Hûmes -Jorquenay (what are steppingposts?)

Change of neighbours at Rolampont

Friday dawned grey again and by 8.45am we could hear our neighbour’s engine running meaning they were probably getting ready to leave.  Sure enough they left ten minutes later timing things just right to reach the first lock at opening time which is at 9.00am on our side of the summit on this canal.  They actually open at 7.00am but that’s only for commercials, although for some reason on the other side of the summit they open at 7.00am for all boaters.

All on our own again

Soon after breakfast Buddy and I walked back to Marnay-sur-Marne to pick up the car.  On Thursday, when we’d cruised the section, we saw several cyclists and walkers but while walking I didn’t see a soul.  I stopped for a wander around the small village of Vesaignes-sur-Marne (pop. c100) to see if I could find a lavoir. 

I was out of luck but was surprised to see the mairie and church were both enormous for the population they served.

The mairie of Vesaignes-sur-Marne

The water trough was a large affair too

One of the things we’ve been looking forward to seeing around our current mooring at Rolampont was a Roman bridge over the Marne.  It wasn’t until later in the afternoon, when I was researching places to go over the weekend, that I found out that it wasn’t Roman.  It was built in 1764 but in a Roman style so visiting the bridge dropped down the priority list.

Later on Friday all three of us walked into Rolampont to have a look around.  It’s more of a town really as it houses around 1,500 people and is large enough for a few small shops as well as a car showroom.

Rolampont mairie and church from the canal side of the river

We found two lavoirs and they looked identical, both from the exterior design and the size and shape of the basins.

Saturday was a much better day and the rain kept away which was good as we had a 12-kilometre circular walk planned.  Soon after a very late breakfast we heard the sound of a boat and realised that someone was mooring up in front of us.  Jutta & This were a delightful Swiss couple in a 20-metre barge called San Francisco.  Buddy was in his element as they had a dog which soon became his new playmate while we had a short conversation and agreed to meet up later in the afternoon as we were just about to set off for our walk.  

We wanted to walk over the hills to the west of Rolampont, down into the Saulx valley, visit the village of Faverolles to see the remains of a Roman mausoleum and then back through the woods to Rolampont.  Our first stop was just outside Rolampont where there are some extensive tufa formations.  These are often seen in limestone areas such as in the Yorkshire Dales where limestone rich water precipitates over the moss-covered rocks forming the delicate and relatively soft tufa stone.

One of the tufa formations

The walk over to Faverolles alternated between woodland and arable land and provided wonderful views in the open areas.

Novel steppingstones had been installed to help us cross one stream.  I suppose that strictly speaking they should be called steppingposts.

Karen managing the steppingposts

When we reached Faverolles (pop. <100) we stopped for a picnic and a look around. 

One of the largest buildings housed many Roman artefacts that have been discovered in the area but was unfortunately closed because of the covid restrictions. It seemed rather incongruous that the museum was housed in one of the largest buildings in such a small village.

Museum is the second building on the left

Our next stop was the mausoleum which was reached after a climb back up and into the forest, although the information board pointed out that 2.000 years ago, when the mausoleum was built, the surrounding area was cleared of trees.  The mausoleum was very disappointing, all that was left was a pile of blocks under a nondescript shelter and the whole area was fenced off.

All that remains of the 80’ tall mausoleum

A little further away stood a ¼ size replica carved from a single block of stone.  The carving was performed by students at a stonemasons’ college in the nearby town of Langres.  Even though it was only 20’ tall it demonstrated what would have been the size and spectacle of the original structure.

The ¼ size replica

The return walk was in the forest until we dropped down the other side of the hill back into Rolampont.  As we’ve found in all the wooded areas we walk, plots numbers are clearly marked by plastic tags pinned to trees every 100 metres or so.  The National Forest Office or Office National des Fôrets (OFN) control the management of the majority of the woodland in France whether privately owned or not.

This particular forest seemed to have an abundance of the original stone boundary posts.  These ones looked remarkably like some of the distance stones we’ve seen along the canals.  Karen joked that they were the missing distance stones that we couldn’t find as we photographed them on our journeys.

In a similar vein to the lack of walnut trees this year we seem to have missed out on the wild garlic season.  Normally, this is impossible to miss as the smell from swathes of the plants can be very strong, even to the extent that they can be smelt from the boat as we cruise past a wild garlic area.  This year we haven’t seen any, that is until we nearly reached the end of our walk.  Even though the season is now over, we came across a meagre clump that were still in flower.

Our only wild garlic specimens this year

After we got back, we popped around next door for tea and freshly made chocolate chip muffins.  As Swiss, they spoke a multiple of languages and they were quite comfortable keeping the conversation in English.  Their barge was built in 1932 and converted to a pleasure craft about 20 years ago and, now they’ve retired they spend most of their time on the waterways of Europe.  They both caught covid in November and told us that, in Switzerland, people only receive one jab if they have had covid; not a practice we’ve heard of.

As we were moored alongside a high quay at Rolampont the inside of the boat felt quite dark even when the sun was out so we both fancied moving to somewhere more open even though we'd only been there for three days.  Jutta & This left just before nine on Sunday morning heading the way we’d come, and we left an hour or so later for the shortish hop to Hûmes.

After using her line at the fourth lock Karen noticed two sides of the eye had badly frayed.  This was a sudden thing as she’d not even seen any sign of fraying previously.  The four locks had all been very feisty, so I’d had to put the revs up higher than usual to keep the boat forward.  This extra friction coupled with lock sides that were unusually square and abrasive seemed to have caused the problem.  We’ve used rope protectors in the past in this situation but with the bollards on these locks so close to the edge it was the loop itself being damaged rather than the line so the protector wouldn’t have helped.

The damaged loop

Fortunately, we had a spare 13 metre looped line but need to find a way of adapting the rope protector to use it to stop the loop fraying in case we come across a similar situation in the future.  If we trusted our splicing. we could form a loop at the other end of the damaged line.  I seem to remember Aileen once spliced a rope when she and Mike needed to make up a spare, so perhaps she can give us some pointers.  

We didn’t see much sun on the cruise, but it came out after we moored up and turned into a pleasant afternoon.

Moored at Hûmes

We had a quick look around the village and spent the rest of the day relaxing around the boat.

Hûmes war memorial, mairie and church

The doctor’s surgery in a converted lavoir

We noticed the roof of the surgery was laid with 'violon' tiles.  These tiles were a specialism of the local area around the 1850s and are shaped like violins giving a rather pleasing finish.

On Sunday we cruised four miles up five locks.