Pont-à-Bar

Sunday 7 June

We left the place with the great sounding name, Thugny-Trugny, and headed off for Attigny on Sunday morning. We had a hearty breakfast first which of course starts with a pain au chocolate as it does every day of the week whatever the type of breakfast. By hearty I mean cooked; we generally have cereal four days a week alternating with something hot on the other days. It was dry at Lords so we were able to listen to day four of the first text against the Kiwis as we cruised along. Fortuitously, England had just won when I had to call VNF at the third lock as no lights were on, otherwise we would have missed the end of play. It turned out that an éclusier/e has to operate the lock and we remembered that it was the same three years ago.  The éclusiere who checked up on us the previous evening turned up to see us through. She also told us about one other lock where it’s advisable to ring in advance as VNF have to operate it manually.

Coming out of the lock we moored for lunch where the river Aisne was running over a weir immediately on the other side of the cycle path next to us.  The noise of the water was so loud that, as remote as the mooring was, it would not have been a comfortable night if we’d decided to stay. Carrying on after lunch we were soon approaching Attigny and were surprised to see the quay was boat free. We moored at the far end so we could catch the late evening sunshine, the rest of the quay already being in shade from the tall trees.

Moored in Attigny with valerian and roses

After settling in we went for a short walk around Attigny which was empty apart from the odd local walking along with a baguette. We found it strange because of the strict French Sunday trading laws outside of tourist spots but in the central square a boulangerie was open even though it was the afternoon.

Bandstand in the central square

On Sunday we cruised 12,5 km up three locks and saw no boats.

Monday 8 June

While Karen was on a morning run I went for a walk to Faubourg-du-Moulin, a village north of Attigny that we hadn’t visited before. I could see into someone’s front garden that seemed to be a graveyard for old Citroën H type vans that were produced between the end of WWII and 1981 so were probably at least 50 years old.

I also saw Attigny station which has long since closed but is now a private dwelling with a railway carriage graveyard in its back garden.

Although it was a warm day there was a lot of cloud cover until the afternoon when we decided to move on a little way outside of Attigny. As we set off the sun started breaking through and we ended up with a very pleasant late afternoon and evening. We moored in a most tranquil spot on the offside beside a section that VNF keep mown in order that they can reach a sluice gate between the canal and the Aisne.

We were rather fortunate because just as we were getting too hot, a cloud would come over for a few minutes to cool us down until the sun reappeared.

On Monday we cruised 1,5 km up one lock and not surprisingly saw no boats.

Tuesday 9 June

Leaving Attigny there’s a 27-lock flight up to the summit at Le Chesne. There is only one stopping place on the way up, at a place called Neuville-Day. Mind you, when we came down the flight three years ago, we had a few issues with some of the locks and were forced to stop before reaching Neuville-Day because we didn’t make it before the evening lock closing time.

It was actually an éclusier we had issues with not the locks themselves. The flight operates in a chain and we had to call VNF at the top lock because the gates wouldn’t open. The éclusier who was sent must have been a new recruit as he didn’t seem to understand the concept of a chain. He got us into the top lock and then disappeared without setting the chain going. Of course, the next lock wouldn’t work so it was another call and the same thing happened. By the time it happened at the third lock we managed to explain to him what the issue was. He called his office to understand more and it took forever for him to understand. We’d been a bit tight for time anyway so once we did get going we didn’t get far hence having to stay overnight halfway down against some lock gates.

Before starting the flight this time we had to go on a short section of the river Aisne and passed a needle dam. These dams always fascinate us as the flow is controlled by men inserting or removing the needles. Originally the needles were wooden but nowadays they are generally aluminium, but we do occasionally see the original wooden ones.

Needle dam on the Aisne

We didn’t have any issues with the locks although one of them had a lot of vegetation growing in the walls which was mainly hazel saplings. We were surprised that it wasn’t kept under control as the roots must harm the structure by growing between the stone blocks of the walls.

Most of the lock pounds had contraptions at the sides to help wild animals cross the cut. With the amount of dead deer, boar and other mammals we sometimes see we find it odd that these structures aren’t more common.  Interestingly they are often seen in the canals on the UK where it is usually believed they were installed to aid horses getting out of the water if they fell in whilst towing a barge. How true that is I do not know.

Canalside posters explain the purpose of the structures to passers-by.

