuilt and lives up to its name.

The old Fortress at Chatel The town of Chatel-sur-Moselle contained a hidden gem. This was a Fortress, originally built about 1,000 years ago. For the past 40 years, archeologists have been digging and discovering lots of information. Many of the workers on the site have been and are volunteers. Some of them very young. We saw a 12 year old hauling up buckets of rock from lower excavations. All work must be supervised by qualified people. We had arrived after the last official tour of the day and had been content to view the outside walls and towers. However, one of the guides had started a special, extra tour with some other people, unpadlocked the gate and asked if we would like to join the group. We did! It was fascinating and become even more so when we descended almost 20 metres underground and were shown many of the early defensive parts of the fortress and the guide described how these were used. In many cases, nasty trickery was involved so that invaders would fall into deadly pits or pools and drown. One benefit of the extreme dryness was that the Moselle River is very low and we were able to see the piles of an original bridge from around 1,500 years ago. If your passage across the bridge was undesired, a shower of arrows would rain down on you from the Fortress!

Archeologist to be?

Old bridge over the MoselleEpinal, the capital of this area, is reached along a very shallow branch canal. Only 5-10% of passing boats are visiting Epinal because of the water levels. The original fortress town was built on the banks of the Moselle, and many of its buildings and walls still survive. We visited the Museum of Imagery which described Epinal's association since the 18th century with traditional colour printing, woodcuts and litho printing.

11th Century Church of St Maurice, Epinal

Mis-en-tombe St Maurice, Epinal

One night, two 430 tonne barges arrived and there was nowhere for them to tie up. We managed to free up one bollard for them. They tied the front of one to the rear of the other which was attached to shore by a single line. The resulting 80metre long "vessel" then just settled across the canal, blocking it. As the barges were day time use only, the owners hopped onto bicycles and one car (brought by a wife) and went off somewhere for the night. They were back early at 0630 and were well out of the way before we wanted to move.

In another part of the canal, we crossed over the Moselle RIver by a Pont Canal. It is always eerie travelling on a boat, in a canal full of water which is perched high above another water way. It was not as spectacular as the longest (in Europe) which crosses the magnificient Loire at Briare, but was still very good.

We discovered another gem in the tiny village of Girancourt. The retable in the Church is a listed historic monument and because we attended the once a month Mass there, we got to see it.

Retable at Girancourt

When in France, make sure you eat some frogs, especially these ones!

Next, we head down the mighty Saone River, starting from the Petite Saone at its highest navigable point.

Best Regards,

Penelope and Dave