PARIS!!!

PARIS

Sunday 14 August

What can I say about Paris?  It is still the most beautiful and most vibrant city I have ever visited.  It has changed in many ways since I lived here nearly 40 years ago, but of course much of it is still exactly the same.  The timing of our visit was not ideal – the middle of August when there are simply millions of tourists (both French and foreign) teeming about all the monuments and filling out the spaces in road side cafes and restaurants.  However, by some miracle, the weather turned perfect for the duration of our stay – neither hot nor cold, simply balmy with blue skies and puffy white clouds.

Our first afternoon, after check in, we wandered up the river to the islands – Île de la Cité and Île Saint Louis.  There’s a new project on – turning the banks of the Seine in this area into ‘Les Plages de Paris’ – the beaches of Paris.  It was great fun, lots of activities going on all up and down the banks, including a ‘Thé Dansant’ alongside sun worshipers on sun loungers and a jazz band with the magnificent Notre Dame as a back drop.

We wandered back via the Hôtel de Ville where we bought a cd from an Ecuadorian street band called Relaxy Pan Pipes

and watched crowds of youngsters playing volleyball.

                                                                             

Monday 15 August

The 15^th of August is a public holiday (something religious) regrettably, so the streets were once again heaving with tourists.  We took our bikes and explored my old stomping ground of Saint Germain des Prés in the 6th arrondisement.   We visited the two streets where I used to live, Rue Jacob and Rue du Dragon and the famously expensive Les Deux Magots (which I seldom patronised).

Some familiar old landmarks have gone and others have been somewhat ‘gilded’, like the beautiful Place Furstemberg which now has a couple of modern sculptures crowding its sedate simplicity.  It was one of our favourite spots in Paris and is still gorgeous – one just has to get used to all this very modern sculpture and wrought iron artwork (especially on skeletal metal frames).  As a matter of fact I like it very much, but it looks so odd bang up against the classic beauty of ancient architecture.

Then we went on to visit UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), where I was underemployed and overpaid for four very happy years in the Seventies.  We tried to go in but being a public holiday it was closed for the day - the guard was most pleasant in turning us away and told me he regretted not being around when I worked there forty years ago! 

I actually managed to find what was the fantastic working man’s restaurant where I used to take an excellent three course lunch every day including a carafe of wine and coffee for the princely sum of £1 (dead cheap even in those days) but it has now been turned into a chic bar/cafe called Le Zig Zag. Bien sur.

Then, of course, we took in the Eiffel Tower......

........as well as numerous other fabulous landmarks on the long cycle back along the banks of the river.

Paris has been well adapted to cater for cycling, as a result of which there are thousands of cyclists.  Most streets have a two way dedicated cycle track, running alongside.....

.... but on the busier boulevards the cyclists have to share a lane with the buses(!).  Coming home that evening in the 5 o’clock traffic, which was hectic even on a so-called holiday, was terrifying - one foot skimming along the pavement trying desperately not to ricochet off the sides of the buses and pedalling like mad when a gap appeared, keeping a wary eye out for more aggressive cyclists (and roller bladers!) who would thread their way perilously through the buses and cars.  After a while one gets used to the adrenalin rush and you find yourself in danger of developing the same recklessly cocky attitude of the more experienced Parisian cyclists.  Mike certainly did so more than me and hurtled so far I lost him at one point.  When we finally came to a stop near the Arsenal my wrists ached from the strain of clutching the brakes and I felt rather surprised, and grateful, to have survived the journey without injury. 

We continued to wander the streets, found a good looking restaurant in the Bastille area and spent a fun evening sitting at the prime doorway table and, in typical Parisian style, watched the world go by.  I drank my first Kir, white wine with a splash of Creme de Cassis, in about 30 years whilst Mike had a beer followed by an unmemorable but inexpensive dinner.  When we got back to the marina we shared another bottle of wine with a nice English couple on a motor boat, Secret Harbour II, who live very near us back in the UK.  We swapped dvd’s for the night.

Tuesday was spent doing washing, blogging, meeting new people in the marina, finding out that the chandlery is closed for the month of August (of course it is) and exploring some more.

Paris is full of enchanting gems, like this doorway on the Quai des Celestins.

We did a little shopping including a bottle of cheap bubbly which we nailed that evening as Kir Royal aperitifs, then drank a bottle of wine with dinner.  After dinner we took a romantic walk across the Pont d’Austerlitz at sunset and strolled up the Quai St Bernard on the ‘rive gauche’ where we once again found a huge crowd dancing to live music.  It seemed impromptu, people both young and old joining in whenever they wanted, but the footwork was incredibly professional looking.  The crew and passengers of a large cruise ship looked on.

