Popping Along....

We were entering the Champagne region, quite a large area with the centre for us to be at Epernay.

Previously we have stayed at Epernay on a trip down to the south of France a few years ago where we had hired a canal boat for a trip on the Canal Du Midi. This holiday on the Canal du Midi had fuelled our desire to travel through France by river and canal, oh and 'the orca issue' too of course.

Originally, Mike had suggested sailing down to Bordeaux and travelling down to the Mediterranean on the Midi, luckily I did some research and realised thst our draught at 1.5m was just too deep for the Midi.... detail schmeetail...

Mike had recently bought and converted a VW van, on the pretext that he would use it for work when travelling between surveying jobs (didn't happen very often!) and was keen to try it out as we travelled down to Sete.

A classic Canal Du Midi shot!

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Our first stop had been Epernay. It was the middle of September, and it was freezing and wet, leaving us with not-so-fond memories of the town. It will be interesting to see if our thoughts will change.

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Dammery Village

On our way along the Marne, there was a stop just below a lovely little village called Dammery. We were alone on the pontoon with a hotel boat parked just ahead of us. There were many hotel boats in this region. I felt sorry for them as the weather really wasn't cooperating, and the decks were rarely able to be used due to the heavy rainfalls, and it was still cold too.

This swan is investigating the hotel boat.

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The calorifier, which Mike had newly installed prior to the trip, had failed - just a fluke according to the manufacturer, but rather annoying after all the hard work Mike had put into upgrading the boat. A new one is being sent to us, but after trying to arrange delivery at sites along the way, it was deemed better to send it to Paris Arsenal where there would always be someone present to accept the delivery.

At other ports, they have responded that 'yes, it is okay to have a delivery sent to them', but upon further questioning, they obviously wouldn't be available if it arrived at lunchtime!

So Mike got out the Brompton bike and peddled 15km to Epernay where he then caught the train back to Paris.

Sprocket and I had a lovely walk along the river and visited a couple of the champagne villages along the way.

The restaurant across the bridge had been reported as good, I had done a recce to check it would be open, and we would dine there when Mike returned from Paris, best laid plans and all that ...

We arrived at the restauarant in good time but it was definitely not open! There was another little bar in the village which we had previously noted advertising 'plat du jour' and so we weren't too concerned and walked into the village, sat down ordered a beer and asked about the plat du jour.

Guess what, a gallic shrug and a no dinner tonight reply. Luckily we have good supplies on the boat for just these situations.

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From Damery we headed for Epernay, where we were to moor in the grounds of the tennis club, not very far from the centre of town.

By now we had lost our remote controls for the locks and we were to use the 'twisty pole ' method.

This involves, catching a suspended pole, twisting it to begin the lock operations (supposedly) and releasing it in time so as not to knock off the skippers head .. whoops I often seem to time it not quite correctly.

So excited were we about the 'twisty pole' mechanism that we entered the lock to the Canal Lateral a la Marne and it wasn't until we'd exited and moved over for a large hotel barge (heading for Epernay) that we realised that we had gone the wrong way and Epernay was found a few kilometeres further back along the river Marne.

More 'twisty pole' manoevers , back down the lock , and we were back were we had been an hour previously.

Anyway, we pottered along to Epernay, worried we may not have a berth if the club was busy, and arrived to find that there were only two other boats, who were both leaving.

The tennis club was very accommodating, if not a little eccentric, and we had a nice stay for two nights.

Épernay is best known for Champagne and the town's main attraction, Avenue de Champagne, is one of the most prestigious streets in the world!

It is a busy tourist town, very pleasant with lots to do revolving around champagne. There are also very good restaurants and a really lively buzz to the town, a much better experience than our previous visit.

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Leaving Epernay, we were to enter our next waterway system, the Canal lateral a la Marne, though strictly speaking we had already entered a couple of days earlier.

For some reason on leaving we managed to drop not one but two of our fenders into the river which was running quire fast, and so had to spend a bit of time retreiving them with the boat hook, quite bizarre!

Knots.. I'm not great at bowlines and Mike is rubbish at fender knots!

I've watched loads of youtube vieos on bowline tying but just have a bit of a mental block, so I have to keep on trying! I do however use modified Millers and Chinese finger traps on lots of other things around the boat.

The bowline is an ancient and simple knot used to form a fixed loop at the end of a rope. It has the virtues of being both easy to tie and untie; most notably, it is easy to untie after being subjected to a load. The bowline is sometimes referred to as king of the knots because of its importance! Better get a bit better at tying them I suppose :)

I use a horse hitch to tie on my fenders , which seems to work out fine, and is quick to tie and untie when nee

Mike uses a clove hitch- but they often fall off, just stating a fact!

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After going through the lock again, we stopped at Ay as there was a fuel station nearby and we keep reading that we need to carry and collect fuel regularly. Mike cycled to the fuel station and back with the 20litre can on the back of the Brompton, a bit hairy and we hope we don't have to do this too often. The fuel was added to the tanks, but we don't seem to have used too much so far.

Tonight we stopped at a fantastic halte just outised of Mareuil-sur-Ay, the only boat again and with beautiful veiws towards the champagne vineyards. A walk into the village, past massive champagne chateaux and to a very livley bar which was actually serving food- result!

The weather was glorious and Sprocket and I had a lovely early moring walk up to the statue on the hil opposite. This was dedicated to Mary as the village had offered her their prayers the night before they believed they were going to be occupied in the war, and the next day they were saved and so they ae forever grateful to their guardian angel.

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Onwards to Chalons-en-Champagne, a proper canal now with smaller and more frequent locks, canalized sides, and much less water current.

Chalons-en-Champagne was busy and there wasn't space for us at the port de plaisance, though plenty of space to tie up alongside the canal adjacent to a nice park. Unfortunately there were very few mooring posts or rings as there were two very long hotel boats moored up and using those posts which were available.

Luckily a lovely man in a very smart motor boat lent us some mooring stakes, as we had managed to leave ours at home in the rush to get ready, and there didn't seem to be anywhere in France so far where we could purchse any, we were a bit worried regarding this as we thought that we may need them on the smaller canals if other boats had taken available posts. We needn't have worried however as there was rarely a time when we were moored with other boats, the canals being exceptionally quiet this year. A combination of the weather, the Olympics and the 'weed' problem which we were yet to experience.

Chalons-en-Chamoagne is lovely, a typical French town with an ancient town square, massive cathedral, good restaurants and fantastic park which we were moored next to.

Unfortunately there was a festival of circus (there is a huge circus school based here) and street performance going on for the weekend. We tried to watch some of it, but it wasn't great, and then monotonous music which went on and on and on... finally stopping at 4am, which is apparently quite normal in France!

However, the following morning the park was spotless, all cleared up and back to being pristine by 11am.

This is something we notice in many French towns: their public spaces are very important, and there is a league of council workers changing bin bags, clearing up litter and graffiti, and tending trees and gardens.

It seems to follow that, in general, there is less litter and more pride in their communal spaces.

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The following night we moved to the little port de plaisance and met a few more boaters, some going our way and some having come from where we were going, There were various stories of weed and associated problems and whether out draught of 1.5m would be an issue,

Well there was only one way to find out...