Anizy-le-Château (it’s greener up north)

Sunrise on Sunday

Sunday was our first non-cruising day since coming back from the UK; I know we only came back on Monday, but it feels like we’ve been on the go for a fortnight.  Although we are only 70 miles north of where we set out from Châlons-en-Champagne after déconfinement, it already feels like we’re in a different country.  What’s particularly struck us is how green everywhere is and also that the streams and rivers have good flows.  It’s hard to believe that the last three summers have been hotter and the winters drier than usual thus causing many canals away from the north to close. 

As it was our first non-cruising day it meant that we had a chance to catch up on all the jobs that have built up.  Of course, the best way to avoid those tasks is to make sure we had longer walks than usual.  It was quite a cloudy day and we saw very little sun which meant it was cooler than we’d been used to of late, so ideal for walking.  For our morning walk we started by heading along a lane due south from the canal.  Bruyéres was the first place we came to; it consisted of a handful of mainly modern bungalows, so we didn’t hold out much hope of seeing anything interesting.  Leaving Bruyéres on the open road to Chavigny we saw a solitary building in a field and we instantly said to each other, ‘it can’t be?’. 

Our surprise building

It was indeed a lavoir, just when we weren’t expecting one because the hamlet didn’t look particularly old.  The basin was stream fed so it gave Buddy a chance to cool his feet and have a drink. 

We noticed that the roof had been raised at some point as there were several courses of breeze blocks and stonework above the original stone walls.  I know humans have tended to become taller over the centuries, but the women can’t have been that much shorter when it was first built surely? 

Chavigny was a large village but just as quiet as Bruyéres, apart from the peal from the church around midday which seemed to go on forever.  Several families were already eating lunch in their gardens and our, ‘bon appétit’ as we passed seemed to be expected as well as appreciated.  There was nothing of note to find in the place other than a notice on the mairie about a bee museum which we went in search of.

The mairie

The church

Don't worry, I'm not about to start filling the blog with pictures of churches and mairies, it was just there wasn't a lot else to see.

The main street

The bee museum was out of town to the east but when we reached it we found that it was closed to the public due to the virus.  The notice was typical of those we have seen elsewhere saying they are waiting for an order from the prime minister before opening.

The bee museum & shop

There was a shop attached to the museum which we assumed mainly sold honey but that was closed on Sundays; even if it hadn’t been a Sunday, it was closed until the end of August for the holidays anyway which rather contradicted the notice outside the mairie which had mentioned a bee workshop during August.

As we had already walked two sides of a rectangle we decided to carry on and make it a ‘circular’ walk by walking the other two sides.  We had to be fairly intrepid for a while as we had to find our way through some dense undergrowth – I say intrepid as we had shorts and sandals on 😉  We made it out to some fields, and it was then a simple matter of following the field edges until we found a farm track and then following further tracks until we were back at the boat.

We picked some damsons on the way and were surprised how sweet they were.  This made us think they were a type of plum; compared with plums, damsons are usually quite bitter.  The fruit was definitely damson shaped and had no sign of the groove that runs down the length of plums.

After a late lunch we spent some time going through all the planned winter closures to double check they wouldn’t affect our plans for the rest of the year.  It was good to confirm that all would be OK as long as we get to Cambrai at the top of the St Quentin canal by 15^th September.  As the current plan is for Lauren and Ellis to come and meet us in Cambrai on 11^th September we should get through before the month-long closure affects us.  They are due to come over with Lauren’s good friend Emily but to be honest, for obvious reasons, it must be pretty unlikely they will now come.

This year’s cruising

We were at Châlons-en-Champagne (the green arrow) for confinement and once released we went south.  We had to turn around and then tried towards the east where the same thing happened.  We are currently at the blue arrow heading up to Cambrai at the northern point then going down to the River Somme where we will head towards the sea before returning to our starting point (green arrow) in the winter - well, that's the current plan.

We went out for another walk in the afternoon but headed away from the canal in the opposite direction.  This time we branched out on a track through woodland.  We have found that farm tracks or green lanes aren’t used by off-roaders like they are in the UK.  This means they are easy to walk on and even drive a normal car on as we have had to when we were leap frogging with the car earlier in the season.  The track we followed through the woods was quite different though and looked like it was well used by off-roaders which made the going rather difficult.

Although we didn't cruise on Saturday we didn't see any boats on the move.

The clouds had gone on Monday morning and we planned on going for another walk before setting off for Anizy-le-Château.  As we were getting ready to leave, we noticed the boat beginning to lean and thought a boat must be coming up the lock. The lean started getting worse and we realised that a boat wasn’t coming up but there were éclusiers letting water through.  We didn’t feel happy with the thought of loosening the lines and then leaving the boat while we went for a walk, so we quickly got the boat ready and set off.

There were still no paths on either bank. so the canal still felt like a river.  It would be interesting to know why there are no paths, maybe as it was a later canal, the horse drawn era only lasted ten years or so before mechanical power arrived and so paths never became established.  We’ve also noticed changes in the plants, for instance there seem to be a lot of hops growing wild in this area and at the same time very few walnut trees.  Maybe we’ll have to get back towards Champagne when the season starts if we want to take advantage of what looks like a bumper crop down there this year.

Still feels like a river

We dropped down a lock just before we arrived at Anizy-le-Château and suddenly the banks opened out and there were paths either side:

A little further on was a good mooring with a few rings and bollards:

Our mooring at Anizy-le-Château

As we arrived well before lunch, we went into Pinon which lies to the south of the canal and found it wasn’t a particular inspiring place.  It had a lot of commercial concerns and the mairie was relatively small for the size of the place but at least it had flowers unlike the one from the other day.

Mairie and church - sorry 😉

Later in the afternoon we went into Anizy-le-Château itself and found it a more attractive place than Pinon.  Although we searched high and low, we never came across a château, but it had a really impressive mairie which was as large as the church on the other side of the road.

I think I'm excused for including this mairie

As we explored both towns within reach of the mooring we will probably move on on Tuesday.

On Monday we cruised three miles down two locks and saw two French pleasure cruisers on the move.