1st August. Did and extra 2k and 4 locks which took me to Courcy. Have decided I might skip mooring at Reims and go on to Sillery from where I can bus back.
2nd. Arrived at Sillery and managed to moor alongside the quai. All the places on the pontoons are full. My two cables joined together wouldn’t reach the plug but a charming Dutch man (I am going to be eating my words!) lent me an extra cable of his and I have plug-in and good signal for the first time in days. After I was settled in even more boats arrived yet Reims when I passed through was practically empty.
Because of where we are there were the
inevitable war graves. That evening the sun set rather nicely over the port.
3rd. Took the bus into town today and walked my feet off with a stop for lunch at a cafe next to the Art Deco Market Halls. Nothing prepares you for the UNESCO World Heritage site that is Reims Cathedral, not for the sheer scale……
…..for the detail…..
….or given the construction date of the C13th, the achievement.
Some of the Art Deco.
5th Aug. Long cruise of 25k, 11 locks and a 2k+ tunnel to get to Condé-sur-Marne at the junction of the Canal de la Marne. Secured a nice quiet mooring on the end of a pontoon in this tiny port. Nearby is an aquaduct built in 1869 over which water was pumped to feed the canals. What is left is quite impressive. The pump station opposite the mooring used the excess power generated to power the electric train that used to pull boats through the Tunnel de Billy before it was ventilated thus facilitating self propulsion.
The church in Conté is 12th century with an interesting tower that survived the damage suffered by the main body of the church. The restoration has been tastefully done with no effort to hide the new elements so that you can easily see what remains of the original. There is a delightful fragrant herb garden with ponds and a pergola in front of the church. The town also plays host to one Champagne cellar that also distills to make brandy. There is evidence in the architecture around the town that there were once more cellars that are no longer in operation.
6th. Decided to stay an extra day and paint. In the evening light a lovely old Tjalk pulled in and made nice reflections along with the colourful buildings on the opposite bank.
7th Moved on to Châlons-en-Champagne and moored up behind Pamela and David on Lee Crest. Nice surprise. After a preliminary wander round town to explore we mat in the evening for Aperos and a very pleasant evening it was too.
The town has three significant churches. The most important and closest to the port is the Cathedral of St Etienne. In the treasury of the cathedral are preserved some C13th stained glass windows and original Romanesque paving. The Cathedral has had many interations having caught fire by acident in the early years after its construction and having to be completely rebuilt but still in the C13th. Then of course there was damage in the time of the revolution when it was used as a stable and a lot of the windows were knocked out to let smoke from burning of the alterscreen and other church furniture escape.
The Church of St Alpin was built in the rich merchant centre of the Town and enjoyed many rich patrons that endowed the church with statutry, stained glass windows and oil paintings. I liked the under-stated and muted colours of the windows in this church which also suffered in the revolution and as can be seen from one of the wall plaques below, Marie-Antoinette was not the only one to loose her head!
Lastly, although I had still not exhausted all the possible churches in town, I visited Notre-Dame de Vaux. This church had also suffered the indignity of being used as a riding school and stables.
8th. Saturday, Market Day. It was quite large with mainly food and fresh produce in the covered market and Cooked food, clothing and other tat, outside. After looking round the market and buying desert for this evening when I am dining with Pamela and David I got onto a small boat outside the tourist office for the trip round the small canals that encircle the city centre. We started off going straight into a tunnel that runs under the main street. A sound and light show was projected onto the roof as we cruised through with our silent electric motor.
It was a delightful 45mins of viewing the city from an entirely different perspective. The canals were once used for transportation of goods and people but I do not know what the boats looked like, they must have been quite small.
Had a lovely dinner with Pamela and David on Saturday and they headed out on Sunday morning for Epernai.
Notre-Dame de Vaux as seen from the little canals within the city.
10th Aug. Did quite a long run of 23k and 5locks to take me to Soulanges. The mooring, which is in a wide pound just above the lock with nice views, is at a stone quai with bollards and trees but no facilities. The village is very quiet with no shops and nothing special to see. There are some cliffs as you approach the village through the cut and on the hill what looks like another lot of war graves. The river Marne is very close to the canal at this point.
11th. A long day took me through to Orconte on the Canal entre Champagne & Borgogne. A small quai with loo, shower, sinks, and electricity one K from the village where there is a bakers and a pub specialising in Champagne that opens on Wednesday and Saturday evenings! Parts of the church are very old and parts quite new but it has bad damp and needs some TLC. There are some very smart new houses and some very old half-timbered houses, some of which are in their original state and some of which have been modernised but kept their character.
12th. A lovely surprise as Ray and Beryl pulled in on their Dutch Barge Frouw Carolina and invited me on board for a BBQ. We passed a very pleasant evening together.
13th. Arrived in st Dizier and tied up on the “work-in-progress” quai. The electricity and water points were in place complete with instructions on how to work them and that “jetons” (tokens) needed to be inserted. It did not however tell you where the jetons could be had. It was very hot and humid and I really didn’t have the energy to do much. Later a thumder storm improved the climate a bit and I did a walk into town in the drizzle without the camera. I found the Town Hall and ascertained that the electricity and water were not yet connected at the port! Later a boat full of Kiwis pulled in and invited me to have a drink on board. Later Di and John and their guests Andria and Rendel and I all went out to the Hotel Francois for dinner. It was very good and not too expensive. A good eveningm during which there was more rain and the temperature dropped further, was had by all.
