Langres to Joinville

Saturday 22 July

As agreed with the vnf, we cast off at 11 am today after a run to the supermarket for provisions.  Our first lock was a straightforward remote operated one, but at the second we were met by a cute young woman with a blonde pony tail who escorted us, shooting along the tow path on a motor bike for the rest of the day, opening and closing the locks for us as we went, including one weird bridge that had to be physically swung sideways.  One or two of the locks gave her trouble, but she sorted them out and she left us at the agreed stop of Rolampont (PK 139), another nice Halte Nautique with services. 

Sunday 23 July

Our friend Jacqueline phoned last night and asked if we’d put our heating on.  At the time I said no, it wasn’t that cold, but it certainly was the next morning.  It had rained again in the night and was now grey, windy and freezing cold.  Nonetheless, we left early, 9 am, and managed 15 locks, one lifting bridge and twice the canal passed, rather excitingly, over the Marne River. 

We had three young people assisting us today – two men and a woman – each taking care of us for a section. They were all charming, friendly and helpful.  Mainly though it was a long boring day, the locks are so close together that you can’t really relax and do anything in between – not even a cup of coffee.  There’s not much to see either, just thick forest either side of the canal.  The rivers are definitely more interesting than the canal.  And it was made worse for me by the fact that I didn’t feel well and got progressively worse as the day passed.  I felt quite weak and miserable by the time we got into the stop at the town of Chaumont (PK 110).  This is not free – including water and electricity and taxes it cost us €22 for two nights, though the facilities are not much better than the free stops.  There’s a washing machine (very  cheap) and wifi though the connection is only good in the capitainnerie.  The capitan was friendly and obliging.

We’d met Walter (Swiss) at Langres and that evening he arrived, having done 21 locks in the day, and he and his two dear and very old dogs came for a beer with Mike.  I told him I thought he was brave to do 21 locks but he confirmed what we already know – the locks are dead easy for straight sided shallow depth motor boats, even single handed.  Later he brought me a coke and seven little sugar coated pills from his very expensive homeopathic medicine box.  Homeopathy only works if you believe in it and I can’t say I do, but it was very sweet of him.  Basically I think I had what the French call a ‘crise de foie’ – liver crisis - from too much cheese, paté, and other good things.  I’d had no lunch and couldn’t face dinner so went to bed with a nice empty stomach and feel a little better today.

Thankfully, we’d already decided to stop an extra night at Chaumont, but it was a little wasted as I just sat about feeling grim.  The general ‘malaise’ has passed but now I have toothache – it feels like an abscess – which is very miserable.  I’m chewing paracetamols at a great rate. We’d been recommended a good restaurant in Chaumont, but I didn’t feel like eating and it was closed Sunday and Monday anyway!

Tuesday 26 July

At 10 am we set off again, taking in 11 locks, one tunnel (only 308 metres this time), one overpass and two lifting bridges.

We were assisted by two sweet young things today for the first nine locks and then the locks became electric, controlled by our remote telecommandes.  Our ‘assistante’ continued with us to make sure all was well, which was fortunate because the first one didn’t work.  However, the vnf technician was there and he sorted it out.  The next two worked fine.  It’s very nice having the young students travelling along with you, some of them are very friendly, chatty and helpful, but we prefer the remote controlled ones as they are quicker.   I must say this part of the canal is really not interesting and continues with heavy forest on both sides.  Occasionally, it opens out to farm houses, pasture land, lovely cows often with calves and even some crops, but then it closes in again and we only get glimpses of the countryside through the trees.  The weather continues grey, windy, drizzly and cold.  There are patches of clear sky and even sun and then it gets quite hot rather quickly.  One peels off layers of clothing and three minutes later it’s cold again.

We arrived at the delightful Halte Nautique at Froncles at 3.30 pm, me tired and fed up with my sore gums.  The Halte here is only €1.50 to stop and another €1.50 for electricity.

The late afternoon and evening turned out wonderfully, the clouds scudded away and a little sunshine poked through drying everything off and warming us up.  We changed into shorts and t shirts and took a stroll around the little village which is quite well supplied commercially - restaurants, tobacconist, hairdressers and an enormous Post Office.  We didn’t see a grocery store but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t one and we didn’t need anything.  As for bread, we were happy to hear that the baker’s van comes to the Halte at around 9.30 every morning.

For the first time in ages, we sat in the cockpit and had our sundowners and then dinner, watching a few locals playing boules in the picnic area.  My toothache has receded a bit and I was able to enjoy my dinner.

Wednesday 27 July

A nice late start at 10 am – and then nine locks (all automatic), two overpasses and a lifting bridge later we arrived at Joinville.  We passed a large riverside factory which was obviously dumping waste into the water and there was a milky sheen of whitish powder over the water for a long stretch.

At our last lock I got chatting with two adorable just- teenagers hanging about the lock.  They wanted to know if we knew the queen and had we been to the wedding?  Funny little things.  They took our photo so we took one of them.  

Initially, we parked at the Halte Nautique, which is also a mobile home/caravan park and was quite full.  However, we’d been told about a B&B called ‘La Vinaigerie’ with a pontoon further downstream, so we investigated and then moved there.  There is wifi connection (a big draw for me) for €1 per day plus we pay a small amount for electricity.  It is very quiet and pleasant here and there is a big supermarket and garage very conveniently just over the road.