It rained during the night but we had a brief period between 6 and 9 am where it stopped raining. So, we got up early, packed up and we left the campsite by 8 am, the earliest departure so far.

It started to rain shortly after we left and continued until we stopped about 11 am at a boulangerie in Gondrexange, about 30 km away. It was a great spot to stop with a little indoor seating area, great coffee and pastries and a other few food items on the shelf. It was a bustling store for a Sunday morning, since all stores seem to close up by noon on Sundays here. We spent about 1 hour there warming up, drying off, drinking coffee and talking with the locals!! We bought a few items for our dinner tonight.

As the rain had stopped and we were actually quite a bit dryer, we continued on our way. We left the canal around the town of Arzviller and then cycled downhill into the town where we spotted a canal tunnel for boats - very cool (see pictures). Then, we went through a series a descends along the Valley of Lock Keepers, called staircase locks. Constructed in 1853, it is made up of 17 decommissioned locks spread over 3.8 km. A remarkable site on the navigable waterways of France, it closed in 1969 when a boat lift came into service.

We found our campsite a short distance away, which had a nice roofed shelter for us to sit under. We settled in for the night hoping for no more rain!!!