Well my goodness, we changed our minds about progress from Paris. We did the math and discovered that we had covered about 550 kms to get to Paris and that if we continued on the original plan - North, then East to Reims before turning south - we would have over 700 kms to go before getting back to base.
So we decided to take the obvious alternative which was to pass south of Paris, go up the Marne and the Canal Lateral a la Marne, then the Canal Champagne a Bourgogne (formerly known as the Marne a Saone) which would reduce the overall distance by about 200 kms and ensure that we will be back at St Jean de Losne in plenty of time to greet our Septemeber visitors.
Having decided that, getting away wasn't all that easy. First we had to visit a notary so that Charlyn could 'swear' that she is still alive, in order to continue to receive her English pension. Then we had to mail the document to UK. That all took a couple of hours. Then, as we were lining up to exit the marina through their lock a German boat pushed in and shut us out. Salles Boches!!!
Eventually we were on our way with only a short journey planned. Even that had problems as our designated mooring of the day was completely full and instead of stopping at Nogent, we had to push on to Neuilly. Forunately we found a good mooring there, albeit under a railway bridge, so we will probably move on tomorrow rather than taking our traditional day's rest. C'est la vie!!
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| The mooring at Neuilly Plaisance |
June 24th
Quite a gentle day as the Marne is a good bit quieter than the Seine, and with only a couple of locks we averaged a pretty impressive speed and ended up in the simply delightful town of Lagny sur Marne. Lagny is not only very pretty and has excellent shops, but is famous for being the place where Joan of Arc performed her miracle of raising a three year long dead child back to life. The Abbey church is fantastic and although it has been rebuilt three times, the last time was in aboutt 1150. We also discovered in the town a baker who proudly displayed in his window a sign which claimed 'First Prize winner Loire and Marne region for Baguette 2011" Of course we bought an extra quantity and it was good - but I think we have had better out in the countryside.
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| Lagny sur Marne from our mooring |
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| The prize winning Boulangerie, Lagny sur Marne |
June 25th
The reason for all this hurry is that we were anxious to meet up with Bryan Griffin, an Australian who did the barge handling class with me at Bisham Abbey last year. His barge was in Meaux (home of Brie de Meaux) and it was a good thing that he was there as our visit coincided with the local water festival and the only mooring we could get was rafted up to Bryan some 1k out of town. It was great to see him and catch up. he came over for supper but I had to retire early as I had a stinking cold - no doubt the hangover from getting frozen to death at Charlie's Oyster Festival last weekend. So no exploration of Meaux today - we will try to visit the festival and the town tomorrow - health permiting.
June 26th
Woke up this morning to bright sunshine and the temperature already higher than we had had since May. What a relief to get back to good weather. Spent a quiet morning catching up with computer work (especially the Marina accounts which Bob had not sent me details for about 10 days, due to his trip to Canada) and to write up the last few days on this blog. More later....
Visited the water festival which was not very exciting. All it had was amusements for the kids, very noisy rides in inflatables down the river (right past us which was not a lot of fun) and booths for every organisation in town - from the waterworks company to the local Lions Club and everything in between. Although Meaux boasts a very fine cathedral, which we viewed from a distance, the town itself was very ordinary and somewhat unattractive. We didn't stay long and went back to JC for lunch and a (welcome) return to my sandpapering activity in the afternoon.
I was sitting down at the computer with Bryan early in the evening looking at various navigation programmes when we heard an almighty crash from below. The bathroom cabinet had fallen off the wall and broken. Some 2 hours later we had put it back together again (without the light box which had been on top and weighed far too much), but I think it will not be too long before we need a replacement. Clearly this is not a seagoing ship as it was probably only the wash from the inflatables that did the trick!
