Thugny-Trugny (into weed)

Good spot to chill at Attigny for a few days

SUNDAY 28 MAY

Needing to seek out good places to moor for the next ten to twenty kilometres we took the car to Attigny, the next town, so we could leave it there and walk back noting likely looking places.  We'd been parked by the lock cottage in Neuville-Day and had noticed that like other lock cottages on this canal it was uninhabited but not in the sad state of repair as the majority are. It did have a couple of dovecote type holes in the first floor which we thought was a bit odd:

Looking around the outside we found an information board and were surprised we hadn’t noticed it before:

As well as explaining that the cottage was maintained as a refuge for bats the board was also educational in that it dispelled some of the myths about bats and explained how good they are for the environment.  It also answered the question about what we thought were dovecote holes.

When we arrived at Attigny we weren’t impressed with the town mooring as it would be in the shade all day which would be fine when the temperatures are in the 30s but as they’re only in the mid- to high-20s at present, daylong shade is not really a requirement.  It was a shame really as we’d hoped to stay there a few days with Jo when she comes over later in the week, but we weren’t too worried as there’s been so many lovely spots to stop that we were bound to find others during the walk back.

We knew we couldn’t moor in the remainder of the lock flight where the boat was currently, so we were interested in the stretch between Attigny and the bottom of the lock flight.  As it was, we only found a couple of spots in that section because the canal was like a river with high banks. The only sign of habitation we passed was an old mill that was being renovated.  The waterwheel looked enormous as it was standing on its own without any context: 

Deciding to stay put for another day we spent the rest of it in Neuville-Day letting Buddy have regular cool downs in a paddling stream in the woods behind our mooring:

It had been another day without any sightings of boats; since the rush of ten in the first three days we’ve only encountered the French couple who were stuck with us near the top of the lock flight four days ago.

MONDAY 29 MAY

While Karen went for a run I took Buddy for a walk, taking care not to go too far as he’d had a long walk the previous day and had felt the heat.  When we returned, I spent some time leaning out of the side hatch watching a kingfisher fishing from the lock gates in front of us.  Every so often it would fly up into the air and hover by beating its wings fast with no lateral or horizontal movement, just like a kestrel.  Then it would drop like a stone, catch a fish, return to its perch on the lock gate, adjust the fish in its beak then fly off at top speed to what I presumed was its nest before returning to repeat the operation.  I was reminded of a harrier jump jet when it was hovering.

When Karen returned, I called VNF to ask for the lock chain to be restarted which they did immediately, and we got ready to set off into the first of the remaining eight locks on the flight.  While we'd been mooring up on Saturday a lady had waved enthusiastically from one of the houses opposite but, other than shutters being open during the day and closed at night, we never saw any sign of life there again.  As we were casting off, I heard a shout so looked up and saw her waving madly again.  This time a man was also waving which they did until we disappeared out of sight as we went down the lock.

We never met our opposite door neighbours

The next lock had collapsed on 12 June 2018 and it had taken two years until an agreement was reached to rebuild it as the pressure was on to close the canal for good.  Thankfully it was decided that the canal shouldn’t be closed and work to rebuild the lock restarted in late summer 2020 and it opened again on 3 May 2021.

After the collapse (from VNF Nord-Est site)

Leaving lock 21 which has now been rebuilt

As with most locks in the north and east of France, those on this canal invariably have walnut trees growing around them.  I know I often mention walnuts because of Karen’s passion for harvesting them but this is the first reference to them this year.  Since being here Karen has collected the mature nuts in the autumn but last year was the first time we’ve picked the young nuts in late spring for pickling.  I’m so glad we pickled so many last year as we’ll probably be away during the pickling season this year.  The walnut tree is one of the most distinctive trees and also one of the last to come into leaf.

Large walnut tree on the left approaching lock 25

At the penultimate lock we were met by an éclusier who collected our télécommande from us.  Until we reach another waterway that uses télécommandes we’ll be on rivers and canals where the locks are operated by twisting poles hanging over the waterway or using the radio.

Coming out of the penultimate lock we were on the river Aisne.  Having now made it down to the Aisne valley the canal now closely follows the river until it reaches the end of the canal at Asfeld.  Approaching the lock that would take us off the river and back down to the canal we could see there were no lights on so hovered around while deciding what to do.

