Bourg-et-Comin (Squaring the circle)

With a sunny day forecast for Friday we set off relatively early for our next mooring spot which was at Cys-la-Commune.  As places to tie up for the night are few and far between on this canal we thought we'd stop at each one to make sure we don't miss out on any of the sights.  Cys-la-Commune was only a few kilometres and one lock away, so Karen and Buddy walked to meet me there.  The mooring was another commercial waiting quay like the one we were leaving but this one has recently been repaired and made good for pleasure boats.

Our Friday mooring below the lock at Cys-la-Commune

Once we'd reached Cys-la-Commune there was still plenty of time before lunch, so we went for a walk to a village called Chavonne.  The village was up on a hill the other side of the River Aisne which was about a kilometre away from the canal..

Looking from our mooring over the Aisne valley where Chavonne was somewhere on the hill

The road to the village was wide enough for two vehicles to pass other than on the bridge over the Aisne where it became narrow and even cars would struggle to get past pedestrians.  As the bridge was quite long and we had Buddy with us meant we had to make sure there was nothing coming before venturing onto it.

Guess what these trees are lining the road into the village

No traffic passed us all the way to the bridge but as our luck would have it, we could hear a tractor coming as we started to cross. We could see it had some wide spray equipment mounted on the back so quickly ran back to the start of the bridge as Buddy would freak out having a large tractor passing him at such close range.  Coincidentally the same thing happened on the return crossing.    

On our way to the top of the village we passed several troughs that had running water, so we were hopeful of finding a stream-fed lavoir.  The church and cemetery were near the top of the hill as tends to be the case with christian based religions although some of the other religions also built places of worship nearer where they believed their god or gods were.

Church at the highest point

Of course, this approach backfired during times of pandemics and epidemics.  Rainwater brought some of the infections back into the community below as it leached through the infected people buried at the top.

The mairie, as usual, was one of the largest buildings but didn’t have the good display of flowers we’ve come to expect.

Poor flower display at the mairie

Opposite the mairie was a small building sporting an extensive display of flowers, both inside and out.  We knew as soon as we saw it that this building would be a lavoir as indeed it was.

The lavoir in Chavonne

Strangely, considering the number of troughs we saw with running water, the washing basin was dry.  As you can see, there was even a trough with running water outside the lavoir. Things aren’t really going our way in terms of finding somewhere to wash our clothes – two misleading street names followed by a dry lavoir in three days don’t really help😉  An enterprising villager had arranged for the book swap stall to be placed in the lavoir to keep it away from the elements.

Inside the lavoir

We spent much of the afternoon planning our next five or six weeks before we go back to the UK for a couple of months.  We are assuming we will be able to get back and accept we will have to stay hidden for 14 days when we arrive.  We also started attacking the growing list of tasks that will enable us to legally cruise in mainland Europe in the post Brexit world. 

On Friday we cruised two miles up one lock.

We only had four miles to get to our next mooring, Bourg-et-Comin, on Saturday, so Karen and Buddy set off to walk it.  The plan didn’t quite work out as just after halfway the path petered out, so I had to pull in to let them on.  St-Mard was the only village we passed on the way and it helped prove my point about the church at Chavonne being built at the highest point.  

St-Mard

After coming up the second lock we were at Bourg-et-Comin where the Canal de l’Oise à l’Aisne heads off to the north.  We turned onto the canal to moor at a pontoon just up from the junction. 

The pontoon at Bourg-et-Comin

It was eight weeks ago that we were at Bourg-et-Comin to start a large ring of canals with a detour along the Somme and back.  We’d been around the ring in an anticlockwise direction covering 375 miles through 120 locks.  Even though the northern part of the ring consisted of heavy commercial canals we’ve thoroughly enjoyed the journey.  We would recommend it to other boaters as the mix of rivers and quiet and busy canals coupled with the variety of scenery and history means that there is so much to see and learn.  Of course, we have also been very lucky with the weather again this year.

The map below shows our travels since deconfinement and the green flag is Bourg-et-Comin which is where we are at the moment and marks the bottom of the ring we’ve just completed.

