August 14 2007 - Canal Des Ardennes

Pont a Bar

After Sillery we pass Reims where we visited the Champagne houses last year and start the climb up the Canal Des Ardennes. We go up 27 locks a total of 79 metres in 8 kilometres and 4.5 hours, all in the rain.

We are keen to get to Pont a Bar to make sure we have time to see the boat lifted out. It is three years since it was antifouled and Kevin is interested to see how it is.

We arrived at the Boat yard, Societe Nouvelle Maubacq, which is alongside the canal about 50 metres from lock 6, in plenty of time. Dominique and Bruno are very helpful and most of the organising is done in French with the help of a big dictionary and good will. Bruno tells us he will know a lot more English by the time we return next year. The boat chandlery has a good stock and very reasonably priced.

They have a large crane to take out boats and plenty of hardstanding as well as room in the water.

The village of Pont a Bar has a few houses, a bar, a lock house

a hire boat port and the Boatyard and is about 14 k from Charlville Mezieres by road or 10 k from Sedan.

While we were waiting we cycled to a few villages around the area. It is not like our country, around Pont a Bar we rode to 5 villages not more than 4 k in any direction, all up and down hills.

Cycling around here is always pleasant with the lovely street flowers. Check out the cart, nearly as good as ours.


Just a kilometre down to the next lock before the River Meuse we found some delicious oval shaped Plums weighing the tree branches down as well as some Mirabelle plums, both were delicious. We picked a few and filled the camera bag, if we were here for longer they would make great jam or stewed plums.

We kept busy in the days before the boat was lifted out as everything needs to be cleaned on the boat as well as our clothes as it will be eight months before we return again.

We had a good time with Bill who was in port on his barge having some work done while Julie stayed in England. He makes a great cup of tea and we whiled away a lot of hours in his comfortable lounge chairs. Such Luxury!!!!

Bryan and Ruth were over from England, spending some time on their boat after a trip to Germany in their car. They very kindly took us to the train station in Sedan when we left.


With all of us speaking English we had a very relaxing time, Kevin caused some mirth as usual trying out his French, especially his Aussie pronunciation of je suis. Bryan's cartoon arrived just after we got home.


On Monday it was time to have the boat lifted out so it was a bit unnerving as we have never been in port when Courlis has been out of the water before. Everything was professionally done and went well. Kevin drove expertly into the cradle and after a little juggling to get the correct place for lifting, Courlis rose out of the water. It is three years since the bottom was antifouled and it was remarkably good. After high pressure hosing we decided to anti foul the boat when we return next year.
Quite different having a boat in the canal here to one left in the salt water or river at home.

August 12 2007 Canal Lateral a la Marne

We are heading north east now and have phoned Pont a Bar on the Canal Des Ardennes to book the boat in for the winter. All of this has been done in French so we will keep our fingers crossed that all is OK when we get there.

Sillery
We went through this town last year but didn't stay. Boy, were we surprised when we got here the port was full of boats, all the pontoons, any available canal side and many rafted up. With our smaller boat we managed a canal spot then a pontoon next day. Most of the boats are from Belgium, Holland and Germany and are heading back home. Unfortunately for them a door on the lock at Charlville Meziers has been damaged by a boat and is closed for repairs so it is another reminder that you can never be sure of being anywhere at a certain time. They will have a three week wait unless they make a long detour through west Belgium.

The village has a very big war cemetary as there was heavy fighting around here.

Above the town are the Champagne vinyards and the Maire (Town Council) provides a car ride for people in the port up to the villages for sightseeing.

There is a windmill on the top of the highest hill at Maily built in 1820.

Verzenay has a Lighthouse which was built to attract buyers to his vinyard many years ago. Now it is a very good Champagne museum.






This poem was in the museum. A different side of Champagne.

August 10 - Champagne Country

Champagne Country






Epernay
Our next stop was Epernay the capital of the Champagne region and entirely dedicated to the production of Champagne. The cellars of Moet et Chandon, de Castellane and many others are in the centre of town.

We stayed in the private club 'Societe Nautique' which has pontoons to help make up funds. They offer a free tour for two to Castellane Cellars, a good bargain.


We had a great tour of the Castellane Champagne House walking along the tunnels carved out of the chalk under the town. They seem to go for kilometres.


The tour was very interesting. We got close up to all the strange goings on in the cellar. I am not sure of why all of this fluff stuff was over all the bottles.


After the tour we had a glass of very nice champagne.


Just after Epernay we pass the village of Ay which goes back to Roman times but is important as it is here in the 17th century the local wine growers began making a sparkling drink called the wine of Ay. In the 20th century this drink was renamed Champagne and conquered the world.

As we travel through France names of towns and villages add interest to our days. Some have names which would fill up the space on an envelope as they describe where the town is, above or below or near another town or the general history or attraction of the town, ie Rogny les Sept Ecluses , had seven ancient locks or ecluses to pass through the town, Moret sur Loing is on the Loing River, other names I have seen are St Felix de Reillac et Mortemart or Villiers Chemin et Mort les Estrelles. Pity the poor children learning to write their address. On the other side, there are towns called Ay, Gy, Ur, Vif and Vry, to name a few.