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| Rafted up to Bryan Griffin at Meaux |
I mentioned a few days ago how quiet the Marne is compared to the Seine. To give a good example of this (bearing in mind that the Marne is well inside the top 5 navigable rivers of France and a very important waterway) we travelled for 4 hours today, met no river traffic at all for the first 2 hours and then just 3 commercial barges and one river boat in the last two. Our journey today was a lot longer than we had planned (22 kms) as both the planned mooring at Germigny and the back up some 5 kms further on were impossible to use. So we pressed on to Mary-sur Marne, where we found a small but perfectly usable mooring which just happened to be right beside a very nice restaurant. Much fortified by the local speciality 'Tarte de Brie de Meaux' as a starter and by salmon for Charlyn and lamb chops for me, we retired to JC for a siesta. Despite all that I was still able to put in a couple of hours on the varnish work - and all of that in brilliant and very hot sunshine. The only thing to disturb our peace - and it certainly did - was the fact that our mooring seems to be the gathering place for every teenager in the district who use it as a bathing platform to the accompaniment of rather too many screams!
We plan to stay here for a couple of days as we are now well ahead of our planned itinerary and hope to make major progress with the varnish work.
June 28th
Mary is a pretty little village, but suffering, like so many villages of similar size, from an inability to provide enough business to keep the local bakery open. In fact here we found the signs over the door for both the Baker and the Butcher - both of them closed for ever. There is a truck which delivers bread to the village at about 11.00 am - not the most convenient time, but better than no bread at all.
Early in the morning we had quite a sharp thunderstorm, and although it cleared up later for me to get on with the work, it seemed to have put off the teenagers and we had a nice quiet day. Late in the afternoon I spotted a dutch sail boat which was looking longingly at our mooring, so I invited them to raft up to us, which they did. very private couple of whom we saw no more.
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| Good food - just 20 paces from JC at Mary |
June 29th - July 3rd
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| From our mooring at La Ferte |
We were rewarded for our efforts by finding what is probably the best mooring on the Marne - if not the best we have encountered anywhere. We are tucked away behind a tree-grown island on a brand new floating pontoon complete with electricity and water (both free), within 100 yards of the edge of the town and within 300 yards of a supermarket, bakeries (several), Chinese takeaway and almost every thing else. Best of all there is a market on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. We went on Friday and it was excellent with good meat, veg, fruit and VERY IMPOTRANTLY, olives.
During our time here we have been able to make great strides with varnish work and will leave with only one side of the wheelhouse still wanting attention. We may well even get some more paintwork done during the course of today - our last before we move on, facing a trip which could be anything up tp 35 kms. Whoops!
I hope to return to the blog later today and try to catch up with some photos.
July 4th
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| The mooring at Nanteuil |
July 5th
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| Nogent d'Artaud |
July 6th
Quiet day at Nogent l'Artaud. Painting interrupted by showers. Boring!
July 7th
Yesterday evening's visit to the Taverne for Charlyn's pizza was not a success. We have been so lucky with our waterside restaurants up to now that I suppose we were due for a disappointment. This was a big one! Having decided that we would eat at the Taverne rather than just take the pizza home, we went into a quite attractive dining room withs seats for 50 and an open fire for grilling. I chose to have 6 escargots, of which only 5 came out of their shells, followed by ham from the bone , grilled. Although the menu ofered a choice of pommes frites, haricots verts, ratatouille or salad with the ham it came with frites, which were soggy and inedible. I asked the (extremely surly) waitress - probably the wife of the owner for haricots verts, and grudgingly they appeared - from a can! Can you believe that at this time of the year??? I did not eat them. Charlyn's pizza was so buried in cheese that it was impossible to tell what was underneath - if indeed anything at all. What is worse, she woke up with a bad tummy this morning. WARNING - do not visit this restaurant.
Our journey today was very gentle again, just 12 kms and one lock to Chateau Thierry in the heart of Champagne country. We found a very comfortable mooring on a pontoon within 100 metres of the town centre and tied up - probably for a day or three. The town itself seems very pleasant with good walking shops in easy range - and a Chinese restaurant. We cannot resist these as the French seem to have some sort of a love affair with Chinese cooking. We will probably visit tomorrow evening. For now, it will be lunch and supper on JC with a little painting squeezed between the two.
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| Chateau Thierry in flowers |
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| On the way to market - Chateau Thierry |
A stay with two markets. One on Friday which filled most of the lower part of the town. Not as good as some that we have visited, but all the same we found everything that we needed. I had no idea that Chateau Thierry featured to such an extent in both World Wars. It was the site of fierce battles of the trench type in WW1 and in WW2 was a strategic crossing point of the River Marne. In 1940 the French defended the bridge as best they could and created a hero in the person of Pierre Rouge, who was just an officer cadet, but who fought the Germans for posession of the bridge from his tank. he was badly wounded and later died in hospital. The bridge was rebuilt in 1950 and named after this brave young man. later in the war the town was the scene of the first major push accross the Marne by American troops, for whom there are several monuments here, including an American prtestant church.
