Fontenoy-le-Château (summer’s back)

Before we left La Basse Vaivre on Friday, Karen moved the car to Selles and ran back while I took Buddy for a walk.  The weather was still glorious, but we’d found out that much of August had been pretty grey in north-eastern France as it had been in the UK when we were there.  We’d expected all our plants to die while we’d been on holiday and knowing now that the weather hadn’t been that good explained why so many had survived.    

Setting off on Friday morning

We’d walked across the bridge in the picture above on Thursday on our way into the village of La Basse Vaivre.  At the time we’d tried to find a way down from the road to the canal, but no path seemed to exist.  As we cruised under the bridge, we noticed a ladder was set against the wall so we could’ve accessed the towpath after all but, of course, we wouldn’t have been able to get Buddy down it. 

The hidden way down to the towpath

We didn’t have far to travel before getting to Selles and saw there were several boats already moored there.

Approaching the mooring at Selles

It turned out that three of them were hire boats waiting for the swing bridge to be opened so soon left and one was a Swedish motor yacht that looked like it’d had been there for some months.  The other boat was El Perro Negro (Spanish for black dog) with a Brit couple, Paul & Marian on board.

Looking at the picture above you can see the hatch cover has had its first topcoat applied.  Karen can’t believe it has taken me over a year to do it as I’d put the last undercoat on over a year ago.  In fact, it was so long ago that we couldn’t remember if it’d been blue or burgundy!

We left looking around Selles until Saturday, but I did pop in to pick up some croissants as we’d run out.  The lady in the boulangerie seemed to be about 160 years old and I suspect she was covering for her family especially as she would only take cash.  I didn’t have any cash with me so said I would be back in 10 minutes.  France has always been way ahead of the UK in having handheld card machines in general use so, particularly with Covid, cash is hardly ever used.   Anyway, I went back with some cash and meanwhile the lady had found a card machine but had to ask me to operate it as she didn’t know how to.

During the evening we spent a couple of happy hours having drinks on Paul & Marian’s boat.  Their boating lifestyle is quite different to ours as they spend six months of the year cruising and the other half of the year in their house in Spain.  Although we’d never met before it soon transpired that we had a lot of boater friends in common. 

Paul & Marian leaving on Saturday morning

On Friday we cruised three miles up one lock.

Before we left on Saturday, we had a walk around Selles, a small village with a current population of just over 200.  The road junction in the middle of the village still boasts a couple of enamelled Michelin road direction plates. 

These signs were started in 1890 by the Touring Club de France – hence the TCF on the plates.  Michelin sponsored these enamelled signs from 1919 and most of the ones of this type were installed around that time.

The church and war memorial at the junction

Below the war memorial itself was one of the village water fountains with an animal drinking trough or abreuvoir next to it.  As well as several fountains and abreuvoirs there were a few lavoirs of special interest to us so please indulge me.  One had a turnstile entrance:

Two of them were the smallest we have come across so far.

This one had a fountain and an abreuvoir…

…and the smallest also had an abreuvoir

Selles mairie was quite bland but was large considering the small population:

As with most villages we have been through so far, both the canal and the River Coney ran through it side by side.

Ideal for the village children to paddle in

A stone bridge carried the road across the river but a swing bridge had to be crossed to get over the canal.  This canal is one of the more modern ones in France, being opened in 1880, and the bridge is still the original and is operated manually.  The operator sits in the canal house next to the bridge and comes out when he/she sees a boat coming.  The traffic barriers each side are lowered and raised by what looks like a complicated pulley system.

The bridge and bridge house

The bridge operator’s house is of the same style as the lock cottages on the Canal des Vosges and the side walls are clad in metal.  I haven’t found out the reason for the cladding or the type of metal, which I assume isn’t lead, but would be interested to hear if any readers have any information.

Cladded side of the house

After our walk we took the car to Pont du Bois and walked back along the towpath to fetch the boat.  We’ve been noticing tall precast concrete posts a 100 metres or so before narrows, such as locks and bridges that remind us of similar posts on some of the canals in the UK.  We have yet to find a definitive reason for these posts but the most plausible seems to be that if boats are going in opposite directions, then the one that reaches their post first gets priority at the pinch point.  The ones we have seen in the UK, mostly on the Grand Union, are short; if the theory is correct then at least the French ones can be seen from further away.

We passed a canal-side lavoir during our walk back that was so overgrown with brambles that it wasn’t possible to get inside:

Returning to the village we popped into the bridge operator’s house to make sure someone was there to let us though and a very pleasant girl said she was delighted that we’d dropped in to ask and said she would open the bridge as soon as we left the mooring.

After three locks we arrived at Pont du Bois where we’d left the car and stopped for lunch at a lovely spot.  Unfortunately, the internet signal wasn’t strong enough for Karen to use for work otherwise we would have stayed they for a few days.

Lunch at Pont du Bois

Following lunch, we carried on to our next destination, Fontenoy-le-Château.  The canal was very twisty and reminiscent of those in the UK, it also took us through some lovely, wooded valleys.

Not a bad waterside property

As we continued our journey we passed from Haute-Saône into the Vosges département.  This was also the old regional border of Lorraine which no longer exists other than with the majority of French people who apparently rue the changes.  In 2016 it combined with the Alsace and Champagne-Ardennes régions to become the Grand-Est région.     

The old border

Approaching Montmotier

We only passed one other boat during the journey and as luck often seems to have it, it was on a tight bend.  The boat was a hire boat that had just left the base at Fontenoy-le-Château and fortunately was going very slowly.

The majority of the locks have brick filled cast iron bridges across their tails:

The lock and bridge at Fontenoy-le-Château

These bridges have plaques indicating they were cast by Hachette et Driout, a firm at St Dizier which is about 200 kilometres further north and on the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne.  The firm started as a copperworks in the mid-1850s and still operates as a steel works today.  St Dizier was famous for its iron and steel works particularly those associated with Hector Guimard, an Art-Nouveau designer who created many of the famous entrances to the Paris metro stations.  He was also responsible for the ornate balconies, boot scrapers, window boxes etc. which adorn many of the houses in St Dizier.   Seeing the plaques on the bridges reminded us of many a happy hour spent wandering St Dizier looking for examples of Guimard’s work.

Manufacturer's plaque on bridge

When we arrived at the port in Fontenoy-le-Château we saw Helen & Dave were moored there on Brontë.  We’d spent a while with them down at Gray on the river Saône, so it was good to see them again.

Moored at Fontenoy-le-Château

We spent the evening sitting outside with Helen & Dave catching up on our respective travels since we last met.  Like us, they are heading up the Vosges but will turn right at the top as they are going back to their home port of Strasbourg for winter.

What’s that little building in the background?

I cannot resist telling you that the little building is actually a dog lavoir! It was built in 1980 as part of the port renovation works when the old boaters’ lavoir on the opposite bank had to be dismantled as it was in such a dangerous condition.  As well as a basin for washing dogs, there is a drinking pool and a kennel.

On Saturday we cruised eight miles up eight locks.