Thugny-Trugny (a place name to make you smile)

Monday 1 June  

We had two days before meeting our boater friends, Nikki and Gorete, at a place called Variscourt and wanted to leave Reims and break the back of the journey on Monday as there was a chance of rain on Tuesday.

Leaving Reims on Monday morning

First, I wanted to top up with diesel and knew there was a handy fuel station about a km downstream.  Before we got there we went through the area where the pleasure boating port was being refurbished.  It seemed that looking at the number and length of pontoons being installed that there would be a lot of space for visiting boaters.

On the opposite side to the pontoons were three new and very large rowing stages overlooked by Reims football stadium.

At the far end there would obviously be a view of Reims cathedral.

Leaving the pleasure port, we stopped so I could get diesel from the fuel station on the other side of a main road running alongside the canal. There was some issue with paying at the pump so purchasers had to pre-pay for the amount of fuel they thought they needed. I had two jerry cans so I needed to prepay for 40 litres. For some reason I often get my French 14 and 40 the wrong way around. As I was a bit flustered I got them muddled up in the kiosk and asked for 14 litres. I didn’t realise this until the pump stopped delivering fuel before the first can was full. This meant going back in and prepaying for the rest of the fuel I needed. Fortunately the girl at the counter either didn’t realise what I’d done, didn’t care or just felt sorry for me as she was very friendly and made no mention of the incident.

After topping up with diesel we moved on a little further and then stopped again outside a small Aldi. We had to moor against an old railway line and made use of a points lever to tie to.  Karen popped in whilst I cleaned the roof of the boat from all the debris that had dropped from the plane trees we were moored under in Reims.

Then it was off to the main commercial port in Reims where we knew we could moor at the end and then walk to a Leclerc hypermarket.  I know Karen had popped into a supermarket earlier but that was to pick up a few heavy items so we wouldn’t have to carry them on a longer walk. When Karen had come back from a run the other day she’d passed the commercial port and told me there were loads of péniches moored up. When we arrived today there were only two left and the port looked deserted as far as the eye could see. They’d obviously moved on over the weekend after loading or unloading.

We had a five km round trip to the hypermarket, but it was flat and easy to take our shopping trolley supplemented with two large backpacks. After a successful shop we set off for Courcy where we stopped for lunch in a lovely shady spot.

In the afternoon we continued on further and stopped three locks short of Berry-au-Bac, the end of the canal where it joins the canal latéral à l’Aisne. 

It had been a great day for cruising with the temperature down in the mid-20s and no issues with any of the locks. The water in the canal on this northern side of Reims was very clear as well as being weed-free, probably because there’s a lot of commercial traffic although, strangely, we saw none on the move all day. We now only had ten km and four locks left to do until we arrive at Variscourt where we’d planned to meet the girls on Tuesday.

On Monday we cruised 20.5 km down two locks and saw two boats, both private.

Tuesday 2 June

With rain forecast by lunchtime we set off for Variscourt after Karen finished her early run.  Even though we left early, two péniches had already come past us before we’d had our morning tea and coffee. One was Santa Maria that always has lovely plants dotted around the deck.

The second one, Delta, was being driven by a woman and she came out on her deck to wish us a good day. The lock cottages on this canal, are rather quaint so it’s a shame some of them are just abandoned like the one at the first lock we went down.

Just above the third and final lock on the canal before reaching the junction with the canal latéral à l’Aisne is a massive grain silo. When Karen came back from her run she’d told me a péniche was being loaded with grain as she ran past but as we arrived it had just left and was going down the lock ahead of us.

Whilst we were waiting for the boat to leave and go in the lock ourselves it started raining. By the time I got my wet weather gear on it was absolutely pouring. We carried on anyway, turning right onto the latéral à l’Aisne which, at this end was more like a small river than the wide canals we’d been used to this year. If we’d turned left, as the péniche had done, which is the way nearly all commercials go, the canal would have remained the same width as the one we’d just left.

The rain didn’t stop until about 10 minutes before arriving at Variscourt and when we arrived it didn’t even look like it had been raining there!

The 52 km long canal latéral à l’Aisne, as its French name implies, runs parallel to the unnavigable upper reaches of the river Aisne.  It was opened in 1888 and joins the canal des Ardennes at its eastern end with the navigable river Aisne at the western end.  We joined it at Berry-au-Bac and will only be travelling along the last 18 km before joining the canal des Ardennes.

The girls were already moored up and we went straight around to theirs. Having come down the canal des Ardennes, they’d arrived in the opposite direction to us. We asked whether the canal was busy or not and they said they’d seen hardly any boats during the three weeks they’d been on it. Suddenly two boats arrived from opposite directions and looked to moor so we had to shuffle the boats around a bit and use some pins. One of the boats was Tadham Castle, whom we’d met on the Somme a few years previously. Soon after everyone was tied up a third boat arrived and ended up breasting up with Tadham Castle as the mooring was completely full. So much for the canal being quiet!

Packed - even before the fifth boat arrived

When discussing dinner arrangements with the girls a couple of weeks ago we’d asked that Gorete made one of her famous paellas. She loves it when asked for that particular dish and, as usual, she didn’t disappoint us as it was our turn to go around to dinner at theirs.

On Tuesday we cruised 9.5 km down three and up one lock and saw one boat on the move, a private Belgian flagged cruiser. 