Waiting at the lock

Over to the right we could see a barrage in the distance and that it was one of the old-fashioned needle dams; apparently there are still a few needle dams left on the Aisne.  We had to take a magnified picture, but the wooden needles can just be seen:

Needle dam

While deciding what to do a fisherman caught our attention and indicated an éclusier had arrived at the lock.  He soon had the gates open for us to go in and descend.  Once in the lock it felt like we were already at the bottom and were about to go up rather than down.

We’re at the top not the bottom

It was then we realised it also acted as a flood lock by having top gates and lock sides a few metres higher than usual thus preventing the Aisne flooding the canal below.   Upon exiting the lock we could see another one alongside it, this one led onto the 12 kilometre long Vouziers branch which is sadly now closed.

We’d come from the left – branch to Vouziers on right

Quaint signposting at lock entrances

Having seen it when scouting earlier in the week we didn’t fancy the town mooring in Attigny so stopped a couple of kilometres before it on the offside.  As we’re getting accustomed to on this canal it was a lovely quiet spot and even though we were on the offside the grass had been strimmed to allow VNF to access a sluice onto the river Aisne.

Moored above Attigny

On Monday we cruised seven kilometres down eight locks.

TUESDAY 30 MAY

It was just as well we’d decided to do little or no cruising for the next couple of weeks while we waited for Jo as the sudden change to hot weather a week or so ago is not showing any signs of letting up.  The sub text of that opening statement is that there was very little to report for Tuesday.  We only left the area we were moored in for early and late walks, other than that it was doing nothing with the occasional boat job thrown in.

One of my jobs, of course, was repeating a job I’d done before.  You may have noticed in the picture at the top that there are two parasols; the beige one we have had up for a while this year, but I’d lost the attachment that secures the grey one to the boat.  When clearing the boat down at the end of last autumn I’d discarded a short length of metal tubing with a couple of random holes drilled down the side.  It suddenly dawned on me that it was a contraption I’d fashioned to secure the parasol to the brolly-mate attached to the tiller arm in the same way as we attach the rotary clothes line.  Fortunately, I had some spare tubing that hadn't been cleared out and managed to create a new one (for the second time!).

One thing of note for me was the fact I managed to get a picture of a dragonfly.  They are notoriously difficult to photograph, never landing for as long as butterflies do so I was pleased to see this male Scarce Chaser which can also be found in the UK:

Male Scarce Chaser

We needed a couple of things from the small supermarket in Attigny but didn’t think it fair on Buddy to walk there during the afternoon heat, so Karen walked down on her own.  She found that the town had a sort of town trail in that every so often she found information boards.  Attigny describes itself as one of the towns of Charlemagne (Charles the Great) but with no real explanation why other than he visited a few times.  Each board described someone who seemed to be related to or had a connection with Charlemagne but again no explanation as to any relationship to Attigny; however, the board for Charles the Simple did explain that he founded the church in the town.

One of the boards – this one for Charles the Simple

Attigny war memorial

WEDNESDAY 31 MAY   

A similar day to Tuesday other than we had a walk along the shady banks of the Aisne in the late afternoon.  All was going well until we saw a barbed wire fence strung across the track:

Upon closer inspection we decided to turn around rather than risk the potential wrath of a bull.

Another change from Tuesday was that we saw boats on the move with at least four passing during the day.

THURSDAY 1 JUNE

When we planned the cruising for this half of the year, we’d thought we’d be going down the embranchement to Vouziers not knowing it was now closed.  To compensate we had a trip out in the car to see the town on Thursday morning.  It was only 15 kilometres from Attigny, but we wanted to do it before we got too far away.  On the way we passed this pretty setting for a lavoir at Roche:

The town was large enough to have a tourist office, but it was closed on Thursdays – our fault for not checking before we left.  That meant we had to invent our own tour but at least some of the places we found had information boards outside.  The mairie which had the war memorial in front of it was on the main square.  It was built in 1923 in a medieval Flemish style on the opposite side of the square to where the original mairie stood before it was destroyed during WW1.

