Châlons-en-Champagne (home of the circus)

The canal is on the left and our port is in front of the cathedral

I was going to service the engine on Wednesday morning, but it was drizzling off and on and it doesn’t take much for me to find an excuse to put off that particular job.  To be honest it soon stopped drizzling and was dry for the rest of the day but once I had made my mind up to delay the job until later in the week I wasn't going to change it 😉

We had a little wander around town during the morning as we needed to pick up a few things and found some more painted manhole covers that we had missed last time we were looking.  Although we haven’t been here long, we both like the town and both feel quite at home here.  Just before lunch we realised it must be the first Wednesday of the month as the air raid sirens started their monthly test across the country, which is always eerie and a bit spine chilling to hear.

After lunch we went for a longer walk out in the country.  On the outskirts of town, we passed the National Circus college which has been associated with Châlons since 1899 and we have yet to visit the original building.  Like the Porte Sainte-Croix the other day, it is only a few hundred metres from our mooring so we’re quite surprised we haven’t visited it yet.

The original circus school building

We sort of visited it when we went on the guided boat trip around the waterways of the city in August, but we only saw it from the rear which wasn’t so spectacular.  It’s on our list of things to see over the next week or two.

The current college building which opened in 1985

Big top and other marquees in the college grounds

On our way back to the boat we saw Priscilla (our commercial conundrum from the last blog entry) going down the lock out of town and it was empty.  This didn’t help explain the situation as it was empty when it arrived here, stayed three days, filled up with cob corn on the fourth day and then yesterday was being emptied at the same spot it was filled up.

Our walks to the west end of town always take us over the passerelle (footbridge) near the port which provides lovely views over this part of Châlons as shown at the top of this update.  It seems that every time we go for a walk, the weather is grey, so I'll brighten it up by mentioning we're still seeing the odd butterfly, mainly painted ladies.

Oh, and here are the 15 new drain covers we found today – we rather like the postie and his letters from outside the post office.

Postie middle row on right

Thursday was a day out for us; we drove over to Toul which is further to the east and sits on the River Moselle.  Our current cruising plan for next year is to get over to the Moselle and follow it downstream through Luxembourg and then into Germany.  When we meet its junction with the River Sarre we will follow that upstream and back into France.  We’re not to sure about what we’ll do when back in France for two reasons: 1) potential impact of Brexit and 2) whether or not we get enough rain over winter to reopen some of the canals.

We were heading over to Toul to visit Sue & Paul who’re overwintering there.  They had hoped to reach Châlons-en-Champagne and moor with us, but the closure of the Marne au Rhin canal prevented that.  They were also overwintering in Toul with Bill & Jane who we know of through several sets of friends but have never met.

On the drive over we saw thousands of cranes feeding in fields of what looked like a winter arable crop.  These are enormous birds with a wingspan of 2 to 2.5 metres and must devastate crops with such large numbers devouring them.

Buddy had stayed with Sue & Paul on one of our trips back to the UK and had been spoilt rotten.  Because of this he was really excited to see their boat and was beside himself all afternoon.  We had a good catch up with Sue & Paul and then Bill & Jane came over and we had a good long lazy lunch prepared by the girls.

Toul from the port

We’re looking forward to mooring in Toul next year and exploring the town; the ramparts, in particular, look amazing and extensive.  The north eastern area of France is somewhere neither of us know so will also add to next year’s excitement.   

Evening at the port in Toul: Sue & Paul’s widebeam, Flubs with Bill & Jane’s Lazybones to the right

It was dark by the time we got home, but on the journey back we saw hundreds of cranes flying overhead.  We found out later that they were on one of their migration routes (or flyway, one of my favourite words along with balmy and antimacassar) from Scandinavia down to overwinter in Spain with quarter of a million others.  Apparently, this is the western flyway and Champagne is a well-known vantage point to catch it in progress.  At least it means the feeding frenzy is only temporary for farmers in this area.

Impossible to take a picture in the evening light but enough to reinvoke our memory

Friday will probably be a stay at home day doing jobs and also washing as it's meant to be lovely and sunny all day.