Plan Incliné: Experience the Boat Lift

1Day 1-2: Niderviller – Plan Incliné (25 km, ~6 hrs)

Where the boat lift makes history

The morning mist still hangs low in the treetops of the Vosges as you wake up in Niderviller and enjoy your first coffee on deck. The air is fresh, smelling of damp forest floor and the olive-green water of the Marne-Rhine Canal, which laps quietly against the hull of your houseboat. You are here in the heart of Lorraine, a place famous for its faience ceramics, but today it is engineering rather than porcelain that takes center stage. Before you cast off, a short walk to the local baker on Rue de Lorquin for fresh croissants is well worth it, as today's stage requires a good foundation. As soon as the engine starts and you glide slowly out of the harbor, you immediately feel that incomparable deceleration that only a houseboat holiday can offer. At a leisurely six to eight kilometers per hour, you push through the landscape, past dense mixed forests whose branches almost touch the water. After about an hour's journey through this green cathedral, you feel the tension rise as you approach the absolute highlight of this region, if not all of France: the Saint-Louis-Arzviller boat lift, known locally as the Plan Incliné. It is advisable to proceed strategically here. If you manage to arrive at the waiting position between nine and ten in the morning, you avoid the traffic of excursion boats and can experience this technical marvel almost privately. The sight is overwhelming the first time. Where sailors once needed a whole day to laboriously overcome a chain of 17 locks, there is now a gigantic trough of steel and concrete that acts like a bathtub on rails. You drive into this trough, secure the boat, and then the incredible happens: in just four minutes, you overcome a height difference of exactly 44.55 meters. It is an almost silent glide, during which you can let your gaze wander over the wide Zorn Valley while your floating home is gently lowered down the slope. The feeling is surreal, a mixture of an elevator and a roller coaster, only in slow motion. Once at the bottom, there is hardly time to catch your breath, as the next adventure awaits just around the next bend. The canal inevitably leads you toward a dark hole in the mountain: the Arzviller Tunnel. Be sure to turn on your position lights now and perhaps put on a sweater, as the temperature drops noticeably inside the 2,306-meter-long tunnel. The journey through the tube takes nearly half an hour. The engine noise echoes off the damp walls, it smells musty and mineral, and the light at the end of the tunnel remains a tiny pinhead for a long time. It is an almost meditative experience that requires full concentration to keep the boat centered. When you finally blink back into the glaring daylight, you feel as if you have arrived in another world. The landscape now opens up. You travel through the picturesque Zorn Valley, flanked by the steep slopes of the Vosges made of red sandstone. Your destination for today, Lutzelbourg, announces itself from afar. The majestic castle ruins tower high above the village and provide an almost kitschy, beautiful backdrop for the mooring maneuver. The harbor of Lutzelbourg is well-equipped, with water and electricity available for a fair fee, and the atmosphere is lively as many boaters meet here. After the boat is safely moored, you should stretch your legs. A real insider tip that many skippers overlook in their haste is the walk through the Old Valley of the Lock Keepers. Since the boat lift made the old 17 locks redundant, they are now abandoned and partially reclaimed by nature. The footpath along these old, moss-covered chambers has something melancholic and beautiful at the same time, especially in the late afternoon light when the shadows grow long and the birds sing in the ruins. You should definitely celebrate the evening with culinary delights. Lutzelbourg may be small, but it is gastronomically impressive. Reserve a table at the restaurant Au Vieux Moulin. It is located right on the water and is known for its excellent Alsatian cuisine. Order half a dozen snails in garlic butter as an appetizer and then perhaps a classic Choucroute or a Flammekueche, which is still baked here in a real wood-fired oven. Nothing pairs better with this than a cool, dry Riesling from the region, which perfectly balances the richness of the food with its acidity. When you later sit on the deck of your boat, full and satisfied, looking up at the illuminated castle ruins while the water gurgles quietly against the side, you know that this first day was just the prelude to an unforgettable journey.