La Chaussée-sur-Marne (remembering how to plan)

Evening at La Chaussée-sur-Marne

As it’s so unusual to see a narrowboat over here, we’re used to people stopping by and taking pictures and, if we’re outside, asking questions like, 'What sort of boat is it?' and then, 'How did you get it here?'.  While having breakfast on Monday we had different admirers, a police car pulled up and when the gendarmes inside got our attention they gave us broad smiles and raised their thumbs.  It all happened so quickly that we didn’t have time to get worried we were going to be boarded and asked for our personal and boat documentation.  Compared to many people we’ve met we’ve been lucky so far and not been stopped and searched once; hopefully I’m not tempting fate.  

During our first year in France we met a couple of Brits on a widebeam, one of whom was still working as they cruised around the country.  They told us that they always had to check out mooring spots in advance as they were dependent upon having a good internet signal.  Of course, we are now in the same situation and it reminded us how we thought at the time that it must have quite an impact on their cruising style.  Karen is enjoying her return to working for a while which means the change of cruising style isn't onerous.  Buddy and I went on an internet and water recce on Monday morning and were fairly successful.  Each of the next five places we could moor seemed to have a decent signal and there was water available at one of the locks. 

Soon after we join the canal de la Marne au Rhin later in the week, we will be on pastures new.  We had to turn back last time we attempted it because the water levels were too low but we remembered that a lady living in the first lock cottage came out as we went through, to offer us water from the tap by her cottage.  The final part of our Monday morning recce was to drive there to see if water was still available.  The cottage was obviously still lived in but seemed shut up for the day as I couldn’t raise anyone.  The tap was still there, so I tried it anyway, but no water appeared – I remembered that the lady had to turn on a stopcock in her cottage, so hopefully she’ll be there when we go through at the weekend.

When I got back to the boat, I was surprised to see we were no longer alone. A motor yacht had moored up in front of us and it must be the smallest we have seen over here. Motor yachts are a relatively common sight on the waterways running towards the south coast as many seem to enjoy taking an inland route across France to get to the Med.  Before we left we met Zoe, a Belgian, and Sebastian who was Dutch.  They were a young couple and confirmed that they were on their way down south to the Med.  They were both very new to boating and wanted to get confidence by travelling on the canals before tackling the open seas.

Neighbours even smaller than us 

We had a planning session on Monday evening, and it didn’t take us long to fall back into the swing of the process and remembering who’s responsible for each aspect of the plan.  It’s slightly problematic due to Karen working fulltime until the beginning of April but that adds to the fun. I work out a rough plan for a few weeks ahead with the aim of having a food shop within walking distance once every week or so.  The outline plan also has to take into account that we’re keeping the car with us for a while, so I need to look into railway stations and bus routes on the route.

Karen researches the potential mooring locations by reading the mooring guides on the Dutch Barge Association (DBA) web site.  These guides are updated by members like ourselves, and Karen always ensures she updates any new or out of date information such as services at the mooring, the method of mooring and the local amenities. She also uses satellite images to get a physical view of the mooring which can be very useful.  One of the things to add to the plan at this time is the availability of water.  This will be especially important once we’re on the canal de la Marne au Rhin where water points are apparently few and far between. Karen does remind me that all the while we have the car close to hand or at least a train/bus/bike ride away we will be able to use it to drive to a water tap to fill up our water containers.

Before we left for La Chaussée-sur-Marne on Tuesday I had a few errands to run.  First, I needed to get rid of the recycling that had built up.  Just like the UK, some areas of France don’t have public recycling bins as everyone is expected to use their own bins at home.  This doesn’t help itinerants like us but there was a small déchetterie nearby that I could walk to. To use these places, you are expected to have an access card or proof of living locally but I thought I’d have a go at bluffing my way in as a boater.  I wasn’t challenged as I walked in and started searching for the appropriate skips.  I managed to get rid of paper, cardboard, glass and tins but couldn’t find the plastics.  I finally found what I thought was the right skip and tipped the rest of my bag in and started walking out.  I was challenged on the way and this guy wanted to know what I had put in the skip.  Apparently, it wasn’t meant for plastic and the cartons already in there had been put in by mistake.  I profusely apologised and made a quick escape.  Mind you, when he saw I had only put a couple of yogurt pots in, he smiled and said it was OK.

Walking back from the déchetterie I had to walk over two bridges, the first across the river Marne and the second over the canal.  In between the bridges was a memorial to 21 French soldiers who died on 12^th June 1940 defending the bridges against German attack. 

The memorial was erected in 1962

I realised that when I put a picture of an old postcard depicting the centre of Pogny in the last blog update I had forgotten to include a contemporary picture for comparison, so I went into the village to rectify the situation.

