Château-Thierry (last day of summer)

It must be 7am

SATURDAY 7 OCTOBER

With no villages near us large enough to have a bar, let alone live TV, we watched the rugby on board on Friday night.  Reading the news on Saturday morning we found that our hometown of Châlons-en-Champagne has turned over the main square to the world cup showing every game on a large screen erected in front of the town hall.  Not only that, the town is making a real event of it by staging all sorts of sports related shows and music performances on match days.  For example, there will be demonstrations of the various traditional Polynesian dances performed by each nation.  To be honest we hadn’t really thought of the Haka etc. as dances before.   We may well be back near Châlons in a couple of weeks so hopefully can get along for at least the final if not the semis.

We went food shopping in Château-Thierry during the morning and checked out a couple of moorings on the drive back.  First was a quay above the lock at Mont-St-Père which wasn’t as good as we hoped it would be.  As well as there being a few houses around, there was a steepish bank leading off the quay with nowhere for Buddy to relax outside.  A couple of kilometres further upstream was a small quay near the village of Mézy-Moulins that was very secluded, so we’ll probably head there next.

Around lunchtime we went for a wander around Jaulgonne which had an attractive mairie, a boulangerie, a 7-11 store, a hairdresser and, of course, a lavoir.  It seemed a well to do place especially the properties adjoining the river, a bit like some villages along the Thames.  For some reason, of all the pictures I took, the only one that wasn’t blurred was of the lavoir, so I’ll include that anyway.

The rest of the afternoon and evening were spent watching the three matches involving the UK home nations.

SUNDAY 8 OCTOBER

After two nights in Jaulgonne we set off during the morning for the little quay at Mézy-Moulins.  We cruised under lovely warm skies passing a couple of little fishing boats on the way. 

Sunday morning on the Marne

The mooring was empty when we arrived but there were a couple of cars and trailers by the slipway next to it.  We realised that these were probably the trailers used for the fishing boats we passed on our journey.  We’d imagined that the cart track leading down from the village wasn’t used much but had missed the fact there was a slipway by the mooring.

Moored at Mézy-Moulins

After coffee and cake, we walked back to Jaulgonne.  The mooring was on the other side of the river to where we’d left the car at Jaulgonne, so first we had to cross the river.  This meant setting off in the wrong direction until we found a bridge further downstream.  It was a pleasant walk back and it wasn’t long before we were driving along the cart track and parking up again.

On Sunday we cruised four kilometres through no locks. 

MONDAY 9 OCTOBER

I repainted the roof of the boat during the first covid lockdown and we’ve been noticing that the final layer of the top coat has peeled back in a few places.  It was very hot towards the end of confinement, as lockdown was called in France, so I suspected that could be the cause of the problem, although it's more likely due to areas where I rolled it on too thickly.  This week’s task will be to start rectifying the situation and at least prepare the areas that need addressing.  I’ll be happy just to get the preparation done and a layer of undercoat on before winter and then repaint the whole roof next year.  So that sets the scene for our tasks over the next week or two whilst we still have the summer weather.

Before getting on with any jobs on Monday we wanted to explore a couple of the villages on the opposite bank.  First, we went to Chartèves, a quaint village strung out along its main street that runs parallel with the Marne.  There were several small streets and alleyways leading off perpendicularly from the main street down to the river.  The term main street is a misnomer as there were no longer any shops or businesses still trading but there was a boulangerie and a pizza dispenser next to the mairie.  The mairie was situated on the only square we could find:

Chartèves mairie

Almost opposite the mairie was the fine-looking church of Saint-Caprais.  Alongside the church one of the small streets (ruelles) led down to the Marne and unsurprisingly there was a lavoir at the bottom.

Saint-Caprais church

Checking other streets leading down to the river we found two more lavoirs, one of which I’ll include a picture of as it had the unusual feature of a raised basin.

Lavoir on cour de la Ferme

After exhausting Chartèves we made our way to Mont-St-Père which seemed a little larger than the first village.  In fact, it actually had a bar, but its opening times were hidden and it was obviously closed as we were in town.  The village, as the name implies was built on a hill but has spilled out to the valley below.  The area around the war memorial had been recently reworked with barriers keeping feet and tyres off the freshly seeded grass.

