I know I have said this before but the Marne canal system is
really pretty, peaceful and fun!
Despite the odd day of crappy weather we are enjoying ourselves immensely and it’s amazing to think we can be in the middle of a continent, on top of hills, in a yacht!
Off to Langres now – but due to the above escapade we aren’t
the smartest tools in the box and forget to tell the VNF we are leaving. As a result we arrive at the first manual
lock and find it locked. Luckily we are
joined by some really lovely French gongoozlers and they insist on phoning the
VNF lady to tell her to come and rescue us.
An hour or so later and we are on our way again but we are too late now
to make it to our rendezvous with Fox at yet another bar… our livers breathe a
sigh of relief and we call it a day in the middle of nowhere. Stakes banged into the bank we kick back and
enjoy the peace and quiet.
Our walks are starting to take longer and longer now and we are averaging around 15km a day at the moment. There are so many interesting walks both along and off the canal it’s hard to choose a direction to go in.
One memorable walk leads us to have a close up encounter with a sanglier(boar) hunt.
We had chosen to walk up the road to avoid being peppered by pissed hunters when we saw a group of men getting togged up in hunting regalia. As we moved closer what should come storming out of the nearby woods but a sanglier. What an animal… leggier than a captain cooker, the bristling black beastie galloped briskly towards us causing a minor moment of panic as we wondered which direction we should flee. Luckily it decided two people and one fierce piglet hunting dog posed too big a risk and it turned and cantered away towards the hunters, none of whom had noticed it! Honestly who doesn’t notice 120kg of angry pig bearing down on you, especially when that is the very thing you are out here looking for! Anyway being obliging people we decided to draw their ATTENTION to the danger by calling out and pointing. Lucky for the pig, it literally caught them with their pants down. One bloke had to make a trousers down, shirttail out shuffle around his car to get out of its way, and no one managed to get a shot off! What a spectacle, but one thing you can say for the French is they always see the funny side and this was going to be a story that got told over and over again in the pub that night!
We are nearly at the highest point of the canal. Just 4.8 kilometres of tunnel between us and
downhill to the Med… what a feat of engineering! When we reach the tunnel it is eerie but
surprisingly nice, if a little narrow.
Murray goes cross-eyed keeping CC straight in the semi-darkness for the
hour or so it takes us to get through.
Once out the other side we prepare for our first down locking in
months. No chance to get a system sorted
out as it’s straight into a staircase of consecutively opening locks remotely
operated by the triggering of the first one.
It’s so much easier than going up.
Very little movement and hardly any adjusting of string required just
fenders down. It might be our
imagination but the weather seems different on this side of the hill and a warm
breeze caresses us as we descend quickly through open fields. We may be over 300km from the sea but it
still seems coastal somehow. 8 locks at
5.2m means we rapidly leave the highest point behind and pull in at an old
grain quay for the night.
Despite the odd day of crappy weather we are enjoying ourselves immensely and it’s amazing to think we can be in the middle of a continent, on top of hills, in a yacht!
The villages in this section are slightly run down but so
pretty with wonderful old stone buildings and tiny farmyards complete with
barns and crusty old tractors at their centres.
We spend a lot of time wandering about the hills and woods, mooning over
the do-ups cottages. For those wanting
to know about real estate in this neck of the countryside, you can buy a very
nice two bed stone cottage with large attached tractor shed, in need of a bit
of renovation, on an acre of land for about 25000 euro. An absolute steal! You just have to like peace and quiet and be
able to speak a reasonable amount of French if you want to communicate with your
next door neighbours.
Something else we have just noticed. The French are right into gnomes! Murray says that everyone needs something to
look up to – cheeky giant! At each lock
there is always a gnome of some sort and one garden in particular catches our
eye with its provocative ensemble. Not
every day you see “Flasher” gnome and his surprisingly busty girlfriend!
It’s definitely the end of the cruising season as far as the
canals are concerned and there are not many businesses open this late in the
year… we have yet to find a restaurant open in the smaller villages. Not that this matters too much as we
generally eat on board anyway but we would like to interact with the locals a
little more. We are also seeing signs of
preparations for winter maintenance of the canal system, although the day we
woke up to find the “tide” had gone out came as a surprise to everyone
including the little VNF crews hooning up and down in their white vans! It took them two days to rebalance the levels
and recover the 600mm plus of lost water.
They never did find out what the problem was! A plus side for Bramble was that at one point
the canal overfilled and flushed out a mole… her first taste of one. They have been taunting her with their twisty
turny holes and hills since the UK.
Unsurprisingly this only increases her interest in them and leads to more
frequent trips to the shower due to heavy layers of mud and clay acquired
during mining operations.
After getting the green light to move, we get underway at
our usual time of “dix heure” only to pass immediately through a fishing
competition. The competitors are so intent that they only lift their rods at
the very last minute leading to a sort of honour guard, Mexican wave
style. Trés amusant!
