Cumières (we’ve never been so sociable)

One of our favourite moorings – the champagne village of Cumières on the river Marne

Wednesday 20 May

Apart from a trip to the market for fruit, I spent much of the day chatting with other boaters in the port and pottering about while waiting for Karen to return in the evening. I also revisited some of our old haunts in Châlons and took one of the walks we used to do with Buddy along the Marne. Unlike her journey to Norway, Karen’s trip home went smoothly, and her train arrived exactly on time that evening.

Moored in Châlons-en-Champagne waiting for Karen to get home

Thursday 21 May

Karen went for an early run along the river while I got on with a few jobs. The main task was taking the bikes off the back of the boat and making sure they were ready for a ride later in the day. Everything went well until I was fitting the last wheel and realised one of the wheel nuts was missing. I couldn’t find it anywhere, and none of my spare nuts had the right thread. Mark, on Le Flâneur moored next to us, searched his box of nuts too but couldn’t find a match.

A look online showed that the only cycle shops were in retail parks well out of town, and I didn’t fancy a 10 km round trip walk in the afternoon heat, so I decided to visit one early the next day. Later, we went into town and tried the hardware store by the market, but they had the same problem: they could machine a nut with the correct thread, but making just one or two would be too expensive. We then extended our walk in the shade along the banks of the Marne to look for orange tip caterpillars on their food plant, garlic mustard, and were delighted to find five. The flowers had long since gone and the seed heads had formed, making the caterpillars look very like the seed pods, although the one in the picture below was not lying perfectly straight. Usually, only one caterpillar is found on each plant because they are cannibalistic, so eggs are laid singly. For the first time, we found two on one plant, though they were on the ends of two large forks.

Back at the port, Truman and his daughter Sasha came to say goodbye. They were the Taiwanese people I had met in Vitry-le-François while Karen was away. They travel on their boat during the European summer and spend the other six months of the year touring Asia. Sasha was just about to take the equivalent of our GCSEs and had been home-schooled on the boat and elsewhere by Truman.

Leaving Châlons via the town lock

We spent a pleasant evening having drinks on Mark and Helen’s boat, Le Flâneur. They were a lovely Australian couple who had been living on their boat in Europe for many years, and as so often happens on these occasions, we discovered we knew many of the same boaters.

Friday 22 May

In the morning, I caught a bus to one of the retail parks, but the search for bike wheel nuts proved fruitless, even though the shop seemed to stock almost every other spare part for cycles imaginable. They did sell complete axle assemblies, but although the wheel nut threads were all the same size, the axle diameters varied, and I had no idea which size I needed.

Back at the boat, I found a spare hose clip and used it in place of the missing wheel nut. After lunch, Karen and I cycled to the far side of Châlons-en-Champagne to yet another retail park. Châlons is very bike-friendly, so we were able to use cycle lanes for the whole journey. We found another cycle shop, but it was no more successful than the one I had visited that morning.

We spent the evening with Mark and Helen again, this time having dinner as well. To make it more fun, we started at our boat before ending the evening on theirs.

Saturday 23 May

After four days in the port, we decided it was time to move on and set off for Condé-sur-Marne shortly after midday. 

Mark & Helen waving us off

The second of the day’s two locks was the 5,000th we had passed through since we started keeping a proper boat log at the end of 2014. When we arrived at Condé, we were able to moor under some trees, which gave us some much-needed shade in the evening.

On Saturday we cruised 16 km down two locks and passed a couple of péniches.

Sunday 24 May

We are heading north to the Ardennes to meet our friends Nikki and Gorete on their boat, but we had some time to spare first. Rather than continue north at a slower pace, we decided to take a detour through our favourite parts of Champagne and on to another favourite of ours, the river Marne. Although people do swim in the canals here, we only swim in rivers because we know what goes into the canals, so we were definitely looking forward to a swim. It must have been hot for me to say that, as I am a very poor and cautious swimmer.

First, we had an early walk through the fields north of Condé-sur-Marne, taking in the canal feeder aqueduct. The canal de l’Aisne à la Marne runs from Condé through Reims to Berry-au-Bac. Water is pumped up from the Marne to the summit of the canal; it starts its journey underground, emerges at the top of the aqueduct, and then runs gently downhill to the summit at a place called Billy. Once at the summit some of the water makes its way back down the canal to the Marne and the rest down the other slope to the river Aisne.

In the afternoon, we cruised to Mureuil-sur-Äy and moored in one of our favourite spots, below the champagne vineyards on the steep hillside opposite. 

We first took a quick walk into the village to see whether there was any entertainment on over the bank holiday weekend. We could see another boat already moored at the far end of the basin and at first thought it was a hotel boat. As we got closer, we realised it was actually a smart private boat, with a couple having drinks on deck. They called out and asked whether we would like to join them. We said we would love to but needed to walk into the village first. On our return, we joined Andy and Nats for drinks and, unsurprisingly, had yet another pleasant evening socialising on their boat, which was built in 1914 and converted into a liveaboard around 20 years ago.

On Sunday we cruised 10 km down two locks and saw no boats.

Monday 25 May 2026

Our plan was to join the river Marne and stay on a pontoon in a place we love called Cumières. A French man called Régis, whom we meet every time we go there, lives in the village, and Karen had the bright idea of contacting him to ask whether the pontoon was free. Almost immediately, he replied with a photo showing it completely empty. Karen wanted to go for a run, so she ran to the end of the canal where it joins the river, while I took the boat down.

Passing Andy & Nats on Ebenhaezer…

…and one of the many grand houses in Mureuil-sur-Äy

Approaching the river lock I could see the champagne village of Hautviller nestling on the hillside above the vineyards.

Arriving at the lock I could see Karen was already there having run some way beyond the lock and back again whilst waiting for me. We dropped down the lock onto the river and after a short while could see Cumières ahead and the empty pontoon which we duly tied up to. 

There was a fisherman installed at one end but we needed to moor at the other end as part of the boat would be in the shade for much of the day. After half an hour or so Régis turned up and we had a good catch up with him. He asked us if we needed water and when I told him it was off he said he would pop into the mairie to get it turned on but it would be the next day as it was a bank holiday.  He also told us that when he came to check the pontoon in the morning for us, the fisherman was in the middle so he told him he would have to move which we were rather pleased about. French fishermen are normally very accommodating and friendly but you never know, it could have been an awkward situation having to ask him to move so were thankful to Régis for doing it for us.

Régis always asks for a selfie

Almost as soon as Régis left, Andy and Nats from Ebenhaezer arrived on the pontoon; they had cycled up to see what the moorings were like. Of course, we invited them to join us and once more we regaled each other with many stories. We spent the rest of the day on the shady pontoon with a pleasant river breeze to cool us down every so often.

On Monday we cruised 10 km down two locks and saw no boats.