Along the way we pass a walled vinyard which has the appelation Clos because it is entirely surrounded by walls. I am not sure if this makes wine or Champagne tast better.

August 5 2007 - La Marne

River Marne
We turned into the River Marne going towards the champagne country. We are now looking for a port to leave the boat safely for the winter until we return in 2008.

Meaux

We spent a few days in Meaux, about 80 k by river, 45k by road and only 15 euros train fare from Paris. We considered leaving the boat here in the boatyard but it was very expensive and we still wanted to do more travelling this year. We stayed here for a few days and met up with Oliver again. The Meaux Port de Plaisance provided by the city has moorings on floating pontoons supplied with water and electricity and are free of charge.


As usual in France this time of the year the flowers are lovely and the street outside the town hall was colourful.

We visited the Meaux Cathederal which is unusual as all of the statues around the doorways have been beheaded. This was done in the 1500's during the religious wars in retaliation for the beheading of people when one side was in power.


We also met Chantal and Claude, a lovely French couple who spoke very little English so we had a fun having French and English lessons. They had a TV and we watched the finish of the Tour de France with them.We look forward to some more french lessons when we meet again next year.


The only problem this year on the boat was with the fridge. The thermocouple in the gas part of the fridge has broken and we spent most of one day traipsing around trying to find a place to get a new one. This is when it is really frustrating not knowing the language properly or knowing where to get one. In the end we gave up and Kevin will organise a new one to take back.

Our 2007 foray into French cuisine was experienced in Meaux when we found Cheval on the meat counter in the supermarket. Kevin liked the taste and texture and ate half of mine, I thought I could take it or leave it.


As we leave Meaux we pulled in to see the beach which is set up for the summer along the river. Sand is trucked in to make a beach for a swimming area along with cute striped beach change rooms, a water playground and rows of beach lounges.




Chateau Thiery

We are now in the start of Champagne country with vines covering the hills above the Marne.


While here we rode our bikes about 20k up the hills to the American monument and cemetery for men lost in the Battle of the Marne in the 1st World War. A very impressive monument which we could see from the river as we came along. My knee is doing well as in the picture you can see how steep the climb was. Of course the electric motor works as well, but I am really pleased I can ride to see these things as it maked the trip more interesting.




It was also market day which was set up in the town square, I managed to get photos as well as buy fruit and vegetables.


The moorings here are either on a small pontoon which has power and water or on the wall with no facilities. The tourist bureau have one key for the facilities for 24 hours which they hand out for 5 euro when you hand over your boat papers. Fortunately the day before Oliver had managed to get on the town pontoon along with Charlie from Boston on his barge. We arrived in the afternoon and managed to tie up alongside Oliver and about 8 other boats were on the wall. Later in the day with a bit of shuffling when Charlie left we moored on the pontoon with another barge coming in behind. After a trip to the tourist bureau Oliver handed in the key and we presented our boat papers paid the 5 euro and got the key.

This was a lucky move for us both as in the morning all of the other boats were sitting on the bottom of the river side as overnight a barrage on the river had broken and the river dropped 45 centimetres. We handed the key back and were one of the lucky ones moving on the river that day.

August 1 2007 - Return up the Briare and Loing Canals.

Canal de Briare

Rogny Les Sept Ecluses

On our return journey back to Paris we called into Rogny Les Sept Ecluses again for a few days. We met several English couples on boats, Chris and Carol, Verona and Alan, David and Janet, John and Pat. We had a good time socialising, it is good to be able to talk and be understood straight away, also, we got some news of what is happening in the world. We were very fortunate to be there when there was an evening spectacle at the Chateau de Saint Fargeau about 20 k away and David offered us a lift in a car to see it. The town, St Fargeau is very historic and the streets below the chateau are very interesting.





We arrived about 9pm and had drinks and nibbles on the lawn alongside a huge lake in front of the Chateau.

The evening started at 10.30 when it was dark and in 2 hours the most significant events for each century was told with acts using 600 costume changes and 60 horses along with spectacular use of lighting. The history includes the arrival of Jeanne d'Arc, the storming of the Chateau by the Duke of Burgundy, the exile of Anne Marie Louise d'Orleans, cousin of Louis 14th, the Revolution and the passage of the American troups liberating St Fargeau along with the resistance fighters. It was a great night and a beautiful setting.

Canal du Loing

Moret sur Loing

On our return we stayed here for a few days as we had not been able to find a mooring there on the way up. It is another very pretty town with many buildings and bridges seen in the impressionist painter Sisley's paintings .


The original tower gates are at each end of the town.


We had dinner in the creperie on the right hand side of the tower, the building is recognisable from Alfred Sisley's painting of Le Pont de Moret painted in 1888. This year we have discovered the Breton type of crepe which is called a Gallette, it is made of whole wheat and filled with food like bacon, egg, leek, cheese, potatoes and many other food in different combinations and folded over like a parcel. A great meal accompanied by cider. In Moret we met Carla and Paul from Holland, Glen and Trish and Bruce and Sally from New Zealand. We all left to go up the Seine, the New Zealanders to Paris, Carla and Paul and us to the Marne.