Mareuil-sur-Ay (vendanges, what vendanges?)

Cruising back through the vines

We went for a bike ride around Châlons-en-Champagne on Thursday morning which is rather a lazy way of giving Buddy a run.  While we were out my front brake stopped working so when we returned I looked at sorting out the problem while Karen popped into town to get a few bits and bobs.  Things have changed from the good old days of brake blocks; bikes nowadays seem to have disc brakes and are therefore more complicated.  It took a while but after loosening and tightening a few things with many different sized Allen keys I seem to have got the problem sorted.

I was just putting the bikes away on the boat bike rack when Nikki turned up.  She and a couple of other boats in the port were expecting a delivery of diesel and she wondered if we wanted to piggyback when the tanker arrived.  I had to laugh as their boat and the others would each be taking on around €1,500 worth of diesel whereas it costs less than €200 to fill ours up!  I said we were happy relying on the jerry can and trolley method.

We were moored next to an apple tree and as Nikki left, she and Karen went scrumping.  We had some blackberries in the freezer so Karen made a blackberry and apple crumble which I sampled later to confirm it was perfectly made 😊

Just down from our mooring we saw a heron standing in a tree; they always look so out of place when they perch like this:

After lunch we popped up to the port to see some of the people we had met when we moored up there a couple of weeks ago.  Guy & Arden were in, well they were outside busily scraping off varnish from their wheelhouse and getting ready to re-varnish before winter.  Guy is one of those people who seem to have every tool and every spare part you could ever need.  The outflow from our sink had started leaking recently and I needed a couple of ‘O’ rings to make sure the repair was effective.  Of course, I didn’t have either of the sizes I needed but, luckily, we were moored next to them at the time and Guy had what seemed like a suitcase full of ‘O’ rings, all sorted according to size.

We also went into the port office to confirm which pontoon we would be overwintering on.  Damian confirmed we would be on the one where we had hoped to be, the farthest finger pontoon overlooking the park and the river.  When we got back, we decided to go for a little cruise without any specific destination in mind.

Leaving town, we went over an aqueduct that crossed the now unused Canal St Martin which ran from the north of the town down to the River Marne.

Old canal cottage by the aqueduct

In keeping with our grand plan of stopping at new places on our way back down this canal we ended up mooring just after a lock at a small village called Vraux.  This was the lock that had a particularly fierce by-wash on our way up and made it difficult to get into the lock.  What it meant on Thursday night was that it made it sound like we were sleeping next to a waterfall all night which we both find really soothing.

Our waterfall (not so impressive in the picture!)

As we were approaching the bank, we could see lots of butterflies darting around.  Within five minutes of mooring up we had seen several common blues including a mating pair.  There were also a few clouded yellows and a couple of red admirals and small heaths as well as plenty of large, small and green veined whites.

Clouded yellows are one of those butterflies that are rarely seen with their wings open.  This is a shame as their upperwings are as stunning as the undersides.  Also, seeing the upper forewings is the best way to tell males and females apart.  There is a broad dark band along the leading edge on both genders, but females have yellow spots in the band.

You can see the start of the dark band as the wings are slightly open

Just after mooring up we received a phone call from Ken & Analise confirming we can borrow their narrowboat during January & February next year.  We were coming back to the UK for December anyway to rent the house in Harley Wintney that we have been lucky enough to rent for the family for the last four Christmas/New Years.  With a grandchild on the way we rather wanted to be around for longer over the winter period, so Karen had made enquiries about boat swaps and the like.

This lovely couple got in contact with her and are happy for us to live on their boat during those months as they are moving off for a while for guess what? Grandparenting duties as their daughter has gone back to work.  It is ideal as we can continuously cruise around the Newbury/Reading area, river levels and ice permitting, and be very close to many of the family.

Our Thursday night mooring

Buddy and I had a little walk along the towpath before dinner.  As we crossed the bridge over the tail of the lock, I saw rail lines showing through the tarmac.  As the gradient was fairly steep and the curves quite tight, I assumed they were probably an old tramway for small trucks operating in an out of a canal wharf.

Tracks on the road bridge

During Thursday we cruised 12 kilometres down two locks.

