Chaumont (stanks & snakes)

Fishermen started arriving from seven on Sunday morning and unlike Saturday’s men these guys were serious.  We soon realised they were getting ready for a competition.  As we see in the UK, the guys on the pegs at either end of the boat kept one of their lines close to the boat as I assume they believe it’s a good place for fish to congregate.  They didn’t seem to start serious fishing until 9am so a lot of setting up was involved, including the laying of tables and chairs by the womenfolk which were used at pre-arranged breaks during the day (the tables and chairs not the women).  We couldn’t believe how long they were fishing; they didn’t finish until 4.30pm for the weigh in.

We went off mid-morning to find Chaumont’s famous viaduct.  This was built as part of the Paris-Basle railway and only took fifteen months to build, opening in 1856.  It’s a stunning structure and is over 600 metres long with 50 arches.

Unlike those on the Settle-Carlisle railway, it wasn’t easy to get a view of the complete viaduct and even the images available on the web can’t convey its majesty in one shot.  There are three levels and the lower one is usually open for the public to walk across but was closed for safety works in 2018 and hasn’t reopened yet due to Covid.

Looking along the pedestrianised level

The viaduct helped to bring the railway to the top of Chaumont where it runs in a deep cutting through the town; the stone used in its construction being sourced from the cutting.

We made our way back via a different route so we could take in the old town.  Chaumont is the capital of the Haute-Marne département with a population of 23,000.  The town is a mixture of old and new, e.g. the station and surrounding art and entertainment buildings are all modern affairs.  Back in 1760 there were just over 6,000 inhabitants but they still had an impressive hôtel de ville:

The hôtel de ville built in 1785/6 replaced a previous one on the same spot

The large playing cards in front of the building were part of an Easter (pâques) game for children based on Alice in Wonderland.  They had to hunt down the cards placed around the town.  Each card contained a clue to a clock somewhere else in the town.  Once all the clocks have been identified the game is complete.  Needless to say, we didn’t join in (yet!) but here are the ace of diamonds and jack of spades:

There was an educational aspect to the game as each clue also provided historical information about the building where the clock would be found.

A couple of wooden sculptures in one of the small parks

All that remains of the original castle in Chaumont is the square keep that can just be seen on the right of this view looking west from the top of town:

Looking in the opposite direction several towers can be seen:

As we made our way over to the cathedral, we passed one of the few remaining parts of the 13^th century city walls.  It was the unfortunately named Arse tower which originally stood guard over one of the gates.

La tour d’Arse

The cathedral no longer stands in its own grounds as houses have been built within a few metres nearly all the way around.  This meant the building couldn’t clearly been seen in its entirety.

This side provided the best view

It had some amazing gargoyles

Karen & Buddy squeezing between the cathedral and the houses

Our walk back to the port took us down one of the old lanes that used to act as a supply route up to the town at the top of the hill. 

Back at the port more camper vans had arrived, they were still all French plated but clearly the volume of people taking breaks was going up quickly.  The captainerie was still firmly shut up as expected because of the lock down.

Captainerie looking rather sorry for itself

The lovely sunny weekend was forgotten by Monday morning as we woke up to rain.  It didn’t really matter as Karen was on a workday and I had a few errands to run.  Whilst out I popped over to the valley on the other side of town to find a lavoir we’d seen on the town’s website.  I know I try to avoid going on about lavoirs but this one was really quite special; it had four washing basins and was a good way out of town so the washerwomen would have had quite a trek with their laundry.

I’m not sure what the nearest pool was used for but at a couple of metres deep it may well have been used for bathing.  Next can be seen three of the wash basins with the fourth hidden at the far end.

The middle of the three parallel basins

The fourth basin would have been used when the water levels were low making the three main basins unusable.

The overfull fourth basin with water cascading from the other basins

The little building at the top left of the main view turned out to be a privy with four stalls.  So although the basins weren’t protected from the elements the lavandières were spared some modesty when performing other duties.

Looking up to Chaumont from the valley of the lavoir

Later on we walked further up the canal to a village called Choinges.  In a normal season it would be full of tourists especially on the river with kayaking and other activities.