Whie staying here we met adelightful couple from Oregon, Lyn and Carolyn, with whom we had drinks on JC on Friday evening and the following day lunched with them on board their river boat L'Oregon.
So we didn't actually make it to the Chinese restaurant until Sunday lunch time. Buffet style, and the first place, this year, That I have eaten frogs legs. In a chinese restaurant???. They were very good!!!
Still plenty of time for more work on stripping old varnish, just about done that now.
July 11th
We meant to go only as far as Jaulgonne, a gentle voyage of only some 12 kms. However, when we got there, we didn't much like the look of the mooring and, with some trepidation, decided to press on to Dormans. The reason for the worry was that I had a note saying 'Often full". We had a back up of turning round and going back to a lock some half hour downstream, but hoped not to have to use it. When we arrived at Dormans, the mooring did indeed look pretty full, but we reckoned that we could squeeze in at the end, beyond a British sail boat. Just. Anyway, we made our approach and called to the man on the sail boat to help us. he was extremely reluctant and clearly resented the idea of us coming in at all. So much for the camaraderie of boaters!. We made it, with minimal help from him, and to the accompaniment of various words of discouragement. In all it was a journey of some 25 kms with two locks, all of which we managed in 4 1/2 hours. We will be here tomorrow, so I will report on the town then.
July 12th
Dormans is a nice little town BUT... the railway line passes along the opposite bank of the Marne to the mooring and it must be the busiest line in France. masses of freight traffic which went on well into the night and indeed early morning as well as a busy commuter line - to Paris??
We visited a wine merchant and bought 3 bottles eac of completely unknown (to me) Champagnes, one of which we tried out at lunch time - just as good as the major marques, but really no better than our much loved Cremant de Bourgogne at only just over half the price.
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| Dormans - with JC AND train! |
July 13th
One of the problems of this lifestyle is that it is only too easy to lose track of time, dates or indeed anything that is going on in the 'real world'. Consequently, having gone to bed last night in the sure knowledge that today would be the 12th, and that therefore the major shut down of everything for Batille Day would not be until Friday - I woke up with the dreadful sinking feeling that I might be wrong. I was!!!
So, instead of a leisurely 12 k voyage to Port a Brinson (which incidentally had an extremely nice mooring) we had to push on as far as Epernay since all the locks would be shut for the holiday. Luckily we decided to call ahead and make a reservation at the Societe Nautique, which was just as well since when we got there yhere was only one spot left against the bank. Maybe, without reservation, we could have rafted up to someone, but we felt that our foresight was well justified. I am glad top report that this place qualifies as a 'proper' marina. theer was a lady on the dock to help us in; we were showered with leaflets for local attractions (after all Epernay IS the capital of Champagne) and invited for a free cocktail in the evening. The only drawback is that the prices here for mooring are almost as high as in TCI! The weather today was probably the coldest since we have been in France - what ever has happened to mid-summer?
July 14th
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| The'floral'bridge at Epernay |
July 15th
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| The Avenue de Champagne - Epernay |
A busy day in Epernay! After the usual trip to the bakery (a good ten minute walk each way here) I had time to do another coat of varnish before we headed off to Carrfour for a major stock-up of all the heavy stuff (water, perrier, beer, tonic, wine being most of the weight). We were taken there by car by our neighbours in the marina, Bob and Mary who are on a not very large sailboat. This was brilliant as Carrefour is about 15 minutes away by foot and we would have had to make multiple visits if we had not been in the car.