Friday was a run day for Karen and when she got back, we set of for our eight successive day of cruising.  It’s not quite as strenuous as it sounds as we have only been doing about ten kilometres and a lock or two a day.  While Karen was out the hotel boat, Hirondelle, came through and up the lock.  It turned out that this and hotel boat, C’est la Vie, were the only boats we saw on the move all day.

Wrapped up on Friday morning

As you can see, the guests on the front deck had hats and coats on.  We have noticed over the last few days, that even though the days are still very warm, the mornings can have a chill in them; we didn’t dispense with our fleeces until about 10 o’clock.

It wasn’t long before we were in Condé-sur-Marne where we had turned onto the Canal l’Aisne à la Marne and went to Reims for a few days a month or so ago.  The port at the junction looked like it was already full of winter moorers already.

Looking pretty full at the port

With canals closing through lack of water many people, like us, have been unable to get to their winter moorings.  They are all having to search out alternatives and we are still coming across people who haven’t been fortunate enough to find places with spaces.  It seems that some people are now heading for Belgium and the Netherlands instead.

We have noticed that there are many walnut trees in this area and have seen people bagging up the fallen nuts as we have cruised past.  It was rather reminiscent of watching the locals in Tuscany harvesting the sweet chestnuts on our road trip last year.  Nikki & Gorete have been drying and storing walnuts for a few years and have explained to us how to do it when we get around to harvesting some.

Young walnut trees on the way into Tours-sur-Marne

Passing through Tours-sur-Marne

The other thing we noticed as we cruised along were an unusual number of jays and also red squirrels.  Oh, and a VNF work boat – not a sight seen as often as you would expect.

VNF work boat

There’s a swing bridge in Bisseuil that’s operated like the locks; we twist a pole hanging over the water that sets the traffic lights, drops the barriers across the road and opens the bridge.  For some reason the bridge controls weren’t responding to the turn of the pole so we looked for somewhere to pull up, so we could call VNF.  Just as we found a bollard a VNF van turned up and the guy opened a control box and soon saw us through.

The swing bridge at Bisseuil

We moored up for lunch at the other side of the bridge on some new looking moorings opposite the mairie.

Moored for lunch opposite the church and mairie

We checked our internet over lunch, and it was only 3G so not good enough for watching this weekend’s big sports events.  We therefore decided to carry on to Mareuil-sur-Ay where we knew we could get 4G and thus good internet signal for live games.

Soon after lunch we were back in vineyard country but saw no sign of grape picking which should now be in full swing.  The vendanges started on 9^th September this year and lasts for about three weeks.  The three different grape varieties used to make champagne are sometimes harvested at different times so maybe the vineyards we saw were from the variety picked last.  After mooring up for the day I checked the picking dates for the commune we are in (there are 319 Champagne communes) and all three varieties are allowed to be picked from 12^th September this year.

We remembered that when we were camping around here last year we were warned to pitch our tent away from the grape pickers as they get up really early in the morning.  It was then that we realised that the picking would have finished for the day as it is done in the coolest part of the day.

Vineyards behind a lock cottage

We were soon approaching Mareuil-sur-Ay and hoped we could moor where we had moored on our way up.  That time we just slotted into a spot by the bandstand where a jazz set played during the evening so we got to listen for free 😉

Coming into Mareuil-sur-Ay

Rather nice house on the edge of town

Karen and Buddy had walked from the last lock and had come across a skip full of grape skins (or pomace).

The smell was quite overpowering and was almost vinegary

We were lucky and could see ‘our’ spot was free alongside the bandstand between a small cruiser and a Dutch barge lived on by a Dutchman, Philippe, who we met last time. The spot was about a metre longer than us so nice and cosy. I put the nose in first and Karen caught the bowline around a bollard so I could bring the back in.  It was just at that point a strong gust of wind started taking the back out across the cut and we were nearly at right angles before I could start bringing it back in.  All was well in the end and we were soon moored up.  The couple on the cruiser kindly moved forwards a couple of metres to give us some wiggle room too.

They turned out to be Czechs and we had a very stilted conversation.  They could only speak Czech and passable German but no French or English.  One of our sons went to university in the Czech Republic, or Czechia as it is now called, to study medicine.  Our eldest daughter studied German at university before going on to do a masters and her pHd in German related matters and now lectures in such topics.  Despite this we have no Czech and very little German so had to give up our attempted conversation with the Czech couple with a few hand waves.