Mill without a waterwheel and the village church

War memorial commemorating far more WWI casualties than WWII

Tuesday was my day for checking out the next few moorings we were planning to stop at.  By the time I’d taken Buddy for his morning walk there wasn’t much time before lunch so I left the trip until the afternoon.  As is our routine, Karen has sussed out the likely mooring places and my task was to check they were suitable for us.  This meant making sure they were OK for our boat; whether or not water was available, the internet signal strength and general things like rubbish disposal, recycling and look and feel of the places.

The first stop was at Chamarandes which turned out to be most unsatisfactory.  The mooring consisted of dolphins for commercials only as they were too far apart for a boat of our length, also they were only suitable for overnight stops as they were in the middle of private property.  The next was at a place called Foulain which was ideal, a little way out of the village by the cemetery which had a push button water point.  It was nice and open to catch the sun and plenty of space for Buddy to roam.  Rolampont was also suitable and ticked all the boxes, especially as I passed a couple of lavoirs in the village.

One of Rolampont’s lavoirs

Finally I went to Hûme and struck lucky again.  There wasn’t any water but that wouldn’t matter as the stop after that would be the town of Langres where there’s a port with all facilities.

The mooring at Hûme

As an added bonus I almost stood on a western whip snake.  These can grow to a couple of metres in length but at about four feet long mine was some way off that.

Western whip snake

Mind you, looking at this picture again, it may well have been longer than I thought:

Not only did I see the snake I also came across a few steel stanking planks.  In the UK they are usually made of wood hence the name stanking or stop plank.  They are dropped into the water to create dams when a section of waterway needs to be drained.  They are also used in a similar way to aid the removal of lock gates.  With the canals being wider in France they are usually made of steel as are the ones on the wider Bridgewater canal up near Manchester.  I haven’t mentioned these items for a while as we haven’t come across them lately.  They can be particularly quaint in the UK as they are often contained in shelters at bridge holes and locks.

We will spend a couple more days in Chaumont and then move on Friday ready for the weekend.

 

 

Chaumont (buttering up the locals)

We’ve had a strange few days, weather-wise; there were hailstones during a lunchtime walk on Wednesday followed by a glorious afternoon and then it rained practically all day on Thursday. Needless to say, Buddy’s walks were few and short on Thursday.

Thursday in the rain by the lock above our Riaucourt mooring

Thursday was car move day as we were going to cruise to Chaumont during Friday.  Karen drove to the halfway point which was at a place called Condes, parked the car by a tunnel there and ran back.  She was most fortunate and picked a time when the rain had stopped long enough for her run back to the boat.

Our friends Paul & Sue who are still moored at Châlons-en-Champagne rang to discuss their route north and possibly into Belgium.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to offer much help as the route planner on the VNF site was down.  In fact, the French navigation authority’s site suffered a cyber-attack on 27^th April and it’s still out of operation as stronger security is being developed before it goes back online.  This meant that the email alert service of unexpected stoppages like infrastructure damage or breaches was also out of action.  To give them their due they did get a temporary email alert service back up and running from different servers in a couple of days and different services are slowly coming back on lne.

The chimes from the church clock in the village are unusual in that they ring throughout the night whereas most chimes are usually supressed from 10 or 11pm until 7 or 8am.  We like the sound of chimes, so it doesn’t bother us, but we found them intriguing because after the four quarter chimes there’s a gap of around three minutes before the hour chimes start.  A bit disconcerting as it makes us lie awake listening to make sure the hour chimes start.

My big admin task recently has been completing our French tax returns.  As French residents, we have to declare our worldwide income in France even though the tax may be paid to different jurisdictions.  For example, our UK rental income is taxed over there so we get a credit for the tax amount in France, but most UK pension income is taxed in France so HMRC have to authorise the pension providers to make pension payments gross of income tax.  Treatment of investment income is more complicated but needless to say, with the French love of bureaucratic detail, details of each financial account has to be included in the return.  In a similar vein, details of all maintenance and repairs to rental properties have to be itemised whereas HMRC are happy to accept the total value.

