Soulanges (still learning from my mistakes)

On Thursday we drove the car to Soulanges where we planned on mooring next and then walked back to the boat at Ablancourt.  We were due to have a video call with Aussie boater friends, Ian & Lisette, at 10am on Friday which was 8pm their time.  For some reason our internet signal kept dropping out on Thursday afternoon so we thought we’d better cruise to Soulanges first thing on Friday so we could be there before the call.  We left soon after 7.30 and were moored up in Soulanges less than an hour later with plenty of time to have a cooked breakfast.  Soulanges is great for mooring if you want the shade until lunchtime but we’re not at that sort of temperature yet, even so, it's a very pleasant mooring by the line of trees in blossom.

Early morning mooring at Soulanges

On our way into Soulanges we'd passed the smaller of the two sites of the old Soulanges lime works that closed down in 1970.  It was started in 1884 and 100 years ago was employing over 200 people. The predominant surface level rocks in Champagne are limestone so there’s plenty of old limekilns around.  As we travel along, we often see remains of old quarries and the cliffs around Soulanges house such examples.

The crumbling quays of one of the two old lime works of Soulanges

As I said, we made it through Soulanges lock and onto the mooring with lots of time to spare before our call with Ian & Lisette.  We do feel for them and other boaters in the same situation because a year ago most of us thought that things would be back to normal by 2021.  It’s sad to think that it’s going to be 2022 at least before the waterways get busy again with private boaters, especially those from Australia and New Zealand.

Soulanges is another small village (population c450) alongside the canal latéral à la Marne and the river Marne.  A large stream, the Valmont, also runs through the village and flows into the river Marne.    

The entrance to the village from the canal and river bridges (1900 & 2021)

With the canal running alongside the river we're constantly reminded how close they are.  Over the last couple of nights at Ablancourt we've been accompanied by the soothing sound of the excess water in the canal flowing through an overspill back into the river.

Our bedroom view of the river Marne through the overspill

I was recently reading about how barges on many French canals, mainly in the north and east, went through a period of being towed by electric trains.  This happened during the first half of the 20^th century and finally ceased as recently as 1973.  The towing engines ran on tracks laid on the towpath and we occasionally come across remnants of tracks and also see the odd disused engine on display.  There was no dualling of the lines, so engines had to operate in both directions.  I had often pondered about the procedure that took place when two boats and their towing engines met.  The article I read explained what happened in great detail, but the upshot was that the towing lines were swapped over, and the engines reversed their directions.

I’ve mentioned this because while looking into the history of Soulanges I came across a couple of pictures clearly showing the railway tracks.  The first is at the lock and it doesn’t take much imagination to see how intricate the operation must have been to tow a boat out of the lock at such a steep angle as the canal widens. 

c1930 & 2021 – overhead cables supplied the power to the engines

I did ask Karen if she would tow our boat out of the lock so I could get a comparison picture, but she said she was busy.  Joking apart, many women used to pull barges; it wasn’t just a job for men, horses or donkeys.  To give an idea of the scale of towing in north and eastern France, these figures were published by the associated canal authorities in 1958 showing they looked after:

• 1,047 km of rail-operated lines, using 1,700 metre-gauge electric engines
• 139 km of non-rail-operated lines, using 161 electric tractors
• 2,545 km of non-rail-operated lines, using 609 diesel tractors.

The second view is looking from the road bridge over the lock with our current mooring in the distance on the left.  The rail tracks can be seen running along the side of the lock. The two barges are both self-propelled so it is probably more recent than the previous picture.

All villages with a mairie have information posted on a centralised national website.  The volume of information varies greatly as some mairies don’t bother much and others go to town so to speak.  Some of the village sites have a section on their history and it was while browsing some old postcards displayed in the section of the history of Soulanges I came across one of where we’re currently moored.

Looking back towards the lock

Six years ago, we had a bumper crop of chillies and we still have some in the freezer which are just as fresh and hot as they were when they were picked. On Thursday evening Karen took a couple out and found they were no longer frozen hard.  In fact, most items weren’t very hard, and the freezer had obviously stopped working.  I did the usual checking of the circuit breaker, plug and fuse when Karen remembered that I had pulled it out to clean behind the other day.  Pulling it out again, I saw two connectors had come apart so at least the problem was easily rectified.  It was a bit obvious really and once again it was a salutary reminder that as I get older, I need to check and recheck everything I do 😉

After the call with our Aussie friends, I went for a recce into the first section of the canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne.  One thing I wanted to find out was whether there was a chance of it opening before next Tuesday morning.  I went to the first lock which is at Vitry-le-François and is always manned/womanned as boaters are provided with, or hand back in, remote control units (télécommandes) for operating the first 44 of the 71 locks on this, the northern side of the summit.  There was no sign of life and the office was completely shut up and fully shuttered. I drove further down the canal to a place called Écriennes and struck up conversation with the woman living in the lock cottage there.  When I arrived she was painstakingly filling a watering can from the cut and walking to her garden to water her plants.  She seemed glad to have a break even though it was in stilted French (on my side).  Sadly, she confirmed that the canal wasn’t reopening until Tuesday.  I also drove up to Orconte to see if the water was on but it wasn't (not surprising as the canal was closed) but I did see my first painted lady butterfly of the year.

For my part, while Karen worked, I had a lazy Friday afternoon listening to the cricket and reading. I did have a little walk around the village to check out the mairie and war memorial of course.

Good old version of one building housing the mairie and the school

Relatively few names on the memorial 

On Friday we cruised one mile up one lock.