Moored for Friday night at Mareuil-sur-Ay

Yes, I know we’re in a line of boats but somehow it seems quite secluded here.  We went for an obligatory evening walk around town and noticed all the champagne houses had shut for the day.  The streets outside them had been hosed down to remove the grape detritus and that same smell lingered everywhere.

On our return we bumped into Philippe and got chatting.  He told us that he has been moored in his spot for over a year and VNF have only just got in touch with him.  He wants to stay where he is if he can and it seems VNF will only charge him €50 a month to moor there.  The large white boat is in a similar situation but already pays €50 a month.  The people on the white boat also tap into the electricity in the streetlight which is something we have come across before. 

All the boats beyond the large white boat are a mixture of permanent boats and visitors but all have access to paid for water and electricity.  It got us thinking that we could have just left our boat here for the winter, especially moored next to Philippe; we both felt it was a very safe place.

The other thing we found out was that the skips of pomace are collected each day and taken to a village further down the canal to a plant that makes Ratafia, a liqueur that is slightly stronger than wine, more the strength of port.  Apparently, in the past, it was so heavily taxed that it was made for the vintners consumption only.

On Friday we covered 15 kilometres passing down two locks.

Châlons-en-Champagne (village charmer)

Yesterday was the first day of the closure of the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgone which was the reason we had to get off it on Sunday and are now retracing our recent steps.  The closure of this canal now means there are no routes open between northern France and the Med without going through Luxembourg and Germany. The routes have been slowly closed through the summer following the extended period of dry weather and the closures have also prevented us from reaching Roanne where we were going to overwinter.

All routes south are now closed

The red lines are closed canals and the red spots are closed locks which effectively mean that particular canal is not passable from one end to the other.

Tuesday was a washing day, so in the interests of efficiency we had a little cruise.  The engine has to be running to generate enough power to the washing machine, so rather than just sitting still listening to the engine, we may as well take advantage of the engine being on and move.  Having the engine on also means the water gets heated up.

We headed for Pogny where we knew we could get water to top up the tank after doing the washing.  I know we visited there on the way down and we were only visiting new places on the way back but picking up water is a necessity.  We knew we could always move on again in the afternoon if we wanted to.

We only had one lock to do and as we were going downhill it was easy for me to do on my own therefore giving Karen and Buddy a chance to walk alongside on the towpath.  The first bridge I went under was interesting from Karen’s point of view.  From the cut it looked just like a railway bridge which indeed it was.  However, to Karen’s surprise, the towpath had been laid straight over the rail tracks which actually looked like it wasn’t long since they were last used!

Railway to nowhere

It wasn’t long before we were moored up in Pogny and we had the choice of where to moor on the 80-metre quay as there were no other boats there.  As soon as we were mooring up a local guy, who was probably in his forties, turned up to watch us and we exchanged the occasional words.  We had met him last time we were here, when he spent quite a bit of time looking at the boat and we had the odd short conversation. 

As I was brought up in the 50s and 60s, he was what we used to call the village idiot.  I must admit I get fed up with a great deal of today’s political correctness, but that is one term I wouldn’t use.  For some reason we often attract the type (whatever country we are in), maybe because we give them time and try and include them.  Anyway, when I popped inside Karen came up with a lovely term, saying “I see you’ve been chatting with the village charmer again”. 😊

Moored at Pogny

After an early lunch we walked/trolleyed the jerry cans up to the local supermarket to fill up with diesel.  I emptied both cans into the tank when we returned, but decided not to refill them until we reach Épernay where the fuel station is right alongside the river.

Our friend patiently watched me pouring in the diesel and we had pretty much the same conversation about the boat and where he lived as we did before lunch and also when we met last week.  I did manage to get to tell me his name was Doni which sounds like it’s probably short for something else.

After we’d finished our chores we decided to stay put for the rest of the day and walked over to the River Marne to let Buddy have a cool down in the water.  ‘Doni’ soon joined us and sat next to us on the bank, finding it really funny as Buddy chased sticks into the water. 

