Château-Porcien (visiting our French home)

SUNDAY 4 JUNE

To help Jo relax into her holiday with us we stayed put at Thugny-Trugny on Sunday and spent the day beside the boat with the odd wander thrown in.  Jo had a swim in the Aisne at one point and Buddy reacted just like he does whenever Karen or I go for a swim in a lake or river.  He stares fixedly at whoever is in the water as if he doesn’t understand what they’re doing and gets quite anxious.

Later in the afternoon our friends John and Heather popped by.  They were in the Ardennes for a couple of days while on a road trip on their way to their place in Switzerland.  Having not seen them for a while it was really good to have a catch up and exchange news of our respective lives and families.

MONDAY 5 JUNE

We’d taken an Airbnb in Châlons-en-Champagne for a few days in order to show Jo our French hometown but first we wanted to move the boat further down to a place called Biermes.  It was a short journey with no locking involved so didn’t take long.  The canal had turned quite riverlike with high reeds on either side and not much of a discernible bank to tie up to.

Between Thugny-Trugny and Biermes

Arriving at Biermes we moored up against a couple of handy bollards just above the lock.  We felt the boat would be safe there because, as well as being on the bollards, the wash from passing boats wouldn’t be too bad as they should be going relatively slow coming in or out of the lock.

Moored at Biermes for a few days

After mooring up we went for a walk searching for what was meant to be yet another needle dam nearby.  It took a while to find it, or what remained of it, as it was currently dismantled.  All that was visible were a few piles of needles and a wire across the river to guide the workers when installing the metal infrastructure upon which the needles are placed.

We set off for Châlons after lunch which was a pleasant cross-country journey of just over an hour along typically quiet French roads that ran seemingly straight for miles. We stopped to visit the large WWI cemeteries at Souain-Perthes-lès-Hurlus; the French cemetery containing the remains of over 35,000 soldiers and the German one next door, around 14,000.

Our Airbnb was in the centre of town near the Grand Jard where we’d spent the first Covid lockdown confined to our boat in the port there.  We soon settled in and went for a wander around the place.  It felt good to be back in Châlons and we were really happy showing Jo around our old haunts that make us feel at home.  Over a few lazy drinks at one of the bars we discussed plans for the next couple of days and then had dinner before heading back for a sensibly early night.

On Monday we cruised 2.5 kilometres through no locks.

TUESDAY 6 JUNE

We spent Tuesday showing Jo around the sights of Châlons by constructing our own town trail using our happy memories of the place.  Those of you who read the blog around the times of the first Covid lockdown in France may remember the contemporary street art we enjoyed finding, particularly the painted manhole covers and decorated street signs.  It was good to see that much of the pavement work had been refreshed or repainted since then and that we could still discover new examples.

New artwork from spring 2023

Freshened up cobbles on a street by the market

Good to see the hydrants still looked fun

From our calculations Buddy has never lived anywhere longer that he has in Châlons-en-Champagne, and he seemed to instantly recognise places like the port, the parks and the river Marne.  Taking him for one of our favourite walks along the river he remembered the sandy spots where he could splash around to cool down.

We were always fascinated by the fact that the national circus school is based in the town and that the original big top styled building from the late 1800s is still in use for training and performances.  The school has outgrown the original building and most of it is based in a large modern structure on the banks of the main canal through the town with at least four permanent big tops in its grounds.

Each year, during the summer the students put on performances to show off their skills which these days incorporate various styles of performing arts coupled with those acts considered traditionally circus based.  In the evening we went to see a show in the original building put on by the final year students and not only was it a brilliant performance we felt both proud and privileged to be able to be inside the historic building.

WEDNESDAY 7 JUNE

Jo hadn’t visited the Champagne region previously, so we’d set Wednesday aside for a drive around seeing some of our favourite places.   We’d planned on parking the car in Cumières and walking through the vineyards up the hill to Hautvillers, but it was too hot for Buddy to walk that distance without any shade.  We drove to Hautvillers instead which, even though it is a showcase village, was quite quiet and Jo was able to see plenty of the wrought iron signs the village is famous for (as well as the champagne houses and the grave of Dom Perignon of course).  Most houses have the signs that indicate the trade the family used to, or currently, ply such as this one:

Hautvillers also has a couple of lavoirs, and as Jo hadn’t seen one before she was able to see her first:

The lavoir also had one of the descriptive signs outside:

The mairie and war memorial were grand as would be expected for a prosperous village:

On the way back we called in at Aÿ, the purported birthplace of champagne followed by a stop at the next village, Mareuil-sur-Aÿ to visit a champagne house, that we’ve been to before, with the intention of tasting and buying some champagne.  Our friends Mike and Aileen introduced us to the house back in 2019 and they enjoy the champagnes so much that they have a year’s worth delivered at a time to their home down south.  Another attraction of visiting Philippe Benard’s is that the proprietor is relaxed and laid back therefore the tasting is very informal just sitting around a table with his family.  The first time we first went, he was so laid back that he was wearing a tee-shirt bearing the logo of another champagne house in the village. 

