Châlons-en-Champagne (the colourful bits)

We spent a few days in Châlons-en-Champagne in the summer when Lauren came to visit us, saw the main tourist sights and subsequently covered them in the blog entries for those days.  We’re spending the next three weeks here before we go back to the UK for a break; this will give us plenty of opportunity to visit places we missed before.  Also, once we get the car back this week, we’ll be able to travel further afield and visit other places in the region that we missed when we cruised through but earmarked as somewhere we wanted to get to.

The weekend was a mixture of rain and dry spells, but the much-heralded strong winds never arrived.  The expected winds had been the main reason that we arrived in Châlons on Thursday, earlier than planned.  On Saturday morning we popped into town to pick up a few things.  The town hall had a Halloween display outside which seemed to consist of a lot of grave headstones and the odd pumpkin:

 

In the afternoon we repeated the previous day’s circular walk but in the opposite direction and with a bit of an extension.  As we walked through three of the main parks near the canal (Le Grand Jard, Le Petit Jard and Le Jard Anglais) we saw a cyclo-cross race was in progress.  We had come across one in Reims last weekend, but this one was quite different and nowhere near as sedate as the course across the grassy areas had been churned up and become extremely muddy from the recent rain.  It felt like we saw more competitors laying down in the mud, after falling off, than actually cycling 😉 

The course ran along the River Marne at one point and a slipway was really busy as competitors stopped off to dunk themselves and their bikes in the water to get rid of all the excess mud.  I didn’t think it advisable to take a picture with all the bare flesh around!

Looking quite wintry on our way back home from our walk

It was another day of on and off rain on Sunday and, in the morning, we popped up to the fruit & veg market and then went in search of the only remaining old gateway to the town.  It wasn’t that far away from the centre of town and we were quite surprised we hadn’t come across it before:

Porte Sainte-Croix to the east of the town centre

Before the city walls were built in the mid-1700s, the town was encircled by a large fortified ditch and the gates and other fortifications were made of wood.  The stone gates were built when the walls went up and this one was completed in 1769.  It is the only gate still standing and there are very few vestiges of the city walls. 

Another gate was built on the west side of town where the city met the River Marne near where we are moored.  The gate was sited where the cars are on this roundabout.  The bridge is crossing the canal and the River Marne behind us.

Where the Porte de la Marne used to stand 

When we stayed in Châlons previously we noted that many of the manhole covers had faces painted on them.  The market was in the market halls and, as it was one that dogs weren’t allowed into, Buddy and I went in search of some of the painted faces while we waited for Karen. They were obviously painted a while ago as the passing of feet is clearly making them fade away.

Some of the painted covers

Another thing we had spotted was that many of the road signs had been embellished:

 

We also noticed several fire hydrants had been spruced up and also the odd pavement painting.  We didn’t take many pictures of these though:

 

One of the streets reminded us of the street in Reims that had painted cobbles.  This one didn’t have so many cobblestones painted but, nevertheless, was still attractive:

We walked back home through the Grand Jard where a gate house still has a notice banning horses and cars from the gardens. 

 

When I wrote about the gardens earlier and quoted Le Grand Jard and Le Jard Anglais I was reminded of a French phrase construct that I’m sure I wasn’t taught at school.  It was only last year that I found out that some adjectives are placed before the noun in French (e.g. Le Grand Jard) rather than the other way around (e.g. Le Jard Anglais).

When we were practising French before we left the UK, I learnt the BAGS acronym that explains the main adjectives that precede nouns: those that describe Beauty, Age, Goodness and Size.  Even this isn’t fool proof as some still follow the noun like ugly (laid) and mean (méchant).  Of course, there are other adjectives over and above the BAGS ones but that’s not what this blog is about.

As it was Sunday, many French families were out walking in the gardens and luckily the rain was holding off for them.

Our mooring from the ‘big garden’ with the cathedral as a backdrop

In the afternoon we took the dogs out with the girls and then joined them on Puddleduck for drinks.  Monday will be a day of travelling for me as I have nearly five hours on trains to get down to Migennes to pick the car up and then two or three more to drive back to the port.

Before I finish, a quick mention of the recent floods in parts of the UK.  As devastating as they are for people affected there was one picture doing the rounds on canal & river groups last week that took our attention.  This is the River Wye in flood in the area where the banks are lined with apple orchards: