Vouécourt (a cruise in the rain)

There was a sharp frost on Tuesday night, and we had to be careful on the wooden decking by the boat as it was very slippery.  The sun soon came out and burnt it all off, causing a lot of mist to rise from the cut.

Wednesday morning

Looking at the picture above I can tell it was taken at 7.40 French time because that’s the time the lady on the towpath on the far side walks by every day.  She also feeds old bits of baguette to the few mallards that are around.  It’s not such a popular pastime over here as it seems to be in the UK which is probably one reason we see so few waterfowl on our travels.

It felt cold again on Wednesday evening and we awoke to a smattering of snow on Thursday morning, but it became a lot milder during the day and has stayed that way since.

Obligatory picture of the boat with a tiny bit of snow!

On Thursday I walked to the local VNF office to see if I could find out what the official stance is on people like us moving.  An éclusiere answered the door and invited me in and we spent an entertaining but stressful 20 minutes before I was able to leave.  It was stressful for me because I had to concentrate so hard on the language she was using especially when she was on the phone to colleagues.  It was entertaining because she was really trying to help, and we were able to laugh at each other when we couldn’t understand each other’s French.

Amazingly, the log of boats in their area was handwritten and in pencil and we soon found our entry that had a comment alongside that we’d requested to stay at Froncles for four weeks.  After making sure she understood the rules for private boaters moving under lock down she had the painful task of explaining them to me.  In the end it wasn’t too difficult as they are quite simple really:

• Cruising is allowed
• Two days’ notice must be given to the local control centre
• Once moored then normal lockdown restrictions apply

This was pretty much what we expected (other than the notice period) so I said we would leave Froncles on Saturday morning and head for Vouécourt and she added the request to the log.

On Friday afternoon we drove to Vouécourt, parked the car near the mooring, and walked back to Froncles.  It looked a very pleasant village, but we refrained from looking around, saving those delights for once we’ve moved there. 

Walking from Vouécourt back to Froncles

I know people generally complain about the volume and complexities of French bureaucracy, but I’ve come up against a situation where the UK system outclassed the French one.  We have to declare our income in both the UK and France and therefore have to complete self-assessments for income tax.  Until we came over here the UK online process for self-assessment was always easy to understand and very simple to use.  Now we have to fill out an additional form regarding residency status and because of this form we have to complete the self-assessment on paper as opposed to online.  This seems so crazy as the printed form asks exactly the same questions as the online process!

While on bureaucracy our daughter Catherine, who lives in Barcelona, received her official post-Brexit residency status this week in the form of a TIE card (Tarjeta de Identidad de Extranjero).  Coincidentally we heard from the préfecture in Châlons-en-Champagne on Wednesday that we have to attend an interview there next week.  From the tone of the letter and the documentation we need to take, those experienced in residency matters believe our applications for residency have probably been accepted.  Hopefully, all we will have to do is prove who we are, have our fingerprints taken and then wait for our residency cards (cartes de sejour) to be issued.  Mind you we’re not overconfident and wouldn’t be surprised, with our record, if we have to supply more information followed by a second interview.

We’d agreed with VNF that we would leave Froncles at 11 on Saturday morning and, as luck would have it, the weather had turned grey, and the rain started just before we left and stopped about 10 minutes after mooring up an hour later!  It was good to be moving somewhere new though and at least it wasn’t raining hard enough to resort to full wet weather gear.

Not the blue skies of the last couple of weeks but still peaceful

We only went through one lock on the cruise and the lock cottage would have been ideal to live in: remote, lovely countryside, no neighbours and close to the river which must be great to swim in during the summer.

The remote lock at Buxières

You can see the effect of no boats having come through for four days with the weeds and other detritus that we had to go through at the lock head.  Considering how clear the canal is with very few weeds we were surprised how much had built up around the lock.  

Until about 100 years ago vines were growing on the tree-covered slopes.  At least two major things happened to cause the destruction of hundreds of vineyards in those days.  First there were several disastrous invasions of a disease called phylloxera during the 19th century that over time practically wiped out most vineyards in France.  Second, there was widespread removal of vineyards after regulation was introduced in the early 1900s that limited Champagne production to a specific geographical area. I know these hillsides are no longer deemed to be in Champagne even though they are in the Marne valley, so I guess that's the reason they were removed, and trees planted for timber and firewood.

Many bridges across this canal are still the original iron structures from the turn of the 19^th century and we find the style particularly attractive even though most of them need attention to the paintwork.

Bridge as we neared Vouécourt

About 200 people live in Vouécourt and there is very little modern housing, most of the new build is strung along the canal where we had to moor.

Approaching Vouécourt 

There were no services at the mooring hence it was called a Halte Pique-Nique but it was ideal for us for a few days.

By the time we’d settled in, the rain had stopped so we went for a quick scout around the village.  As we walked up to the canal bridge to get across to the middle of the village, we could see what was clearly a lavoir.  Standing on the canal bridge looking over the bridge across the river the lavoir, the church and the mairie were all in view.  Even considering the mairie had the traditional boys’ and girls’ classrooms attached it still looked out of proportion for a population of 300 or so when it was built in 1838.

Lavoir, church and mairie of Vouécourt

The lavoir was built in 1862 replacing one further and lower down in the village.  With so much iron ore extraction and related iron works along the Marne valley, stream fed lavoirs in the 1700s started becoming unusable due to the discolouration of the water.  The new lavoir was gravity fed by water extracted from the hills above the village and still is today.  It runs for nearly 2½ kilometres in a lead pipe and emerges into a drinking water trough outside the building before feeding the pool inside.

Drinking water trough on the outside

When the new lavoir was built it served a population of 350 hence its large washing basin:

The road through the village was raised and at various points was built over arches so that the road was still passable when the Marne was in flood:

A picture from the mairie’s website happens to capture one of the occasions when the Marne was rising:

The building with the drinking trough, in the picture above, was the original lavoir from the 1700s mentioned earlier but has since been paved over inside and is now used as a children’s play area.

Walking back across the canal & river bridges with the village war memorial on the right

The bridge over the Marne with the replacement lavoir peeping over the top

After a late lunch we drove to Chaumont to do the weekly food shop; well, Karen does the shopping while I walk Buddy so that only one of us has to mix with others.  As the closest shops were over 10 kilometres away, we had to fill out attestations explaining where we were coming from, where we were going and the reason for the journey.

We’ve been reading reports of French people spending their confinement away from their normal places of residence and people have been saying this is evidenced by the number of cars with non-local number plates.  I don’t quite follow this as, since 2009, registration plates don’t have to be changed when the owner moves from one département to another.  Before that time, it was easy to spot non-locals but the same cannot be so true today.

On Saturday we cruised three miles up one lock.

Froncles (to stay or not to stay?)

Part of our regular pre-curfew walk

Having decided to stay in Froncles for a while I caught the train to Chaumont on Saturday morning to retrieve the car, the last day we were allowed to travel more than 10 kilometres from our home.  As the car was in the port at Chaumont, I called in to see Claude & Susie to confirm we were staying at Froncles and wouldn’t need the reservation at Chaumont.  We chatted about the impact of the lockdown on plaisanciers like ourselves and the different views we’ve picked up from social media and official sites.  The national VNF site had some very woolly wording saying the waterways are obviously staying open for commercial traffic but they would also be open for private boaters on an “on demand” basis.

According to reports on Facebook etc., people in different VNF regions have contacted their respective regional offices and it seems that each region is making its own interpretation of “on demand”.  Not surprising really as départements have the power to implement their own Covid rules on their populations.  We’ve decided to stay put until the lockdown settles down and then see if VNF have reached a point where their rules are understandable or at least consistently applied nationwide.  We’ve been cruising for a month since leaving Châlons-en-Champagne and are now 77 miles further south having been through 46 locks so at least we’ve got further down the entre Champagne et Bourgogne than we’ve managed before even if we’re stuck here for a month or longer. 

Our travels so far this year

VNF may decide that private boaters that live aboard can move but each time they moor they are subject to the 10-kilometre rule with respect to how far they can travel from the boat.  With this in mind, Karen worked out how we could keep moving while keeping the car with us and she found potential mooring locations that are less than 10 kilometres apart.  That way we could retrieve the car each time we get to a new mooring without breaking the 10-kilometre rule.  In case you’re wondering why we’re keeping the car at the moment it’s because we want to be able to reach a vaccination centre easily when I’m called for my second and Karen for her first Covid jab.

As mentioned earlier, Saturday was the final day we could travel further than the upcoming 10-kilometre rule, so we spent the afternoon sussing out the mooring spots and were very pleased with the results.  Not only were there some stunning locations, we also found a few lavoirs in some of the villages we passed through. 

Potential mooring below an extravagant dovecote in Riaucourt

All the lavoirs apart from one were really quite elaborate and well preserved.  There were two large ones at Roôcourt-la-Côte which seemed over the top as there are fewer than 200 people living there now, even if there used to be double that 150-200 years ago when the lavoirs were built.

Four of the lavoirs

All of them were stream fed and full of water when we visited.  The one at Roôcourt-la-Côte with yellow tulips in front of it smelt amazing as the blue hyacinths growing amongst the tulips were giving off such a powerful scent.

Inside one of the lavoirs

We’ve only been here at Froncles for five days but have already established a pre-curfew walk whatever we’ve done during the day.  Froncles is laid out along the river Marne and the canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne with bridges across the river and canal at each end.  We are moored about equidistant between the bridges which are just over a kilometre apart.  As there is a path on both sides of the canal, we can have a circular stroll alternating each day between clockwise and counter-clockwise.

Passing our mooring on a clockwise evening

The building behind our boat contains holiday lets which are currently closed for obvious reasons although we have noticed the camper van population increasing in the park alongside.  It seems that people are taking advantage of being allowed to have lockdown away from their main home and are setting up camp for the duration.

Many millstreams have been created through the village to drive the iron works that used to line the banks of the river in Froncles.  One stream runs the other side of the holiday lets and has a small open lavoir reached by stone steps:

Froncles currently has a population of 1,500 and its main employer is a rolling mill, producing sheet metal mainly used for car production.  The site was originally established in 1758 to process iron ore, a common activity in the higher Marne valley due to the abundance of iron ore.  In 1858 it became a sheet rolling mill and by 1906 became the SFF (Société des Forges de Froncles).  It is still known by that name even though Citroën took it over in 1927 and employed over 900 people there.  Since the Citroën takeover there have been many owners and currently a German company runs the site with fewer than 200 workers supplying parts to Renault but the original name of SFF has been retained.  A sawmill has also been established in some of the original buildings.

You’ve probably noticed in the pictures that there are steep hills running alongside the canal next to us which look really inviting for a good walk.  There are many forestry tracks through the woods where the public are allowed to roam so we worked out a good circular walk for Sunday morning.

Looking down on Froncles (the SFF iron works/steel factory in the foreground)

We saw no one while out on our walk but by the middle of the afternoon there were quite a few families out walking along the canal and the river – a Sunday afternoon activity in many parts of the world.

Froncles is typical of any rural community with industrial rather than farming roots in that most of the housing consists of rows of terraces around the centre with larger dwellings for managers around the outside.  Of course, the original owner of the iron works lived in the largest house in the village:

1905 & 2021 (The houses on the right have 1805 inscribed above the doorways)

With some rain forecast for Monday afternoon we had our main walk of the day in the morning taking in the village of Provenchères-sur-Marne.  As we headed out through Froncles we looked for signs of the SFF housing and were really pleased to find a few houses with these little plaques on the door lintels:

SFFV 71 on 104 rue du General Leclerc 

I haven’t been able to find out what the V stood for but I’m pretty confident the plaques were placed on the houses originally owned by the SFF.  Between 1914 and 1925, when the workforce rapidly expanded, 300 extra houses were built for the employees and many of them went against the traditional stone built terraced approach.  These bungalows and chalets on either side of the Rue de Bel-Air are in the area where the expansion took place, several of which still have their SFF plaques. 

The lowest number we have found so far is 36 and the highest is 329.

Earlier in the morning I’d been looking at old postcards of Froncles and as we walked down the high street, I recognised an old SFF building.  I took a picture of the same view that was in my mind’s eye and was rather pleased, that when I compared them later, the two views were almost identical.  The cars have changed, there are H&S railings on the steps, the fishmongers has closed but most details are still the same.  When Karen saw the result she was surprised I hadn’t asked her to stand on the steps.

We passed several stone and iron crosses on our walk.  These are common sights in the French countryside, and I have always thought they had a religious bent.  I have now found out that they weren’t always built for religious reasons; they were often erected at the boundaries of communes or to provide travellers with directions at crossroads.

Walking through Provenchères-sur-Marne we passed the church and the mairie both of which were built of local limestone.  We also found a recently restored lavoir that was built over a stream just out of town.

Rain threatened for much of the walk but held off until we got home.  It did rain for a while later on making it hard to believe we were in for two or three nights of unseasonably heavy frosts.  Apparently, the cold nights are expected all over the country and there is a lot of concern amongst the wine producers.  The damage is caused by the sun shining on the frost covered leaf buds and the traditional method of burning straw, so the smoke obscures the sun’s rays, has been banned.  

We have seen one boat come past every day since we’ve been at Froncles.  I know it’s probably a coincidence but all of them have been Dutch registered commercials, heading north and at about five o’clock in the afternoon.  This one had a particularly garish coloured car.

There certainly was a hard frost on Monday night but the sun soon burnt it off and Buddy and I were able to have some pleasant walks around Froncles and the surrounding area.  As tempting as it is to include pictures of all the lavoirs we find I will desist and just include a then and now shot of one of the three we’ve found in Froncles.

The war memorial commemorates local people who died in various wars, most appeared to have been during the WWI battle of the Marne.

Karen has now reduced her working days to three a week giving us four-day weekends which we're eagerly looking forward to.  We have also decided to stay put at Froncles until at least Friday and then have a chat with the local VNF office to find out what the cruising situation is for private boaters.  

Froncles (a lockdown by any other name)

Lavoir de Froncles 

We left at eight on Tuesday morning to give us time to get to the first lock on the canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne ready for when it opened at nine.  I mistimed it and it was 9.20 when we got there and were told that two commercials and a private boat had already gone through.  As I’ve probably said more than once, this will be our third attempt at completing this canal; the last two ended in failure as we had to turn around because of low water levels.  In 2019 we made it 20 miles to St-Dizier and the following year we reached double the distance and were turned around at Joinville.  This year we will get to Joinville as quickly as we can so that: 1. we’re into pastures new and 2. we get further away from the Covid hotspots.

The 140-mile-long canal was originally called the canal de la Marne à la Saône as it formed a route between those two rivers and is part of several routes linking the south of France and the Med with the industrial north.  It was renamed the entre Champagne et Bourgogne in order to promote interest amongst tourists.  The northern end, where we joined it, is at Vitry-le-François and it rises up 71 locks to the summit at Langres where there is a 5 km long tunnel.  It then drops down 43 locks to the river Saône at Heuilley-sur-Saône.

Lock information plates on lock cottages still have the original name, canal de la Marne à la Saône

The first 40-odd locks we will go through are operated using a télécommande as are the locks on the Saône side of the summit.  We believe an éclusier sees us through the other 30 locks in the middle section, travelling on either a scooter or in a van.  We’ve had that arrangement on other canals before, and it has its pros and cons.  The main con is that we have to agree times of departure each day thus losing flexibility but on the other hand if there’s an issue with a lock then we have an éclusier on site.

Télécommande

The canal is one of the more modern French canals, the complete length wasn’t finished until 1907 even though the first 45-mile section on the northern side was completed in 1864 and was called the canal de la Haute-Marne.

The canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne

Our target for Tuesday was to try and reach St Dizier and we were driving into the sun all day as we were heading south so not many pictures came out.  After a few locks we crossed the border into Haute-Marne, our first objective. As the virus incidence was lower there it was less likely to go into lockdown if the departmental approach was extended.  As it turned out, it didn’t make any difference as a national lockdown is being reintroduced from Saturday evening.

Crossing the département border – but it made no difference in the end

As three boats had already gone through ahead of us all the locks were set against us, but we soon got into the swing of things, Karen doing the ropework as we went through each one.  The locks so far are between 3 and 3.5 metres deep, so Karen has to get on the roof to hook her line on.

The sharp eyed amongst you will have noticed the stepped bollards in the lock.  Karen prefers not to use those unless the locks are really deep making it impossible for her to reach the bollards at the top.  It’s understandable as she has to have her wits about her with stepped bollards in terms of coordinating taking one line off and getting another one on higher up.  

Everything was going well until we were in the lock at Écriennes.  Karen had got her line on and I had the boat in forward gear to keep it taut and hold the boat against the lock wall when suddenly all power went.  I couldn’t get forward or reverse gears and realised the gear cable had snapped.  Of course, the boat was pushed backwards by the force of the water coming into the lock but luckily Karen’s line prevented it going as far as the back gates.  If it had then the rear would have got caught under the walkway on the gates as the lock filled with disastrous consequences.

Once we were up and the gates opened, we pulled the boat out by hand and tied up to a rare pair of bollards that were just outside the lock.  The cable wasn’t as easy to change as the throttle cable that snapped two years ago (again in a lock!) and we lost well over an hour, but we were thankful we had a spare one.

Not a bad place to breakdown

An éclusier stopped in his van to check we were OK and also dropped off a car tyre.  I couldn’t work out what he was doing with it then realised he was standing it in front of Buddy who was tied up to the boat.  The éclusier was concerned that speeding cyclists wouldn’t see Buddy until too late!  I said we were quite happy to move the dog, but he wouldn’t hear of it!

Because of the loss of time for the breakdown we didn’t make it to St Dizier before the locks closed for the evening so ended up at Hallignicourt outside a French Air Force base.  At least we were treated to several flypasts during the evening.

Rafale fighter jet coming in to land

Tuesday evening at Hallignicourt

We’re seeing lots of butterflies on the wing as we cruise along but heard on Wednesday morning that we’re in for some cooler weather in a week or two.

On Tuesday we cruised 18 miles up 12 locks – a long day for us.

Many canals have longer operating hours for commercials than plaisanciers like us.  We have often wondered if we could travel on the extended hours on canals with automated locks.  We know it’s a bit naughty and certainly wouldn’t call VNF if there was an issue ‘out of hours’.  With a mission to get to somewhere convenient in case of another lockdown we decided to put it to the test on Wednesday morning and left at seven.

Leaving at first light

When we approached the first lock, there were no lights on, and my immediate assumption was that centrally they knew we were the only boat in the pound and therefore wouldn’t turn the lights on until nine.  It transpired that the lock was broken and at eight o’clock a gang of men turned up and were working on it.  They fixed it within the hour and called us through even though the lights weren’t working, so we didn’t find out if we could have gone through on commercial hours, but we’d already lost an hour’s cruising from the day.

Waiting for the broken lock to be fixed

Our first task was to get to St Dizier where we would top up with water and then continue on our way; we would have got there on Tuesday had it not been for the snapped gear cable.  As we came into St Dizier, we could see Zoe & Sebastien’s boat moored on a quay.  As we approached, they came out (Sebastian cannot stand up inside the boat by the way) and got ready to leave.  We went up the main St Dizier lock with them and then they went ahead while we filled up with water.  They were on a real mission reckoning they could get to Marseilles in 11 days.

Zoe following us at St Dizier (not sure where Sebastaian was)

While we were topping up with water a council worker emptying rubbish bins, stopped and kindly offered to take our rubbish.  Not only that, he gave us what looks like a year’s worth of dog poo bags on a roll.  We remember Nikki & Gorete telling us about the same experience they had when they were moored at Reims once. Maybe it’s the way council workers are trained.

