Autigny-le-Grand (the news we didn’t want)

Joinville

Another earlyish start on Wednesday saw us leaving Rachecourt-sur-Marne before nine as we wanted to get to Joinville by lunchtime.  We made it through the six locks and several lift bridges without any problems just enjoying the stunning countryside.

Approaching Curel

Passing through Autigny-le-Grand we saw a mooring spot with a couple of bollards and a picnic table.  We made a note of it in case we’re coming this way again (little did we know then what we know now).

Leaving Bussy

Unusually, one lock didn’t have a lock cottage, the first since leaving Châlons-en-Champagne nearly two weeks ago.  We did have a slight concern at one lock as there was a lift bridge at the exit and we could see no way of operating it.  We made the assumption it would rise automatically as we left the lock and, sure enough, it did.

Lock and bridge side by side

An old lady came out of the lock cottage at Rongeant to greet us and make a fuss of Buddy.  I’m not sure how we attract these people, but this lady had no teeth just like the lady who greeted us at one of the St-Dizier locks last week.

We made Joinville by lunchtime and moored up in town at the Halte Nautique which is also shared with campervans.  We were the only boat but there were about a dozen vans, a mixture of Belgians, Dutch and French. They all looked like they were from an even older generation so we knew there would be no rowdy gatherings long into the night.

Moored at Joinville

After lunch we set out to explore the town.  It was really rather pretty and originally made good use of the River Marne by not only building mills but by diverting the river to run in three millstreams through the town thus making it possible to have more mills.  Even though Joinville is a town, it seemed just as deserted as the villages in Champagne villages.

We started our walk at the Château du Grand Jardin which dates from the early 16^th century and stands on the banks of the river on the northern edge of town.

Château du Grand Jardin

We then followed a mill stream through the centre of town starting at the northern end.

Poncelot, the oldest bridge in Joinville dating from the late 15^th century 

Another pretty bridge

The southern end of town

Walking through the streets we came across a lavoir right in the centre on the high street.  A waterway had obviously been built over as the town developed but was left exposed between two buildings to form the washing place.  Unfortunately, a locked gate had been installed across the steps leading down to the basin thus preventing us from getting a proper look.

Lavoir in the high street

The streets were so narrow and twisty that it wasn’t possible to get a full view of the church.  The best place was across from the market square and even then, a lot of the building couldn’t be seen.

We were just settling down for a relaxing evening after dinner when an avis arrived in my inbox. An avis is an alert sent by VNF about issues on the waterways in a similar vein to those sent out by CRT in the UK.  So far this year, none have affected us other than the one announcing the total closure across the country during lockdown.  This is the avis we received which was in a strange mix of English and French.

VNF’s English version of the closure avis

Basically, from 23rd July, which was the next day, the 162km section on the northern side of the summit (our side) is closed to all craft with a draught of more than 1.6m.  This wouldn't affect us as our draught is considerably less than a metre; however, from 7pm on 28th July, next Tuesday, all boats will be banned.  This was a most unexpected blow and our evening relaxation suddenly turned into a replanning session.

The first decision was do we carry on or do we turn around?  As much as we wanted to carry on heading south, we decided that it could well be foolish.  This canal is closing because of water shortages and, looking at the reserves in the reservoirs around the system, it seems likely that other canals will close too, especially those away from the north.  Although there are several routes between the north and the south, they were all closed by the end of last summer and with the closures starting earlier this year then the chances of further stoppages must be increased. 

We do want to get back to the north east by winter as it is so much easier to get back to the UK from there, so the first decision was easy: we had to turn around.  Luckily the canals here are generally wide enough for us to turn around at any point so we did that, in front of onlookers from the vans who must have wondered what we were doing at that time of night.

One immediate impact is on our son Matthew who is coming out from Norway to see us for a couple of days at the end of the month.  We were going to meet him at Langres, about 100km further south but that’s going to have to change.  He’s catching a train from Charles de Gaulle so it should be a simple matter of getting off a few stations earlier.

Another impact is that we will now be retracing our steps so, to the relief of our busy readers, there probably won’t be so much to write about until we get to somewhere new again!

On Wednesday we cruised seven miles up six locks.

After a quick top up of food items from a supermarket on Thursday morning, we set off back down the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne. We were heading for the mooring we had spotted the previous day at Autigny-le-Grand.  We hadn’t realised then how soon we would be using it.

To be honest we’d had another planning session before we set off, to re-check all the options if we just carried on as originally planned.  As much as we wanted to do it, the options were either too risky in terms of being trapped by potential further closures or entailed cruising an average of 3 ½ to 4 hours a day until November.  We could keep that average up, but it would mean we wouldn’t be stopping and exploring places like we do when we average only two hours a day – rather defeating the object of why we’re cruising in France.

Leaving Joinville the way we came

The toothless lady came out again to see us at her lock, but we couldn’t chat as we were going down on the other side to where she was standing. We had noticed a low table outside her cottage yesterday and wondered what it was used for.  Today, it was covered in potatoes which was a bit of a conundrum as we were brought up to believe that, once harvested, potatoes should be kept in the dark.

Low potato table

Between the table and the water butt there appeared to be a distance marker standing proud looking rather as if it had been removed from its original location.  As we were on the wrong side of the lock we couldn’t investigate further.  It wasn’t long before we reached Autigny-le-Grand and we moored up to the two bollards we spotted yesterday.  There was a wasp nest at one end so we made sure the windows were closed near it and, as there didn’t seem to be many, and they were quite dozy, we decided it would be safe enough to stay. 

Moored at Autigny-le-Grand for Thursday night

Later on, we went for a look around Autigny-le-Grand which, as expected was deathly quiet.  

The obligatory marie, church and war memorial

We carried on to find the River Marne and were soon attracted by children shouting.  Three young lads were having fun jumping off a bridge into the river.  Sadly, it was too deep for Buddy so he wouldn’t go in, but he loved seeing the boys swimming and got really excited every time one got out to climb up and jump off the bridge again. 

We'd forgotten how attentive VNF are and most days an éclusier will stop in his van to find out our plans for the next day or two.  Now the canal's about to close they are even keener to talk to every boater to make sure they know about the closure.  While we were sitting outside in the evening, two of them arrived to find out where we plan to stay for the remaining five days we have left on the canal.

On Thursday we cruised three miles up two locks.   Since we set out from Châlons-en-Champagne two weeks ago, we’ve travelled 61 miles through 37 locks down to Joinville where we had to turn around.

France 2020 so far