Wednesday 3 August
We ended up spending three nights at Châlons-en-Champagne at the very pleasant stop. We didn’t go into the marina and take water or electricity so it was free. On Monday St Etienne cathedral had been closed, but we managed to get in on our second day. There are dozens of tall windows with the most incredible stained glass and the natural light in the cathedral is superb.
Wifi was to be found in a cafe in town where we lingered over a couple of beers whilst I posted the blog and checked emails. We met an English couple on Tuesday who came for drinks and were able to give us advice on good stopping places in the rest of this canal as well as the Marne River. Today was market day and we sampled some more local cheeses.
Thursday 4 August
Our next stop was at Mareiul-sur-Ay, a four hour trip with five locks and one revolving bridge. We met two boats coming out of one lock and the second one shouted to us something about having been nearly crushed by some gates on exiting. He hadn't been crushed by the lock gates so we didn't know what he was talking about. Sometime later when we reached the revolving bridge, we discovered that it appeared to be jammed open as the light was green and remained so after we passed through and never closed again even though there was a car waiting to cross the bridge. We watched and the poor driver finally gave up, backed up and drove off to look for another bridge. We assumed this was the gate that had nearly crushed the boat. When two boats are travelling together and if only one activates the mechanism to warn the bridge of their presence, the bridge (being just a bridge) cannot know there is a second boat. So, if that first boat is then slow in passing through the bridge, the gates will begin to close on the second one. We assumed this is what had happened and the bridge mechanism had broken when it detected the second boat. Clots.
In this second last lap of the Canal lateral de la Marne, we saw two dead deer floating in the water. They must have stumbled in and drowned – a perfectly miserable thought. And surprising, as I’d have thought they were more adept than that.
There was a marina at Mareiul with small pontoons and plenty of space. It was a rare sunny day and I’d hoped to get some laundry done that afternoon in the Capitainerie (I’d been advised they had a machine) but the office only opened from 6 – 8pm. We took a walk around the little town. At this point we are deep into champagne country and this small town had no less than 14 Champagne Houses, imposing residences that we felt too inhibited to enter and ask to taste their champagne, particularly as we had no intention of buying any. To be honest, neither Mike nor I is interested in champagne so it was no real hardship, though it might have been interesting. The countryside is dotted with vinyards, the grapes ripe.
We’d been invited for drinks on a New Zealand boat, so did a little shopping and then returned to the boat for a shower. By 6pm it was raining again, but we checked in at the Capitainerie (€7.50) and the young woman in the office gave me a jeton for the machine and a code to enter the building. No wifi, sadly, but they had lovely showers and I was sorry I'd had a cramped and uncomfortable shower on board already. After check in we partook of a few entertaining drinks with the New Zealanders. The next morning it continued to rain but I did my laundry anyway and we set off with an enormous damp bundle of sheets and towels.
Friday 5 August
A few kilometres after Mareuil-sur-Ay we passed through the last lock at Dizy, leaving the Canal Lateral de la Marne (our last canal) and entered the Marne River. It is marvellous to be back in a river again, it is wide and deep and more interesting and beautiful than the canals. We did just a short two hour trip, a second lock and stopped at Cumières, another champagne town full of Champagne Houses and very little else. We parked on the pontoon between a French boat and an American boat. The Americans were a very friendly couple who helped us tie up – after so long in the canals the current in the river took Mike unawares briefly. They also lent us dvds, gave us books, and some advice on the new lock system.
The bank of the river on our side is decorated with wrought iron artworks of the various stages of producing champagne – the final one drinking a glass was my favourite. Forever is just in front of that French motor boat in the background.
We had only intended to spend one night here but Saturday morning broke grey and stormy and it proceeded to rain most of the day, so we hunkered down below surrounded by damp laundry, reading or watching dvds.
No comments:
Post a Comment