Our travels since deconfinement

In the afternoon we walked to the village of Moussy-Verneuil which was about three miles away.  Much of it was along the Canal de l’Oise à l’Aisne and as we walked along, we reminisced about how we felt eight weeks ago when we were cruising up the canal for the first time.  We particularly remembered how narrowboat-unfriendly the locks were; lack of bollards to tie to and controls that were really difficult to reach.  We loved it all of course especially, as it brought home how each canal has its own house style in terms of lock design as well as the general look and feel of the cut itself.

Buddy quenching his thirst during our walk

We particularly remembered that during the six days we were on the 30-mile long canal, we only saw two other boats, and both were commercials.  It was quite different today as four commercials had already passed us while we were having lunch after mooring up. 

We struck lucky outside the boundary of the village and found a pretty lavoir. Considering the washing process took four days there must have been a lot of fetching and carrying as it was outside the village rather than being in the centre.

'Out of town' location for the lavoir in Moussy-Verneuil

It had two washing stone lined basins, one of which was a lot larger than the other.  The fireplace was still in evidence too; the ash from wood fires was used during the washing cycle. 

When we got back, much of the washing we’d left out to dry in the sun was ready. As there was free water and electricity at the pontoon we hooked up and put the fan heater on to dry the rest indoors.

On Saturday we cruised four miles up two locks.

St-Audebert (misleading signs)

With a sunny day forecast for Wednesday we went for a walk to Cells-sur-Aisne before having a cruise.  Even though, as the crow flies, the village was only a kilometre or so away it was on the other side of the River Aisne to where we were moored.  This meant walking downstream to find a road bridge over the river first.

Crossing the Aisne with Celles in the background

When we were here a year ago, we didn’t bother visiting the village as, from a distance, it looked quite modern.  What we hadn’t realised was that the original, older part, of the village was on top of a hill and laid out along one steep street.  The properties all looked well kept and typically rural French with many farm buildings interspersed amongst the houses.

Near the bottom of the hill

On the way to the village we’d passed a sign advertising a farm shop that claimed to have fresh local produce of the season and was open nearly all the time.  After climbing up the hill and starting down the other side, we eventually found the farm shop, but it was closed and a sign outside showed that ‘nearly all the time’ meant four afternoons a week!

The closed shop 

The street was lined with flower beds that must have been a riot of colour in the summer.

The large house in the picture above appeared to be privately owned and we could find nothing about it when we searched on the web later.  We thought we’d struck lucky when we saw the name of a side street though:

It was a very short street with three houses and the village hall but sadly no lavoir.  A little further up the hill we saw what looked like a lavoir in the distance but it turned out to be a drinking trough with fresh running water.

Fontaine Saint-Laurent

If a washing stone had been installed across the front in place of the roughly hewn slab it would have made a neat washing area for a couple of women.

Could have been a small lavoir

When we made the return journey through the village, a couple of workmen were measuring the opening to the fontaine.  We asked them about the missing lavoir on the street of the same name and they confirmed it had been demolished long ago.  They also told us some other stuff that we didn’t quite understand but assumed that the lavoir had made way for the village hall.

Back at the mooring Karen spotted a clouded yellow flying along the grassy bank.  Clouded yellows are one of the few butterflies that don’t rest with their wings open.  The only way to see the beautiful upper wings is on set specimens or stills captured from a video of one in flight.

The undersides of a clouded yellow are amazingly vivid though

We had coffee and cake when we got back and, as the sun was still out and it was feeling quite warm, we decided to move up the staircase locks to try the next mooring spot.  Once we were up the locks, we were off the River Aisne and onto the Canal latéral à l’Aisne.  You may have noticed that the names of several of the canals we have been on have been of the form 'latéral à la X', this is because they run parallel to river X where the river is too far upstream to be navigable.  The other popular French canal name takes the form of 'canal de Y à Z', where the canal runs between the valleys of river Y and Z to provide a route between the two rivers.

