At Lutzelbourg provides an Alsatian welcome, with its castle and its famous crystal workshops. Whichever way you cruise, half timbered houses gay with windowboxes, onion-domed church-towers, intricate wrought-ironwork and a hundred small détails give the villages a festival air.
Wherever you stop, you'll find the food equally special: sauerkraut and sausage as well as mouthwatering plum and greengage tarts. Cruising the Canal des Houillères de la Sarre you pass mainly through Woodland with the odd small town to tempt you with a restaurant meal. At Sarreguemines you'll be charmed by the hand-decorated pottery. On your return you'll travel on the boat lift at Arzviller which replaces 17 locks.

Following the Canal de la Marne au Rhin you pass through Saverne with its ducal palace and across the Alsatian plain to the heart of Strasbourg. At Toul, a town fortified by Vauban and enjoying fine views over the loops of the river Moselle, you are entering Lorraine. Its countryside is just as fine as its cities, of which Nancy and its Stanislas square, listed by UNESCO as a World Hertiage Site, is a highlight.