The hill to the left of the war memorial

The mairie wasn’t as grand looking as that in Chartèves but it still had the traditional school signs above the doors:

The main street, which was called rue Principale, led to the top of the village and was as deserted as we have come to expect in these rural places:

An empty rue Principale in Mont-St-Père

At the very top stood the church built in quite a different style to that in the sister village:

Sainte-Foy church

Walking along the crest of the hill to the western edge of the village we came across a lavoir in a wonderful location and as the basin was in the shade, we rested on a bench inside for a while.  As with all the lavoirs we saw during our walk, this one was in water and Buddy couldn’t resist getting his fill before laying down for a while too.

Lovely setting for the lavoir on rue du Val

Back past the church we found a long flight of stone steps leading down to the base of the village no doubt providing privation to those who believed in such things in the days of yore.

The steep and long flight of steps

Heading out to the eastern edge of the village we found yet another lavoir, again in water, but this one looked very recently restored.  As with the one we found at Passy-sur-Marne last week, there was a sign indicating that EU funds had helped with the restoration but this time there was no mention of the amount of the grant.

Recently restored lavoir on rue Sainte-Foy

Later in the afternoon we realised that the data signal had got very poor at our mooring in Mézy-Moulins even though it had been excellent over the weekend allowing us to watch all the live rugby games.  We gave it an hour or so and as it hadn’t improved we decided to move and set off for the short hop to the quay above the lock at Mont-St-Père.

Moored on the quay facing the island at Mont-St-Père

In the early evening we walked back along the river to retrieve the car. 

On Monday we cruised one and a half kilometres through no locks.

TUESDAY 10 OCTOBER

There was no excuse on Tuesday but to get on with some of the preparation on the parts of the roof that needed attention.   Even though the temperature has been reaching 27ºC during the afternoons, the time of year means it takes a while for the outside of the boat to warm up.  This allows for two or three hours of work that can be done before the metalwork becomes too hot to touch bringing the excuse to take a rest from it in the afternoon.

During lunch we had a good view of éclusiers removing branches that were caught on the weir just across from us.  Rather than strapping themselves to a safety wire and walking across and removing the branches by hand, they were using a work boat.  They would position it in front of a branch and, using the on-board crane, drop a spud leg into the water to hold the boat firm while, using the same crane, grabbing the offending branch from the weir.  By the time we’d finished lunch they’d finished too and sped off upstream.  We assumed they were heading to the next weir to perform the same task but in a matter of minutes they were speeding back again.  It seemed they’d gone for a jolly around the island before mooring alongside the lock. 

Dropping the spud leg to hold the boat firm at the lock mooring

For our afternoon walk we revisited Mont-St-Père and returned along the river to make the walk circular and also give Buddy a chance to stand in the water to cool down.

WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER

 

Mist starting to form at Mont-St-Père on Wednesday morning

Whenever we leave the boat at the current mooring a strong smell of mint fills the air as we climb up the bank to reach the towpath.  The bank is covered in a mat of some species of creeping mint so, like walking on herbs on chalk download, every footstep releases a distinctive and pleasant aroma.  We split duties in the morning, so I took Buddy out while Karen went for her morning run.  That makes it sound like sometimes we may do it the other way around, but I have to admit to having no interest in running so have never taken it up.

I wanted to have a look at Mézy-Moulins which was about five kilometres away on the other side of the river.  The plan had been to explore it when we were moored there but we didn’t stay long enough because we had to move further downstream to get a better data signal.  As we were walking across the bridge, I could see a man in front of us carrying a long pole and guessed he was off walnutting.  We overtook him just by the quay where we’d been moored at Mézy-Moulins.

Wallnutter

Mézy-Moulins is really two villages, Mézy is on the Marne and Moulins is three kilometres away and completely away from the river.  Mézy was by far the smallest of the two but did boast an attractive looking church:

 

To make up for not having such an interesting looking church, Moulins had three lavoirs which meant that Buddy could have his customary drinks during his walk.  Even its war memorial was relatively conservative:

When Karen returned from her run, I mentioned to her about the man with the stick and she told me that she’d seen him beating a walnut tree quite violently while another man was gathering the dropped nuts.    

A bit of a mess around the tree

It was more paint preparation during the afternoon and the only excitement, other than the walnutter, was the appearance of a commercial below our lock. It looked like it was waiting to come up but couldn’t get the lock to operate.  After a while I realised it wasn’t coming up but had just moored up at the commercial dolphins that are positioned by most locks on the Marne.  For some reason it had turned around before tying up, maybe it was waiting for a job further downstream.

An unladen Tonga

A little later on a second commercial appeared but this one came straight through the lock and headed off upstream.  So, after what seemed like days without a boat, two appeared on Wednesday.

