Fontenoy-le-Château (the uncertainty of reserving buses)

The port at Fontenoy-le-Château - our home for the last few days

We’d put Sunday morning aside for exploring Fontenoy-le-Château and were especially looking forward to following a literary trail we’d heard about.  Apparently, there were nearly 50 literary quotes to be found around the town and searching them out meant we’d also get a good look at everything else there was to see.  We soon found a mural that looked like it was our first quote but thought that if all the others were the same size, then nearly all the buildings would be covered in them.

Our first quote?

Translating the text, we realised that the mural was recognising the first ever French woman to receive a university degree.  This was Julie-Victoire Daubie who was born locally in the Vosges, graduated at Lyon on 17 August 1861 and then lived and died in the town.  Clearly this wasn’t one of the literary quotes we were looking for.

Strangely, the mural wasn't on a building in Place Julie Victoire Daubie either:

Opposite the mural stood the hôtel de ville with a statue of the poet Nicolas Gilbert who was born in the town.  This made us think that the literary trail may have been created to commemorate him.  The square was called Place Gilbert and looks very much the same as today as it did at the turn of the last century apart from the cobbles on the side street have been tarmacked over.

The road running through the town was paved with sandstone in the middle of the 14^th century and repaved at the start of 20^th with granite cobbles.  It is reportedly the last town in the old Lorraine région with a fully cobbled high street and is certainly the longest stretch we have walked along. 

Looking north from the hôtel de ville…

…and looking south

The river and canal lay to the west of the high street and to the east was a large hill upon which the castle (the château of Fontenoy-le-Château) was built.  Many of the side streets were also cobbled and those leading up the hill were quite steep.

Leading up to the château

The castle was originally built over 1,000 years ago with extensive rebuilding in the 14^th and 16^th centuries.  It’s all in ruins now, but the public can wander around and it’s easy to imagine what a strategic position it was situated in.  Restoration works were started in the 1970s but in good old French fashion don’t seem to have got very far – as we heard someone say, “Lay a block of stone, drink a bottle of wine”.  To be fair though, most French construction projects we see seem to be as efficient as those we've seen elsewhere.

Restoring the 1,000-year-old keep

We did come across a foundation stone inscribed with the insignia of the Burgundian family who sponsored the 16th century rebuild:

Looking down on the town with its church built around 1500

As well as the castle, the cemetery overlooked the town together with the good old air raid sirens which are still tested on the first Wednesday of each month.  In this part of France they are sounded at noon whereas in the south it’s 11.45am and in the north it’s 12.15pm.  Whenever we hear the sound we still find it strangely eerie and spine-tingling.

Fontenoy-le-Château’s air raid sirens

Walking back down the hill we passed the embroidery museum which sadly wasn’t open at the time; however, we did read that by end of 1800s there were 500 embroiderers in town.  Carrying on our walk through the town we came to the conclusion that the literary trail no longer existed and was probably created on a temporary basis on the anniversary of somebody or something.  Anyway, we did at least get to see around the place which was typically empty apart from the mad English couple walking in the midday sun.  

Looking north at the other end of the high street…

…and looking south

At the far end of town, we crossed the river Côney to reach the canal and walked along it back to the boat.  Again, it didn’t look much different to the way it did over 100 years ago.

After lunch we walked the nine kilometres back to Pont du Bois to retrieve the car.  You may think us daft, but as we’d cruised along the length the previous day, we knew the towpath was in the shade nearly the whole way.  At one point we came across people swimming in the canal, a practice we find most strange.  We don’t mind swimming or cooling down in rivers but the thought of doing it in canals knowing what goes into them is more than off-putting.

On the drive back we found some lavoirs including one at either end of the village of Ambiévillers.  They were built in a similar style and the horse troughs outside were being used as flower beds.

The pretty lavoirs at Ambiévillers

Karen had to work on Monday, so I got on with boat stuff and also went to Bains-les-Bains to do a supermarket shop.  Helen & Dave left during the morning heading for the famous Lock 8.  This is meant to be a really remote and pretty mooring further up the Côney valley near the summit where they planned on staying for several days.  Karen informed me that she already had it on her radar and was hoping we’d stop there for a while too. 

Helen & Dave leaving on Monday morning

We were sorry to see Helen & Dave go as they’re good company, but they’d been here far longer than we had and had stayed longer than they’d planned.  We were with them for a while back in Gray and used to enjoy listening to them practising their jazz compositions during the afternoons, Helen on sax and Dave on piano. We were fortunate to hear them again here in Fontenoy-le-Château. 

We’ve decided to stay put until Wednesday afternoon as the internet signal is good enough for Karen to work.  The canal is closing for a few weeks on the 4^th of October for winter maintenance and we plan to be off it by the 1^st, but we’ll still be able to take our time and visit places we’ve earmarked.

On our own after Brontë departed (other than the trip boat the others are unoccupied)

With the impending closure of the canal and the current good weather, Karen is taking a holiday and won’t be working next week which will leave just a couple of weeks left before she finishes (again!).  This will make it easier for us to pick and choose when we cruise and visit places.  So we won’t be tied down by having a car I’ll move it to Épinal, some 50 kilometres further north and get a bus back. As the bus route is one of those that has to be reserved 24 hours in advance, I rang the bus company on Tuesday morning and believe I made a reservation for the correct day, time, route and direction.  Time will tell if I was successful when I go to Épinal on Wednesday.

I spent most of Tuesday morning painting and managed to rig up the parasols to keep the direct sun off.  Soon after I started, men turned up with strimmers and mowers.  As I was only preparing for the final coat I wasn't too concerned as there was quite a wide path between the boat and the grass.  They finished and put their equipment back on their pickup just as I wanted to start painting.  I soon realised they'd got leaf blowers out and were clearing up their mess.  When they got to within 20 metres of the boat I had to ask them to keep away because of the painting.  They were OK about it and did as I'd asked.   What I soon realised was that they'd stopped completely and packed their stuff away and driven off.  They didn't reappear during the afternoon so it'll be interesting to see if they turn up on Wednesday morning to finish off the job.

We went for a walk at lunchtime to a little place a few kilometres away called Montmetier.  On the track from the canal up to the village we came across a lavoir built from a rather pleasant reddish sandstone.  It was in an odd location as it was a good 200 metres from the nearest houses at the start of the village.  A further oddity was that it was semi-circular in shape.   

Lavoir at Montmetier

As usual there were a few butterflies on the wing and it was good to see a sooty copper, a map and a great banded grayling, none of which occur in the UK.  Sadly, none of them settled long enough to present a photo opportunity.

We spent the rest of the day back at the port and noticed that hire boat traffic had dwindled to just the one passing through.  It must be because the summer holidays are over but there are obviously still a few out judging by the number of free berths at the hire boat base at the other end of the port.  We’d seen four private boats passing during the day, two of them stopping for the night.  One of the couples who stopped were Aussies Phil & Katherine who’d sold their previous boat, Vindi, to Aussie friends of ours, Guy & Ardon.  They moored up immediately behind us but after an hour moved right down the other end.  Phil said he wanted to move into the shade, but I think it was because I’d upset them by not realising they were on a Piper.  I did notice that by 4.00pm they were back in full sun though.

The other boat that stopped for the night had a Dutch couple on board but other than exchanging the odd pleasantry we didn’t really chat.  One of the passing boats was a single Polish guy on a small motor yacht from Gdansk who probably would have had some interesting stories to tell.  The final boat was an older Brit couple who stopped for fuel at the hire base on their way through.  It was obviously closed for lunch as he came down to ask if I knew when it opened.  He was an interesting chap and wanted to chat about the troubles Brexit was causing him and his wife.  They felt they couldn’t easily continue cruising in Europe, so they were on their way up to Calais to make the crossing back home.

Assuming I manage to get back from Épinal ok tomorrow we’ll be off for a cruise in the afternoon.

 

 

Fontenoy-le-Château (summer’s back)

Before we left La Basse Vaivre on Friday, Karen moved the car to Selles and ran back while I took Buddy for a walk.  The weather was still glorious, but we’d found out that much of August had been pretty grey in north-eastern France as it had been in the UK when we were there.  We’d expected all our plants to die while we’d been on holiday and knowing now that the weather hadn’t been that good explained why so many had survived.    

Setting off on Friday morning

We’d walked across the bridge in the picture above on Thursday on our way into the village of La Basse Vaivre.  At the time we’d tried to find a way down from the road to the canal, but no path seemed to exist.  As we cruised under the bridge, we noticed a ladder was set against the wall so we could’ve accessed the towpath after all but, of course, we wouldn’t have been able to get Buddy down it. 

The hidden way down to the towpath

We didn’t have far to travel before getting to Selles and saw there were several boats already moored there.

Approaching the mooring at Selles

It turned out that three of them were hire boats waiting for the swing bridge to be opened so soon left and one was a Swedish motor yacht that looked like it’d had been there for some months.  The other boat was El Perro Negro (Spanish for black dog) with a Brit couple, Paul & Marian on board.

Looking at the picture above you can see the hatch cover has had its first topcoat applied.  Karen can’t believe it has taken me over a year to do it as I’d put the last undercoat on over a year ago.  In fact, it was so long ago that we couldn’t remember if it’d been blue or burgundy!

We left looking around Selles until Saturday, but I did pop in to pick up some croissants as we’d run out.  The lady in the boulangerie seemed to be about 160 years old and I suspect she was covering for her family especially as she would only take cash.  I didn’t have any cash with me so said I would be back in 10 minutes.  France has always been way ahead of the UK in having handheld card machines in general use so, particularly with Covid, cash is hardly ever used.   Anyway, I went back with some cash and meanwhile the lady had found a card machine but had to ask me to operate it as she didn’t know how to.

During the evening we spent a couple of happy hours having drinks on Paul & Marian’s boat.  Their boating lifestyle is quite different to ours as they spend six months of the year cruising and the other half of the year in their house in Spain.  Although we’d never met before it soon transpired that we had a lot of boater friends in common. 

Paul & Marian leaving on Saturday morning

On Friday we cruised three miles up one lock.

Before we left on Saturday, we had a walk around Selles, a small village with a current population of just over 200.  The road junction in the middle of the village still boasts a couple of enamelled Michelin road direction plates. 

These signs were started in 1890 by the Touring Club de France – hence the TCF on the plates.  Michelin sponsored these enamelled signs from 1919 and most of the ones of this type were installed around that time.

The church and war memorial at the junction

Below the war memorial itself was one of the village water fountains with an animal drinking trough or abreuvoir next to it.  As well as several fountains and abreuvoirs there were a few lavoirs of special interest to us so please indulge me.  One had a turnstile entrance:

Two of them were the smallest we have come across so far.

This one had a fountain and an abreuvoir…

…and the smallest also had an abreuvoir

Selles mairie was quite bland but was large considering the small population:

As with most villages we have been through so far, both the canal and the River Coney ran through it side by side.

Ideal for the village children to paddle in

A stone bridge carried the road across the river but a swing bridge had to be crossed to get over the canal.  This canal is one of the more modern ones in France, being opened in 1880, and the bridge is still the original and is operated manually.  The operator sits in the canal house next to the bridge and comes out when he/she sees a boat coming.  The traffic barriers each side are lowered and raised by what looks like a complicated pulley system.

The bridge and bridge house

The bridge operator’s house is of the same style as the lock cottages on the Canal des Vosges and the side walls are clad in metal.  I haven’t found out the reason for the cladding or the type of metal, which I assume isn’t lead, but would be interested to hear if any readers have any information.

Cladded side of the house

After our walk we took the car to Pont du Bois and walked back along the towpath to fetch the boat.  We’ve been noticing tall precast concrete posts a 100 metres or so before narrows, such as locks and bridges that remind us of similar posts on some of the canals in the UK.  We have yet to find a definitive reason for these posts but the most plausible seems to be that if boats are going in opposite directions, then the one that reaches their post first gets priority at the pinch point.  The ones we have seen in the UK, mostly on the Grand Union, are short; if the theory is correct then at least the French ones can be seen from further away.

We passed a canal-side lavoir during our walk back that was so overgrown with brambles that it wasn’t possible to get inside:

Returning to the village we popped into the bridge operator’s house to make sure someone was there to let us though and a very pleasant girl said she was delighted that we’d dropped in to ask and said she would open the bridge as soon as we left the mooring.

After three locks we arrived at Pont du Bois where we’d left the car and stopped for lunch at a lovely spot.  Unfortunately, the internet signal wasn’t strong enough for Karen to use for work otherwise we would have stayed they for a few days.

Lunch at Pont du Bois

Following lunch, we carried on to our next destination, Fontenoy-le-Château.  The canal was very twisty and reminiscent of those in the UK, it also took us through some lovely, wooded valleys.