In the afternoon we joined a small (6 people in all) tour group to explore the Champagne countryside and to have the mysteries of Champagne making explained to us by a very vivacious lady called Nathalie, whose husband (and father in law) are champagne growers. This was much more interesting that the trip around the Catellane factory and we were able to get a real feel for the hard work that goes into the business of making champagne. The family own 6 hectares of vines (which makes their capital value in land about 6 million pounds and they do most of the work themselves. Half the juice is sold to the big houses and the rest they make into Champagne themselves. Everything by traditional methods, almost no machinery. We ended with a tasting of their Brut ( a blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier) and their Blanc de Blanc which is made just from Chardonnay grape. Much nicer than the Castellane and we bought a bottle of Blanc de Blanc and two of Brut to continue our tastings at home. One nice touch is that they will do a 'Private label' Champagne in a minimum of 4 bottles. So look out for Special Cuvee Joli Coeur next year.
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| In Nathalie's vineyard |
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| The grapes of Champagne |
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| ...and the final product |
July 16th
Our last day in Epernay. Sadly we heard today from Judi and Jim (the previous owners of Jli Coeur) that their rental car had been vandalised and they would not have time to visit us. Even more sadly we heard from Bob, my boss, that his mother had passed away.
Today was market day - and a good one too - except for the fact that it was at the far end of town from us and involved a major walk. Not too bad going there but abit of a challenge coming back with all our goodies. Thank goodness we had done the really heavu stuff with Bob and Susan the day before.
Just time for another coat of varnish before the heavens opened and it rained really haard.
July 17th
On our way again at 8.30 am with two possible destinations in mind. But first we had to retrace our steps for about 5 kms down the Marne in order to get on to the Canal lateral a la Marne. This involved a rather complicated manoeuvre to turn round in the middle of the river and to pass under a puller device in order to activate the lock mechanism. Just as we were in the middle of all this, and in full reverse a German owned river boat decided to risk rushing under our stern in order to get to the lock before us. Unspeakable manners, completely against the code of behaviour on the waterways and an extremely dangerous thing to do. he missed our rudder by about 3 ft, staring ahead and avoiding looking at us. Referene our experience in the Arsenal, why is it only the Germans who behave like that!
Having recovered from that unpleasant experience we went through the lock and said goodbye to the river Marne which had been our host for nearly a month.
Our first possible stop at Mareuil sur Ay looked very nice, but was extremely crowded and as we wanted somewhere quiet to carry on with the painting etc we pushed on to Bisseuil wher Bryan had told ud there were some new bollards. He was quite right and we settled in to this very quiet spot on the edge of the tiny village. The only activity in the vaillage is the bar/tabac/epicerie where we can buy bread ( except on Monday) and a few basics. We need nothing except our daily bread so this place will suit us very well until Friday when we will move on to the big town of Chalons en Champagne, just in time for (guess what) their market on Sunday.
We have really enjoyed the experience of the Marne, but are happy to be back on the canals ith their smaller locks which we don't bang about in.
July 18th - July 21st
At Bisseuil. The reason for a long stop here in this very quiet place is so that we can make serious strides with the painting and varnishing. Monday was good, although freezing cold, and I got a lot done. Sadly, Tuesday morning, in spite of the excitement of actually buying bread ( and a croissant and 6 eggs) from the tabac, it was a rainy morning and I was unable to get outside. However, as I write at 11.30 am, the skies appear to be clearing and maybe, just maybe, I will be able to get at it again later. In the meantime we took the opportunity to update the blog, download some photos from the camera and top up the grease in the steering system.
Wednesady and Thursday were also very mixed weather and my ambitious programme was far from finished, dodging the showers and rain. But we did not waste our time and succeeded in getting the fore deck and well properly pressure washed and cleaned. Our pressure washer sprays water in all directions as well as the right one, so we dressed ourselves in our sailing storm gear and managed to stay dry.
Other highlights were that we discovered (another) champagne house in the village - this time a big one with a production of some 300,000 bottles a year. The tasting was good and we bough a couple of bottles to enjoy ourselves. We also had lunch at the Tabac, who only served Croques Monsieur - but they were very good.