Returning to the boat, we finished the evening off with a couple of Irish coffees – a very good evening.

Wednesday morning we leapt on our bikes again and cycled via the terribly posh Rue de Rivoli to visit the Georges Pompidou Centre, bought a few postcards, paid our bill and (boo hoo) said goodbye to Paris, taking the lock out of the marina at 1.30 pm, and joined all the big boats and Bateaux Mouches trundling tourists up and down under the bridges in the trendy part of the river.  The bridges on the Seine in Paris are stunning and you only get to see some of the artwork when sliding under them by boat.

It didn’t take long before we started hitting the huge skyscrapers....

...and pretty soon we could have been in any large city in the world.  If we came in the posh and beautiful side of Paris, this was the less beautiful more industrial end that we passed through. 

It wasn’t long enough, but we both had a truly wonderful time in Paris and managed to see all the important things on our list.  For me it was a very nostalgic walk down memory lane and I loved sharing it with Mike.

Ferte-sous-Jouarre to Paris

Saturday 12 August. 

We arrived quite late in the evening and stopped one night at the Municipal Halte in Lagny.  Mike had to change the plug on our electric cord to get electricity, again – he’s quite a dab hand at that now and we have three different connections.

I had been carefully planning the last legs of this trip into Paris as we had been told how awful the big barges are – they travel very fast, creating a nasty wash and are not interested in moving over for small private boats.  A fair portion of the trip included narrow canals and as a sailing boat with deep draught, we were worried about this.  We’d been told the barges don’t operate on weekends, so we cleverly planned to do the busiest patch on Saturday and Sunday.  It was perfect - we never met one commercial barge, though we saw lots parked off on the sides of the river. 

On that leg we passed through another tunnel, only a short one of 286m, and five locks – all manned.  We are real fundis with the locks now and can adapt quickly to whatever new locking arrangement gets presented – and the variations seem endless!

Sunday 14 August.  The next day, we had our last four Marne locks and a 2 kilometre tunnel,

before turning off the Marne and into the Seine.  On our way in we passed through the beautiful leafy outskirts filled with luxurious homes.....

......and the homeless....

At the weekends, the lockkeepers close between 12.30 and 13.30 for lunch, so we managed (just) to get through our fourth lock by 12.30.  There is one last (fifth) lock to get into the Arsenal marina which we assumed (wrongly) would also be closed for lunch, so we took a slow and very pleasant cruise up the Seine to arrive at 2pm.  The waiting quay looked horribly rickety and had a small dinghy hanging off it so we were glad we hadn’t relied on that.  I called the marina on VHF 9 and no one answered but a few minutes later the green light came on beside the red light to indicate that the lock was preparing and we only had a few minutes to wait, sharing the river with various Bateau Mouches.  The view outside the marina is of the Isle St Louis and Notre Dame.  Pont Sully, in the foreground, is covered in awnings and obviously being renovated.

I can’t believe we are finally in Paris.

We arrived at the marina and checked in – a horrifying €38.50 per night, including water and electricity, showers, washing machines and driers (paid for separately) and a comfortable air conditioned lounge with large TV and dvd player, and free wifi.  In view of the cost, our planned four nights has been reduced to three, but never mind, I am so very happy to be here.  And to be fair, for two people to stay in the comfort of their own home slam bam in the centre of Paris, it really is good value. 

Cumieres to Ferte-sous-Jouarre

Sunday 7 August

We arrived at Chateau Thierry after five and a half hours and 5 locks.   The first couple of locks were enormously wide with floating pontoons which was marvellously easy, but the rest were the normal design.  All the locks are shallow and no problem.  At the first lock we were once again given a telecommande remote control to open the gates.  Not only is the Marne lovely, wide and deep, it is also practically weed-free so we no longer have to worry about the engine cooling system getting blocked.  We’d had dire warnings from other yachts of filters getting clogged up with weeds but the outside strainer on Forever must be very good because Mike has never found anything more than a few blades of grass in his filter.  The river is also remarkably free of traffic and we are lucky to meet two or three boats all day.

The sides of the river are thickly edged with large trees, but through the spaces we get glimpses of the intensely cultivated countryside stretching away to the horizon, foreshortened by gently rolling hills.  The land is a panoramic patchwork of vineyards, highlighted by the occasional field of corn or wheat and dense patches of forestation and studded with small villages and hamlets.  T he moisture laden light picks out every imaginable shade of green, relieved by the red and grey tiles of the houses.

