Juvigny (Damp squib Diego)

THURSDAY 7 APRIL

The general feeling in the French press is that storm Diego, which was due to hit on Thursday and Friday, was welcome as far as the rain was concerned but obviously not the wind.  It’s been a particularly dry winter and spring and there are concerns about the impact on general water supplies and agriculture and, from a selfish point of view, potential lack of water on the canal system as the year progresses.

It was quite windy in the morning with white horses breaking on the river but at least it was dry, so we grabbed the opportunity to go for a walk further down the Marne valley.  We took the precaution of donning our wet weather gear but we needn't have bothered as the rain didn’t arrive until after we got back to the boat.  The rain only lasted an hour, and the afternoon became progressively brighter, and we had blue skies and sunshine until nightfall. 

We went for another walk during the afternoon, this time taking in Cumières which makes great play of being a champagne village.  Silhouette characters made of tin have been erected along the riverbank depicting the various stages of the champagne production process.  The artist who designed them, Eric Sléziak, is probably more well known for Woinic, the giant wild boar erected by a service station on the autoroute that enters Ardennes from Reims.  Here are a couple of the series of eight tin sculptures:

Harvesting (les vendanges)

Clipping (le rognage)

During our overcast morning walk we’d also seen a more solid sculpture, this one portraying the pressing:

Press (le pressoir)

The buds on the vines above the village are beginning to give off a greenish hue as can be seen in the next picture.  Dotted around the vineyards were the usual white vans parked up having disgorged the workers for the day’s tasks among the vines.

Walking into Cumières

We found what we thought was the mairie, but it turned out that it now housed the primary school.  As the children were playing in the car park/playground I had to discretely get a picture without them in sight.

Mairie turned school

The wall outside the school is adorned with the campaign posters of the 12 candidates in the upcoming presidential election.  In true French egalitarian style, all the candidates' posters must be the same size and are only allowed outside polling stations.  Lots are drawn at each polling station to allocate the position of each candidate’s poster.

The church stands opposite the ex-mairie but as it was surrounded by buildings it wasn’t possible to get a picture showing the complete structure.  Later on, I was looking for old picture postcards of the village and coincidentally the photographer at the end of the 19^th century must have had the same issue and had stood in practically the same spot as I did.

Leading back down to the river runs a street called rue du Lavoir, a sure sign that we might find one of our beloved lavoirs.  We remembered searching for a lavoir here before and try as we might we still couldn't find any vestiges of one.

Lavoir no more

Karen was busy in the kitchen later on when she was surprised by an excited fisherman knocking on the window.  He was so excited that she couldn't refuse when he wanted her to go out and look at a chubb he'd caught.

FRIDAY 8 APRIL

The strong winds and rain didn't arrive during Thursday night and when we got up on Friday morning the river was as still as a mill pond, a complete contrast to the white horses of the previous morning.  Through the open side hatch, we heard the call of a cuckoo, only the second one we’ve heard this year.  

Sunrise on Friday - the calm before the storm? 

It started raining during breakfast and apart from a ten-minute break during the afternoon it was still coming down when we went to bed.  Neither of us could remember a day in the UK or France when it seemed to have rained so constantly for so long.  The good thing was that the predicted 100kmh wind gusts of storm Diego never arrived so we’ve no idea what happened there. 

Being stuck indoors gave us the opportunity to do some admin.  I broke the back of our French and UK tax returns, ruing the fact that we have to do individual ones for the UK whereas in France it’s just one return per household.  Not only that but as French residents the UK ones have to be completed on paper but at least the French ones can be done online.  Knowing that we’d be setting off properly on our travels next Wednesday, Karen got into some planning, working out water and food stops for the next few weeks as we head west.

SATURDAY 9 APRIL

The rain stopped during the night and we awoke to another calm morning, except the lovely blue-green of the river colour had been replaced by a dirty brown following the previous day’s rain.  A quick check on vigicrues.fr showed that the water level had gone up by 30cm overnight but as we were leaving during the morning, we weren’t concerned that it was still rising.

Before sunup on Saturday

We made an early start, intending to get to Aÿ for breakfast and then moving onto Mureuil-sur-Aÿ for the rest of the day.  Two red lights were on at the lock leading off the river onto the latéral canal, so a call out to VNF was needed.  As we were on the river and there was a bit of a flow on, we got right up to the lock gates and Karen managed to get a line on from the front onto a bollard at the top of the lock.  We were then secure and able to turn the engine off while we waited for help which wasn’t long as an éclusiere arrived after 15 minutes and she quickly saw us through.  We did wonder if the lock has had to be operated by an éclusier for some while as two red lights were on when we came down and also whenever we’ve walked that way since.

Once we were through it wasn’t long before we were going up the next lock at Aÿ and mooring at the lock landing at the top for breakfast.

Moored at Aÿ

We followed breakfast with a walk around the large village which is more like a town with all the modern apartments which are in complete contrast to the old village full of its champagne houses, timbered buildings, cobbled streets and narrow passageways.  There was no one around even though it was a Saturday and then we realised that all the shops were closed for lunch.  The restaurants were packed, and we suspected that was where all the shopkeepers and tourists were.

Saturday on main street Aÿ

We came across the church which as usual was large compared with the size of the village but this one was even more out of proportion.  Saint-Brice was built in the 15^th century with the tower being rebuilt in the 16^th.

Saint-Brice

As well as being a grand cru champagne village, Aÿ is famous as the birthplace of René Lalique in 1860.  He was the founder of the glassmaking style that is known as Lalique crystal.  We’d noticed brass plaques in the pavement every so often that were stamped with a dragonfly, one of his famous pieces of jewellery.  No doubt these were marking a self guided tour but without a tourist office we weren’t able to find out anything about the tour and after the debacle of the Épernay tour I wasn’t particularly keen to try another one so soon.  We found out later that all the details of the Aÿ tour were obtained from the Épernay tourist office so we probably made the right decision to give it a miss and return to the boat.  