Friday was a much better day weather-wise and Buddy spent most of the morning sunning himself outside the boat:

We set off for Chaumont after lunch and immediately ran into problems at the first lock.  We got in OK, and Karen reached up and looped the front line over a bollard to secure us.  Our télécommande refused to be recognised and so the gates wouldn’t close behind us.  It was probably because the lock was four metres deep, so we were too low for the signal to be picked up.  This meant we had to get the boat over to the other side of the lock where we could use the manual controls. 

You may wonder why we weren’t that side anyway but that’s because the bollards on that side were for commercials and therefore too large for us to loop a line over.  Karen finds that a depth of four metres is about the limit for getting a line over a bollard so certainly wouldn’t have felt safe trying to negotiate a fat bollard.  Of course, the front was tied up, so we had to go across at an angle with Karen adjusting the line at the so I could move forwards as well as sideways.  Once the back was positioned by the control rods I set the lock going and we then had to quickly get back into position before the water started rising.

Moving across to the manual controls on the right

We had four more locks to go up before reaching Chaumont but they were all trouble-free.  An older couple had stood and watched us at the first one and engaged me in conversation once we were nearing the top.  They’d been visiting her mother in the village and were having a stroll before driving home.  Clearly, the current situation regarding UK tourists being banned from travel hadn’t reached them as they assumed we were ‘en vacance’ until I explained we lived on the boat.  They were also keen to understand how and where we were getting our vaccinations.  For some reason I was particularly perceptive and understood the conversation; sometimes I leave a conversation having understood hardly anything and just wing it by nodding and grunting at apposite points.

Leaving Riaucourt after our week’s stay there

The canal was still following the river Marne and became increasingly windy (as in bendy) which made a pleasant change from the long straights we encountered when we first joined it.  There was a lift bridge immediately before the lock at Brethenay and all it served was an old waterwheel driven forge that’s been converted to small industrial units.  I did wonder how that cost justification worked when the canal was built.

Waiting to go into the lock at Brethenay

After five kilometres we were approaching Condes where Karen had left the car the previous day and where we had to go through a short tunnel.

The north portal of the tunnel de Condes

At just over 11 metres wide at water level the tunnel operates in two-way mode for Freycinet sized commercials which have a beam of just over five metres.  As is the case for nearly all the tunnels we’ve encountered in France, the inside was lit and there were towpaths on both sides:

After another hour, we were approaching Chaumont which, even though it’s a large hill town, we couldn’t really see much of it because of the trees.

Approaching Chaumont

Chaumont has a port with water and electricity points shared with camper vans.  Now travel has been allowed in France since last Monday, there were quite a few camper vans already in situ.  As we didn’t need water and electricity, we stopped just short of the port which meant there was no charge to pay.  We’d looked at the mooring previously when we’d driven to the town to get our jabs and noticed it was very popular with fishermen.  When we arrived, there were no fishermen to be seen and we soon settled in.     

Moored just outside the port

We walked back to Condes to get the car and did the weekly food shop on the way back to the boat.  Being a large town, Chaumont has an Amazon locker at one of the fuel stations, so when we got home, we ordered a few items that we’ve been needing for a while.  One of these was a replacement charger for my laptop as the current one has been intermittently failing to charge and no doubt it wouldn’t be long before it failed completely.

We were up early on Saturday morning and there were already fishermen sitting by the boat.  When I popped outside to move the solar panels to catch the rising sun we had a brief conversation and found out that they’d arrived at 5.30am.  Karen jokingly asked if I’d challenged them for being out before the curfew finished!  They loved Buddy so I left him outside while I made them some coffee.  I had an ulterior motive in supplying them with coffee as it would mean they would stand up for us when other fishermen arrived and were put off because their patch had been taken over by a narrowboat.

They didn’t seem to be too serious on fishing and most of their time seemed to be taken up with a constant stream of acquaintances turning up to pass the time of day and all was quiet by mid-afternoon.

As the shops are closed on Sunday, we will probably take advantage of the quiet streets and explore the old town.  The port is in the valley and we will find one of the old cart tracks that run up the hillside into the town.  Chaumont is famous for its massive (in length and height) railway viaduct which is over on the opposite side of the hill to us so we will take a walk over there too.  With temperatures in the mid-20s over the weekend it’s going to be a shock when Monday arrives as they are due to drop back down to the mid-teens.