We haven’t seen a cow in many days.  We also, happily, haven’t seen any industry on the banks of the Marne, unlike the Rhône, which was heavily littered with factories.  However, the bird life is prolific.  I have endlessly tried to get a good picture of the grey heron, and this is the best I could do.

At Chateau Thierry, there was a small pontoon, fully occupied by boats, and then a long wall.  Always unhappy about parking on a wall, we were circling hesitantly when the Luxembourg skipper on one of the boats on the pontoon beckoned us over and we gratefully moored up against him.  There was only one, very dodgy, electric point which our neighbour (Charles) was plugged into, but he had a triple adaptor and both the boat in front and we were plugged into that.  French electrics can be quite terrifying – and this is a Municipal Halte!

The chateau at Chateau Thierry has been destroyed, but the walls remain and we took a pleasant walk up the hill and through the ruins.   

The town seemed to have everything we needed.  We needed some bits of leather to replace the protective coverings on our spreaders, and found a little shop in town that made leather clothes.  The proprietor, Dan, was really helpful and he dug out the right strength of leather for us and gave us the off cuts we needed – no charge.  We also walked to the local Brico and bought a metre of good carpeting to replace Forever’s old and worn carpets.  There was a fuel station near the Halte so we bought a few jerry cans of diesel and did a good shop at a nearby Carrefour supermarket.  It was all very convenient.  The town was ancient in parts with interesting features.

          

Thursday 11 August

We’d been delaying our arrival in Paris, waiting to hear if friends were coming to join us, but now heard that they were no longer able to come, so we set off and arrived in the secluded Halte at Ferté sous Jouarre, tucked away in a small arm of the river.

We were lucky and the next day was market day, so we were able to get some good fresh produce.    The sun shone pleasantly for most of our day here so I took the opportunity of a clean and empty pontoon to cut and fit the new carpeting , though we’ve not yet glued it down.  It looks lovely. 

Ferté was typical of so many small French towns and in my opinion, absolutely charming.

The French are quite innovative with their floral arrangements.

Chalons-en-Champagne to Cumieres

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.

Joinville to Vitry-le-Francois

We stayed two days at La Vinaigerie’s pontoon and enjoyed suddenly pleasant weather – so good we had dinner in the cockpit again!  I took full advantage of the wifi connection and caught up on a few emails.  Joinville was once again a lovely old town, with the river running right through it.

And another beautiful (13^th century) church with a statue of Joan of Arc.

We awoke this morning to a cloudy, misty day, which pretty much continued all day long apart from one or two feeble and short lived outbreaks of sun.

There is so much water about now that the canals are overfilled and spilling all the time.  This is fine except some of the locks we entered today were so full the water level was ABOVE the lock wall, so we were floating over the lock.  Fenders only go down to water level, so we have to be very careful to keep the side of the boat away from the concrete lock edge, until the lock starts to empty.  The spilling causes heavy waterfalls within the lock. 

There are very few boats about – we only met a couple all day today.   We managed 13 locks, six lifting bridges and one overpass.  At our first lock the mechanism wouldn’t work so I phoned and the vnf man arrived a few minutes later and sorted it out.  He informed me that all the remaining locks were automatic but that there were some lifting bridges that someone would come and open for us. 
A couple of hundred yards before the first bridge there dangled over the canal a long rod with a sign to turn the rod.  We had come across this mechanism before in some of the locks, so we slowed down, turned the rod and the bridge lifted.  Easy.  However, at the second lifting bridge there appeared to be no remote method to operate the lift – no radar, no rod and no remote box - so we came to a stop and waited for the promised vnf person.  I tried phoning but there was no reply to their number.  So, since it was lunchtime anyway, we moved to the side, hammered our pickets into the bank with a mallet and moored up.   After lunch I phoned again and someone answered and very genially said someone would be along soon enough.  Ha ha – it was obviously their lunch break too.  We were there about an hour, but it was pleasant enough and the first time we have used our pickets to actually tie up to the side.

We had a bit of high comedy during the day with a duck.  Forever is keeping to the middle of the canal as the sides tend to be full of weed and we bore down on a group of ducks, all of whom swam off to the side except one stubborn (or stupid) fellow who remained in the middle.  Just as Mike was getting worried he would run the bird over, it took flight and shot forward down the canal a couple of hundred yards, and then settled again - right in the middle.  Once again we came up on him and again he sat there until we were almost upon him, then took to the air and flew a bit further this time and once again settled in the middle of the canal.  We’d got the giggles by then, and blow me down if he didn’t just sit there again until we almost ran him over and then took off into the air again, flapping furiously, but staying smack IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CANAL.  The third time he flew so far he met up with another group of ducks, so we couldn’t identify him, but when we came up they all moved over to the side.

