Tuesday 26 May
Whenever we moor at Cumières we like to walk up the hill
behind it to visit another champagne village, Hautvillers. With the current
weather we clearly weren’t up for doing it during the main part of the day so
left early in the morning. The walk is through vineyards the whole way up and we
could see the hillsides were already alive with workers even before we set off. We then
remembered that they don’t tend to work in the heat of the afternoon. White vans deliver the workers and we could
see them dotted around all over the place. All the ones we saw were French
plated whereas during the vendanges (grape picking) many of them are eastern
European as that’s where the champagne houses tend to source the massive
increase in the workforce required during those few weeks.
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| The view from the boat up to the woods at Hautvillers |
We cycled to Epernay in the afternoon to pick up some bits
and pieces. It wasn’t as mad as it sounds as the cycle path ran under trees
alongside the Marne nearly the whole way and, being beside the river, meant the
cycle paths were totally flat. When we returned two people were sitting in our
chairs, a Nicaraguan girl and her Dutch boyfriend. They were ever so friendly
and apologised that they were sitting next to our boat – we don’t think they
realised the table and chairs were ours and continued sitting there as we
chatted. After a while they got up, said
their goodbyes and left.
I’m sure I’ve said it many times before but Cumières is a lovely
village and clearly very well to do situated as it is in the heart of
Champagne. All along the riverbank are sculptures representing the annual life
cycle of champagne production. Again, many of these I have shown before but not
this particular pictorial of the harvest:
Of course when we first came to the village we went on the hunt for lavoirs and were delighted to find a rue du Lavoir. Search as we might, up and down the lane there was no sign of a lavoir. We tried to imagine whether any of the roadside buildings were previously lavoirs but none seemed to do the job. A couple of years ago I was looking through old postcards of the area and found one from the early 1900s of a bateau lavoir in Cumières and it was positioned on the riverbank at the end of rue du Lavoir: thus ending our search for a lavoir in the village as it no longer existed and was a boat not a building anyway.
Wednesday 27 May
This picture of our mooring at Cumières early in the morning
before the shade took over shows how strange it was that the two tourists from
yesterday seemed to be happy sitting on our table and chairs at the far end of the pontoon.
The river Marne is very quiet at the moment and the only
pleasure boaters we’ve met so far are Nats and Andy on Ebenhaezer. This is because the tunnel in the lock cut
down at Meaux is closed for repairs thus cutting off the route to the Seine and Paris. Hotel boats are still using the Marne as they run for one week in one direction and then change their guests for the return journey and therefore don't go as far as Meaux. There are at least five hotel boats
travelling up and down and we’ve seen all of them over the last couple
of days. Here are three of them:
We’d told Régis we were leaving at 10.00 am as he wanted to
say goodbye before we left. He was so sweet turning up with a bag of goodies for
us; everything was champagne related of course:
When we’d told Régis that we were going to Mareuil-sur-Äy he found it very funny as it’s difficult for Brits to say. Many people, including us, just cannot roll their Rs let alone pronounce the ‘eui’ as three separate vowels but strung together. After saying farewell to Régis we set off and said our goodbyes to Cumières too.
We were soon going up the lock off the river where we saw another
hotel boat moored above it, Kir Royale, which was a modern design compared with the three boats above:
Arriving in Mareuil we moored in front of Elaudy.:
Elaudy was interesting to me because it was originally one of the massive fleet of Solvay barges operating out of Dombasle-sur-Meurthe. This one was Solvay 101 built in 1931 so not particularly old but still of historical importance. The text ‘SOLVAY 101’ and its registration ‘NY3069F’ can be seen stamped on its anchors:
After we’d moored up, a French couple came up to us in a state of excitement. They recognised us from Château-Thierry in 2019. They’d been very interested in how our solar panels were mounted as they can swivel along their long central axis as well as tip side to side along the short axis. The chap had asked if he could take pictures and measurements and of course we concurred. Anyway they were now permanently moored in the port we were in and were so pleased that they’d copied the design seven years ago.
The main reason for stopping at Mareuil was to top up our
champagne supplies for home so off we went to the same champagne house we
always use, Philip Bénard, that had been recommended by friends Mike and Aileen
back in 2019. Lucie, Philip’s daughter looked after us and she and a friend of
hers joined us in some tasting before we bought our supplies.