As you can probably guess we called in on the only day it wasn’t open.

After getting back to our Airbnb we popped down to the Grand Jard to see another circus school performance.  This one was put on by trapeze artists telling a tragic story loosely based on Hamlet.

THURSDAY 8 JUNE

The first task on Thursday was get Jo to the station in Reims to catch a train to Paris where she would pick up the Eurostar.  We then made our way back to the boat which we’d left at Briemes a few kilometres to the east of Rethel.  We didn’t need the car any longer as Jo had gone back to London, so we needed to get to Rethel which was the only town on this canal with a train station.  I would then be able to move the car somewhere down on the Marne where we plan on leaving the boat while we return to the UK for a couple of months and then take a train back to Rethel. 

After lunch on the boat, we headed off for Rethel stopping first in the lock at Briemes where we took on water.  The tap was on the outside wall of the lock cottage and as it was now a private house it felt a bit intrusive.

Once we’d filled up, I took the boat down to the town mooring at Rethel while Karen drove the car there, taking the opportunity to do some food shopping while she waited for me to arrive.

Karen crossing over as I left the lock

Rethel town mooring could be a really pleasant place, but it just feels sad and unloved, so we only planned on stopping the one night.  What it does have going for it though is that it’s the only large town on the canal so with a train station, shops and restaurants I wasn’t surprised that there were already half a dozen boats there when I arrived. 

Far from salubrious mooring at Rethel

Later in the evening we heard the welcome sound of a commercial making its way towards us.  I say welcome as, after being told commercials no longer use the canal, this was the third we’ve seen since being on it meaning there’s more of a chance the canal will be kept open.

Aude, built, in 1962 passing the Rethel town mooring

On Thursday we cruised three kilometres down one lock.

FRIDAY 9 JUNE

Friday was ‘get rid of car and move on from Rethel’ day so first of all I drove back down to the champagne area to find somewhere to leave the car in the Marne valley.  After an hour’s drive I found somewhere that seemed safe and then cycled 17 kilometres to the station at Aÿ to catch a train back to Rethel.  I haven’t been used to cycling this year so was glad I went early before it got too hot, even so I ended up with my backpack on my front to keep my back dry.  The station at Aÿ had an old wind up telephone on the wall but it didn’t look like it had worked for years:

It also had a memorial on another wall remembering the nine people killed in an accident between a freight train and a passenger train at the station in 1988:

While I was gone Karen went for a run and then found the tourist office in Rethel where they insisted on giving her a large bag of treats and poo bags for Buddy.  Karen had to laugh as we haven’t finished the last dog treats provided by another tourist office.

Doggie bag from Rethel tourist office

Whilst in town she had a quick look around and found the war memorial and maire:

In common with most towns, flags of European countries were flying.  Rethel was flying the flags of the EU nations, so no Union Jack was present.  Most of the flags were on the canal bridge and the remainder on the bridge across the river Aisne.

Bridge over the canal

Bridge across the Aisne

Having completed the first objective of the day we left Rethel in the early afternoon heading for Château-Porcien.  As we left Rethel we saw the commercial that had passed us the previous evening, moored against a grain silo in the process of being loaded.  We only had a couple of locks to drop down and the one at Nanteuil-sur-Aisne had an interesting garden:

Arriving in Château-Porcien we were rather surprised to find the mooring was by a grain silo as we'd been told it was a very quiet location.  A constant hum emanates from the silos and we assume it's some sort of drying process that stops the grain from getting moist and probably because it's constant it doesn't keep us from sleeping when we've moored near them before.  We both felt it was too hot to continue another couple of kilometres to a mooring above the next lock so opted to stay put.  As it was the noise stopped around six o'clock leaving us with a peaceful evening.  

Moored at Château-Porcien…

…and the other way

On Friday we cruised 9.5 kilometres down two locks.