Thiros - also empty

THURSDAY 12 OCTOBER

Each morning we’ve been moored above the lock at Mézy-Moulins we’ve noticed floodlights come on over the weir and lock at exactly seven o’clock and then they’re extinguished 30 minutes later.  We’ve no idea why they come on for that period of half an hour, but they are very bright as can be seen from the following picture.

Thursday dawned grey and by 9.30 it started raining but fortunately only for an hour, but it remained pretty overcast though mild for the rest of the day.  We went for a walk that took us through a village called Gland and then back along the towpath.  On our return we saw a second boat had rafted up alongside Tonga albeit off square.

J-P-P-H also waiting for the next job

Most of the rest of the day was spent reading whilst listening to the cricket.  I knew I’d been off reading for a while, and I had further proof when I realised that I was already three-quarters of the way through the first two books I picked up this week.  At least that now I’ve completed them I can feel like I’m back into reading again.

FRIDAY 13 OCTOBER

It was forecast to hit 27ºC on Friday and we rather suspected it will be the last proper day of summer as the temperature’s due to drop to a high of just 15 ºC on Saturday.  If it really does drop that much it’s going to be quite a shock. 

Since coming back to France at the end of August we’ve been pootling around cruising a few kilometres a week with no particular plan other than to enjoy the eastern end of the river Marne which is in the champagne region.  Usually, we have a circular route in mind that entails cruising for an average of two hours a day which allows us to see plenty of new places and explore them on the way.  Even though we know this end of the Marne there are still many villages we haven’t visited so we’ve been trying to rectify that as well as mooring in new places too.  The latter hasn’t been so easy as there aren’t many spots to moor on the river, and we’ve stayed at most of the town and village moorings. 

All the locks have quays above them and, as we haven’t stayed at all of them previously, we’ve been making sure that this time we stay at each as we slowly make our way downstream.  Lock moorings have great advantages over town moorings in that they are very peaceful and away from civilisation other than the lock cottages of course.  Other plus points are that water is usually available and also recycling and general rubbish bins for boaters.  Not moving far has meant we’ve been able to keep the car with us which has really come in handy for food shopping which we tend to do towards the end of each week and a trip to a large town is required.

We were thinking about moving off during the morning and getting to Château-Thierry for the weekend when I noticed the lock lights had gone out and there were three éclusiers standing by the side of the lock.  I walked down to find out how long it was going to be out of action and they told me that the lock was fine, they were just seeing a dredger through.  In the distance I could see a commercial pushing a dredger and as it got closer, I could see it was Tonga pushing a flatbed with an excavator on top.  When Karen had taken Buddy for his pre-breakfast walk she'd seen Tonga leaving from the dolphins so it must have been on its way downstream to pick up its unusual cargo.

Once they were at the mouth of the lock the restraining straps were released and the excavator made its way in by putting the grab in the water and pushing it away from itself in order to move forwards.

When it was at the top it moved itself outside and waited for Tonga to come up and get reattached.  They were soon hooked up and heading upstream.

The lights on the lock were reset to show it was operational and we set off, filling up with water as we went through the lock.  The three éclusiers were still at the lockside and kindly operated the lock for us while taking pictures of Chalkhill Blue. It was an uneventful journey, and we were soon heading under the town bridge in Château-Thierry, the sixth town that we've been to that calls itself the capital of champagne! 

Despite the cloudy skies it was a remarkably warm day, so we made the most of it before the predicted sudden drop in temperature over the weekend.  On the two previous visits to the town, we’ve moored about 400 metres beyond the town mooring on a low wall but this time, especially as there was no one else on the mooring, we tied up on the pontoon provided by the town.

We went for a short wander around the old part of town and immediately noticed how easy it was to differentiate locals from tourists at this time of year.  Tourists, including us, were in shorts, sandals and tee-shirts whereas the French had decided that as it was October they should be in fleeces and jackets.   

We extensively covered the sights of the town in the blog entries during our previous two visits.  In the next update, which will cover the coming weekend, we will only include items we missed before.  The only new thing we came across during our short walk was a recently completed sculpture on the quayside.  

The sculpture was a commemoration of the 400^th birthday of Jean de la Fontaine, the great man of fables, who was born in the town.  We remembered that the town tour that we did previously, majored on his fables and a lot of artwork created by local schoolchildren featuring his fabled animals was on display.

On Friday we cruised eight km down one lock.