Mairie and war memorial

The church had some pretty impressive stone carvings on the outside:

Renaissance style stonework

After wandering around a bit, we made our way down to the river Aisne and followed it to the first lock at the start of the Vouziers embranchement.  Considering it was now disused, everywhere looked well looked after and with the newly opened South Ardennes cycleway running alongside it probably attracts quite a few tourists.  The owners of the lock cottage seem to have the lock area as their private garden as it was all fenced off and it also looked like they use the actual lock as their private marina:

A little further down the Aisne we came across another needle dam, admittedly this one wasn’t as wide as the one we saw a few days previously as it was further upstream.  In recent years wires have been strung above these dams so the workers removing or adding the needles can hook themselves on for safety as can be seen here:

When we drove back to the boat, we went via the town mooring to check there was space for us and as there were no boats there we thought we would head on down.  As we were parking the car by the lock where we were moored about 300 metres further up the canal, we noticed the top gates were open and there were no lights on.  We set off anyway so we could go in through the open gates, tie up in the lock and ring for assistance.  The locks from here  along the rest of the canal are all set in operation by twisting a pole overhanging the water:

We thought there wasn’t much point twisting this one as the lock wasn’t working properly but I twisted anyway for practice having not encountered one for more than a year.  As we entered the lock an éclusier arrived on a tractor to mow the grass. He stopped and came over when he realised the lock wasn’t working and apologised as he didn’t have a key to access the control unit but would call his colleague.  Amazingly his colleague turned up in a van just as he was about to make the call.  I can only assume that twisting the pole triggered something in the local depot which fortunately was just down the road thus prompting someone to come out.

Once the lock was going, Karen got off and took the car down to the town mooring to wait for me.  It wasn’t far and we were soon mooring up.  Other than being in civilisation, the other reason we didn’t really want to moor in Attigny was because we thought it was in shade all day.  Upon arriving I realised that by mooring at the eastern end about half the boat would be in sun much of the day so took that spot.

Moored in Attigny

The first thing I did after mooring up was check the hoses would reach the other end of the quay where the water borne was situated.  I had to use all three of our hoses to reach it so was able to fill up without losing our spot.

On Thursday we cruised just under two kilometres down one lock.

FRIDAY 2 JUNE

Having an early morning coffee on Friday we heard the deep thrum of a powerful motor and to our surprise, as we thought none used this canal anymore, a commercial came by heading in the direction of the Meuse.

The Andorra built in 1955

Just above our mooring in Attigny a road bridge crosses the canal and then the Aisne.  A memorial stands by the bridge commemorating the soldiers who repelled a German attack on the crossings during WWII.  These memorials are a common sight beside river bridges in northern France commemorating the French and allied forces who defended them.

Later in the morning we drove to Rethel to pick up our daughter Jo from the station as she was visiting us for the next week.  It was obviously really good to see her, and we spent the rest of the day relaxing at the boat as she’d had a very early start to catch the first Eurostar from London.  

SATURDAY 3 JUNE

After a long lazy morning including at least two rounds of breakfast we set off for Thugny-Trugny or as we affectionally call it, Thingy-Thangy, as it’s easier for us Brits to say.  Turning a corner as we left Attigny we saw yet another commercial approaching.   We’d been told the canal was quite weedy from Attigny for the next 30 kilometres or so and it certainly did seem to be, but at least it had a clearer channel along the middle.  With a narrowing for a bridge ahead I was going to have to wait for the boat to come through.  I didn’t want to go to the right, the usual side to travel, as it was thick with weed, but I saw a weed-free area by an old quay on the left and headed there to wait.  Unless these boats were going all the way to the Meuse, they could only be going to the one quay we saw on this canal that may still be used commercially, grain silos back at the summit at Le Chesne.

Waiting for the commercial to pass

There certainly was a lot of weed but we managed to keep the prop relatively clear by staying in the middle and having the good fortune not to pass any more boats.  We did pick up quite a bit over the last kilometre before reaching Thugny-Trugny but pressed on until we moored up where it would be easier to go down into the weed hatch to remove it.  The mooring was on the onside, so next to the cycle path but had a wide grassy verge with plenty of room for us to set up camp outside.

Moored at Thugny-Trugny

We went for a walk later in the afternoon, taking in the river Aisne and the village.  The village had a 16^th century château that looked like it was nearly completing a full restoration.

Château de Thugny-Trugny

Good friends, John and Heather, were planning to meet up with us on Sunday as they were on a tour of France-Switzerland in their motorhome so we let them know where they could find us.

On Saturday we cruised 12.5 kilometres down three locks.