Lagarde was were we left Odysseus for the winter in 2010. Jacques and Patrice, the former base managers, rescued the former hireboat base, now Navig France, and turned it into their own little empire. They now control three small marinas, a gite, have a restaurant and small grocery in Lagarde and have greatly expanded their stable of boats. It is also the home base for the last nine years of Peter and Jo Hyndman (and their boat Joyeaux) who have been “pen pals” since the very beginning of our barge experience. Peter also writes a very enjoyable blog, Fading Memories (the link is over there on the right side of the page. You should read it!).
Tom Summers of Eurocanals for many years ran an open internet forum. We had corresponded regularly with several other barge owners, some of whom we eventually met, but never Peter and Jo. They had not yet arrived in Lagarde from Australia when we passed through earlier in May but on our return, they were there and we were able to put faces to the names for the first time.
Joyeaux in her winter finery.
PK 209, the restaurant, in the background.
It turned out there was a changing of the guard in Lagarde. Jacques was retiring and Peter and Jo were going to be taking Joyeaux up to Belgium, leaving Lagarde behind. Since we arrived early in the day we were able to get together for a couple of hours and then we went to sample PK 209, Navig France’s restaurant, while they had a going away party (and Peter’s birthday celebration) with some local friends. We joined them again for breakfast and more of Jo’s excellent spice cake. We had a very pleasant visit (but much too short!) and got underway again continuing west around 11:30.
We spent a quiet night in Crevic and Saturday about noon arrived at the shopping quay just before Nancy. After filling a couple of shopping carts and trundling them down to the boat, restocking the wine supply, we turned around and headed to the beginning of the Embranchement de Nancy. This “shortcut”, with it’s 18 locks in 10 kilometers would take us to the Canal des Vosges where we would begin our journey south.
It was such a brief but enjoyable catchup! And I'm so glad that I'm not the only one who's so far behind with the news of the last month! 😁. Here's to the next time hopefully in less than nine years' time!
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