After a rich breakfast, we entered the canal de l’Est that was build from 1874 to 1882. Rusty irons bridges and a manually operated swing bridge visibly place the construction period into the 19th century.
The locking procedure works a bit different from what we had experienced before. Rather then turning a hose that hangs in the middle of the river, one needs to pull out a remote control from a vending machine like dispenser at the first lock. All subsequent locks are then to be operated by the remote control. To leave the canal de l’Est on either end, the remote control needs to be returned before the locks opens.
Parts of the canal is also called “Canal des Vosges”. If the canal between Scey-sur-Saone and Corre is narrow, the canal de l’Est is even more so. The bridges are pretty low and the boat barely fitted through. It took us about 2,5 hours to get to Selle and we had to go through 5 locks — to the displeasure of Felix we set a new record in lockings per unit time. Compared to the locks we had experienced on the Saône, the lift of each of the looks pretty high (3-4 meters each time, I would guess)
In Selles, we had ice cream and coffee in a nearby bistro with the equally fitting name “Au pont trounant”. Then we went to admire the swing bridge, before we hopped back onto the boat and went back to Corre.