Not a bad waterside property

As we continued our journey we passed from Haute-Saône into the Vosges département.  This was also the old regional border of Lorraine which no longer exists other than with the majority of French people who apparently rue the changes.  In 2016 it combined with the Alsace and Champagne-Ardennes régions to become the Grand-Est région.     

The old border

Approaching Montmotier

We only passed one other boat during the journey and as luck often seems to have it, it was on a tight bend.  The boat was a hire boat that had just left the base at Fontenoy-le-Château and fortunately was going very slowly.

The majority of the locks have brick filled cast iron bridges across their tails:

The lock and bridge at Fontenoy-le-Château

These bridges have plaques indicating they were cast by Hachette et Driout, a firm at St Dizier which is about 200 kilometres further north and on the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne.  The firm started as a copperworks in the mid-1850s and still operates as a steel works today.  St Dizier was famous for its iron and steel works particularly those associated with Hector Guimard, an Art-Nouveau designer who created many of the famous entrances to the Paris metro stations.  He was also responsible for the ornate balconies, boot scrapers, window boxes etc. which adorn many of the houses in St Dizier.   Seeing the plaques on the bridges reminded us of many a happy hour spent wandering St Dizier looking for examples of Guimard’s work.

Manufacturer's plaque on bridge

When we arrived at the port in Fontenoy-le-Château we saw Helen & Dave were moored there on Brontë.  We’d spent a while with them down at Gray on the river Saône, so it was good to see them again.

Moored at Fontenoy-le-Château

We spent the evening sitting outside with Helen & Dave catching up on our respective travels since we last met.  Like us, they are heading up the Vosges but will turn right at the top as they are going back to their home port of Strasbourg for winter.

What’s that little building in the background?

I cannot resist telling you that the little building is actually a dog lavoir! It was built in 1980 as part of the port renovation works when the old boaters’ lavoir on the opposite bank had to be dismantled as it was in such a dangerous condition.  As well as a basin for washing dogs, there is a drinking pool and a kennel.

On Saturday we cruised eight miles up eight locks.

La Basse Vaivre (Back on board)

Back to waterway life

When we arrived in the UK for our holiday we had to isolate and so spent some time planning our cruising for the rest of the year.  We’d set out from Châlons- en-Champagne at the end of February and headed south down the Canal Champagne et Bourgogne to join and then travel up the Petite Saône.  By the end of July, we'd reached the navigable end of the river at a place called Corre and left the boat at the marina there while we went back to the UK.  During those five months we've covered 276 miles through 146 locks.

Our route so far this year

After several iterations we finally came up with a plan which involves going all the way up the Canal des Vosges then continuing north up the Canal de la Meuse where, just before the Belgian border, we’ll turn onto the Canal des Ardennes.  We’ll follow that canal down to the Aisne and then join the Canal de l’Aisne à la Marne where we’ll be back in home territory before reaching Chalons-en-Champagne at the end of November.  This journey covers 312 miles through 220 locks over three months which, compared with the journey we’ve just completed, is quite ambitious.  When the circumstances are considered, it isn’t really ambitious as we had to travel very slowly during the last lockdown and Karen was working three days a week too.  Hopefully, further lockdowns won’t happen, and Karen only has a few more weeks of work.  

Planned route for the rest of 2021

When our isolation finished, we popped up to Wendover to see Ann, Karen’s mum, for a couple of days followed by a couple more in Yorkshire visiting my dad.  Whenever we go up to Yorkshire, we have a curry in Gargrave where he lives. We had a drink at the Masons’ Arms at the end of his road first and it was good to see it was packed.  It made us both realise how long it’s been since we’ve heard the proper sound of busy pubs.  We then went to the Indian and couldn’t believe it was fully booked all evening so ended up with a takeaway – it seemed the press reports of people going out after the last 18 months were ringing true.

On the way back south, we stopped off near Middlewich to see Karen’s fellow boat-living cousin Dave and his wife Barbara.  It worked out well as not only did we catch up with Dave & Barbara, but we got see some of their family too.  The rest of the month was spent seeing most of our children and grandchildren and many of us also had a few days camping. 