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| Joli Coeur in her new Oxford Blue and Cream livery at Bisseuil |
July 22nd
Well, today did not go exactly as planned. We left Bisseuil at 8 45 am en route to Chalons en Champagne, a journey of some 25 kms. However when we arrived at our second lock ( out of 4) we suddenly had no power at all. We were half way into the lock and had to go forward. So the mule (that's me) took over and pulled JC into the lock. Once in I went down to the engine room to try to work out what was wrong. Now you all know that I am no mechanic, but I was bale to diagnose that the throttle cable had either become disengaged, or had broken. Not good, but nothing like as bad as if we had lost the transmission. A couple of phone calls to our trusty friend Steve seemed to confirm this. Anyway I was eventually able to contact the local Renault garage ( at 2.00 pm after their lunch break) and they promised to send a mechanic as soon as possible. The mechanic ( actually the proprietor of the garage) and his side kick arrived at 4.45 pm and after two hours ( and a very modest charge of 118 euros) the problem was solved and we were ready to move forward. By then it was much too late to leave, so we stayed where we were and will, hopefully, still make it to Chalons in time for the market tomorrow.
July 23rd
All is well! We set off for Chalons at 7.45 am, determined to make it in time for the market, but anxious as we didn't know whether we could get a mooring in the town. The throttle control behaved perfectly and we made good time, arrriving at the town marina at about 10.30 am. Here we found the perfect mooring, just above the lock and tucked in tightly behind another British barge. We mad it to the market at a quarter to eleven and had just enough time to rush around and, surprisingly, not forget anything important. back to the barge for lunch and out again to the supermarket for the heavy stuff. Quite a big shop today as this is the last major town before Lulu, Cosmo, Jude, Gilly the dog and the Yugoslav au pair come to stay for two night next Friday.
We are still suffering from very unseasonable weather. Once again today, having started bright and sunny it has now gone dark, cold and poured with rain (of course while we were out shopping)
Too tired to entertain anyone today although there seem to be some nice people in the port. Maybe tomorrow...
Finished the day with Chinese supper - not a success!
July 24th
A real day off. As this is a busy port, full of other barges, we thought we should not do any noisy work today, and in any case the weather was still cold and wet at times.
We asked a delightful Australian couple, Mike and Jane on their own designed replia barge "Drumsara" to come to drinks before lunch - but decided to make it a lunch invitation as well. Great fun. We drank one bottle of Champagne form Nathalie's vineyard and one bottle of Cremant de Bourgogne from our friends Jean Claude and Anna from Rully - and all agreed that there wasn't a lot to choose between them, apart from the fact that the one bottle of Champagne cost as much as two of Cremant!
Mike and Jane are going the same way as us and will end up at their winter mooring just two days down the Saone from St Symphorien, at Pont De Vaux. We will ivestigate that as an alternative to St Symphorien. We will no doubt run into them again and they have promised a return match.
'July 25th
Slightly poor start to the day. The main generator cut out and wouldn't re-start. I later ascertained that it is no longer circulating water and therefore overheated. Sent e mail to Steve asking him to stop by with replacement on his way to St Symphorien. Thank goodness we have a back up.
Gentle 3 3/4 hour journey from Chalons to La Chausee sur Marne - 15 kms and 3 locks. we were going to stop at Pogny, but didn't like the look of the mooring or the village. This one is good with some very smart houses, a bakery and TWO restaurants. We had the plat du jour - pork with fresh beans and tinned peas, which was extremely good and not expensive. Maybe we will go to the other tomorrow evening.
Did more work in the forward well after siesta, so quite a succesful day in all.
July 26th
At La Chausee. Useful day of works on the boat, only marred by me falling down companion way from wheelhouse to kitchen, banging my head and breaking a wine glass, which was fortunately only part full.Made a nice mess though. We had a large commercial barge tie up in front of us, which turned out to be owned and run by a nice Englishman called George Smith and his wife Wendy. George was full of useful information - of which the most immediate was that Vitry le Francois (our next stop) was not only not very nice, but also likely to be full.
July 27th
Delayed our departure to wait for Steve (he is just fantastic - where would we bw without him). he arrived at 11.00 am carrying not only the replacement impeller for the generator but also a pump to pump the oil out of it vai the dip stick hole. So we changed the oil on the main and the back up generators and tested. All was well!
Steve stayed for lunch and we then headed off to Vitry, as it is market day there tomorrow. george was absolutely right. Not a nice place and completely full, so we pushed on to the Canal de la Marne a la Saone and moored just above the first lock -hopefully within bicycling distance of the market. It was quite a long day and we did not tie up until about 6.30pm. Roll on tomorrow!
PS Here endeth the fourth movement - look for the fifth starting tomorrow.