The River Marne at Pogny

We saw no other boats during the day except a large French cruiser that moored behind us later in the evening.  Two Brit campervans turned up in the evening too, joining the French ones that were already there when we arrived.

During Tuesday we cruised a paltry three kilometres down one lock.

We awoke on Wednesday to find that two boats, not one, had moored behind us the previous evening.  They both set off as Karen left for her morning run and immediately they were both heading straight back to the mooring.

It was a bit blind leaving the mooring and as soon as they had pulled out into the channel, they could see a commercial bearing down on them at speed; I didn’t blame them for getting out of the way quickly.  They moored up for a while to let the commercial get ahead and through the next lock before they left again.

We set off when Karen returned, extra-mindful that a boat may be coming around the blind bend but all was clear, and we didn’t see any more during the day other than two that decided to moor next to us whilst we were having lunch.

Moored for lunch at Chepy

That’s not our tent, it belonged to a wild camper who was drying it out.  He had obviously put it away wet when he started off on his day’s cycle ride and, as soon as he found a spot in the sun, temporarily assembled it to dry out.  We gave him a cup of coffee while he was waiting and it was then that the two cruisers turned up, a French couple and a German couple.

During lunch we saw our first large tortoiseshell butterfly of the year.  These are very large butterflies, generally larger than red admirals and, sadly, now appear to be extinct in the UK.  While we continued our cruise another one appeared and settled briefly on our flowers.  We had quite a few visitors during the day including two clouded yellows who were sparring and spiralling up and down above the boat for some while.

We’ve noticed how the days have started drawing in lately; sunrises are later, and sunsets are earlier.  There is also an autumn feel along the cut, especially today as there was quite a breeze causing leaves to blow around.

Leaves starting to change colour

As we came into the outskirts of Châlons we saw Nikki & Gorete moored up on Puddleduck.  They were outside painting, so we pulled alongside for a chat.  We explained that we were heading back along through Champagne to see the vendanges and then hang around to see the autumn colours arrive in the vineyards.  Nikki reminded me that a lock on the River Marne was closing on 7^th October but I said we knew about that and had worked it into our plans.

Coming into Châlons-en-Champagne with the cathedral on the right

We dropped down the lock in the centre of the town and moored up in the same place we moored for a couple of days before going into the port last time through.  After tying up we walked into town as we had some letters to post.  The town was still bustling with quite a few tourists and the bars in the squares looked to be doing a good trade.

 

When we got back, we did some planning for the next few weeks, but first I checked which lock was closing on 7^th October.  It turned out it wasn’t the one I had thought it was so that altered our plans slightly.  We will now head back down the River Marne through the champagne country, turn around at the beginning of October so we can be the right side of the Vandières lock before it closes.  We’ll leave the plans for the rest of October and November until nearer the time.

Nikki & Gorete popped around in the evening and we swapped cruising plans for the next few weeks. They appear to be similar to ours so hopefully we’ll be bumping into each other a few times.

Tuesday evening moored below the lock

On Wednesday we cruised 14 kilometres down three locks.

La Chaussée-sur-Marne (walking the goats)

Sunday evening moored at Soulanges

We could tell we were back on the Canal latéral à la Marne when we were having breakfast on Sunday morning.  We’d forgotten how many boats we saw on the move last time we were here and by nine o’clock, four boats had already come through the lock and past us.

Not only were boats going past while we were eating, we also saw several clouded yellows flying on the bank by the boat.  We have noticed quite a few of these butterflies every day for the last week or so and assume they are probably the emergence of the third or maybe even the fourth brood this year. 

Our plan for Sunday was to get to La Chaussée-sur-Marne where we’ve heard there’s good places to swim in the Marne.  With another day of 30 degrees, and not the last according to our forecast, we were still cruising with the sunshades up. 

Passing Couvrot soon after leaving Vitry

You may remember the issue we had when we couldn’t get a lock to work and I had to call up the éclusiers, but told them the wrong lock number.  Well, when we went through the lock at Couvrot we realised how I had made the mistake.  When the canal was built, it ended at Couvrot by dropping down to the River Marne through a lock.  When we were in the Couvrot lock I wandered over to the Marne to see the old lock and saw there was an old lock cottage by it.  On the lock cottage was the information plate showing it was lock number 1.

