Cycling in Alsace 1 : Sarre and Rhine Marne canals

The EuroVelo 5 leads along the towpaths of the Sarre and Rhine-Marne canals. The Sarre canal was once used to carry coal from Lorraine to Alsace and Germany and was inaugurated in 1866.
From Sarreguemines, famous for its earthenware, it winds through the magnificent valley of the river Saar, crosses Alsace Bossue and then the Lorraine Regional Nature park. In Gondrexange the Sarre canal joins the Rhine Marne canal. Built at the same period as the Paris-Strasbourg railway line, the Marne-Rhine canal was opened in 1853.
After leaving Sarrebourg and the Lorraine plateau, by the Saint Louis Arzviller inclined plane that enables the canal to bypass a set of 17 locks since 1969, the cycle trail plunges down into the valley of locks and the Zorn valley through the plain of Alsace to Strasbourg.