The Canal latéral à l’Aisne is a Freycinet gauge canal and it felt good to be back on a ‘sensible’ sized canal after the last few weeks of rivers and the large gauge commercial canals of northern France.

Good to be back on a smaller canal

Another canal related good feeling we’re having is due to the lock closure that we’d got past last weekend.  Because it’s closed for five weeks it means there is no through traffic at present, just boats loading or unloading at the few silo quays this side of the closed lock.  This means we’re currently only seeing two or three commercials a day.

One of Wednesday’s two commercials

I know the picture above doesn’t really look like we’re on a narrow canal and that’s because a kilometre long section that we were on at the time made use of the original course of the River Aisne before it was diverted to allow the canal to be built.

We didn’t travel far before we found the mooring we were looking for, an old commercial waiting quay but with some reasonably spaced bollards for shorter boats like ours.

Buddy seemed happy with our mooring for the rest of Wednesday at St-Audebert

On Wednesday we cruised three miles up two locks.

With a pleasant day forecast for Thursday we thought we may move on a bit after lunch as we had our weekly bridge lesson and practice in the morning.  We went for a walk along the canal before the bridge lesson and, unlike one of last week’s towpath walks, found the way was clear.

Chemin de halage or towpath

At one point we came out at a wider part of the cut where one side was given over to a graveyard for redundant barges.  Some were just wooden skeletons, and some were still recognisable metal hulls.

One of the barges and the wooden ribs and tiller of another one behind

As we passed a lock, we saw the remnants of an old towing wheel.  These used to help give towing horses traction when they needed to get boats under motion as they came out of the lock.

Old towing wheel

The bridge session was enjoyable and, as is the case every week, it was brought home that most bridge players are of what is called ‘a certain age’.  This week one reminder came from a participant who’d forgotten to go on mute, and we all heard the unmistakable sound of a toilet flushing.  At another point we could hear an elderly female voice mutter beneath her breath, ‘oh fuck’ when she'd played the wrong card and didn't realise she was unmuted.  As there was a pregnant pause I couldn’t resist jumping in with, ‘I could have sworn I heard someone swear then’ which lightened the atmosphere and brought laughs and an apology. 

After lunch we went for a good circular walk taking in the village of Presles-et-Boves.

Presle-et-Boves

The church looks larger than it would normally as it’s covered in scaffolding and plastic sheeting for renovation works.  Even so, as with the majority of churches, it is far larger than is needed for such a small settlement.

For the second time in as many days we came across a promising street sign:

Also for the second time in as many days, the sign turned out to be a red herring and there was no lavoir in sight.

Our walk brought us back to the canal towpath again but, unlike the morning’s towpath, this one wasn’t so well defined.  This didn’t deter Karen as she could see plenty of walnut trees ahead.

The unmistakeable sight of a walnut tree

Amazingly, she hadn’t equipped either of us with a collecting bag before we set out on our walk so we (well, mainly she) resorted to stuffing pockets.  I maintain that it’s more efficient to only collect the larger ones and am more than happy to wait until we near Reims in a week or so.  Last year we found some massive ones at a place called Courcy a little way north of the city.  To be fair to Karen she doesn’t pick up the smallest ones and I sort of understand how she finds it difficult to leave any on the ground.

We currently have over 25 kilograms drying in a baskets around the boat that have to be turned each day as they dry out.  If that sounds a lot then bear in mind that freshly picked walnuts are €7.50 a kilogram in the supermarkets at the moment so the obsession is turning into a bit of a gold mine.

When we got back home to the boat, we decided to stay put for the rest of the day so ended up not having a cruise on Thursday.  Spending the night again at St-Audebert was hardly a burden as it’s so remote we can’t even hear the sound of distant church bells.  We’ll probably spend a few more days on this canal before turning off onto the Canal de l’Aisne à la Marne towards Reims.

Celles-sur-Aisne (Rain on the Aisne)

Leaving Soissons on Monday morning

We didn’t want to stay in Soissons as we’ve visited before and the current crisis doesn’t make it conducive for sightseeing when there are other people around.  Even though Soissons is in one of the lowest risk département it is now one of the hundreds of towns in France where masks are mandatory outside. Many local councils seem to be being stricter than the guidelines laid down by the state.