The cottage at the original lock number 1

When the canal was extended a few kilometres to Vitry-le-François, two new locks were built on the extension, and numbered 1 & 2.  The lock down to the river (number 1) was abandoned as it was no longer needed.  This meant the original locks numbered 2 to 14 became 3 to 15.  This explained why, when I was telephoning for help and used the original information plate, I said we were at lock number 2.  I should have read the modern sign which clearly (in retrospect) shows it is really lock number 3.  By the way, if you’ve read this far then well done 😉

After a couple of locks, we were coming into Soulanges where we planned to stop for lunch and a look around the village. 

Moored for lunch at Soulanges

After lunch we went into the village which we expected to be totally quiet as it was early afternoon.  As we walked up a path to the road running through the village, we could hear the odd round of applause and cheers.  Then we heard the unmistakable sound of boules clinking.  The boule court, which was next to the inevitable mairie, was packed; it seemed the whole village was there.  

Judging by the inscription 'MAIRIE et ECOLE' above the door the mairie originally doubled as a school:

As we walked past most houses, we heard the usual sound of dogs barking as they tore up and down their side of the boundary fences. Generally, the French treat their dogs differently to us in the UK.  I’ve mentioned how most buses and trains only take dogs if they sit on your lap, but many restaurants and bars allow dogs on the premises.  Another difference is that the rural French seem to leave their dogs in their gardens all day which, I suppose, is better than leaving them inside on their own when the owners are at work.  What this means though, is that nearly every garden we walk past contains at least one dog and we always seem to set them off barking.

Similar to Orconte yesterday, the buildings were a mixture of modern bungalows and old timber framed houses with the odd stone-built home.

 

It was unusual to find houses grander than the mairie:

There was a hill at the far end of the village, and we walked up it in order to see the views from the top.  As we walked up the hill, we saw many crosses but with no inscriptions.  

Crosses on our path

The crosses finished at the top where there was a statue with a few names of dead people inscribed on plaques.  The dates of death were all 1946 or later so it didn’t seem to be a war memorial and, anyway, the statue was a catholic Mary.   At the top we had a good view back down the hill across Soulanges and the canal.

Our mooring is hidden by the trees

I spent a good quarter of an hour on the internet when we got back but still couldn’t find the reason for the crosses or why they were there.

Before we got back to the boat, we crossed over the canal to walk along the River Marne but when we got there, we decided to cut the walk short as it was getting too hot to be in the full sun for any longer  For the same reason we decided to stay put for the rest of the day and maybe move again on Monday.

As seems to be the done thing on evenings after hot days, families and couples walked up and down the canal.  One set, in particular, caught our attention.  Instead of having a dog or two in tow, these had a couple of goats with them:

On Sunday we cruised seven kilometres down two locks.

After Karen’s Monday morning run, we set off for a short cruise to La Chausée-sur-Marne as we fancied a lazy day.  On our way back down this canal we are trying to visit places that we didn’t see on the way up, unless we want to go back somewhere for a particular reason.  For example, we will stop at Châlons-en-Champagne, where we stayed for five days previously, as we want to pop in and see some people who are moored in the port there.

It didn’t take long and, after two locks, we found the moorings: a series of five hooks about 20 metres apart.  There were no other boats there and we grabbed the only spot in the shade then spent the rest of the morning reading. 

Moored under the trees at La Chausée-sur-Marne

As we were the only boat moored there, Buddy could have free rein of the grassy picnic area provided by the village.  He was obviously finding it too hot, as he had a quick sniff around and promptly found some shade, laid down and fell asleep.

When I mentioned reading it reminded me that, although it stimulates the mind, it is something I do in phases.  I can go a few months without reading a book and then quickly go through several; my reading stimulation coming from online newspapers and the like.  On the other hand, Karen has a book on the go almost constantly as well as the online papers.  We are both aware that we need to keep the brain stimulated too and consequently both of us complete, or attempt to complete, a logic puzzle every day whether it be of the sudoku ilk or some other logic based puzzle.    

After lunch we explored the village which, even though it had two hotel/restaurants, had no shops, not even a boulangerie.