Back on board we got in touch with Nats and Andy who were
still moored at the other end of the village and suggested meeting at the bar. The
French ‘solar panel’ couple were already at the bar when we arrived and the guy
kept trying to buy me a beer as a thank you but I desisted as we were meeting
friends. We spent a very pleasant few hours relaxing at the bar before making
our ways back to our boats. The restaurant in the bar wasn’t open on Wednesday
evenings otherwise we would have stayed for a meal. Mind you we would have been in a bit
of state by the end of the evening if we had!
On Wednesday we cruised 10 km up two locks and saw three boats on the move, all hotel boats.
Thursday 28 May
After managing to have a few afternoons and evenings in the shade, our mooring the previous night at Mureuil-sur-Äy had no shade whatsoever so overnight the boat was the hottest it had been this year. We were a bit daft as it was obvious it was going to be really hot especially as we know it’s a steel boat and painted in dark colours which exacerbates heat gain and retention but we hadn't felt like moving on any further.
The port was shared with campervans and motorhomes which had
their own area under trees near the bar we went to last night. At about 6.30 am
I noticed a cherry picker at work next to the vans and realised that workmen
were putting up decorations in the trees at that early hour. No wonder all but
one of the vans had left by 8.00 am.
We set off fairly early too as we wanted to get to
Condé-sur-Marne where we knew there was plenty of afternoon and evening shade
in a stretch that would take about four boats. Although it wasn’t far we wanted
to get there early in case other people had the same idea too. A German river cruiser
went past as we were getting ready to leave but he was so fast that he was
already in the first lock when it came into view. It didn’t matter to us especially
as we were going to top up with water in the lock. Soon after leaving the lock we passed yet
another hotel boat:
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| Princess - a purpose built modern hotel boat |
When we arrived at the second lock, the river cruiser was hovering outside it. We came to a halt just before the twisty pole so that we could use it once the other boat sorted out the lock. After 15 minutes or so it seemed like nothing was happening so I let Karen off and she walked down to sus out the situation. The Germans had obviously been waiting there some while but they assured Karen they’d rung VNF to report the fact the gates wouldn’t open. I also rang VNF to report the issue just to make sure and the control centre told me an éclusier was on his way. After waiting another 15 minutes one of the hotel boats came up behind me at the same time as a VNF van turned up.
The cruiser was soon going up the lock and I let the hotel boat go next for which he was very grateful. Obviously pleasure boaters must give way to commercial péniches but I’m not sure what the rules are for hotel boats. My assumption is that as they are businesses then it’s only courteous to give way to them. Arriving at Condé we turned left onto the canal de l’Aisne à la Marne and we were relieved to see the spots in the shade were all free so we were soon moored up and relaxing.
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| We love the colour of the water in this area |
The canal we were now on, l’Aisne à la Marne, links the rivers Aisne and Marne as its name suggests. Opened in 1866 it’s only 58 km long and has 24 locks and one tunnel which is at a place called Billy on the summit. It runs through Reims at about the halfway point but other than that is extremely rural. The canal and its locks and bridges were badly destroyed along a lot of its length during WWI and had to be largely rebuilt. It tends to be fairly busy with commercials and several came through after we’d moored up. Here’s a couple, both laden:
On Thursday we cruised 10 km up two locks and saw one river
cruiser and one hotel boat.
Friday 29 May 2026
As usual we’re really enjoying our time on the boat but this
year we’re not here so long as we’re off on holiday towards the end of June. Sadly,
we keep realising we only have a few more weeks left before we have to go back
to our Flecknoe home but then immediately cheer up as we know we always quickly
adjust to our different ways of life. With only two or three days left with
temperatures in the 30s we’d started looking forward to next week when it drops
to the sensible mid-20s. We’ve arranged to meet the girls, Nikki and Gorete, on
their boat next week up on the canal des Ardennes for a few days. Ironically,
the current forecast is for rain on the first day we meet up.
While Karen had an early morning run I had an important task
to do – find the cutter blade assembly for my beard trimmer. I had
inadvertently dropped it overboard yesterday evening and thought I’d leave the magnet fishing until the morning. Unbelievable this was the second time I’d
lost it overboard and like last time it only took about 10 minutes with the magnet
to retrieve it even though the water is over 2.5 metres deep.
After breakfast we set off up a flight of eight locks to the
summit of the canal. The locks normally operate in a chain whereby once you’re
in a lock the next automatically gets ready. Unfortunately, there had been some
sort of power failure and we had to call out VNF at three of the locks. The
fact that they were three consecutive locks seemed to make the disruption more
of a pain than it really was. We passed one French and two Dutch river cruisers who were making
their way down. We also passed Drakkar who was on his way to Contrisson loaded
with steel rolls that he takes on board at Reims. That must have been the third time
we’ve seen him doing the journey there and back in the last couple of weeks.
