Froncles (to stay or not to stay?)

Part of our regular pre-curfew walk

Having decided to stay in Froncles for a while I caught the train to Chaumont on Saturday morning to retrieve the car, the last day we were allowed to travel more than 10 kilometres from our home.  As the car was in the port at Chaumont, I called in to see Claude & Susie to confirm we were staying at Froncles and wouldn’t need the reservation at Chaumont.  We chatted about the impact of the lockdown on plaisanciers like ourselves and the different views we’ve picked up from social media and official sites.  The national VNF site had some very woolly wording saying the waterways are obviously staying open for commercial traffic but they would also be open for private boaters on an “on demand” basis.

According to reports on Facebook etc., people in different VNF regions have contacted their respective regional offices and it seems that each region is making its own interpretation of “on demand”.  Not surprising really as départements have the power to implement their own Covid rules on their populations.  We’ve decided to stay put until the lockdown settles down and then see if VNF have reached a point where their rules are understandable or at least consistently applied nationwide.  We’ve been cruising for a month since leaving Châlons-en-Champagne and are now 77 miles further south having been through 46 locks so at least we’ve got further down the entre Champagne et Bourgogne than we’ve managed before even if we’re stuck here for a month or longer. 

Our travels so far this year

VNF may decide that private boaters that live aboard can move but each time they moor they are subject to the 10-kilometre rule with respect to how far they can travel from the boat.  With this in mind, Karen worked out how we could keep moving while keeping the car with us and she found potential mooring locations that are less than 10 kilometres apart.  That way we could retrieve the car each time we get to a new mooring without breaking the 10-kilometre rule.  In case you’re wondering why we’re keeping the car at the moment it’s because we want to be able to reach a vaccination centre easily when I’m called for my second and Karen for her first Covid jab.

As mentioned earlier, Saturday was the final day we could travel further than the upcoming 10-kilometre rule, so we spent the afternoon sussing out the mooring spots and were very pleased with the results.  Not only were there some stunning locations, we also found a few lavoirs in some of the villages we passed through. 

Potential mooring below an extravagant dovecote in Riaucourt

All the lavoirs apart from one were really quite elaborate and well preserved.  There were two large ones at Roôcourt-la-Côte which seemed over the top as there are fewer than 200 people living there now, even if there used to be double that 150-200 years ago when the lavoirs were built.

Four of the lavoirs

All of them were stream fed and full of water when we visited.  The one at Roôcourt-la-Côte with yellow tulips in front of it smelt amazing as the blue hyacinths growing amongst the tulips were giving off such a powerful scent.

Inside one of the lavoirs

We’ve only been here at Froncles for five days but have already established a pre-curfew walk whatever we’ve done during the day.  Froncles is laid out along the river Marne and the canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne with bridges across the river and canal at each end.  We are moored about equidistant between the bridges which are just over a kilometre apart.  As there is a path on both sides of the canal, we can have a circular stroll alternating each day between clockwise and counter-clockwise.

Passing our mooring on a clockwise evening

The building behind our boat contains holiday lets which are currently closed for obvious reasons although we have noticed the camper van population increasing in the park alongside.  It seems that people are taking advantage of being allowed to have lockdown away from their main home and are setting up camp for the duration.

Many millstreams have been created through the village to drive the iron works that used to line the banks of the river in Froncles.  One stream runs the other side of the holiday lets and has a small open lavoir reached by stone steps:

Froncles currently has a population of 1,500 and its main employer is a rolling mill, producing sheet metal mainly used for car production.  The site was originally established in 1758 to process iron ore, a common activity in the higher Marne valley due to the abundance of iron ore.  In 1858 it became a sheet rolling mill and by 1906 became the SFF (Société des Forges de Froncles).  It is still known by that name even though Citroën took it over in 1927 and employed over 900 people there.  Since the Citroën takeover there have been many owners and currently a German company runs the site with fewer than 200 workers supplying parts to Renault but the original name of SFF has been retained.  A sawmill has also been established in some of the original buildings.

You’ve probably noticed in the pictures that there are steep hills running alongside the canal next to us which look really inviting for a good walk.  There are many forestry tracks through the woods where the public are allowed to roam so we worked out a good circular walk for Sunday morning.

Looking down on Froncles (the SFF iron works/steel factory in the foreground)

We saw no one while out on our walk but by the middle of the afternoon there were quite a few families out walking along the canal and the river – a Sunday afternoon activity in many parts of the world.

Froncles is typical of any rural community with industrial rather than farming roots in that most of the housing consists of rows of terraces around the centre with larger dwellings for managers around the outside.  Of course, the original owner of the iron works lived in the largest house in the village:

1905 & 2021 (The houses on the right have 1805 inscribed above the doorways)

With some rain forecast for Monday afternoon we had our main walk of the day in the morning taking in the village of Provenchères-sur-Marne.  As we headed out through Froncles we looked for signs of the SFF housing and were really pleased to find a few houses with these little plaques on the door lintels:

SFFV 71 on 104 rue du General Leclerc 

I haven’t been able to find out what the V stood for but I’m pretty confident the plaques were placed on the houses originally owned by the SFF.  Between 1914 and 1925, when the workforce rapidly expanded, 300 extra houses were built for the employees and many of them went against the traditional stone built terraced approach.  These bungalows and chalets on either side of the Rue de Bel-Air are in the area where the expansion took place, several of which still have their SFF plaques. 

The lowest number we have found so far is 36 and the highest is 329.

Earlier in the morning I’d been looking at old postcards of Froncles and as we walked down the high street, I recognised an old SFF building.  I took a picture of the same view that was in my mind’s eye and was rather pleased, that when I compared them later, the two views were almost identical.  The cars have changed, there are H&S railings on the steps, the fishmongers has closed but most details are still the same.  When Karen saw the result she was surprised I hadn’t asked her to stand on the steps.

We passed several stone and iron crosses on our walk.  These are common sights in the French countryside, and I have always thought they had a religious bent.  I have now found out that they weren’t always built for religious reasons; they were often erected at the boundaries of communes or to provide travellers with directions at crossroads.

Walking through Provenchères-sur-Marne we passed the church and the mairie both of which were built of local limestone.  We also found a recently restored lavoir that was built over a stream just out of town.

Rain threatened for much of the walk but held off until we got home.  It did rain for a while later on making it hard to believe we were in for two or three nights of unseasonably heavy frosts.  Apparently, the cold nights are expected all over the country and there is a lot of concern amongst the wine producers.  The damage is caused by the sun shining on the frost covered leaf buds and the traditional method of burning straw, so the smoke obscures the sun’s rays, has been banned.  

We have seen one boat come past every day since we’ve been at Froncles.  I know it’s probably a coincidence but all of them have been Dutch registered commercials, heading north and at about five o’clock in the afternoon.  This one had a particularly garish coloured car.

There certainly was a hard frost on Monday night but the sun soon burnt it off and Buddy and I were able to have some pleasant walks around Froncles and the surrounding area.  As tempting as it is to include pictures of all the lavoirs we find I will desist and just include a then and now shot of one of the three we’ve found in Froncles.

The war memorial commemorates local people who died in various wars, most appeared to have been during the WWI battle of the Marne.

Karen has now reduced her working days to three a week giving us four-day weekends which we're eagerly looking forward to.  We have also decided to stay put at Froncles until at least Friday and then have a chat with the local VNF office to find out what the cruising situation is for private boaters.