Holly,  Michael, and I spent three days on the French canals.  We drove to the little Alsatian village of Hesse, located on the highest section of  the Marne-Rhine canal, where we had reserved a boat from the Crown Blue Line.  We checked in and about half an hour later our boat, Tamaris 8, was ready, and a representative of the firm came aboard to instruct us in operation and to assure that all equipment was in order.
The Tamaris 8 is diesel powered and easily handled by anybody who can drive a car. Its registration papers show it as 32 feet in length and 12 feet in the beam. 

Accommodations for Holly and Michael were a stern cabin for two, complete with toilet, washbasin and shower.  Two additional bunks were located in the fore peak, where I slept, with a second toilet and shower just aft.  Long benches on either side of the main cabin amidships could convert to bunks so, although there were only three of us, the boat could have comfortably accommodated six.  Inside helm and engine controls were on the port side in the main cabin, although Michael, who did all the steering, preferred to manage the boat from the wheel and controls outside in the stern cockpit.  A little galley on the starboard side of the main cabin contained a methane stove and refrigerator along with the sink, with  dishes and cookware in a cabinet beneath.
By four o’clock, after stowing our belongings and some food, we started the diesel engine, and headed for the town of Saverne, about 25 kilometers down the canal.  Except where it passes through villages, the canal has tree lined banks, beyond which we could see the open fields of the rural country side.   We saw bicyclists on what had formerly served as the canal towpath, and we passed several boats with bicycles on board to allow boaters to ride into nearby villages for supplies, meals, or just exploration. 

Six kilometers out of Hesse, near the village of Niderville, the canal passes through a tunnel 500 meters long.  Since this section of the canal is high up in the hills, tunnels eliminate long detours and tedious sequences of locks.   Signal lights at the tunnel entrance control the one way  traffic, and as we approached, a red light required us to wait at the side of the canal for an oncoming boat to emerge and pass. 

After the Niderville tunnel, comes an 800-meter stretch of canal wide enough to permit boats to pass, followed by the longer Arzviller tunnel.  It took us about 15 minutes to pass through the 2 kilometers of this tunnel and as we exited, the canal superintendent emerged from his little control station, and flagged us down.  When we pulled close enough to hear, he explained that the inclined plane, just ahead, had ceased operation for the night.  We tied up in a lovely spot near the control station, fixed our supper, and spent a peaceful night aboard.

After breakfast, we headed toward the inclined plane.  Just beyond the Arzviller tunnel, the canal abruptly descends 70 meters.  Until 1960, this descent involved a series of seventeen locks that required nine hours to navigate.  Today, however, an inclined plane, a kind of "boat escalator," replaces the seventeen locks.  This device consists of a large basin (a sort of  moveable lock ) that slides up and down the face of the hill on 32 flanged wheels running on a set of heavy tracks.  The basin accommodates three or four boats like ours, and weighs 850 tons when full of water. 

We entered the upstream gate and tied up inside the movable basin.  When everything was ready, a very young man entered a control room about the size of a telephone booth, and the basin started its slide down the forty degree slope, restrained by two sets of 14-wire cables that extend over large drums at the top of the hill and connect to huge concrete counterweights that slide up the hill as the basin descends.  During the 25 minute descent, we sat on deck and enjoyed the view over the valley.  When the basin was secured at the bottom of the hill and the downstream gates opened, we slipped our mooring and slid out into the lower canal. 

Michael ties up in a lock

Holly,  Dan and Michael 

A few kilometers of travel found us at the first of a series of thirteen locks leading to Saverne.  Locks on the Marne-Rhine canal are electrically operated, and traffic is controlled by signals. On the way downstream, going through locks is easy.  When the lock is ready to enter, a green light appears, and the upstream gates automatically open.  The boat enters the lock, and one of the crew  (usually me) loops a mooring line over a bollard and holds the other end.  When the boat is secure, the skipper activates the automatic mechanism by pushing on a green rod that runs vertically up the side of the lock.  The upstream gates slowly swing shut, the downstream sluices open, and water drains out.  The mooring line is paid out as the water lowers the boat .  When the water in the lock reaches the level of the downstream section of the canal, the boat floats between high cement walls, two or three meters below its former level.  The downstream gates open automatically, the mooring line slips off the bollard, and the boat exits into the lower section of canal.

Often two or three boats enter the lock together, and we met many interesting people this way.  The most memorable was a man from the Netherlands who had formerly been an inspector overseeing all the European canals.  A true enthusiast, he spends his retirement cruising the canals he used to inspect.  He gave us several tips about canal life and boat handling.

Some of the locks stand in front of restaurants or little bistros where the prized tables are outside with a view of the canal.  It was fun to find ourselves part of the scenery and to watch the diners watching us.  Once, after passing through the lock, we tied up and walked back to enjoy an excellent lunch as we watched other boats pass by.

The final lock in the series, right in the middle of Saverne, was the most interesting.  As we entered the lock, we found ourselves facing a low bridge, busy with vehicle traffic crossing the canal.  It seemed impossible that we could get under the bridge, but the lock was exceptionally deep and we passed with ample room to spare.

The attractive municipal marina at Saverne ranges along the side of a very large basin, with perhaps a hundred boats tied up when we arrived.  The marina provides water, electricity, toilets, showers, trash disposal and other amenities, so we pulled into a vacant space reserved for small boats like ours. 

As we ate supper aboard, we admired an imposing red sandstone building across the basin.  We found later that this was a summer palace built for Cardinal Louis de Rohan in 1740.  The structure now serves for municipal occasions, and we watched a number of young people engaged in some sort of festival, perhaps an elaborate wedding.  Saverne has many other attractions, including a number of good restaurants, and we were sorry we had not allowed time to explore it more thoroughly.

Next morning, we began the trip back.  Going upstream through locks demands greater care than going down, for the boat enters at the bottom of the lock with high cement walls on either side.  With the bollards two or three meters above the deck, securing the boat poses difficulties.  In relatively shallow locks, one can use a long boat hook to lift a loop of line over the bollard, but in deeper locks this becomes impossible.  Sometimes we could find visitors standing along the top of the lock who would gladly catch the line we tossed up to them, but in the absence of waiting visitors, we would drop one of us ashore to walk up to the lock and catch the thrown line when the boat arrived.

Since we had departed Saverne just after breakfast, it took only one day’s run to retrace our way back through all the locks, up the inclined plane, and through the two tunnels.  We emerged from the Niderville tunnel late in the afternoon, and moored in an attractive spot at the side of the canal.  Although the shore provided no mooring facilities at this point, the boat's equipment includes a set of steel mooring stakes, each about two feet long, and a four pound hammer.  Michael drove the stakes into the ground fore and aft, and snubbed the boat against the bank.  Before nightfall, two other boats moored near us.

Next morning, a final run of a few kilometers brought us back to Hess.  As we entered the Crown Blue marina, an attendant on shore signaled us to back into to a vacant space in the long line of boats.  It required more skill than we could muster to back the boat accurately into the narrow space, but the attendant stood on the fore deck of a neighboring boat and, taking the line we tossed him, easily maneuvered us into the designated spot, ending our canal adventure.