Our jaunt back to the UK passed quickly and it seemed like it was no time at all before we were getting up at 2.30am on Monday to catch an early Eurotunnel crossing back to France. Of course, the current rules are not conducive to socialising, so we had had limited contact with family. This was a shame for Lauren especially as she turned 30 and would normally have had a big party to celebrate. Instead she had to have a virtual version with a series of video messages from well-wishers expertly put together by Polly.
The party theme would have been Hawaiian and Nikki &
Gorete, who were looking after Buddy back in France, joined in the occasion by
putting a lei on him and sending a picture to Lauren:
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| Buddy celebrating on the river Meuse |
We had dropped Buddy off with the girls on the France/Belgium border but whilst we had been away, they had travelled further south so we picked him up at a place called Lumes. The pictures they have showed us of the Meuse are stunning and it looks like a beautiful river to cruise. Unfortunately, it is currently impassable at both ends where canals join it, due to recent infrastructure issues, so we won’t be visiting this year. One end should be re-opened in September, so the girls shouldn’t get stuck!
We easily found them as Nikki is a whizz at directions and
soon unloaded all the stuff we'd brought back from the UK for them. Apparently, Buddy had been good throughout
his stay, but they had soon learnt that he needs to be on a lead when near houses that may have cats 😉
After a gorgeous boat-made brunch of kedgeree followed by blackberry
and apple pie, we continued our journey back to Condé-sur-Marne. As we left, we were given some jars of
blackberry jam and jelly they had made from this year’s bumper blackberry
harvest. We soon felt like we were nearly
home as we drove through the champagne vineyards to the south of Reims. We hadn’t been worried about leaving the boat
just up from the little port in Condé as it is such a quiet village and she was
just as we had left her. I set about
getting her ready for cruising while Karen drove to the supermarket to do the
weekly food shop. Buddy, of course, just
lay in the sun for the rest of the afternoon.
I drove to Épernay on Tuesday morning to leave the car with
Bernard while we’re cruising up north.
If you recall, Bernard had agreed that we could leave the car at his
house while we’re cruising. Thankfully, he
remembered me and was true to his word, but he did think I was leaving my bike
with him too as I got it out of the car. I was completely stuck how to explain
in French that I needed to use it to get back to the boat, but he seemed to
comprehend in the end.
The ride back was just shy of 20 kms and was nearly all along
the canal latéral à la Marne through some charming champagne villages that we
got to know quite well last year.
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| Vineyards on the hill above Mareuil-sur-Ay |
I stopped at Tours-sur-Marne for a breather and to study an information board whose title caught my eye. Those of you who know us or follow the blog will understand why:
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| Information board by the lock at Tours-sur-Marne |
We had heard the term ‘Bateau lavoir’ before, having passed a couple of restaurants with the same name back down the Marne towards Paris. Mistakenly we had assumed that these were places where boats could be washed; the information board explained that they were permanently moored boats in cities and towns that were in fact early laundries. Those who could afford to would take their dirty washing to the bateau lavoir where washerwomen would earn a pittance to do the cleaning. It is reported that during the 19th century around 100,000 washerwomen worked in Paris in either purpose built land based lavoirs or in the many bateaux lavoirs moored along the banks of the Seine.
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| Bateau lavoir (signed Lavoir Parisien) in Épernay with bathing facilities (for the modest) in the boat behind |
If you’ve been to Épernay you will probably recognise the ostentatious water tower of the champagne company Castellane in the picture above. That tower and the river are about all that can still be seen today as there are now large road and railway bridges across the river where the two boats are.
When I got back, Karen was out on the morning Buddy walk
but we set off as soon as they returned.
We need to travel 75 kms to the other side of Reims before we reach an area we haven’t been to before which means four long cruising days ahead. We also want to get through Reims quickly as
it is one of France’s hotspots for the current virus. We will then slow down so we can start
exploring new places.
We had eight locks to ascend as soon as we set off and these were unusual in that they work as a chain. As soon as the first lock is set in operation by a twisty pole over the water, the remaining locks set themselves automatically. Of course, this means that mooring isn’t really possible in the intervening pounds as it would confuse the system which would think a boat had gone missing.
Once up the locks we were at
the summit of the canal and had to go through the 2.3 km long Billy
tunnel. We have been through the tunnel
four times before with various degrees of success with regard to the traffic light system, so we weren’t surprised when
the lights remained resolutely red. I could see there wasn’t a boat
coming through and tried several channels on the VHF radio and also phoning
the control centre for the canal but couldn’t raise anyone. I was just about to moor up and go up to the
office above the tunnel portal when the lights turned to green and an éclusier came
out of the office to apologise as he hadn’t seen us!
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| Going through Billy tunnel |
The path to the left of the boat still carries the railway
track from the days when barges were pulled through by a steam engine. The three torpedo tubes on the roof are one
of the two sets of fans that blow exhaust fumes out of the tunnel, there being no
airshafts. We moored for the day as we
came out of the northern portal at a spot we have been to before and knew the
chances were that there'd be no other boats around.
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| Quiet mooring outside Billy tunnel |
On a stretch before the tunnel we had seen the unusual sight of multiple herons fishing close together. Each time we neared all six would fly off and settle in a field together before taking off again and assuming fishing positions just ahead of the boat. I know we saw up to a couple of dozen at a time during the confinement in Châlons-en-Champagne, but we were moored next to a heronry and it was in springtime before they dispersed for summer.
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| Unusual sight on a French canal: no solid towpath for walkers, cyclists and VNF vehicles |
For some reason the online mooring notes (put together by boaters) for our mooring state that there is no access to the outside world, but we knew there was a path leading to the top of the portal so went for a walk after a late lunch. Karen made a mental note to update the mooring notes as we had clearly forgotten to do it last time we were here. Our walk took us to the feeder canal (rigole d’alimentation) where water pumped up from the river Marne supplies the canal at the summit level.
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| The sluice controlling water flow into the main canal (and Karen & Buddy) |
During our walk we could hear traffic on the A26 autoroute down in the bottom of the valley but all was peaceful back on the boat as the canal runs through a cutting as it exits the tunnel.
Although I said we were doing four long days it turned out
that we only cruised for about 3 ½ hours on Tuesday and covered eight miles up
eight locks 😊
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