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| Walking through the ‘sea’ |
We arrived at the suggested
moorings, but they were fenced off with works going on, so we carried on. As we weren’t due to get full sun until later
in the afternoon, we decided that we may as well cruise to Sillery, a place
just outside Reims but still in the country.
We had three locks to drop down
and it seemed that we had to wait at each lock for a boat coming up as well as
passing a few boats on the intervening pounds.
It certainly is a busy canal; we hadn’t seen this many boats since being
on the Seine.
The port at Sillery was full but
we found a commercial mooring that would be in the shade later in the day. After lunch we went for an eight-mile walk
taking in the lighthouse in the vineyards at Verzenay. On the way up the hill we could see a windmill
at the top that we found out later is now owned by Mumm Champagne. It was also used as a lookout post in both
wars.
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| The moulin à vent above Verzenay |
Before we reached the first
vineyards and were still on the flatlands of the valley, we could see more
preparations for the upcoming influx of grape pickers. We passed a couple of meadows that had been
mown short with portable toilets sited in the corners. These fields will be used as campsites for
the pickers.
The main object of our walk had
been to see the lighthouse (la phare) which, like the windmill, is also on the hills above
Verzenay. It was built in 1909 as a
marketing campaign for Joseph Goulet champagne.
At night, the light shone across the 'sea' of vineyards below. During its life it was also used as a dance
hall, another wartime lookout post and now it's a museum.
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| We forgot to take a picture of the lighthouse so this is the best we have! |
There was also a road up to the
lighthouse and many people were there when we arrived, looking around the
museum, buying souvenirs and champagne in the shop and, of course, enjoying
some champagne tasting. There was a sign
saying that dogs weren’t allowed so I went in first. The lady at the till asked where we had come
from and when I told her we had walked up she said Buddy could come in so we
could all go up the tower together.
As expected, there was a spiral
staircase and we were reminded of our friend Les who has only this year
overcome his phobia of spiral staircases. Strangely Buddy has always been happy
with them, so we were soon at the top.
It was completely enclosed by glass so was absolutely stifling in the
heat which meant we couldn’t stay there too long. Needless to say, the views must be magnificent
on a completely clear day.
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| Looking north with Reims in the distance |
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| Looking the other way towards Châlon-en-Champagne |
On our way back down, we got chatting
about the canal we are currently on and, although we are glad we are
experiencing it, we have both found that it is quite different to other French
canals we have travelled. It feels very
functional, is not particularly pretty and the mooring spots tend to be where commercials take on grain
from large silos. As I said earlier, there
is a port just down from our current mooring and we believe there are moorings in Reims but that's about it for pleasure craft. The trouble
is you cannot just pitch up anywhere and bang pins in as the wake from the
commercials would soon drag them out.
Towards the bottom of the hill we
came across a tractor driver who was having a little difficulty. He was cutting back the vine leaves and at
the end of a row he had to turn his tractor in the track in order to start
another row. This particular track was
really uneven and rutted and we thought he was going to topple over during his manoeuvring.
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| Here he is lifting up the cutter gear as he nearly caught his neighbour’s vines |
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| He got himself sorted in the end |
Looking at the lines of vines he had
trimmed and the ones he hadn’t we had to admit that we couldn’t really tell the
difference.
Reading this blog entry back,
there seem to be vines in every picture today so just to balance things out
here is our mooring in the shade at Sillery...
...and the war graves just down from the mooring where over 11,000 French soldiers from WWI are buried.
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| Moored at Sillery on Thursday evening |
On Thursday we cruised 12 kilometres down three locks.
Friday saw us moving for the sixth day in succession as we left Sillery and headed for Reims. I have always found the French pronunciation of Reims odd as they say ‘Rance’.
Having said we didn’t find this canal particularly pretty or inspiring we changed our minds on the trip to Reims. Although there were still many silos alongside the canal, the scenery began to be really attractive, especially the avenues leading into the city.
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| Some of the silos |
We could tell we were hitting a
city as, by lunchtime, the towpath was getting busy with runners who we assumed
were office staff on their lunch breaks.
Karen, who went for her run first thing, couldn’t understand how they manage
to run in these temperatures. Mind you,
I can’t believe how people run at all 😉
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| The outskirts of Reims |
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| Coming into Reims centre |
We moored up on some handy
bollards before the port at Reims and after lunch went for a walk around the
city centre.
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| Moored at Reims on Friday evening |
The port had a mixture of cruisers
and converted commercial boats now used by permanent liveaboards. There was also a section of finger pontoons but they were far too short for us to use safely. Finger pontoons are those that are placed perpendicularly to the bank and consequently more 'paying' boats can be packed in.
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| One end of the port |
Our walk took us through the
better end of town and there were some rather individual and ornate styles of
housing along the terraces where we walked.
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| This house caught our eyes |
We were aiming for the tourist
office to find if they had any walking trails we could follow. We were in luck and picked up a couple of
leaflets but decided to leave the sightseeing until Saturday. As you can see, dogs were welcome in the
tourist office.
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| The cathedral was next to the tourist office |
On Friday we travelled ten kilometres down
four locks.
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