The Plan incliné Saint-Louis-Arzviller is a transverse boat lift and has been awarded the French designation “Remarkable Contemporary Architecture”. Boat trips are offered in the area around Arzviller, where the boat lift overcomes an elevation difference of almost 45 metres. The 900-tonne structure combines a tangible gain in elevation with a striking architectural profile. If you are interested in water engineering, a boat trip and a remarkable structure are the main attractions here.

Paths through the Vallée des Éclusiers

The Vallée des Éclusiers has been closed to navigation since 1969 and is now developed as a greenway for walkers, cyclists, anglers, climbers and nature enthusiasts. This brings together different perspectives on canal history: at the Plan incliné, the focus is on a boat trip that gains elevation; in the Vallée, it is on a former waterway that has been opened up for other activities. Former lock keepers’ houses and an old, partially abandoned canal shape the landscape. The canal bed is overgrown with aquatic plants—a specific detail that distinguishes the former waterway from a working shipping route.

The EuroVelo 5 along the canal corridor

For cyclists, the EuroVelo 5 offers a described route to Arzviller: it runs along the canal corridor, passes the abandoned flight of locks and then continues to the boat lift. This sequence provides clear directions between the named stops. Anyone interested in the connection between cycle routes and canal engineering can take in not only the landscape but also the succession of engineering structures.

Inland navigation at the museum

Near Arzviller, the Musée de la batellerie is housed in a 39-metre-long barge that has been converted into a dry dock. Exhibits include the living quarters of an inland waterway boatman, historic tools and machinery used in shipping, and archival photographs. The various exhibits offer a glimpse of everyday life, work and the photographic record. The museum thus complements the large-scale structures of the canal landscape with objects and photographs that present inland navigation from a different perspective.

Comparing the tunnel and the flight of locks

The Souterrain d’Arzviller is 2,307 metres long and has two separate galleries: one for the canal and one for the railway. The clear separation of the two galleries is a distinctive technical feature of the tunnel.

The Arzviller–Henridorff flight of locks was built in 1853 so that the Canal de la Marne au Rhin could cross the Vosges watershed. It comprised 17 locks over 3.8 kilometres and overcame an elevation difference of 44.55 metres. The elevation gain was thus distributed across a series of locks. The boat trips on the boat lift are described as overcoming almost 45 metres: the similar figures provide a clear point of comparison, while referring to two different structures. Together with the tunnel, museum and EuroVelo route, these offer several concrete ways to explore the canal and transport history of Arzviller.

Discover more destinations: Rosbruck, Waltembourg, Condé-Northen, Hambach, Plaine-De-Walsch, Basse-Ham, Hanviller, Philippsbourg.

For the main travel overview: Moselle.