Hi everyone!
I am very behind with blog posts, sorry. This post is about my holiday with my husband, parents and brother!
We rented a boat from Le Boat for 6 days at the end of June. Unfortunately it was in the middle of the heat wave, which did affect the trip, but it was still fun!
Some info before I get into what we did each day:
- The boat we got had 3 cabins with 3 “bathrooms” – the tiniest I’ve ever seen! The space is quite cramped, but we spent most of the time on the deck or exploring places so it wasn’t an issue.
- We were sailing on the Canal de la Marne au Rhin, which is located in north-eastern France.
- Our starting point was Le Boat Hesse and we were heading in the direction of Strasbourg.
- We could pretty much sail along whichever route we wanted and could moor anywhere unless there were signs that prohibited it. It was a very relaxed trip where we could take our time, stop wherever we wanted to explore, buy food or sleep. We had to keep in mind that the locks closed at 7pm though.
- We were taught how to sail and how the canal locks work on arrival, so you do not need experience for something like this!
Here’s what we got up to:
Day 1
We arrived at Le Boat Hesse in the late afternoon and were showed how the boat works. We set off just before 6pm so unfortunately we didn’t get very far because the locks and tunnels close at 7pm.
This is where we ended up mooring for the first night. It was so peaceful here!
Day 2
We set off in the morning and before we reached our first locks, we went through two tunnels that are very near to each other – Niderwiller (475m) and Arzviller (2307m!). This was the only thing we could see the entire time going through the tunnels:
Next was the massive Saint-Louis-Arzviller boat lift! This lift replaced 17 boat locks along 4km that used to be the only route along the canal. This massive lift took only 4 minutes to get from the Lorraine plateau at the top to the Alsace plain at the bottom.
We moored just after the lift to take a break and to go check out the Cristallerie Lehrer, which is mostly a large glassware shop, but also had glassblowing demonstrations. Everything in the shop is made on site and they had some incredible creations. I forgot to take photos there though!
Next we moored at Lutzelbourg because we needed to get something to eat, and wanted to go to the Château de Lutzelbourg ruins. We explored the town for a while before heading to the ruins.
The church was quite a lovely building.
It was about a 30 minute walk through a forest to the top of the hill where Château de Lutzelbourg is, and was definitely worth it! The view was incredible. It’s a shame that the castle is only ruins now. It must have been magnificent in its time.
Day 3
The next day we reached Saverne, which is such a beautiful town! We had some burgers and ice cream, went to the Rohan Castle (also known as Château Neuf – sorry no photos because there was a large truck in front of the building which ruined all the photos 😦 ) and to the Notre-Dame-de-la-Nativité (fun fact – France actually has 19 churches named Notre Dame, the cathedral is simply the most famous one!).
Bumblebee butt!
Unfortunately it was so unbearably hot that we had to stay in the shade as much as possible, and because of this and forecasts that Strasbourg was going to be 1 degree hotter the next day, we decided to stay in Saverne overnight, then head back in the direction we came (where it would be 3-4 degrees cooler the next day).
Day 4
This was the first time that I decided to be the captain! We made our way back in the direction of Hesse, and stopped at a few places we missed on the way there.
One of these spots was the location of the old lock houses that were used before the Saint-Louis-Arzviller lift was built. Many of the lock houses are abandoned, but some of them are now private homes and there was even a restaurant. There were lots of beautiful wooded areas along the route.
My husband and I decided to take a small path into the forest and accidentally stumbled upon this creepy tunnel! He found a button that turned on the light so we decided to explore. It ended up just going through the hill and led to a road next to some train tracks, so we just took the same route back.
We made a kitty friend!
We kind of forgot about the time and realised that the lift was almost closing, so my parents and brother cycled back to the boat as fast as they could, while we walked to the connecting point of the old route and the canal to meet them there. They were the last boat allowed on the lift before closing! Luckily they were allowed on and managed to get to us. We went through the tunnels again and moored in the same place as on the first night.
Day 5
We reached Hesse around lunch time on the 5th day, and decided to stop to refill our water supply and to get a proper meal. We found Restaurant Nicolas and I had the most delicious meal I’ve ever had in my entire life (it was a cordon bleu). Even though the waitress could only speak French (and I only know a handful of words and phrases), she was very friendly and helpful. I wish I could speak French though, but at least I am going to start lessons soon.
After our meal we decided to continue sailing in the direction of Nancy, even though we knew we wouldn’t get very far. We passed through some lovely shaded areas for most of the journey.
We decided to stop in a tiny town called Xouaxange (I have no idea how the hell to pronounce that!) because our guide book said that there were some ruins to look at. Unfortunately after wandering around the entire town because Google maps was useless, we found them and this was it.. No sign or info about it, just some ruins in a field. We were a bit disappointed, but at least it was an adventure!
When we carried on on our journey, we reached this huge lock which is almost 15m high! It was quite intimidating and took a lot more work than the others we had gone through. It also took almost 30 minutes to get through it!
Unfortunately after we got through the lock it was already almost time for the locks to close, so we moored at a quiet location in the shade. We went exploring and ended up finding this interesting looking building in Bataville. Unfortunately I have no idea what it is/was used for.
Day 6
This was our last day so we just had to make our way back to the base at Hesse. We had to pass through the massive lock again. In this photo you can see how huge it is!
When we got back to base we just cleaned the boat, had a proper shower and then we were on our way back home to Belgium! My dad decided to take us via Luxembourg so we could see where he often travels for work. We explored the absolutely breathtaking Luxembourg city, but sadly I couldn’t take many nice photos because of construction happening all over.
Of course the best way to end a holiday is with a locally brewed beverage! This beer was amazing!
And that’s it! I hope you enjoyed reading about my holiday!
Let me know if you still want a post all about my first Wave-Gotik-Treffen. I was planning on writing one but because of exams and this trip I have been quite busy and forgot about it. Oops! I’ll still write it though if anyone is interested!
J
xx
Just Jossie 
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