We travelled back to France on the day after the Bank Holiday and were surprised at how much better the weather was when we arrived at the boat.  August had been rather disappointingly grey in the UK but at least it stayed mainly dry.  Mind you it had obviously been pretty dull six years ago too as the boat log shows we lit the stove on 1^st September 2015 whilst moored at Hillmorton on the Oxford canal.  After unloading the car and getting the boat ready for travelling we left the marina to spend the night on the visitors’ moorings just outside.  The only issue we found with the boat was that we seemed to have had an invasion of large spiders, many of which were comatose and appeared to be going into early hibernation.

Tuesday night outside the marina at the end of the navigable Saône

Having risen very early on Tuesday morning followed by a long car journey we were knackered so’d had an early night and slept for 10 hours: unheard of for us.  During breakfast on Wednesday, we heard a lot of splashing under the trees opposite and saw a family of coypus that appeared to be playing together. 

We’ve decided to keep the car with us until we get to the end of the Vosges as there are no train lines until we get to Toul at the far end and, as the whole length is very rural there are limited opportunities to catch buses.  During the morning Karen drove to La Basse Vaivre to find somewhere to leave the car and then ran back to Corre.  On her return she said it was a lovely spot and also ideal for Buddy, so we set off after lunch.  As we left, we passed a campervan park adjoining the marina and chuckled at how the vans seemed to be socially distancing.

The first lock taking us off the Saône was summoned by twisting a pole hanging over the river and as it was set for us, we didn’t have to hang around long.  

Joining the Canal des Vosges on Wednesday

The locks on the Vosges were built to take the smallest commercial barges of 39m x 5.05m although there is now virtually no commercial traffic on the canal.  Apparently, some way along, there is a section where four commercials ply back and forth transporting gravel.  I have also heard that these barges are different to the norm in that they have cabins at the front so we will be on the lookout for them and find out why they’re a reverse layout; maybe it’s because the canal is quite twisty.

Having risen up the first lock the immediate task was to obtain a télécommande or remote-control unit from the lockside dispenser.

Karen working out what to do

We had to get in touch with the canal control centre by pressing a button.  When a guy answered I told him we were heading up the canal and needed a télécommande and all I really understood was “elle arrive”.  This is the sort of response we get when reporting a faulty lock telling us an éclusier is on the way so I assumed an éclusiere was on her way.  After a few seconds a box popped out of the dispenser with a télécommande in it so we didn’t have to wait after all.

At least we’d learnt that télécommandes are feminine!

It was the first unit we’d had to use that only had one control button so at least it meant we couldn’t press wrong buttons by mistake.  The box also contained a handy instruction leaflet:

Other than the first lock the remaining 92 on the canal are all summoned by pressing the green button as we pass a sign about 200 metres before the lock.  The signs seemed to be well placed as the next three locks were all set with their green lights on as they came into view.

This lock cottage garden must have been really pretty a few weeks ago…

…although this lock cottage had clearly seen better days

Whenever we start cruising after a break when we’ve got used to travelling by car, it always feels as though the boat is not running quite right.  It takes a while to realise all is OK and we are just adjusting to the slower pace of life.

It was a lovely hot afternoon, and the forecast is for hotter sunny days to come so we will have to take extra care of Buddy.  We soon arrived at La Basse Vaivre where the mooring was on an old quarry quay and was occupied by quite a few fishermen.  We found a spot and received welcome bonjours from the guys and settled in for the rest of the day.

Moored for a couple of nights at La Basse Vaivre

On Wednesday we cruised four miles up four locks.

We stayed put on Thursday and got on with various jobs including getting on with the outstanding repainting of the back deck before the heat of the day.  We had a walk into the village of La Basse Vaivre which was reached by crossing the River Coney.  The south side of the summit of the canal follows the Coney valley all the way down to the Saône and by all accounts is very steep in places which accounts for the 46 locks we have to climb in a relatively short distance.

Crossing the River Coney

La Basse Vaivre was a typical village with about 30 houses and no sign of life other than a farmer unloading hay bales from a trailer.  Of course, even a village of that size was still able to boast a mairie.

The mairie and war memorial

With so few dwellings we were surprised to come across two lavoirs, one at either end of the village.  Unlike the majority of lavoirs in the Haute-Saône département these two were in need of some attention although one had been converted to a poor specimen of a flowerbed.

We spent the rest of the day lazing around by the boat and had a barbecue in the early evening.