It had the customary mairie of course…

…and a church

We also had a walk along the River Marne which runs adjacent to the canal but couldn’t find anywhere that looked suitable for swimming.  Well, we found a small ‘beach’ but there was a JCB doing some work leading down to it so it didn’t look very inviting with all the dust it was creating.

There were plenty of butterflies out and about by the boat including many common blues and clouded yellows.  We also saw our first brimstone for what felt like weeks.

Female common blue

To finish on our lazy theme for the day we spent the rest of the afternoon reading.

Like many people we are seeing some gorgeous sunsets now it's reaching that time of year.

Sunset at La Chaussée-sur-Marne on Monday

On Monday we covered six kilometres and went down two locks.

Vitry-le-François (the town we disserviced)

Moored for Saturday night at Vitry-le-François

When I pulled up the kitchen blinds on Friday morning, I was practically face to face with a guy looking out of his van parked by the boat.  The decals on the side of the van indicated that he was a boat mechanic, so I guessed he was looking for the boat that turned up late last night.  The boat’s batteries were knackered, and they had arranged to have them replaced in the morning.  The mechanic came over assuming it was me who needed the batteries so I had to explain that it wasn’t me and also which boat it was.  As it was before seven, I assume the mechanic had been sitting in his van until he saw signs of life on one of the four moored boats.

While Karen was out for her run I heard a knock on the window, another van had pulled up, this time it was two guys in a VNF van.  They were checking when we were leaving and making sure we knew the canal was closing and would be off by Sunday night.  That must have been the sixth time we’ve had that conversation in four days!

Karen knows how intrigued I am about railway swing bridges and she came across an old one during her run and it was next to a road lift bridge.  We got the fascination for rail swing bridges when we came across an old one on Oxford on a cut that joins the Thames to the Oxford canal.  It's amazing to think that trains could potentially be held up leaving or entering Oxford station while a boat went through.

Rail swing bridge in St-Dizier

It was due to be a warm and muggy day with no sun but soon after setting off the clouds started breaking up and it remained like that for the rest of the day.  We had good internet reception all day and into the evening so were able to listen to the second day’s play of the fifth test too while cruising and later on.

Strange weather considering it was meant to be thick cloud all day

As we dropped down the first lock at St-Dizier we passed the long high mooring quay that was hosting a fishing match on our way up the other day.  They were there again this morning and it really looked serious stuff judging by the equipment.  Once again, we wondered whether anyone would have the nerve to tell them to move if they wanted to moor there.

A little further on we saw a sight we had never seen before.  A lone fisherman was sitting on his stool and had a cat sitting there with him!  He was so wrapped up that we wondered if they had sat there all night.

Fisherman and his cat 

The Rafale jets were out practising their manoeuvres again and we noticed sentry boxes every so often along the edge of the airfield.  It really felt like it wouldn’t have been out of place to see heavily armed guards in them.

On the way up we had seen some mooring bollards outside the village of Orconte so made that our target for the day.  That way we would only have 10 kilometres or so to do on Saturday thus keeping to our promise of getting off the canal by Sunday with a contingency day in hand.

Moored above the lock at Orconte

After a late lunch we went for a walk taking in Orconte which turned out to be quite a small village.  It was a real mixture of old and new.  There were plenty of timber framed buildings but also quite a few modern single storey houses…

 

 …and also, this strange house that was for sale:

 

We had rather assumed that with the canal closing that commercials were no longer on the canal.  Because of this we had even considering mooring on pins, in the middle of nowhere, as we wouldn’t be worried about the wake pulling the pins out.  We were back at the boat later when we noticed it moving slightly and immediately guessed a large boat was on its way.  Sure enough a commercial was about to come past so we were glad we had moored on bollards 😉

Melinda coming past us

No sooner had Melinda gone past and down the lock then we realised another one was coming!

Getting busy

Friday evening at Orconte

On Friday we cruised 17 kilometres down eight locks. 

Saturday was to be our last day on the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne as we headed for Vitry-le-François.  We weren’t the only boat trying to get off the canal before it closed either.  We were moored by a lock and could see the traffic lights while lying in bed; especially as we still have the doors wide open all night albeit with a mosquito net covering the doorway.  The locks are operational at seven in the morning and no sooner had we seen the red light come on indicating the lock was usable, then the green light came on too.

