Châlons-en-Champagne (our winter mooring)

We had to find a shop on Thursday morning as we had run out of lettuce for our lunchtime salad.  It turned out that Juvigny had a small store and was only five kilometres away.  Half the walk was along the towpath, then a couple of kilometres along a farm track before hitting a road that took us into the village.

After lunch we decided to get up to our winter mooring in Châlons-en-Champagne.  Having never had a long-term mooring before it felt quite strange knowing this would probably be our last cruise in France until next March.  As you may know, we are borrowing a narrowboat back in the UK from January so it’s not like we won’t be cruising at all.  Not only that, we have a gig to go to in Épernay in a couple of weeks, so we may just take the boat down there for a few days rather than catch a train.

Apart from one slight bend a couple of kilometres before the town the whole journey was dead straight and with all the pk distance stones still in place along this bit of the cut we soon counted down the seven we had to pass on the way.

The lock in the centre of the town always has an éclusier on duty as it is one of the places that is a checkpoint.  They take details of the boat, the crew and the previous and next stop over points.  This time we had an éclusiere who was very helpful and she took Karen’s line as we came into the lock.

Our friendly éclusiere next to the operating rods

When I told her that we may be going to Épernay in a couple of weeks she went to great pains to explain that the last few locks down onto the River Marne, where Épernay sits, are now in their winter period and therefore are only open if booked in advance.  She gave us the number to ring and hopefully we won’t forget to call if we end up going there by boat.

Throughout much of the town’s history it was known as Châlons-sur-Marne but in 1998 it was changed to Châlons-en-Champagne, one of its earlier names.  The information plate on the lock house at the lock still refers to the old name.

Lock information plate referring to the town’s former name

After coming up the lock we had to turn left into the port which is situated behind a large island and therefore away from the main cut.  This means that there is very little disturbance in the water in the port from passing commercials on the main route.

Turning into the port

As we turned in, we could see several boats we knew including Vindi and Puddleduck.  Guy & Ardon live on Vindi and, unlike most Australians, stay on their boat over the winter rather than returning to Oz.  I’ve mentioned Nikki & Gorete on Puddleduck several times before as we cruised together for a while along the River Marne and also up the canal around Reims.  Our mooring was next to the girls at the far end and we were soon moored up and sussing out things like the water and electricity situation.

In the evening all six of us went out into town, ostensibly to go to a Halloween Beer Festival in the covered market.  I’m not sure who told us about this, but something had gone wrong in the translation.  Yes, lots of families were there dressed up in their best Halloween outfits but that was the only similarity to the supposed billing.  The only drinks available were champagne or cola and there was a stage upon which a couple were demonstrating some dance moves to the assembled crowd.  Some people, mainly teenage girls, were in front of the stage trying to follow the instructions.

After watching for a while, we retired to a bar for a few drinks; it was so busy that we had to sit outside but that way we got to see all the families in their costumes parading around the square.  Rather than having lots of marauding teenagers, which is what we expected, the French take the celebration seriously and there was a very calm atmosphere in the streets and squares and some amazing get-ups and make-up.

Just along from the port is a bar that closes every winter after Halloween until March.  They hold a farewell party and we had been warned that it goes on until four in the morning.  The warning wasn’t wrong, the music was very loud with a solid bass rhythm that kept most of us awake until it finished soon after four on Friday morning.  It reminded us that Friday was one of those national holidays where everything is closed, including the locks, so people weren't really partying late on a school night.

On Thursday we had cruised seven kilometres up one lock under grey skies but in the dry.  When entering up the boat log I noted that our first season cruising in mainland Europe which started at the end of March has seen us covering 1,833 kilometres (1,145 miles) through 632 locks.

It was raining when we finally got up on Friday morning to watch the rugby and it didn’t stop until the early afternoon.  When the rain did stop we went out for a circular walk with the girls and their dog, Bailey. Châlons isn’t a particularly large town (a quarter the size of Reims) so it doesn’t take long before you’re walking out in the countryside.  Buddy and Bailey have a strange relationship and ignore each other most of the time unless one of them picks up a smell and then they both investigate together.

Bailey, being a spaniel, kept swimming in the River Marne which Buddy hated as he gets really concerned when dogs swim.  Walking back through Le Jard Anglais, Bailey went for a swim in one of the large ponds and Buddy standing as close to the edge as he dared, lost his footing and slipped in.  The sides were so steep he couldn’t get out and started panicking.  Gorete was first on the scene and was able to drag him out and he shook himself off and carried on as if nothing had happened.

Our walk brought us back to the port from the other side:

Vindi is the second boat on the left, we are sticking out on the far right finger pontoon with Puddleduck behind.  It’s only the six of us here now, all the other boat owners have gone home for the winter.  When we go back to the UK for three months it’ll be even quieter.