The centre of Pogny now and then

Before we move onto the next location here are Pogny's war memorial, its church dating back to the 12^th century and its more modern mairie.

Église de la Nativité de la Vierge

An unassuming mairie

Some boaters we know say bad weather tends to arrive when they start cruising, but we haven’t counted ourselves in that group, until this week that is.  When we cruised to Pogny it started raining soon after we left Chepy and then stopped while we were mooring.  The same happened on Tuesday although we weren’t really surprised as rain was forecast.  We went anyway as we wanted to get back out in the open where Buddy could have some freedom; he couldn’t lay outside at Pogny without his lead on as he has no traffic sense, and he would quite happily wander across the road next to us even if a car was coming.

After saying farewell to Zoe and Sebastian we left Pogny for La Chaussée-sur-Marne.  There wasn’t much to report about the journey other than Karen & Buddy walked it and the only buildings we passed were a chalk crushing plant and an animal feed factory.  Both were large affairs with loading facilities alongside the canal.  It’s one of the odd things about the French landscape as the countryside can be open for miles but dominated by seemingly oversized silos and factories in the middle of nowhere.  I’m sure planning rules ensure that such large establishments tend to be smaller and more hidden from view in the UK which is why we used to be shocked when we came across them in France.  Nowadays, they are all part of the rural landscape and we would think it odd if they weren’t so obvious.

France Luzerne’s animal feed factory at Pogny

Omya’s calcium carbonate production unit at Omey

After going up one lock we moored up at La Chaussée-sur-Marne and it continued raining for the rest of the afternoon so, ironically, Buddy ended up inside for the rest of the day. There are four mooring hooks in a small field that are handily placed to fit our boat between two of them.

Moored in the rain at La Chaussée-sur-Marne

On Tuesday we cruised just over two miles up one lock in the rain meaning we’ve covered 11 miles through three locks since leaving Châlons-en-Champagne ten days ago. 

La Chaussée-sur-Marne is a small village of just under 700 inhabitants but still large enough to have its own mairie and two churches.  The mairie dates from the late 18^th century and its design is typical of many mairies in that the building originally contained the boys’ and the girls’ schools on either side of the main building.  The original entrances to each set of classrooms are still clearly visible.

The mairie today and the schoolchildren in 1900

In 1798 two villages, Mutigny and Coulmier-la-Chaussée, were amalgamated to become La Chaussée.  One hundred years later sur-Marne was added to avoid confusion with other villages called La Chaussée.  Chaussée means carriageway or causeway, in this case it is causeway as there was one associated with the river Fion that splits into several channels as it joins the river Marne at the western side of the village.  The amalgamation explains why such a small settlement has two churches dating back to the 12^th century.

The river Fion had several mills and associated mill ponds on it, but I couldn’t find any signs of waterwheels on any of the mills left standing. 

The largest mill pond is more like a mill lake

The village is on one of the many Christian pilgrim routes to the shrine of St James the Great in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northern Spain.  In France, these routes are known as Camino Francés and the pilgrimages as Saint-Jaques de Compostelle and are marked with brass shells inlaid into paving stones when passing through towns and cities.

La Chaussée-sur-Marne's war memorial was erected on 21^st September 1919 and marks local deaths in both world wars as well as the Indochina and Algerian wars.

The names of the dead are inscribed on a tablet on the wall behind the memorial

One of the oldest houses still standing in the village was built prior to 1780 but looking at it standing empty today I do wonder how much longer it will remain standing.

The oldest house in the village, built for the de Marnes, Lords of Mutigny

Here are the two churches in La Chaussée-sur-Marne that I mentioned earlier.  The first is the church of Saint-Pierre that was built in the settlement of Coulmier:

…and the Church of Saint-Martin built for the settlement of Mutigny:

The charcuterie and café (and the people) have long since disappeared

It dawned on us on Wednesday that we haven’t seen any boats on the move for five days and wondered where all the commercials had got to.  On Wednesday lunchtime Karen ran back to Pogny to pick up the car and, at the same time, solved the mystery of the missing boats.  There was a commercial moored where we had been moored on the quay at Pogny with another one just pulling up alongside it.  She could see a third a little way down being filled with grain from a silo and surmised the other two were waiting their turn.  The boats had obviously come upstream, turned at the winding hole at Pogny and were now facing downstream.  If the majority of boats coming up the cut are heading for the same silo, then it looks unlikely we will see many if any for a while.    

Before I finish this blog entry here's a map of France that shows the waterways we've travelled so far in maroon.  The pink arrow is where we are now so you can see that as we head for Nancy and then Strasbourg to the east we will soon be on new waterways to us.