The green light appears as soon as someone has used their télécommande so we knew a boat was coming and as soon as the red light went out, a cruiser came past at such a rate we through he wouldn’t stop in the lock.  Those boats can turn on a sixpence and all was well.  Soon afterwards another boat went through, it was a nice German couple we had met when we were on the River Saône earlier in the year.

The moon just about to disappear behind the buildings on Saturday morning

We didn’t hurry off and ended up leaving about ten o’clock.  We planned on stopping briefly in Vitry as we needed a few things and there was a handy Aldi close to the last lock.

Karen walked with Buddy for the first few kilometres and found one of the kilometre markers we had missed on the way up.  When cruising over here boaters refer to places by their ‘pk’ or point kilometre.  So, for example, we had been moored at pk 13.7 on Friday night and we had received a message from Nikki that the girls were mooring at pk 4 or 3.5 that night.

Capturing the pk 7 stone

After coming out of the first lock we saw a kingfisher and realised it was the first we had seen on this canal, although we saw two more over the next couple of hours too. 

Leaving the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne

On the way up we had thought that the canal had started at a junction on the east side of the town where the Canal latéral à la Marne heads north and the Canal du la Marne au Rhin heads east.  As we passed the ‘goodbye’ sign we immediately passed another sign welcoming us to the Canal du la Marne au Rhin.  This was 1.5 kilometres before we reached the junction, so it meant we’d been on a small section of a canal that we hadn’t realised!

We managed to find a spot to moor on a high quay lined with old commercials that had been, or were in the process of being, converted to private boats.  To save locking up the boat, Karen went off to pick up the few things from Aldi while I stayed behind with Buddy.  When Karen returned, we found we had both come to the same conclusion: we felt quite safe leaving the boat here and should go for a look around the town.

Moored in Vitry-le-François

You may have read the blog entry for when we came through the town just over a week ago.  We hadn’t thought much of what we could see and thought it was the grimmest place we had been through in France.  Well, after a pleasant few hours walking around, we have to admit we were wrong and found it a quite delightful. 

The only drawback was that the tourist office wasn’t open at weekends, so Karen devised our own tour before setting off.   It was yet another hot day and being early afternoon, the place was very quiet; we still can’t get used to going into towns and seeing few cars on the move especially on a Saturday.

The mairie, formerly a convent

As usual, the only gardens that weren’t bone dry and lacking that green feel were those of the mairie where the grass was clearly watered daily.

The grounds of the mairie

We found the main church was quite an unusual style.  We suppose that was because it was built later than most, in the 17^th century, replacing the previous one that had been destroyed.

Vitry’s notre dame

Of course, Buddy knows that churches were built for the purpose of keeping people cool in the hot summer days.

We couldn’t blame him 😉

The church was built facing a large square, Place d’Armes:

 

In the centre of the square stands a cast iron statue representing the goddess of the Marne upon which the town was built.  With three canals and the rivers Saulx and Marne, the town had excellent communication channels in the 19^th century.

The goddess of the Marne, cast in 1842, complete with oar

Several trees and litter bins in the square were wrapped in hand knitted blankets.  We found out later that these ‘yarn bombs’ were a result of a local initiative to bring the generations together.  Young and old alike were encouraged to knit squares which were then joined together to symbolise the bringing together of the generations.

One of the wrapped trees

Looking down one of the streets leading off the square we could see the Porte du Pont at the far end.  This ‘door’ was built in 1748 as a monument to Louis 14^th and was one of the four entrances through the city walls.

La Porte du Pont

The monument was disassembled in 1939 to make way for the construction of the Paris to Strasbourg road and rebuilt in its current site in 1985.

When we returned to the boat, we walked along the opposite side of the canal and passed a building described as the stock exchange.  Try as we might we couldn’t find any information about the history of the place other than it is often used for the display of vintage cars!

The bourse, or stock exchange, opposite our mooring

Later on, we carried on cruising so we could find somewhere to moor out of town.  We joined the Canal latéral à la Marne and dropped down the first lock before finding somewhere nice and secluded for the night.

Moored just outside Vitry-le-François for Saturday night

On Saturday we cruised 16 kilometres down eight locks.