Riaucourt (not going backwards)

Pretty entrances for the doves in the dovecote next to our mooring

Saturday, being labour day, was deathly quiet as more workers have the day off on 1^st May than any other public holiday in France.  We only saw a handful of vehicles going through Riaucourt also, like most waterways in France, the canal was closed for the day with all the lock and bridge lights switched off.  We’d noticed a few keen cyclists out early in the morning but by the time we went for a wander around the village it was empty, although one couple greeted us as they were getting into their car.  They were clearly off for a gathering as the lady was clutching bunches of lilies of the valley (muguet), the traditional French labour day gift.

The Marne valley here is particularly steep sided and Riaucourt nestles at the bottom with the river and the canal running through the centre.  It was yet another farming village that expanded when its first iron works was built in 1612 and then later in the days of Champagne production.  The mairie stands in the centre of the village and judging by the side portals probably housed the schools for the children in earlier times.

The 177-year-old mairie now serving 450 people

The 18^th century church was around the corner…

…with the war memorial hidden around the back:

As we walked along Karen asked me if I had a favourite lavoir which I found difficult to answer.  With so many designs from extremely basic washing stones on a riverbank to palatial, folly-like wash houses I felt they should be categorised first.  Before the conversation went much further, we turned into a street called Rue de la Fontaine so kept our eyes peeled.  Sure enough, as we neared the end, we came across what we’d been looking out for:

Sadly, it was bereft of water otherwise it would have been a good contender

We climbed up the hill on the far side of the village and came across a small chapel.  The chapelle de Méchineix stood at the very top with a rather out of proportion Madonna on its roof.  By that I mean the statue looked large for the size of the building rather than being portly.

The chapelle de Méchineix, rebuilt in 1870

Simple interior with room for just eight short pews

One of the old postcards of the village shows a line of pilgrims visiting the chapel on the hill.  The growth of trees over the last century or so made it impossible to take a comparison picture but we managed to get one looking across the village, and the canal and river from the opposite side.

I’ve never been into heraldry but came across the description of the modern coat of arms for the village.  Of the five items on it I could only guess at the meaning of one of them which, I think, is often the conclusion people, or at least those without a background in heraldry, come to when seeing a coat arms.

The modern coat of arms of Riaucourt

I guessed the anvil represented the village forges but couldn’t fathom how the houses represented the dovecote and the chapel.  The bar across the middle represents the Champagne region and I suppose the original bridge across the river may have looked like the one on the arms.

We realised during Saturday that the internet reception on the boat wasn’t going to be good enough for Karen to work her three days this week so will need to make alternative arrangements. We had visited Riaucourt when checking out potential moorings and found the signal to be OK.  What we hadn’t taken into account were the particularly high banks and that the boat would be a lot lower than where we were standing.  Our immediate thought was that we would turn around and go back to Bologne at the end of the weekend for the three days as we knew the signal was OK there and we could then return and finish our stay at Riaucourt on non-working days before moving on to Chaumont.

You can see (or rather can't) why the boat is out signal below the folly-like dovecote

We left it until later in the afternoon on Monday before turning the boat around and heading back to Bologne for a few nights.  I know I’ve always said we can turn around anywhere on French canals but that wasn’t the case on Monday; the cut was wide enough but the sides were too gently sloped.  We tried in several places but to no avail so gave up and moored back up below the lock from where we’d started.  Karen will use her UK phone as that seems to have a good enough signal and if that fails we’ll move on to Chaumont earlier than planned.  To be fair it’s the first time we’ve been let down by the French internet supplied by the Free network so we can’t complain.

Unusual sight of a boat passing – sundown on Monday

The south facing slopes on one side of the village used to be covered in vines for Champagne production until they were removed about 100 years ago following the introduction of strict geographical controls.  The odd row can still be seen in back gardens or allotments and also the remains of stone steps every few yards or so, leading up to what were terraces on the hillsides from the lane at the bottom.  

One of the sets of steps

Modern vines, only just budding

The lane, which is little more than a cart track, is where we park the car and its name is also a reminder of the bygone days of the vineyards.

Under the vines

The rain came back on Tuesday and it was pretty miserable all day, even Buddy didn’t want to venture out in it.  While walking through the woods during the day I came across the remains of a Peugeot 203.  This particular model was from the pre-1953 range so was even older than me.  The production run of these cars started immediately after the end of WWII and they have become a classic design.  I got in touch with Monique during the day, her partner Martin restores early VW vans and he immediately identified the car, so many thanks to Martin!

Seen better days

This week saw a partial easing of semi-confinement, the third French lockdown, with restriction on internal travel lifted.  This means people can travel further than 10 kilometres from their home as long as they are back by the start of curfew at 7pm.  VNF, the French navigation authority, interpreted the original rules differently in each of their main regions.  Ours, the Nord-Est, allowed travel to continue as long as 48 hours’ notice was given, while some banned all but commercial traffic.  Likewise, they have interpreted the easing of travel restrictions differently; all are allowing travel for private boaters again but different start dates apply across the regions.

The travel restriction has been one reason why we are travelling so slowly at present.  The slow approach will continue until we have our second jabs at the end of May.  We are due to have these at Chaumont so don’t want to travel too far away from there yet.  We are currently ten kilometres north of Chaumont and will probably reach Langres which is 40 kilometres to the south of the town by the end of the month.  

Our spot at Riaucourt would be quite different in the evenings if it wasn’t for the curfew.  The dovecote looks like an ideal spot for local children to gather in the evening and, to be fair, we couldn’t blame them. Not that we’ve ever had trouble from people sitting outside the boat, it’s just that it can get rather noisy if they’re right next to you especially when it’s warmer and we need the doors and windows open in the evening.

We plan to move on Friday this week with the aim of reaching Chaumont.