Reims (summer’s returned)

We were rudely awoken by a commercial going past at four o’clock on Tuesday morning followed by another about 30 minutes later.  It rather confirmed to us that the opening hours published for each canal apply to pleasure boaters like us and that commercials can make their own arrangements which makes sense as they’re running a business.

Red sky warning at Courcy on Tuesday morning

Having planned to move on towards Reims after lunch, we had a walk back down towards Loivre during the morning.  The adage, “red sky in the morning, shepherds’ warning” rang true as it started raining while we were having lunch and continued on for the rest of the afternoon, so we ended up staying put and not cruising. 

Rain all afternoon on Tuesday

We needed another walk later so braved the elements to follow a circular walk.  We started off by crossing over the canal to walk along the towpath on the other side.  After a few kilometres we came to the bridge where we were going to cross in order to continue our walk through some woods.  We soon realised that there was no way we would get across with a dog, so we had to retrace our steps and give up on having a circular walk.

Circular walk thwarter

With a dry day forecast for Wednesday and temperatures back in the 70s we were more than happy to spend the rest of the day inside and leave cruising until the weather was better. 

A funny thing happened to Karen on Wednesday morning when she took Buddy out for his pre-breakfast walk.  She went back down a couple of locks to where the ‘super-large’ walnut tree was, in the hope that the overnight wind had brought some down.  I know we weren’t going to mention walnuts anymore, but this is an anecdote so doesn't really count.  She was in luck and there were some of the super-large walnuts on the ground but there was already a French guy collecting them.  They exchanged the usual pleasantries, and then each carried on their search.

When the guy came to leave, he spoke with Karen again, some of which she didn’t quite understand but the upshot was that he gave her his haul and explained that he already had enough at home.  Karen was a couple of kilometres from our home and now had two large bags of walnuts to carry and a dog to contend with.  She tried ringing me to come and help but for some reason I wasn’t picking up.

While she’d been gone, a steel motor yacht had slowed as it passed us, the first non-commercial boat we’ve seen for what felt like weeks.  The guy driving was obviously attempting to get my attention and it turned out that he wanted to know where the next supermarket was, so I told him to pull up so I could help.  He was a Brit called Gary and he’d been cruising France for a few years but without any guidebooks; he just had a foldout map of France!  Now that’s what we would call a laid-back approach.  He was now on his way up north to go through Belgium and then into Holland.

Unfortunately, unless he turned around and went back five or six miles to Reims, he was three or four days away from a supermarket unless he took a detour into Soissons.  I’d only popped out of the boat for a chat so didn’t have my phone with me which is why I didn’t hear Karen calling.  Gary and I were having a good natter when Buddy suddenly appeared and then I saw Karen struggling up the towpath.  I went off to help her and when we got back, we all continued chatting for a while before Gary left and we went back indoors.

Although the forecast turned out to be correct it was much windier than expected, so much so, that we thought we may just stay put again.  Anyway, after coffee and cake we decided to set off for Reims as we needed to stock up with food and diesel.  Over here we don’t have the same issue cruising in the wind as we would in the UK as the canals are wide and there aren’t moored boats to negotiate.  When we reached the outskirts of Reims we stopped at a handy canalside supermarket.  We had lunch before setting off again and while we were eating a commercial pulled up in front of us for a shopping stop too.

Supermarket stop

With the wind blowing across the cut we knew it wouldn’t be easy to get away, especially with the bows of a large boat in front of us.  It was a case of reversing back and getting our stern out into the cut before putting the power on to pull the front out to clear the other boat.  It only took two attempts, so we felt pretty good that we hadn’t embarrassed ourselves too much.  What I hadn’t noticed was that by the time we had the second attempt, several Reims rowing club boats were waiting for us to complete our manoeuvres. 

We stopped after another few hundred metres at a fuel station where I made four trips to purchase 140 litres of diesel.  With the exceptionally mild weather it was very hot work, and I was glad when we moored up for the day after another kilometre or so at a spot in town we’ve been to several times before.  We knew it had good internet reception which was ideal as we had our weekly bridge session on Thursday.

Autumnal evening in Reims

On Wednesday we cruised five miles through no locks.

We had no desire to go into Reims on Thursday as we’ve explored it before and there was no point exposing ourselves to unnecessary risk.  We had a walk up the canal out of town before the bridge session and then another walk in the opposite direction during the afternoon.  There wasn't much excitement to report but we did come across an unusual contraption by one bridge: 

We couldn’t work out what it was at first until it dawned on us that it was a bike repair point.  The bike would be hung by the saddle post between the two horizontal poles.  All the equipment that would then be needed including Allen keys, screwdrivers, tyre levers etc. were all available on retractable, extendable chains.  There was even a hand pump with several different valve attachments.

We’d forgotten how exercise conscious some people are in towns. Not only were we moored opposite the rowing club which seemed to have a constant stream of boats in and out of the water, but also the towpath was popular with running clubs as well as casual runners and, of course, cyclists.  The runners were at it before it was light and they were still at it after darkness fell.

We'll probably move on tomorrow as it's a Friday.