The rural French are keen container gardeners, red and pink geraniums and bizzy lizzies being favourites, particularly together.

We arrived at Saint Dizier at 5pm and moored on the public quay.  There was nothing interesting there but we did find a good supermarket close by the next morning.  However, we didn’t explore the town of Saint Dizier, which is no doubt very nice.  It is a very big town.

Saturday 30 July

Another quite boring day, just working our way through a seemingly endless series of locks – eight today, no lifting bridges – and arrived this evening at the very nice Halte Nautique at Orconte.  It is €6 per day and there is even a shower here!   Orconte is a small village with nothing much but there is a bakery and (amazingly) a nightclub!  There are some pretty old houses (same flower boxes). 

We came here because we intended to do an 11 lock run tomorrow out of this canal and straight into the Canal Lateral de la Marne, passing through Vitry-le-François.  However, the gear box continues to give us trouble.  Mike did some work on a cable and it seemed much better for a couple of days, but forward gear is pausing again and we are worried about getting into the big rivers (the Marne and Seine) with a dodgy gearbox.  A neighbour told us there is a mechanic at Vitry-le-François, so we will stop there after all.  The neighbour also lent us a chart of the Marne River as we don’t have one and I traced all the relevant pages out – long tiresome job.

Sunday 31 July

Amazingly, there were stars in the sky last night and this morning it has remained sunny and pleasantly warm all day.  We left Orconte after lunch and spent another fairly uneventful afternoon taking in six locks.  The mechanism on quite a few of the locks wouldn’t work initially, but we persevered and eventually they did.  Once again the water level is very high making manoeuvrability difficult, especially at the last lock which had a protruding submerged shelf (which no one told us about) and which we nearly dinged the boat on.  At this last lock we handed back our ‘telecommande’ and we have now finished the Canal between Champagne and Burgundy. 

The depth at the marina in Vitry-le-François is marked as 1.6m.  As we are 1.67m we didn’t like to enter but there was nowhere else to go.  Finally we begged permission to tie up against a large barge in the canal, and the man agreed but advised that he had work beginning on the barge next morning and was afraid our yacht would be damaged.   We agreed to move in the morning and tied up for the night.

After settling the boat we took a walk over to the marina and met a few people.  There is a South African boat moored outside the marina and we will take his place tomorrow morning when they leave.  He had a bad experience with a mechanic so we won’t try that chap. 

Monday 1 August

Well, the welders arrived and got work on the barge at 8 o’clock, courteously starting at the other end of the barge so as not to disturb us too much.  As soon as the South African boat left, we tried to settle on the wall outside the marina but it was too shallow and we got stuck in the mud for a bit.  I had tried phoning one mechanic but he lives in St Jean-de-Losne (fat lot of use that is) and the only other one we think is the chancer who charged the South African €500 for a three hour job, so we gave up on the whole idea and left Vitry at 9.30am. 

Today we entered the Canal Lateral de la Marne, got through eight reasonably easy locks and are now in Chalons-en-Champagne where we have found a free spot to tie up near the marina.  Mike has had a go at the gear box and we think it is ok.  Hurrah.  Hopefully that has saved us a large mechanic’s fee.  We will see how we go.  Chalons is a lovely town with the most beautiful cathedral I have yet seen – St Etienne.

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.

Piepape to Langres

Thursday 21^st July

It rained in the night and started drizzling again early in the morning.  So, despite having told the vnf girl we’d be leaving at 8 am, we had a lie in, walked into Piépape village to buy fresh bread, and then set off at 10.30 am.  I telephoned the vnf and a man in a van duly turned up at the first lock to let us through.  There are no radar detectors here but the locks are very close together and once you go through one it sets the next lock into operation.  The design and layout of all the locks was identical so the process was quite smooth apart from a couple of them refusing to open or close, in which case I called the vnf (there’s an intercom system on the dock which saves using one’s phone) and someone always arrived very quickly – even during the lunch hour to my pleased surprise.

The countryside here is very agricultural with lots of wide open spaces and gently rolling hills in the background – just the sort of land I’d like to live in.  There are lush green fields (the drought is well and truly over) dotted with fat, healthy looking cattle, mostly white or a soft cream or occasionally brown and white.  They stand about placidly in herds of ten or twenty munching the grass or lie lazily chewing the cud.  They are beautiful.