Riaucourt (not going backwards)

Pretty entrances for the doves in the dovecote next to our mooring

Saturday, being labour day, was deathly quiet as more workers have the day off on 1^st May than any other public holiday in France.  We only saw a handful of vehicles going through Riaucourt also, like most waterways in France, the canal was closed for the day with all the lock and bridge lights switched off.  We’d noticed a few keen cyclists out early in the morning but by the time we went for a wander around the village it was empty, although one couple greeted us as they were getting into their car.  They were clearly off for a gathering as the lady was clutching bunches of lilies of the valley (muguet), the traditional French labour day gift.

The Marne valley here is particularly steep sided and Riaucourt nestles at the bottom with the river and the canal running through the centre.  It was yet another farming village that expanded when its first iron works was built in 1612 and then later in the days of Champagne production.  The mairie stands in the centre of the village and judging by the side portals probably housed the schools for the children in earlier times.

The 177-year-old mairie now serving 450 people

The 18^th century church was around the corner…

…with the war memorial hidden around the back:

As we walked along Karen asked me if I had a favourite lavoir which I found difficult to answer.  With so many designs from extremely basic washing stones on a riverbank to palatial, folly-like wash houses I felt they should be categorised first.  Before the conversation went much further, we turned into a street called Rue de la Fontaine so kept our eyes peeled.  Sure enough, as we neared the end, we came across what we’d been looking out for:

Sadly, it was bereft of water otherwise it would have been a good contender

We climbed up the hill on the far side of the village and came across a small chapel.  The chapelle de Méchineix stood at the very top with a rather out of proportion Madonna on its roof.  By that I mean the statue looked large for the size of the building rather than being portly.

The chapelle de Méchineix, rebuilt in 1870

Simple interior with room for just eight short pews

One of the old postcards of the village shows a line of pilgrims visiting the chapel on the hill.  The growth of trees over the last century or so made it impossible to take a comparison picture but we managed to get one looking across the village, and the canal and river from the opposite side.

I’ve never been into heraldry but came across the description of the modern coat of arms for the village.  Of the five items on it I could only guess at the meaning of one of them which, I think, is often the conclusion people, or at least those without a background in heraldry, come to when seeing a coat arms.

The modern coat of arms of Riaucourt

I guessed the anvil represented the village forges but couldn’t fathom how the houses represented the dovecote and the chapel.  The bar across the middle represents the Champagne region and I suppose the original bridge across the river may have looked like the one on the arms.

We realised during Saturday that the internet reception on the boat wasn’t going to be good enough for Karen to work her three days this week so will need to make alternative arrangements. We had visited Riaucourt when checking out potential moorings and found the signal to be OK.  What we hadn’t taken into account were the particularly high banks and that the boat would be a lot lower than where we were standing.  Our immediate thought was that we would turn around and go back to Bologne at the end of the weekend for the three days as we knew the signal was OK there and we could then return and finish our stay at Riaucourt on non-working days before moving on to Chaumont.

You can see (or rather can't) why the boat is out signal below the folly-like dovecote

We left it until later in the afternoon on Monday before turning the boat around and heading back to Bologne for a few nights.  I know I’ve always said we can turn around anywhere on French canals but that wasn’t the case on Monday; the cut was wide enough but the sides were too gently sloped.  We tried in several places but to no avail so gave up and moored back up below the lock from where we’d started.  Karen will use her UK phone as that seems to have a good enough signal and if that fails we’ll move on to Chaumont earlier than planned.  To be fair it’s the first time we’ve been let down by the French internet supplied by the Free network so we can’t complain.

Unusual sight of a boat passing – sundown on Monday

The south facing slopes on one side of the village used to be covered in vines for Champagne production until they were removed about 100 years ago following the introduction of strict geographical controls.  The odd row can still be seen in back gardens or allotments and also the remains of stone steps every few yards or so, leading up to what were terraces on the hillsides from the lane at the bottom.  