Bags on a roll

Leaving St Dizier

Coming out of St Dizier we called VNF as they have to send someone to operate a lift bridge on the edge of town.  It’s a fascinating spot as there’s a motorway bridge, a working lift bridge and an out of use rail swing bridge,

The old and the new

Our objective for the day was to get to Joinville where we knew it would be OK to moor if a new lockdown was introduced immediately when Macron made his announcement in the evening.  It was a shame to take things quickly and not spend time exploring the villages and countryside we went through but as Joinville was the farthest we had got to before we had been to many of the places already on the way there and back (and documented in the blog entries at the time).

A railway line ran alongside us much of the way…

Breuil-sur-Marne

Sommeville

While on the other side of the cut  the Marne could also be seen flowing beside us much of the way.  Up here in Haute-Marne the river is a lot smaller than the one we’ve lived next to at Châlons-en-Champagne and enjoyed cruising so much in 2019 from its confluence with the Seine in Paris up to Châlons.

One of the many lift bridges we went through – this one is over the exit to the lock at Curel

Wednesday seemed to be the day the swallows arrived and in several spots we saw them wheeling around with the occasional dip into the water.  While on wildlife we also heard bull frogs croaking a few times. It was strange as Karen’s mum, Ann, was only asking at the weekend if we see many frogs.

Approaching the penultimate lock of the day at Bussy

All had gone really well with all the locks and lift bridges since the issue with the first lock of the day.  That was until the lock at Bussy.  We noticed that it stopped filling about two feet from the top and our first thought was that we wouldn’t make it through the next lock by closing time and therefore not get to Joinville.  Karen went for a wander around the lock and started looking in the outbuildings as there was a VNF van parked there.  The next thing I knew, she appeared with an éclusiere who she’d found in a hut.  Éclusiers carry a box of tricks in their vans that they attach to the automated control unit when things go wrong.  Our éclusiere got hers out of her van and soon overrode the automated system and had the lock filling up again.

Karen looking really pleased with herself that she'd found the éclusiere

We were through the final lock with no problems and were soon moored at Joinville.  It was a mooring shared with campervans and there were five or six already there but no boats.

The main item on the agenda in the evening was the President’s speech at eight o’clock.  Not surprisingly, he announced what to all intents and purposes is a national lockdown in all but name from Saturday evening and not for chocolate shops (yes, apparently they are essential!).  The first two lockdowns were recognised as such and the French words used were confinement and reconfinement respectively.  This third lockdown is being called the semi-confinement.

We got our plans out again and chose the option we’d put together in case lockdown was delayed until the weekend.  This meant we were off to Chaumont which was a further 25 miles and 20 locks away.  As the administrative town of Haute-Marne we felt it would be large enough to meet our needs if we couldn’t move for a good few weeks.

On Wednesday we cruised 23 miles up 16 locks through numerous lift bridges making it an even longer day than Tuesday.

Sun rising on Thursday morning at Joinville

The main task on Thursday was to move the car, which was at St Dizier, up to Chaumont.  This involved getting a bus back to St Dizier, driving to Chaumont and then returning to Joinville by bus again.  The bus rides weren’t quite Covid friendly as the one when I moved the car to St Dizier as there were two other passengers on both trips.  Both trips were again tantalizing because the routes went through some small villages in the Marne valley.  The tantalizing was because we passed quite a few lavoirs that couldn’t be investigated.

Waiting at the bus stop by Joinville’s war memorial

A swiss guy called Claude had been in contact with me recently through one of the French canal social media sites.  He’d seen me post information about the really good state of the canal in answer to someone’s concern.  He said he and his wife Susie were on the only boat moored in Chaumont and said we must call in and see them on our way through. 

The old part of Chaumont is on top of a hill and the port is at the bottom.  I parked in the port and went to find Claude & Susie.  They were both in and we had a good old chat for a while; they’ve been stuck in Chaumont for eight months because of the continual closure of the canal through combinations of lack of water, too much weed or lockdowns. 

Claude & Susie’s boat l’Escapade and space for us

Like many Swiss they were fluent in several languages including English, French and German although they conversed with each other in Swiss-German.   I couldn’t help thinking how useful those languages must be when travelling around Europe.  While chatting a French guy came up with a bucket of goose eggs and Susie bought half a dozen from him.