Wednesday June 3 

Karen and I went for a bike ride in the morning taking in a place called Guignicourt, the home of a large sugar refinery. It was our turn to host on Wednesday evening so we popped into a little shop to get a few last minutes bits while we were cycling through. The rest of the day was spent relaxing around the boats with the four of us having a little walk around Variscourt during the afternoon. Tadham Castle joined us for drinks outside in the evening before the girls came around to ours for dinner.

Thursday June 4

Tadham Castle left early in the morning and we decided that we would head east later on in the morning. We had a final coffee and chat with the girls and then at 11am we left in opposite directions. After about 10 km we were on the canal des Ardennes. This would be our second trip along the Ardennes but when we did it three years ago we tackled it in the opposite direction. The 88 km long canal des Ardennes was opened in 1831and provides a route between the rivers Meuse and Aisne. We’d joined it from the Aisne and will follow it to the other end where it joins the Meuse just north of Sedan.

A few km after joining the canal we could see the stone quay at Asfeld that had been our target for the day. Tadham Castle was already moored there but there was plenty of room for us too so we stopped for the day.

We’d spent some time in Asfeld previously so had done all the touristy stuff in town before as well as visiting the German war cemetery on the outskirts.  The mairie and church were unusual looking buildings as well as being unusually large for the town. We took photos of the buildings again mainly to show the dark clouds that had rolled in during our walk.

As I haven’t included a lavoir picture in the blog for a while here’s one that was on a stream just up from the canal.

We got home about 15 minutes before those dark skies dropped a storm on us for about five minutes and then the clouds cleared and we ended up with a lovely sunny evening.

Having been predominantly heading west or northwest since we started cruising this year we are now heading east towards the France-Belgian border. The thick blue line reflects our journey so far including the detour a little way down the Marne and back.

On Thursday we cruised 14 km up two locks and passed one river cruiser.

Friday June 5

Soon after setting off on Friday we noticed that the cut was getting quite weedy but at least there was a clear channel we could follow where other boats had been. Coming out of one lock we realised a lot of the weed was floating freely in the pound above and then came across a couple of weedcutters which explained the loose weed.

We stopped for lunch at a place called Château-Porcien alongside some grain silos which are usually the only buildings that are seen between villages along rural French canals. Many of the commercial boats we see on these smaller gauge canals in France transport grain from these silos. 

Moored by the silos at Château-Porcien

As we hadn’t visited Château-Porcien before we had a look around the town before setting off again.  It was a fairly pretty place with plenty of timber framed and other older houses as well as some areas of modern housing.

The modern looking mairie

Saint-Thibault church

WWI memorial

The town used to be heavily fortified with a castle sitting on top of the chalk hill in its centre which can be seen behind the pictures of the mairie and war memorial above. Very little remains of the town walls or the castle but the 15^th century Maison Forte de Wignacourt has been preserved and is now an apartment building.

Back at the boat we were just about to set off again when we could hear the unmistakable throb of a péniche. Sure enough, a few minutes later a laden Follow Me came slowly past us. We were really surprised as the canal is rarely used by commercials these days. Three years ago when we spent three weeks on the canal we only saw three.

We stopped for the day after ascending the third lock on a lovely peaceful quay that we’d passed but never stopped at before near a place called Nanteuil-sur-Aisne.

On Friday we cruised 19 km up three locks and saw a private cruiser, the péniche and the two weedcutters.

Saturday June 6

While Karen went for a long run I walked into the tiny village of Nanteuil-sur-Aisne. Although it wasn’t very big it still had a church which was perched on top of a hill overlooking the village.

Other than the main street shown above, there was one side road that led to the mairie which, in true tradition, was nearly the largest building in Nanteuil-sur-Aisne.

Mind you it had housed the school at one time as can be seen by the carved stonework.

At either end of the village were what I thought were information boards from a distance but turned out to be displays of artwork depicting nature. I assume they were painted by local schoolchildren.

A WWI war memorial stood at the bottom of the steep path up to the church.

I counted six hummingbird hawkmoths feeding on the lavender around the base of the memorial as well as countless other insects. Like most French villages we investigate it was absolutely deserted: nobody in the gardens and no sign of life through any of the unshuttered windows. I found a sign pointing to ‘Le Lavoir’ but needn’t have got my hopes up as the basin was no longer present and the building had been converted to a salle des fêtes.

Karen was pleased to have found our first distance stone on this canal during her run.

34 km since we started on the canal

I got back to the boat a little while before Karen and when she returned we set off for the day. The owners of the garden at the first lock, Acy-Romance, obviously enjoy putting on a display for passing boaters.

At Rethel, the largest town on this canal, we stopped for lunch and to get rid of our rubbish and recycling. The port, although it had plenty of moorings, was as dismal as the last time we visited, so we didn’t plan on staying, preferring to get back out into the countryside.

Bridge over the canal in Rethel

Soon after setting off again it started raining which it did off and on for a couple of hours. We stopped in the next lock for water after first knocking on the lock cottage to ask if we could attach one of our hoses to their outside tap. After another half an hour or so we moored up for the day below the lock at the delightfully named Thugny-Trugny. An éclusiere stopped by in her van soon after we’d moored up. She wanted to know if we were planning on moving any further. I think she was rather pleased when I said no as it could well have meant she could go home for the rest of the day as there were no other boats on the move that might call for support.

Moored between the twisty pole and the lock at Thugny-Trugny

On Saturday we cruised 10 km up two locks and saw no boats.