Locks, damn Locks and Statistics

Today we passed the town of Vitry-le-Francois and left the Canal de la Marne au Rhin and entered the Canal Lateral de la Marne.  OK so what?  Well time for a little reflection and some statistics. The Canal de la Marne au Rhin is a a connecting canal, not a “lateral” that follows a river.  In this case it is a triple connector in that it connects the Rhine Valley  through the Vosges mountains to the Moselle valley and then the Moselle to the Meuse Valley and then to the Marne Watershed. 
What this means, in short, is that from Strasbourg to here we have travelled 338km and gone through 150 locks, 4 tunnels (one nearly 5km long) and a 45m boat lift.  The uphill locks are a lot of work but the downhill locks are more relaxing – unless they have low sills and there is wind so you have to worry about the fenders lifting and the hull getting scratched.  Guess what  - most of the lock here have low sills and it’s been windy.
On the other hand, the weather has been fabulous and the country green and beautiful.  Not a lot of culture or interesting cities since Nancy, but pleasant cruising all told.
Now, for comparison – from Vitry le Francois to Paris is 247km and only 33 locks and we did 5 of them today!
In a few more days we will be in Epernay drinking Champagne and then down the Marne River into Paris.