One of the sets of steps

Modern vines, only just budding

The lane, which is little more than a cart track, is where we park the car and its name is also a reminder of the bygone days of the vineyards.

Under the vines

The rain came back on Tuesday and it was pretty miserable all day, even Buddy didn’t want to venture out in it.  While walking through the woods during the day I came across the remains of a Peugeot 203.  This particular model was from the pre-1953 range so was even older than me.  The production run of these cars started immediately after the end of WWII and they have become a classic design.  I got in touch with Monique during the day, her partner Martin restores early VW vans and he immediately identified the car, so many thanks to Martin!

Seen better days

This week saw a partial easing of semi-confinement, the third French lockdown, with restriction on internal travel lifted.  This means people can travel further than 10 kilometres from their home as long as they are back by the start of curfew at 7pm.  VNF, the French navigation authority, interpreted the original rules differently in each of their main regions.  Ours, the Nord-Est, allowed travel to continue as long as 48 hours’ notice was given, while some banned all but commercial traffic.  Likewise, they have interpreted the easing of travel restrictions differently; all are allowing travel for private boaters again but different start dates apply across the regions.

The travel restriction has been one reason why we are travelling so slowly at present.  The slow approach will continue until we have our second jabs at the end of May.  We are due to have these at Chaumont so don’t want to travel too far away from there yet.  We are currently ten kilometres north of Chaumont and will probably reach Langres which is 40 kilometres to the south of the town by the end of the month.  

Our spot at Riaucourt would be quite different in the evenings if it wasn’t for the curfew.  The dovecote looks like an ideal spot for local children to gather in the evening and, to be fair, we couldn’t blame them. Not that we’ve ever had trouble from people sitting outside the boat, it’s just that it can get rather noisy if they’re right next to you especially when it’s warmer and we need the doors and windows open in the evening.

We plan to move on Friday this week with the aim of reaching Chaumont.

Riaucourt (didn’t know I’d lost it)

Moored at Riaucourt

During our walks around Bologne we’ve noticed signs to a place called Les Forges that’s a couple of kilometres away.  Having come across a few old iron works along the Marne valley during our slow cruise up it, I took Buddy to Les Forges for his morning walk.  The first thing I saw when I neared the place was that the public road came to an end with a security barrier across it and there were 30 odd cars in a car park just the other side.  The land dipped away sharply to the river and I could see a factory complex in the valley that I later learnt belonged to an aeronautical components firm called LISL.  Aircraft assembly products are made from pressed steel at the plant which would be unrecognisable to the people who worked at the original iron foundry on the site.

A railway line used to serve the works and on the way back we followed it until it brought us back to the cut not far from our mooring. 

I wouldn’t fancy being on a train with that buckling

As is often the case with old railway lines, they are wildlife corridors and there were plenty of butterflies out and about.

Male holly blue and male speckled wood

We were having lunch outside the boat one day when a big Audi pulled up and a guy got out and introduced himself as living a little way back along the canal near the silos.  He was ever so friendly and said he’d seen us when we came through the lock on Friday.  He offered to give us water if we needed it and we assumed he was happy for us to take the boat down to his garden and let us use our hose on an outside tap.  I told him it was kind of him to offer but we'd filled up when we left Viéville.  The conversation preyed on my mind during the night, as I hadn’t really understood some of the things he'd said.  I felt unhappy that he’d been so friendly, and I didn’t try harder to understand what he was saying.  The next morning, I even walked back down the towpath to see if I could find his house and make amends.  If he was in it would be obvious which house was his as it’s not often big Audis are seen out of towns but there were none to be seen.

During Tuesday another car pulled up next to the boat, this time it was a gendarme and the next thing we knew there was a knocking on the roof.  I quickly put a mask on and went out to see what he wanted.  Following the usual ‘bonjours’ he asked me for my name.  When I told him, he smiled and handed me my driving licence which I didn’t even know I’d lost.  He told me it was found in Roôcourt-la-Côte which is a couple of villages back.  He remarked that we have a ‘joli péniche’, said his goodbyes and off he went.