Even though it was a lovely afternoon we decided not to carry on cruising after our walk and stayed put to watch our first ever women’s rugby match.  It was England vs Wales in the six nations series, and we really enjoyed it, not just because England thrashed Wales.

On Saturday we cruised six kilometres up two locks.

SUNDAY 10 APRIL

We awoke to the first proper frost since returning to France but potentially the last until autumn arrives.  Out of interest I checked vigicrues.fr for where we had been moored on the river.  The level had gone up by another half a metre as Friday’s rains had made their way downstream, so we were glad we’d left the river when we did, especially as the readings (recorded at 10-minute intervals) were still going up.

After breakfast I set off for Mareuil-sur-Aÿ where I’d arranged to meet Karen and Buddy who were running there.  Rather than running along the canal they went down to the river Marne and re-joined the canal near the arranged pick-up point. 

Mont de Gruguet overlooking the point where Karen & Buddy got back on

We were straight into the lock at Mareuil.  I say straight in, but I mean we twisted the pole to set it but after the lock emptied the gates just wouldn’t open.  I had to drop Karen off again and she went up to do her jumping on the gates trick.  It took a while but in the end it worked and they started swinging open and she waited until they were fully open before getting off the one she’d been jumping on.

Once through the lock we were in the pound that had recently been lowered to take the pressure off repairs to an aqueduct that hadn’t been successful.  With the depth only guaranteed at 1,60m it explained why the only commercials we’ve seen have been unladen. 

Passing the faulty repair

The pound is closing completely next week for six weeks so it can be drained completely, and the repairs made good.  I must admit that I’d been a little concerned over the last few days when we’ve been the ‘wrong’ side of the aqueduct in case the structure gave way before the repairs were started.  That would have meant we’d be stuck the wrong side and not be able to get to Châlons-en-Champagne for Karen’s appointment and then start our journey west.  As soon as we went up the lock at Tours-sur-Marne at the far end of the pound, we moored up for the day. 

Moored at Tours-sur-Marne

We spent the rest of the day watching the rugby interspersed with a wander around town and down to the river.  It was lovely to see so many spring butterflies on the wing after an absence of five days when the temperature hasn’t been warm enough. The fine weather also brought out the locals on their Sunday afternoon promenades or off to vote. 

Candidates’ posters by the mairie

Apparently, these days, more French candidates than ever are portrayed looking forward in a American selfie style.  Although sometimes a side-portrait such as that popularised by François Mitterrand is still used. 

The mairie, like many others we’ve seen was flying the Ukrainian flag in addition to the mandated French flag.  Mairies are also allowed to fly the EU flag and, if there is one, the local heraldic flag. 

Tours-sur-Marne mairie

On Sunday we cruised nine kilometres up two locks through one swing bridge.

MONDAY 11 APRIL

It was another cruise day on Monday and first stop would be Condé-sur-Marne to pick up Karen & Buddy who were walking there.  We had one last check on the river Marne water level where we’d been moored at Cumières, and it’d now gone up by more than a metre since Saturday.  This showed that even just 24 hours of not particularly heavy rain requires extra vigilance, mind you, we didn’t know how much rain had fallen further upstream.

Leaving our overnight mooring at Tours-sur-Marne I passed a line of youngish walnut trees.  These, like oak trees, are one of the last species to come into leaf and are only just budding.  This year we are determined to pickle some walnuts as we’ve missed the season for each of the last three years, either because we were on holiday or just in the wrong part of France.  There are two seasons, the first is when the unhardened fruit is picked for pickling and the second, in autumn is when the ripe fruit is harvested for the nuts themselves.  Karen just loves the autumn harvest, and every year has gathered crates and bags of the nuts to keep her and the family going until the following autumn.

Walnut trees at Tours-sur-Marne

Being on a latéral canal means we are never far from the river that it was built alongside.  These canals were built when the navigation further upstream became too difficult for larger barges, so the rivers were bypassed and the original locks etc. fell into disrepair.  Although the vivid blue of the canal is not too obvious there was still quite a contrast between the two bodies of water following Friday’s rain.

River Marne's turquoise replaced by dirty brown

I picked Karen & Buddy up as we reached Condé-sur-Marne and we pulled in at the small port there to get rid of our recycling.  Whilst moored we saw our first swallows of the year happily wheeling around over the water.  As we left for the last stretch to Juvigny we passed a dead wild boar in the water.  I’d seen one earlier too, so I don’t know if it was a result of hunting or just an unfortunate coincidence.

After another hour we were approaching the lock at Juvigny where we’d planned to moor at the top.  In the distance we could see a couple of white vans at the lock and the immediate assumption was that they were VNF work vans.  As we got closer, we realised we’d got the perspective wrong, and the vans were the other side of the lock.  It looked like they belonged to some fishermen who appeared like they were set up on the mooring.  Not relishing a discussion about moving them on we were relieved to find, when we went up the lock, that the perspective had thrown us again and they were set up beyond our mooring.

After mooring up and settling in, we spent the rest of the day around the boat with Buddy happy to be left to his own devices and laze around sleeping.

Moored at Juvigny

Tomorrow is Tuesday and we’ll be heading back to Châlons-en-Champagne for our appointment at the préfecture.  Even though we’ve been out and about for the last fortnight, we know we’ve just been killing time and were excited that we only had a couple of days left before setting off properly.

On Monday we cruised 14 kms up two locks.