Goose eggs

An older part of Chaumont

I was back at the boat by early afternoon and we immediately decided to get on our way.  We hadn’t expected to cruise on Thursday but by doing so it would mean we had less to travel over the following two days.  A couple of cyclists took great interest in us as we left and the guy asked if they could take pictures and videos.  I said we didn’t mind, and they kept cycling ahead to find vantage points from where they could film us.

Aqueduct over the river Marne

Old lift bridge no longer in use

An éclusier pulled up in his van at one lock and told us we would have to moor for the night at Donjeaux as something was broken.  We couldn’t get to the bottom of what was broken but he assured us everything would be OK and we could still get to Chaumont by Saturday evening.

It had started to feel close during the journey and the sky was quite hazy, so it was good to moor in the shade when we arrived at Donjeaux.

Moored at Donjeaux for Thursday night

We had a quick walk around Donjeaux and then along the river Rognon which joined the Marne in the middle of the village.  Donjeaux seemed a very sad and uninspiring place, even the church and mairie looked very utilitarian.  It all seemed a bit strange as most homes in villages tend to be well looked after even in these straitened times.

Functional mairie

Donjeaux war memorial

On Thursday we cruised six miles up four locks – a bonus as we weren’t really expecting to move.  This leaves us just under 20 miles and 16 locks to get to Chaumont by Saturday evening.

We decided to break the back of the remaining journey to Chaumont by doing as much as possible on Friday, so we arrived at the first lock at nine, lock opening time for plaisanciers.

Kilometre stones have been few and far between, but we couldn’t really miss this one.  As it was at pk72 we assumed it was marking the original end of the canal when it was called the canal de la Haute-Marne before it was extended down to the river Saône.

The end of le canal de la Haute-Marne ?

After the first lock we crossed the river Marne yet again.  It still amazes me how the routes of canals were chosen without today’s modern gadgetry let alone at what point it was worth building an aqueduct in order to utilize a different side of a river.

Crossing the Marne again

We also had to negotiate several more lift bridges at the exits to locks:

During the journey, Claude contacted me to say they had managed to speak to the capitaine at Chaumont and they had reserved a spot for us in the port and also turned on the water and electricity for us.

Position marked out for us

The bollards looked a bit dubious and fortunately we carry a couple of rope protectors that we sometimes use on feisty locks to stop the lines fraying.  Claude said they had got through two sets of ropes in the eight months since they’d been there hence his protectors made from pipe lagging seen around the closest bollard above.

They even had a welcome sign prepared

The scenery along the Marne valley is certainly stunning and we’re looking forward to having some good walks over the next few weeks:

The horse had been in the water before we came past

We thought we’d stop at Froncles for lunch; this was a place Karen had picked out as a possible place to stay if we couldn’t get as far as Chaumont.  In the end we fell in love with it and the scenery and decided to stay for the duration of the semi-confinement.  The only other boat there wasn’t lived in, so we had the quay to ourselves.

Perfect spot in our lockdown paradise

There were four campervans that were also staying until travel was allowed again.  Before making our final decision to stay, we had a quick walk around the village which was quite large compared with others we have been through. 

Walking across the Marne into Froncles

It even had a Carrefour Express which was the same sort of size as a Tesco Express so we would be covered for essentials.  We would need to complete an attestation if we wanted to go to larger shops in Joinville or Chaumont which we would be able to do by car if we needed to.  To our delight we found a lavoir as shown at the top but will have a proper visit during our stay and report back in a future blog update.

There were also excellent examples of housing typical of the villages like Froncles that grew up on the back of iron foundries.  Again, more investigation is required.

Row of different sized housing by an old foundry where the port has been built

I’ll finish this extended blog update (thanks for bearing with me this far) with the mairie and war memorial at Froncles:

On Saturday I’ll be catching a train into Chaumont to retrieve the car and then we’ll be settled in for the next four weeks or however long it takes.

On Friday we cruised eight miles up five locks.