As we needed to do the weekly shop on Monday morning, we went to a supermarket which according to the map was 600 metres away going out of town.  When we got there, the supermarket was closed down, but a sign indicated that there was a new one 200 metres further along the road.  While Karen was shopping, Buddy and I walked further out of town through a business area which was pretty deserted as I expect most are around the world at the moment.  The most interesting thing we came across was some disused railway sidings which was unusual because the tracks hadn’t been removed as they are normally used for good quality recycling scrap such as during the 'war effort'.

The disused railway sidings

When we got back, I topped up with water while Karen unpacked the shopping and then we set off for a rural mooring at Villeneuve-St-Germain which wasn’t that far from Soissons. We knew there was a good walk there along the riverbank from our last visit, so Karen and Buddy walked while I drove.  The mooring was just below a lock and ideal for Buddy as there wasn’t any passing traffic and ideal for us as it was away from people.

Moored at Villeneuve-St-Germain

We had a good circular walk through the countryside in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day relaxing on board.  Although it was half sun most of the day it definitely felt colder so it was good to be indoors.

On Monday we cruised two miles through no locks.

We had about eight miles to travel on Tuesday to where a staircase lock up onto the Canal latéral à l’Aisne marks the end of the navigable River Aisne. Obviously, unpowered craft can continue up the river itself and shallow draughted boats are also allowed but only a couple of miles further up to where there is a small pontoon.  It was that pontoon we wanted to get to next partly because we hadn’t been before and partly because not many boats make it up there.  We looked at doing it last year but there were two plastic boats moored there and they looked like they’d been left there for the winter.

It started raining just before we set off, but we decided to go anyway.  It probably wasn’t the wisest choice as it rained continuously for the whole journey that took the best part of three hours.  As you may know, Buddy hates being inside the boat if one of us is on the back driving.  The rain was coming down so hard at one point that we ended up making him go inside and Karen went in with him while I carried on.  Apparently he wouldn't settle in his bed and just stood with his feet on the back steps until I'd moored up and came in.

Rain on the Aisne 

It was raining quite hard by the time we reached the lock cut off the river, so I decided to moor up where I knew there was a mooring.  I didn’t really feel like carrying on up the river only to find there was no room and then having to come back again. 

Moored in the lock cut at Celles-sur-Aisne

The rain stopped while we were having lunch so afterwards, we went for a walk along the canal.  When we got to Vailly-sur-Aisne, we left the canal at a road bridge to walk down to the river to check out the mooring.  Looking down from a road bridge over the river we could see a boat on the pontoon and we recognised it as one of the two that were there last year.

Someone there already

We went down to the pontoon to see how the boat was moored and if it would be possible to move it a few metres so there would be room for us.  When we got onto the pontoon, we found that not only was it chained to the pontoon it also had immovable mooring rods, so it wouldn’t be possible to move it.  We worked out that we could probably get on but it wouldn’t be the securest of moorings with about 11 metres overhanging, which wouldn’t be that sensible with the flow from the river.  It started raining again on our way back so that really decided it for us; we would stay where we were for the rest of the day. 

Not such a safe looking bridge across the canal

On Tuesday we cruised eight miles up one lock.

Soissons (searching for a soldier)

Saturday morning at Vic-sur-Aisne

After a lazy breakfast on Saturday we set off from Vic-sur-Aisne to find our next mooring as it was such a lovely day for a cruise. The first mile or so was a stretch that reminded us of being on the Thames with grand houses in grounds large enough that they had plenty of privacy from passing nosey boaters.

Like being on the Thames

The leaves on some of the trees are now on the turn so there was quite an autumnal feel in places.

Autumn is on its way

As we’re in no hurry to get to Châlons-en-Champagne, our final destination this year, we’re taking advantage of nearly every mooring at the moment.  Mind you, as we’re on a river there aren’t many around but at least they tend to be free as no one else seems to be cruising. We were heading for Fontenoy on Saturday where there was a 25-metre pontoon in the lock cut above the lock.