 

On flatter ground the crops are grown – tall leafy stalks of green corn already tasselling but still too young to warrant stealing a couple for dinner; spectacular sunflowers, heavy yellow heads straining to tilt towards the sun; and short stems of ripe beige wheat rustling in the wind, much of it already harvested.

We are passing through many small villages with pretty, well kept gardens full of vegetables and fruit trees.   Along the tow path are people, not too many, walking, cycling, camping, swimming or fishing. They are usually families or groups of school age kids on an organised outing.  People are generally well behaved and the children make hardly any noise – they don’t scream, like English kids.  And no litter, anywhere.  Shades of ‘Stepford’ - must be something in the water.  There’s a pleasant rural tranquillity about it that belies the crime statistics, apparently.

Early afternoon we finally got to Ecluse Number 1, our last ‘up’ lock, where we were greeted by an endearingly friendly chap who took all our details (he was charmed to hear we were from Zimbabwe which he’d never heard of, but seemed to think there may be a lot of Irish people there) and said he would arrange approval for us to go through the Balesmes Tunnel.  This would take 15 minutes so we tied off in the lock and gratefully relaxed with a cup of tea and sandwich.  When he returned with the go ahead he insisted on giving us a chocolate each and so delighted with him were we that we gave him a jar of our apple chutney – I warned him it was spicy but he assured me he would like it.

A few kilometres along we reached the tunnel which passes under Balesme-sur-Marne – this is 4,820 metres long and only 5 metres wide so only one boat can go through at a time.  It took us nearly an hour to pass through.

Despite what I’d read in our chart, inside it is well lit, dead straight and deathly quiet until we came upon a group of workmen putting in new light fittings.  Their calls to each other echoed weirdly down the tunnel and gave us quite a start before we identified them. 

I believe the tunnel was finished, along with the canal, in 1907 so over the last hundred years the constantly dripping water on the walls has formed wonderful stalactites in places.  My camera just wouldn‘t take a good picture of them.

The tunnel marks the highest spot on the canal and a couple of kilometres after it we reached our first descending lock – oh, what a pleasure that was!  We slid slowly into the lock, then without leaving the boat we looped our ropes gently over the bollards at water level, pressed the remote control at the blue rod and down we went, so calmly we barely had to hold our lines.  Bliss!  No more slimy ladders, wildly swinging boat, us shouting at each other, and the end of calluses on my poor little hands.  The whole thing took a few minutes and we were on our way, slipped with equal ease down the second lock and arrived at the Halte Nautique near Langres (PK 149) at 5 pm in very good spirits.  The vnf man was there to greet us and wanted to know when we are leaving again and I told him 11 am Saturday.  We’d had intermittent light drizzle all day, but the good downpour held off until we arrived, as usual, and we got drenched again.

Once again the Halte is free with water and electricity (from 4pm to 9am which is fair enough) but the water is shallow and once again we have had to tie up some way from the dock.   Isis is also here and also has its stern sticking out into the canal.  To get to shore we rigged as a gangplank the board we usually have hanging along the side of the boat.  It was still slimy from the lock walls and Mike managed to slip on it when it was wet and hurt his back, poor chap.  Luckily, and amazingly, he didn’t fall in. 

Despite his bad back, Mike spurned the bus this morning and he managed the long uphill hike into the ancient and lovely town of Langres, birthplace of the philosopher Diderot. 

We took a wander into St Mammés Cathedral, stunning architecture with beautiful soaring arches.  I am constantly delighted by the sheer beauty of Catholic churches and in equal measure appalled by the almost pagan symbolism of the interior decoration.  There is no doubt that Christianity (particularly the Roman Catholic bit of it) has inspired man to the heights of his artistic ability.

Today, Friday, was market day but we found the fresh produce rather disappointing.  However, we bought a Langres cheese which is delicious and have treated ourselves with a ready cooked roast chicken for dinner tonight.  The rain has held off all day and we’ve even had long sunny periods.  However, it darkened again this evening and is now pouring.  We haven’t had a meal in the cockpit since leaving the Saône a week ago and I really miss that.  Of course, it is high here and much further north, so one can expect it to be cooler and wetter.  Mountain weather, I guess.  The countryside is slightly different – more hilly and more trees, almost alpine.  There are still plenty of cows, but not many crops.  We’ve passed quite a few lumber yards along the canal.