We woke up to a beautiful sunrise on the canal, had our coffee, and then took a walk along the canal bike path. The locks don’t operate until 9am, so we wanted to go explore the ruins of La Cassine Castle which was built in 1571 by Louis Gonzaga, Duke of Nevers, and his wife Henriette of Cleves. It was visited by Henry IV of France, Louis XIV and Cardinal Mazarin before it was damaged by fire in 1697. It was restored, then burned again in 1927 and was left in ruins. Unfortunately, they’re working on the grounds so we couldn’t get close.

After the lock not working yesterday, our personal lock maintenance guy (not really) came to the lock just to make sure it was working. Then he was going to go down to the next lock just in case. We finally headed towards Le Chesne, where we were going to stay the night.

The canal was beautiful and there were a lot of herons about. We docked at the free town quai in Le Chesne and immediately headed into town to get a bite to eat, explore and then take a bike ride along the canal down to see the Staircase of 26 locks in less than 9 kilometers. We’re glad we’re not doing that portion of the canal which takes approx. 5 hours. We’re heading back to Pont à Bar and joining the river Meuse to head towards Verdun.

So as usual, way too many pictures. Click on them for full-screen and captions.