La Chaussée-sur-Marne (walking the goats)

Sunday evening moored at Soulanges

We could tell we were back on the Canal latéral à la Marne when we were having breakfast on Sunday morning.  We’d forgotten how many boats we saw on the move last time we were here and by nine o’clock, four boats had already come through the lock and past us.

Not only were boats going past while we were eating, we also saw several clouded yellows flying on the bank by the boat.  We have noticed quite a few of these butterflies every day for the last week or so and assume they are probably the emergence of the third or maybe even the fourth brood this year. 

Our plan for Sunday was to get to La Chaussée-sur-Marne where we’ve heard there’s good places to swim in the Marne.  With another day of 30 degrees, and not the last according to our forecast, we were still cruising with the sunshades up. 

Passing Couvrot soon after leaving Vitry

You may remember the issue we had when we couldn’t get a lock to work and I had to call up the éclusiers, but told them the wrong lock number.  Well, when we went through the lock at Couvrot we realised how I had made the mistake.  When the canal was built, it ended at Couvrot by dropping down to the River Marne through a lock.  When we were in the Couvrot lock I wandered over to the Marne to see the old lock and saw there was an old lock cottage by it.  On the lock cottage was the information plate showing it was lock number 1.

The cottage at the original lock number 1

When the canal was extended a few kilometres to Vitry-le-François, two new locks were built on the extension, and numbered 1 & 2.  The lock down to the river (number 1) was abandoned as it was no longer needed.  This meant the original locks numbered 2 to 14 became 3 to 15.  This explained why, when I was telephoning for help and used the original information plate, I said we were at lock number 2.  I should have read the modern sign which clearly (in retrospect) shows it is really lock number 3.  By the way, if you’ve read this far then well done 😉

After a couple of locks, we were coming into Soulanges where we planned to stop for lunch and a look around the village. 

Moored for lunch at Soulanges

After lunch we went into the village which we expected to be totally quiet as it was early afternoon.  As we walked up a path to the road running through the village, we could hear the odd round of applause and cheers.  Then we heard the unmistakable sound of boules clinking.  The boule court, which was next to the inevitable mairie, was packed; it seemed the whole village was there.  

Judging by the inscription 'MAIRIE et ECOLE' above the door the mairie originally doubled as a school:

As we walked past most houses, we heard the usual sound of dogs barking as they tore up and down their side of the boundary fences. Generally, the French treat their dogs differently to us in the UK.  I’ve mentioned how most buses and trains only take dogs if they sit on your lap, but many restaurants and bars allow dogs on the premises.  Another difference is that the rural French seem to leave their dogs in their gardens all day which, I suppose, is better than leaving them inside on their own when the owners are at work.  What this means though, is that nearly every garden we walk past contains at least one dog and we always seem to set them off barking.

Similar to Orconte yesterday, the buildings were a mixture of modern bungalows and old timber framed houses with the odd stone-built home.

 

It was unusual to find houses grander than the mairie:

There was a hill at the far end of the village, and we walked up it in order to see the views from the top.  As we walked up the hill, we saw many crosses but with no inscriptions.  

Crosses on our path

The crosses finished at the top where there was a statue with a few names of dead people inscribed on plaques.  The dates of death were all 1946 or later so it didn’t seem to be a war memorial and, anyway, the statue was a catholic Mary.   At the top we had a good view back down the hill across Soulanges and the canal.

Our mooring is hidden by the trees

I spent a good quarter of an hour on the internet when we got back but still couldn’t find the reason for the crosses or why they were there.

Before we got back to the boat, we crossed over the canal to walk along the River Marne but when we got there, we decided to cut the walk short as it was getting too hot to be in the full sun for any longer  For the same reason we decided to stay put for the rest of the day and maybe move again on Monday.

As seems to be the done thing on evenings after hot days, families and couples walked up and down the canal.  One set, in particular, caught our attention.  Instead of having a dog or two in tow, these had a couple of goats with them:

On Sunday we cruised seven kilometres down two locks.

After Karen’s Monday morning run, we set off for a short cruise to La Chausée-sur-Marne as we fancied a lazy day.  On our way back down this canal we are trying to visit places that we didn’t see on the way up, unless we want to go back somewhere for a particular reason.  For example, we will stop at Châlons-en-Champagne, where we stayed for five days previously, as we want to pop in and see some people who are moored in the port there.

It didn’t take long and, after two locks, we found the moorings: a series of five hooks about 20 metres apart.  There were no other boats there and we grabbed the only spot in the shade then spent the rest of the morning reading. 

Moored under the trees at La Chausée-sur-Marne

As we were the only boat moored there, Buddy could have free rein of the grassy picnic area provided by the village.  He was obviously finding it too hot, as he had a quick sniff around and promptly found some shade, laid down and fell asleep.

When I mentioned reading it reminded me that, although it stimulates the mind, it is something I do in phases.  I can go a few months without reading a book and then quickly go through several; my reading stimulation coming from online newspapers and the like.  On the other hand, Karen has a book on the go almost constantly as well as the online papers.  We are both aware that we need to keep the brain stimulated too and consequently both of us complete, or attempt to complete, a logic puzzle every day whether it be of the sudoku ilk or some other logic based puzzle.    

After lunch we explored the village which, even though it had two hotel/restaurants, had no shops, not even a boulangerie.

It had the customary mairie of course…

…and a church

We also had a walk along the River Marne which runs adjacent to the canal but couldn’t find anywhere that looked suitable for swimming.  Well, we found a small ‘beach’ but there was a JCB doing some work leading down to it so it didn’t look very inviting with all the dust it was creating.

There were plenty of butterflies out and about by the boat including many common blues and clouded yellows.  We also saw our first brimstone for what felt like weeks.

Female common blue

To finish on our lazy theme for the day we spent the rest of the afternoon reading.

Like many people we are seeing some gorgeous sunsets now it's reaching that time of year.

Sunset at La Chaussée-sur-Marne on Monday

On Monday we covered six kilometres and went down two locks.