As with the last canal we were on, many of the lock cottages were in a sorry state even though they would make lovely remote homes. Maybe it’s a sign of how much empty property there is in rural France where supply easily outstrips demand.

Arriving at Neuville-Day we moored up using bollards from the old village quay and went for a walk. 

Moored at Neuville-Day

As we were leaving, Rob and Julie turned up on Tadham Castle and we agreed to meet up later. We walked back down the flight to a village called Semuy that we hadn’t visited before. It wasn’t a large village but strangely the canal had obviously cut through leaving the church on one side and the main village on the other.

In the centre was a home-made sign to a lavoir but try as we might we just couldn’t find one. We did find an old car rusting away in a barn and our friend Martin P. identified it as an Opel Olympia from the 1930s or 1940s.

Having seen the rotting German car we then came across some German graffiti from WWII. Such graffiti is often protected as it is such an important part of French wartime heritage.  

God save/protect Germany

We turned our walk into a circular one and managed to see our first marbled white and meadow brown butterflies of the year. Back at Neuville-Day we went around to Rob and Julie’s and had a pleasant time chatting and drinking into the evening. We found out that we had a shared past in the UK in that we all cruised on the Kennet and Avon canal and even moored our boats in the same marina 15 years ago.

Wednesday 10 June

With 19 locks to go up on Wednesday we set off early at about 9.45am. Rob and Julie were ready to go before us so we agreed they should go up first. It was an uneventful but beautiful climb up the Montgon valley and we had an attentive éclusier in attendance nearly the whole way. He spent most of his time driving his van between the two boats so he was never far away to help on the two or three occasions when a gate wouldn’t open or similar.

The majority of the locks on the flight were a little over or a little under three metres deep which is just about the limit for Karen to reach a side bollard without having to use a lock ladder. The locks themselves operated very quickly and there was no hanging around once inside the lock and the lever was pulled to set the operation going. On some canals we seem to have to wait an age before we can trigger the start. Another good thing was that they filled up very quickly but without being feisty.

The weather kept changing between full sun and threatening rain clouds but at least it stayed dry. The scenery was wonderful along the way but as usual, photos just cannot do the views justice.

After leaving the top lock we had about a kilometre to travel before reaching the town mooring of Le Chesne. There’s only room for a few boats and when we arrived we just fitted in opposite Tadham Castle. The overall journey had taken about 3 ½ hours so we felt rather pleased with ourselves once we’d moored up for the day.

Moored in the centre of Le Chesne

On Wednesday we cruised seven km up 19 locks and just saw Tadham Castle.

Thursday 11 June

Thursday dawned overcast and remained that way most of the day but at least it stayed dry. In the morning Karen went for a run around Lac de Bairon which is a couple of kilometres north of Le Chesne. The lake is the feeder reservoir for the canal des Ardennes and very popular for water sports and also has a large caravan and camping site. I went for a walk as far as the lake and back but didn’t do the eight km circuit around the lake itself that Karen was doing. The only picture I took was of these Charolais cows for Emmy, one of our granddaughters, but it does include a portion of the lake in the background.

After lunch we went for a walk around Le Chesne and although we explored it three years ago we found a lavoir that we’d missed previously. Sadly, it was locked so we couldn’t get access inside but could see it had an impluvium style roof and was also stream fed.  We did manage to get a picture of the inside by pointing the phone through a crack in a door.

The washing basin can just be made out

We knew there were flags flying on the bridge across the canal by the port but it wasn’t until we were walking back that we noticed they were an unusual combination: Luxembourg, Belgian and British. A sad sign of the times but the union jack is hardly ever seen flying in French towns these days.

Later in the afternoon we decided to leave Le Chesne and have a little cruise until we found a good spot to stop. We headed for the bridge that leads to Tannay as there used to be a quay there and is meant to have good views across the Ardennes. When we arrived it was incredibly overgrown and we would have required a machete to reach either of the two commercial bollards hiding in the undergrowth. Also the view from our boat would be non-existent from inside due to the height of the vegetation. We carried on a little further, passing the feeder inlet from Lac de Bairon.

When Sauville lock appeared in the distance we saw the offside had been mown to allow VNF to access a small aqueduct. The bank was reinforced with steel piling which was ideal to moor against and we could also take advantage of the lack of undergrowth.

Moored above Sauville lock for Thursday night

On Thursday we cruised 8.5 km through no locks and saw no boats.