Approaching the lock at Fontenoy

Other than the lock cottage there was no other housing around so it looked like it would be a really peaceful spot.

Moored at Fontenoy

As soon as the engine was turned off, we could hear the unmistakeable hum of a hydroelectric pump which was housed in the building just down from us on the other side of the lock cut.  It was driven by the river as it drops down the weir on the other side - it seemed like it wouldn’t be totally quiet after all.

After lunch we fancied going for a walk starting in Fontenoy. We’d forgotten that Fontenoy was on the other side of the river and as there wasn’t a bridge, we had to have a rethink.  Looking at the map we saw there was a path alongside the river going back in the direction we’d just cruised along.  As it seemed to go down to a place called Port Fontenoy we decided to follow it.  After about 200 metres it petered out as the undergrowth took over to such an extent that no path could be seen.  We decided to press on as there must have been a towing path there once upon a time and who knew what hidden gems we might find. 

The towpath

In the end there was just over a mile of crashing through the shrubs and climbing over fallen trees, so it ended up being a long walk in terms of time anyway, especially as we returned the same way.  When we reached Port Fontenoy we found a plaque on the bridge over the river.  It explained the story of two French soldiers who were executed ('shot at dawn') in the village, one in 1914 and the other in 1915 to set an example to their fellow soldiers.  Lucien Bersot, had refused to wear the bloodstained trousers of a soldier who had been killed and the other, Léonard Leymarie, had shot himself in a hand. Apparently self-maiming was rife at the time as a means of avoiding having to fight.

Léonard Leymarie is buried in a nearby WWI cemetery for French nationals and there is a further plaque telling the story by the church in Fontenoy itself.  In 1922 both soldiers were pardoned and in the late 1990s the bloodstained trousers story inspired the French TV film called “Le pantalon”.

Walking around the village we came across out first lavoir for a couple of weeks and it was our first impluvium style lavoir since we’d left Champagne a good many weeks ago.  Impluvium is the Latin word for the sloping sided basin that collects water that has come through from the compluvium, the sloping sided roof.  We have three unanswered questions regarding lavoirs:

• Why are there so few lavoirs in northern France compared with central and southern?

• Why aren’t the impluvium style lavoirs referred to as compluvium style?

• Of the few lavoirs we’ve found in northern France why has this been the first impluvium style?

I imagine the answer to the last question may be related to rainfall.  As there is higher rainfall in the north then maybe stream-fed lavoirs don’t tend to dry up but then the reverse question arises, why have impluvium style where there is less rainfall?  If anyone can help, then we would be glad to hear from you.

The compluvium roof of the impluvium style lavoir in Fontenoy

The washing basin was quite a bit deeper than many we have seen, and it is obviously not in use nowadays!

The impluvium or basin

On our way back we saw quite a few butterflies on the wing including a painted lady and a small copper.  Even though it seems to have been a good butterfly year, we have seen very few painted ladies and it was our first small copper of the year.

Not a particularly fresh small copper

Looking back on our walk we decided it had been worth it and not just because of the lavoir or butterflies.  We really enjoy going off piste and pressing on when those not so foolish would turn around and find a road or give up!

Checking my emails later I came across one from our friend Mike Fielding.  He is well versed in all things canals and is well aware of my fascination for stanking planks and their shelters.  He’d come across a pamphlet and sent me a copy.  Mike is keen to spread the word that the popular term for these planks is ‘stop plank’ and not ‘stanking plank’.  Although he is correct and in most areas of the UK we’ve visited they have been referred to as stop planks, my first exposure to them was with an old British Waterways lockie who referred to them as stanking planks.  The term tickled me and will forever be my favourite and I expect Mike will never refrain from referring to them as stop planks.

Mike’s pamphlet on stanking planks

We are often reminded how fortunate we’ve been in 2020 to be able to lead our lives almost as normal.  Even during the three months of confinement when we lived in Châlons-en-Champagne and we weren’t allowed to cruise or go out for more than one hour a day we had glorious weather.  On top of that we formed a family bubble with our next-door boat neighbours, Nikki & Gorete, who became very good friends.  