14th. Short cruise of 9k with 2 locks and one lift bridge to the enchanting new port at Chamouilley. Here you buy the services you require with your credit card from a machine and if you don’t need any you moor for free. The only downside to the mooring is that there is no shade with all the trees being newly planted and as yet too small. This did not matter for me today as it was overcast most of the day and not too hot.There is a small superette, a butcher, a tabac, a bakers and the unavoidable florist and hairdresser but surprisingly no pharmacy. It being August the tabac and baker were closed as the owners were on their annual leave and I caught the butcher on the last day before he went on leave too! However the town (more of a big village really) is enchanting and well cared for. There is plenty of green space and play areas, the houses are solid and there has been a lot of tasteful renovation of the older properties. There is a Logis Hotel in the square and a nicely restored Lavoir (the first for a while you may have noticed!). I plan to sty here for two days.
In the afternoon I picked a good crop of blackberries and stewed them up to take back for puddings in the winter.
Had e-mail contact with Chris and Jacqui on Joli Roger who are in Joinville and will be here on Sunday so I have decided to stay an extra day so we will meet up for dinner at the Hotel in the evening as it is Jacqui’s birthday on Monday.
15th. Cool and rainy in the night and again this morning. A good time to catch up on work, inside cleaning and admin! Went to book the table for dinner with Chris and Jacqui but they do not do dinner on Sundays! So it will have to be pasta chez moi!
16th. Lovely evening with Jacqui and Chris
17th. Short cruise to Chevillon where there is a manor house with a medieval garden. The garden was a bit of a disappointment but was probably more authentic for being so. The village was charming with cobbled back streets along a small stream, a good lavoir, some very old stone houses including what had been the forge and an onion domed church which looked much newer, probably C18th.
18th. Arrived at the mooring just outside Joinville. Pleasant pontoon with Elec & water and only 200m walk to the big Super U supermarket and garage. So three trips with the trailer for diesel and one for a new gas bottle. Quite a tiring job but it will leave me free to go into the town and explore tomorrow.
19th. Walked my feet off round Joinville today including up to the top of the hill where the old castle was before it was demolished in the revolution. There are some charming narrow cobbled streets and a canalised branch of the Marne that I think was artificially created to run through the middle of the town. The remaining Château which was the summer pleasure palace to the bigger one on the hill, still remains and has a really wonderful garden.
On the way back to the mooring from Town I found Helen and Donald on Shiegra Bay also wending their way slowly south. Paula and I had met them at Liverdun.
21st. Forth day on the Joinville Vinaigrie mooring. Took a ride to St Urbain in search of the Abbay but all that remains of it is some high walling and a gate. There were two lavoirs though and the unusual barrel vaulted church had a very elaborate alter piece. Back at the mooring Chris and Jacqui’s friends on “Windown” had just pulled in.
Really great evening of Aperos that extended till 10.30pm! with Odile & Gerard off “Oo La-La”, Cynthis, Ian and Keith off “Windown” and John & Michelle. In a fit of booay camaraderi we have agreed to a BBQ tomorrow mid-day, so I stay for yet another day at Joinville!
24TH Aug. Moored up in the delightful port of Frongles which is shared with an Air, has electricity and water, a loo block, boule court and landscaped gardens. On the opposite side rises a wooded hill. The nearby large village has a small supermarket and two lavoirs. It also has two bakers, three restaurants and a petrol station, all of which are closed for their summer holidays! In the evening Danielle and Roger off an ex hire boat “Eau Claire” came for aperos. They used to be sailors and sailed round the Cape in a cattermaran. A good evening’s French conversation!
25th. Took a long cycle ride today. In the village of Vouécourt there was a nice Lavoir. I was looking for what I thought was a cycle path on an old disused railway line that would take me to Andelot but I couldn’t find it. When I spoke to the lady that collects the money for the port it transpires that it is not a cycle path but a buggy on rail whells that you move along the track by pedaling. Not quite what I was looking for. Finished off making the rest of the jam from the apples and blackberries that I had gathered at Donjeux.
26th. Call from Phil this morning to say that he is back in St Jean and looking to move “Alicia” up to Corre, Bogusia couldn’t come so he is looking for crew. Cycled to Vignory to look at the church. Nice ride on a quiet road. When I got back “Winedown” and “Le Gannet” pulled in. Nice to see Cynthis, Ian, Keith, John and Michelle again. Nice couple of hours on “Winedown” for aperos.
27th. Short cruise to Vieville. Nice quiet mooring run by the same people that run Froncle, same terms. Very small Air. Pontoon fringed with heavily laden apple trees. There is a permanent caravan whoes owner introduced himself as an 83 year old retired leogonaire who had been living in the van with his 79 year old wife for ten years. Courtesey of the Marie he now lives there “rent free” and it the “sous Capitain” of the port!
28th. Cruised to Chaumont. “Le Gannet” and “Winedown” caught me up at the lift bridge before the last lock where I had been waiting for an hour and a half for a technitian to come and fix the lift bridge.
29th. We all went into town for the Saturday morning market and a look around. It is not the prettiest town I have encountered but the stonework in the interior of the church was impressive.
Coffee break in Chaumont with Kieth, Michelle, Ian and Cynthia.
30th. Left Chaumont shortly after nine this morning. John on “Le Gannet” had asked if he and “Winedown” could leave ahead of me on the grounds that they would be faster. In the event a German on a small yacht snuck in front of them, they could in fact have all three easily fitted into the lock together but they chose to let him go ahead on his own. This made for a slow and frustrating day. Christianne and Jean-Piere on “Belle Etoile” and I had to wait frequently for the lock in front of us to clear. The lock keepers told us that Rolampont was completely full so I stopped just below lock 12 with “Belle Etoile”. This is a regular stop of theirs and they showed me the little bridge down to the Marne where it flows over a wier into pools. I had a very welcome dip in the clear cool water.
31st. Just two locks down to Rolampont and when I got there all the other boats Had moved on so I got a good berth at the end of the quai. Another hot day so I laid low in the boat till the afternoon then took a walk in the village which was unremarkable.
capetocarpe 