Friday 12 June

Another grey day but it didn’t stay dry as there was drizzle on and off all morning but we decided to have a cruise anyway. The forecast indicated that it should be the last cloudy day with temperatures back in the 30s for next week. As we’re finding on this canal, we had it to ourselves and after cruising through more of the stunning countryside of the Ardennes and dropping down a couple of locks we moored up above the lock at Malmy.

Moored at Malmy

Somehow I managed to break the grinder part of our salt pot during lunch so set about mending it when we’d eaten. I used a superglue to effect the repair and once it had dried I could confirm the repair was good but unfortunately I’d also managed to glue the grinding mechanism itself. Usually when I use a superglue it doesn’t really work or not for long anyway. Of course, this time it had worked too well.

After lunch we took a walk to the next village which was called Chémery-Chéhéry. When we arrived we saw that according to the welcome signs at the entrance to the village, it is now known as Chémery-sur-Bar. It was a shame to find that out as the name Chémery-Chéhéry was almost as intriguing as Thugny-Trugny where we’d stopped a week ago.

It was a proper farming village with farmyards intermingled with cottages and houses. The river Bar and a couple of streams ran through the place so we spent a while looking for a lavoir and eventually found one. It could almost be considered as two separate lavoirs as they stood either side of a stream and had their own entrances.

At the top of a hill overlooking the village stood the church. Apparently one of the walls adjoining the tower dated back to the 12^th century.

Church Saint-Sulpice

Outside the church was a large square, part of which was occupied by the covered market.

Although it remained dry, the sun never really came out for long even though it kept trying and we spent the rest of the day on board.

On Friday we cruised 8.5 km down two locks and saw no boats.

Saturday 13 June

I set off on the boat for the final 12 km of the canal to where it meets the river Meuse at a place called Pont-à-Bar while Karen ran there. There was some cloud cover when we left but it cleared during the morning.

The canal has followed the river Bar valley since the summit but at a place called St-Aignan the river has a 10 km loop around a hill so a canal tunnel was constructed to create a short cut and cut the distance down to under ½ km.

Approaching St-Aignan tunnel

Karen had rung me when she’d run through the tunnel to warn me that there were quite a few serious fishermen in the tunnel. They knew I was coming before I arrived as they would have heard the lock at the entrance setting itself and made sure their many lines were out of the way. It was the first time we’ve seen people fishing inside a tunnel.

I picked Karen up soon after going through the tunnel. She’d reached Pont-à-Bar and run practically half way back as she obviously runs faster than the boat will travel. The pound I picked her up in was low and there had been a VNF notice earlier in the week saying the depth was limited to two metres. This made it a little difficult to find somewhere to put the nose in but she finally got aboard. We stopped at the boatyard in Pont-à-Bar to fill up with diesel and make a couple of purchases in the chandlery then dropped down a lock to moor up for the weekend.

Moored in Pont-à-Bar

The first thing we did after tying up was fetch the car from where I'd left it at the boatyard a couple of months ago. We went into Sedan which was about a 10 minute drive away to put the car on charge and picked up a few things while waiting. Back at the boat we set up our table and chairs outside and watched the comings and goings of campervans into the late afternoon.  There are no services on site but it is clearly popular considering the number that had arrived by the evening. A little later Rob and Julie appeared, they’d moored in the boatyard and had walked down to see if they could find us. Of course we ended up chatting and drinking into the evening.

On Saturday we cruised 11 km down four locks, through one tunnel and saw one boat, a private river cruiser.

Sunday 14 June

The boatyard above the lock where we were moored also has a hire boat base so we expected it to be busy with boats heading out onto the Meuse. As it was, only one hire boat went out and just two came back at the end of their holidays, although quite a few private boats came through in both directions. It always strikes me as odd that a hire boat can be used without any qualifications, but we had to pass various navigational and radio tests before we could bring our boat over here.

Later in the morning we walked along the Meuse for a while and popped into Dom-le-Mesnil for a quick explore.  We found two lavoirs, both in good condition and with running water inside. Sadly they were both locked but we could see through the gratings that one of them had four wash basins.

The church was not as old as most, being built in 1850.

The mairie looked of a similar age.

We sent the rest of the afternoon lazing on and around the boat enjoying the sunshine. Oh, having said that I'd over-repaired the salt grinder - it's now working perfectly.

Early morning below the lock in Pont-à-Bar