Selfishly, we’ve also been spoilt because of the lack of tourism as we’ve been able to visit places in relative peace and quiet; the downside being that many places aren’t open of course.  In the evening a further reminder of our good fortune arrived in a comment by Ian, a fellow boater from Australia.  Like many people with boats in Europe, he & Lisette have been unable to cruise this year as they haven’t been allowed to travel.  Ian says that there is now growing speculation that EU travel may still be banned for Antipodeans during 2021 too.  If that’s true no doubt it will include other nations like South Africa and the US, so it could be another very quiet year on the waterways coming up.

On Saturday we cruised four miles and went up one lock.

Sunday started sunny but clouded over by the time we went for our morning walk.  We'd located the WWI French national cemetery where Léonard Laymarie was buried and wanted to continue our investigation into the 'shot at dawn' story.  It wasn’t too far to walk and, unlike yesterday, entailed walking along roads.

Soon after leaving the mooring we saw a path crossing the lane at right angles.  Ironically, this would have been ideal for walking along yesterday as it looked like it ran parallel with the river and was a proper track rather than being overgrown as our path had been.

The path we should have been on yesterday

Approaching the French national cemetery at Ambleny we were shocked to realise what a large area 11,000 graves cover.

There are 10,601 WWI soldiers, 71 civilians and 555 WWII soldiers buried in the cemetery, all of whom were French other than one Dane and one Russian.  We retrieved the register from its vault in order to find the location of Leymarie and then studied the layout to identify which was his plot.  And yes, we used our hand sanitiser after touching anything.

The door to the register vault and the cemetery layout

The register and the entry for Leymarie

Cross marking Leymarie’s plot…

…and plaque

The plaque indicating he’d died for France was important as it indicates that he gave his life for his country, not the normal epithet for someone shot for disobedience.  This was because the cemetery wasn’t assembled until later in 1922 the year in which he’d been given a state pardon.  Although he was pardoned by the state in 1922, his hometown of Seilhac didn’t grant him a pardon until 2008; it wasn’t until then that his name was added to the town’s war memorial.

On the way back home we saw an information board by the lock and learnt that during one of the local battles in WWI the French army built a temporary bridge over the river to help its marching army to drive back the enemy.  Karen and I keep forgetting that the German army blew up most of the canal and river bridges in this area of France as they retreated.  Amazingly the temporary bridge was erected during the course of one night. 

While having lunch we were watching a kingfisher on its perch and after several unsuccessful attempts we saw it dive and surface with a fish which it took back to its perch to eat.  Although we have seen herons capturing fish, frogs etc. many times, it was the first time we’d seen a kingfisher catch something.

After lunch we set off for Soissons, the farthest north west we got on our travels last year.  It was also one of the first towns we visited when we had our investigatory road trip two years ago. As we neared the outskirts of Soissons, the skies ahead darkened and after a while it started raining but stopped after about five minutes, so we didn’t get too wet.

Rain ahead?

Arriving in downtown Soissons

As we went up the lock in town, we recalled how large we thought it was when we saw it on our road trip.  Little did we know then that it was only a little longer than the smallest standard locks in France and that we just consider them ordinary now.

Leaving the big little big lock 

Last year when we came to Soissons we moored on the left bank and saw that new moorings were being constructed on the right bank.  This year, as they were now open, we decided to try those on the right bank although they were a bit high for a narrowboat. 

Not the lowest of quays to moor alongside

Strangely the new moorings don’t have water or electricity while we noticed the bornes were still in use on the old ones opposite.

Moored in the early evening on the River Aisne with Soissons cathedral over on the right

Even though we had a small walk around town in the evening we’re only including a picture of the mairie.  This is because, other than the mairie, we covered most of the historical buildings in the blog entries for our visits last year and the previous year.

Soissons hôtel de ville

For the next little while we’ll be on waterways we’ve been on before so the blogs may become less frequent for a while. 

On Sunday we cruised eight miles and went up one lock.