We went for a walk at lunchtime with the intention of popping into Bologne to pick up some bread on the way.  As we joined the road into the village, we could see a guy leaning on his gate watching the world go by.  As we neared, I realised it was the friendly Audi guy so we crossed the road so I could make my amends.   I apologised for not speaking more when he came to see us and explained that my French is not very good to which he replied that his English was non-existent and that he was sorry too.  He extended his offer again and asked if there was anything else we needed as he would be happy to help; I don’t think he realised we had a car and could therefore get to the shops etc. if we needed to.  We had a conversation this time during which he warned us that the shop would be closed as it was lunchtime.

We have now travelled 100 kilometres since joining this canal which means we have nearly covered half of the 224-kilometre length since the end of March.  Sadly, the 100pk distance stone just up from our mooring is a pre-cast affair whereas all the others we have seen have been stone originals.

I’ve been getting the back deck area prepped for painting this week which entails removing the cover to the engine bay.  This is a practice I'm used to as, when I service the engine, I take it off and stand it against a tree or a fence on the towpath.  During a service a few years back I had to pop inside the boat to get something and completely forgot about the uncovered engine bay and, after climbing up the rear steps to go out again, I promptly fell in.  Nothing was broken, just a few scrapes, bruises and some damaged pride.  I’ve never made the same mistake again as not only could it be very painful, I could end up snapping a lead or similar.  That was until Tuesday when I’d been on the roof for something and when I came to get back down, for some bizarre reason I went backwards and wondered why my feet couldn’t find the deck.  Of course, the next thing I knew, I was in the engine bay again; no damage other than I was extremely embarrassed because Karen heard me falling, so I couldn’t pretend it hadn’t happened.    

We had rain off and on during Wednesday afternoon and by the evening it was raining constantly.  We couldn’t complain as it’s been dry for a long time now, but we lit the stove in the evening, something we hadn’t thought we do again until autumn.  Looking at the forecast it seems the shorts and sun cream will be going away for a few days too. 

We didn’t do an awful lot on Thursday other than having a two-hour bridge lesson in the morning and playing competitive bridge for another couple of hours in the evening.  Evening sessions generally run from 7.30 UK time which means we don’t finish until 10.30 our time and end up going to bed quite late as we need an hour or two to calm our brains down 😉

Friday was move day and with a touch of frost we lit the stove again to warm the boat up a bit as we weren’t expecting much sun during the day.  We got around to setting off just before midday and were heading for Riaucourt which I noticed Karen had marked as ‘must visit’ on our list of potential moorings.

Approaching Riaucourt

The mooring was just below the lock and next to a dovecote which really was such a robust building that it was more like a folly, although by definition follies don’t have a practical use.  Karen ran back to get the car with Buddy and left me to fill up with water. 

Moored alongside the dovecote (le colombiére)

Karen had checked the water point on one of her runs earlier in the week and said the water was on and that it was fine other than it was a push tap variety where the tap has to be held in continuously.  I soon found out that not only did it have a push tap, it wasn’t the sort of tap that would easily take a hose.  There was nothing for it but to use our 20-litre water containers and ferry them back and forth.  I soon realised what Karen meant by ‘must visit’ as this job would keep me occupied and out of her way every day we’re here!  I solved the push tap problem with a cable tie. 

Cable tie solution

I seem to remember that my parents used to have a rubber diaphragm to fix over the kitchen cold tap when using a hose in their garden.  As these water fountains are quite common over here I’ve been looking for something similar to my parents' contraption but with no joy so far.  I suppose it could have been worse, Karen could have been expecting me to use the well instead of the tap:

Later in the afternoon we popped out to get the weekly food shop out of the way as all shops would be closed on Saturday, labour day.  As is the French custom on May 1^st we were handed a sprig of Lily of the Valley by the checkout girl.  Since the 15^th century sprigs have been traditionally exchanged between families and loved ones.  Like many celebrations, it’s been expanded to wish complete strangers, like us, good luck for the coming year.  At least it’s not like most annual celebrations these days that seem to have been commercialised.

Even though Riaucourt is very small with just over 400 people living there, we’re looking forward to having a good look around over the weekend.

On Friday we cruised 1½ miles through no locks.