Seeing Drakkar we knew we should keep a careful lookout for
Dahna, a sister ship, that also does the same run on the same days. Thinking about it, French
boats are masculine so I doubt they use the term sister ship. Once at the top
it was only 20 minutes or so until we were at the entrance to the 2.3 km long
Billy tunnel. The light was on red and we could see the headlight of a boat
coming through and once it was emerged we could see it was the expected Dahna.
We wondered about the incongruity of French health and
safety because we weren’t accompanied when we went through. Transiting the last
long tunnel, Mauvages, we were accompanied by an éclusier on a
bike. We couldn’t understand the reason for the difference especially as all
tunnels are traffic light controlled. We have been through all the French canal
tunnels apart from any down in the south and, other than Riqueval where we were
towed through, we were left to our own devices on all the others.
We moored up as soon as we got through the tunnel as we knew the cutting at the entrance would provide some welcome shade.
The sky had become quite hazy meaning that even when we lost the sun it remained very muggy so it was an uncomfortable night on board.
On Friday we cruised 12 km up eight locks, through one
tunnel and saw two commercial péniches and three private boats.
Saturday 30 May
We had a long cruise ahead of us on Saturday as we were
heading for Reims. We started early to avoid the heat of the day and had a very
good run. All the locks were set for us and as boats were coming out of three
of them we didn’t even have to wait for the gates to open. The other good thing
was that there was no weed to speak of so there were no stops to get into the
weed hatch to clear the propeller.
There has been much mention this year how insects and plants
are appearing earlier than ever but we’d noticed that it didn’t seem to apply to dragonflies over here.
It’s only been in the last week or so that they’ve been out in their usual
numbers but as is always the case they never seem to sit still long enough to
study them let alone take photographs.
Speaking of insects we are constantly surprised that, mooring
against vegetation as we do, we don’t get inundated with ants. We often find
the odd one or two which is not an issue but during the cruise to Reims I
noticed quite a few on the roof and then Karen started finding them inside the
boat. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds as they were foraging for food rather than
having found some and therefore forming a long line to harvest it.
The last three locks are at the approach to the centre of
Reims and are close together. We stopped at the top lock as we knew we could
take on water there. It’s a very quick
operation at that lock as it’s a supply for commercials and hence a wide bore
hose is supplied with water under high pressure. It’s so quick that we don’t
have to worry and move out of the way if a péniche appears in the distance.
We always moor just as we come out of the bottom lock but as
we descended we could see a long line of liveaboard péniches moored along the
bank. We knew at once why they were
there. The port of Reims was another kilometre further along and we’d read over
the winter that it was being rejuvenated. This had meant moving the dozen or so liveaboard péniches first. They’d obviously put in new bornes for water and
power as well as commercial sized bollards for them. There was just space for us to tie
up before the last in the line:
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| Moored in Reims |
We were moored on the opposite side to the towpath and being in the centre of town there are what seems to be a constant stream of runners, walkers and cyclists making their way up and down. It never ceases to amaze us now some people even manage to run in the heat of the day. Being in a town there are also a few ducks which, unlike in the UK, we hardly ever see. As soon as we’d moored a mother mallard appeared with five practically fully grown ducklings obviously expecting food. We don’t usually feed ducks, swans or geese but we were both proud that she’d managed to raise five to that age that we did feed them.
We spent some of the afternoon wandering around Reims
admiring the wonderful buildings – no pictures as we’ve done it all before
apart from this drain cover with an interesting surround.
To be honest we also spent much of the afternoon sitting at a bar watching the world go by.
On Saturday we cruised 22 km down seven locks and saw four private
boats.
Sunday 31 May
Sunday saw a welcome return to sensible weather in the mid-20s. Karen went for an early run with what seemed
like half the population of Reims. They weren’t all runners though as one
couple had a pair of step ladders and were picking flowers from one of the lime
trees opposite our mooring. We didn't know tea and cordial etc. can be made
from the dried flowers which do have a wonderful smell and are known as tilia.
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| Early morning view of the lime trees opposite (and no runners!) |
There was cloud cover nearly all day which helped keep the temperature down and we spent some time at a medieval fair set up around the famous Reims cathedral. One stall caught our eye as it was selling Kurtösh, a type of bread we’d never seen before, traditionally made in Romania and Hungary and we enjoyed sharing a savoury one:
During the evening we decided that we’d move on the next day and get away from the hustle, bustle and noise of the city. It will be June 1 which marks the 50th birthday of my firstborn, Chris!