Châlons-en-Champagne (more than a screw loose)

The canalised River Mau on the eastern side of Châlons

It was a lovely sunny day on Friday, but as we had been out visiting friends in Toul on Thursday we just took it easy around the port for the day.  The firemen were back first thing, practising diving and other lifesaving techniques just down from us.  This time there were five boats with four or five guys in each and with seven vehicles on land it must have represented quite a proportion of the local area’s pompier force.  Some were being taught how to use a boat with an outboard motor and every so often a boat would pull up alongside us, where there was a spare pontoon, so they could learn how make the boat fast using mooring cleats.

After Karen & Buddy returned from their run, Buddy was quite happy to be left alone to doze in the sun on our pontoon while we got on with jobs including some interior varnishing.  The side and rear hatches are often open with the wood in the direct heat of the sun so the wood has suffered a fair bit of fading this year.  A few coats of varnish was all that was needed to make it nearly new again.

Buddy taking it easy too

While sorting out the stuff we needed to do the varnishing I had to remove my box of screws from the ‘man’ cupboard.  This reminded me of when I first stopped work, many years ago now 😉  Like many people I had a large, compartmentalised box of screws and likewise a similar box full of nails.  The screws and nails were arranged with similar types and sizes in each compartment.  A long time previously I had dropped the screw box and all the screws scattered over the garage floor.  I was in a rush and just put the screws back willy-nilly, consequently each compartment contained a real mixture of types and sizes.  Needless to say, sorting out the screw box was one of those jobs that never made it off the job list.

At that time, we were still living on and doing up our old boat and in constant need of screws.  We had a week back at the house getting ready for tenants, so I set aside an hour or so each day to sort out the screw box.  I finally completed the task and felt really good about it and took the box to the car ready to take it back to the boat.  I hadn’t fastened it properly and as I lifted it up, the lid sprung open and the screws went everywhere.  The box is still in a mess and I doubt I’ll ever sort it out now.

Saturday was another lovely day but with a noticeable temperature drop and I had no excuse but get on with servicing the engine.  Karen took herself off for a walk with Buddy to avoid the inevitable curses and shouts from the engine bay as I did something stupid like spill oil or similar.  For once nothing went wrong unless you count the fact that I was unable to change either fuel filters.  I have yet to top the diesel tank up with fuel and, as it is only about half full, it is recommended that fuel filters aren’t changed in case the fuel lines need bleeding.  So, I couldn’t cross ‘Service’ off the job list but at least it is mainly done.

After lunch we went for our ritual daily walk around Châlons as we wanted to pop into the tourist information office to ask a few questions.  We try to take different routes and this time we came in from the east across the canalised River Mau, through a part of town we hadn’t been in for a while (picture at the top).

Our trip to the tourist office wasn’t particularly fruitful.  We found out that there are no further tours around the old circus building until next year, although there is an arty show being staged that we didn’t really fancy.  The Noël market was also of interest to us but doesn’t start until the day we have booked to come back to the UK.  We will probably end up going to Reims for a day as their market starts a week earlier.

We fancied coming into town in the evening to eat so we walked around the restaurant squares to pick one we haven’t been to before.  While doing this we found yet more embellished road signs.  From a distance, I was convinced that one of them was portraying a pair of breasts 😊 I’ll leave you to decide whether you would have thought the same:

 

There is a supermarket in the town and when Karen pops in for something Buddy & I wander around and then wait outside.  Unbelievably, the sign next to the seat where we usually sit waiting for Karen to emerge was also embellished and we had never noticed it before.  It was the quite pleasing depiction of children in a class with their teacher next to the ‘breasts’ above.  One that really puzzled us was a cowboy trying to lasso a dinosaur on the right hand sign below:

 

Karen reckoned that whoever was decorating these signs was following us and putting them up after we had passed an unadorned sign.  Our interest was piqued as we had seen so many and also several dozen of the painted drain covers and a few decorated fire hydrants, so we went back to the tourist office to find out why.  Apparently, the town is trying to encourage artists and, indeed, we have seen a couple of shops with artists at work.  They have been allowed to express themselves by doing these things but, strangely, it has not been advertised; there is no marketing material in the tourist office nor information boards around the town ☹

A shame really, as finding them would be a fun thing for families to do and also help them see some of the fine buildings hidden away in the less-frequented parts of town.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Karen designs a heritage trail taking the artistic decorations into account!

We found three more painted drain covers and it was only then that we realised that the paintings depict the shop or trade carried out in the building next to them.  The three new ones were outside the old circus school building and a veterinary practice:

 

We went back into town later to eat at the restaurant we had chosen and were pleased with our choice.

The square where we ate on Saturday evening