As we cruise along we once more ponder France’s lack of
internet access and general dislike of modern technology. Murray is concerned that we will fall behind
electronic advances if this attitude keeps up across Europe and that not only
will he not have a smart phone but that his wife might end up not be too clever
either. (Honestly, if I didn’t have the
same sense of humour as Murray, he could really get himself in the pooh some
days!) It’s nice to have the time to
think about such mundane things and one of the joys of cruising. Like long distance walking, everything
happens so slowly even the littlest things have relevance.
Today is the first big town we have been to in ages and
Chaumont turns out to be a really nice surprise. Town is a wee way up the hill from the halt
nautique but when we get there we find a lovely market place and grand stone
buildings. Later that night we go up to
find a restaurant but end up getting “McCarthy’ed” in beer bar with Fox and
Cedric; two local lads with an encyclopaedic knowledge of French beers. It turns out Cedric is off to New Zealand in
a few days’ time so we provide him with loads of info while they ply us with
ridiculously strong beer. Fox also
happens to be an excellent French tutor and as the evening progresses we learn
some very interesting phrases that require some rather risqué stick figure
drawings to explain their true meanings… goodness knows what the bar staff made
of the napkins afterwards!
For the beer aficionados everywhere we recommend trying “Deus”. It’s a beer that is brewed in Belgium then shipped to the champagne region where it is treated like champagne (i.e. riddled etc) before being bottled. “Divine Grain Bubbles” is the catch phrase and boy it blows your head off. Very, very, nice and very, very, expensive! At 25 euros a bottle we only had one even though the boys were paying. Despite the bad heads the next day we thoroughly enjoyed our night out.
Thanks Cedric and Fox and hope the hop picking goes well in Tapawera!
For the beer aficionados everywhere we recommend trying “Deus”. It’s a beer that is brewed in Belgium then shipped to the champagne region where it is treated like champagne (i.e. riddled etc) before being bottled. “Divine Grain Bubbles” is the catch phrase and boy it blows your head off. Very, very, nice and very, very, expensive! At 25 euros a bottle we only had one even though the boys were paying. Despite the bad heads the next day we thoroughly enjoyed our night out.
Thanks Cedric and Fox and hope the hop picking goes well in Tapawera!
Off to Langres now – but due to the above escapade we aren’t
the smartest tools in the box and forget to tell the VNF we are leaving. As a result we arrive at the first manual
lock and find it locked. Luckily we are
joined by some really lovely French gongoozlers and they insist on phoning the
VNF lady to tell her to come and rescue us.
An hour or so later and we are on our way again but we are too late now
to make it to our rendezvous with Fox at yet another bar… our livers breathe a
sigh of relief and we call it a day in the middle of nowhere. Stakes banged into the bank we kick back and
enjoy the peace and quiet.
The locks between Chaumont and Langres haven’t all been
automated yet so we are joined by a lock keeper each day who we help open and
close the gates and sluices. They are
all really helpful and we particularly enjoy Michelle’s jokey banter. When we ask his name he sings the Beatles
song to get the point across. Murray
doesn’t have the heart to tell him that it’s a girl’s name! We are travelling with English boat that we
met in Chaumont. Dave and Pamela aboard
Lea Crest have been this way before and pass on some useful information as well
as delicious cake. Pamela’s speaks
excellent French which means we can ask some more interesting questions – it
would be great to be able communicate that well but we are improving.
This area is known for its pig hunting and we see hunters up
on the ridges and hear the tinkling of dog bells as we cruise along. They don’t use their dogs to catch the
sanglier but rather just to flush them out of the copses. We have been warned to take care as the
French are known to shoot anything that moves and tend to drink rather a lot at
these social hunts. Around 25 people are
shot each year by accident. A sobering
statistic!
Our walks are starting to take longer and longer now and we are averaging around 15km a day at the moment. There are so many interesting walks both along and off the canal it’s hard to choose a direction to go in.
One memorable walk leads us to have a close up encounter with a sanglier(boar) hunt.
We had chosen to walk up the road to avoid being peppered by pissed hunters when we saw a group of men getting togged up in hunting regalia. As we moved closer what should come storming out of the nearby woods but a sanglier. What an animal… leggier than a captain cooker, the bristling black beastie galloped briskly towards us causing a minor moment of panic as we wondered which direction we should flee. Luckily it decided two people and one fierce piglet hunting dog posed too big a risk and it turned and cantered away towards the hunters, none of whom had noticed it! Honestly who doesn’t notice 120kg of angry pig bearing down on you, especially when that is the very thing you are out here looking for! Anyway being obliging people we decided to draw their ATTENTION to the danger by calling out and pointing. Lucky for the pig, it literally caught them with their pants down. One bloke had to make a trousers down, shirttail out shuffle around his car to get out of its way, and no one managed to get a shot off! What a spectacle, but one thing you can say for the French is they always see the funny side and this was going to be a story that got told over and over again in the pub that night!
Langres at last. This
is a lovely stop and even though town is again another long walk uphill it was
worth the effort. The town was fortified
by the romans and renamed Andemantunnum (a bit of a mouthful compared to
Langres although maybe easier to pronounce).
The surrounding area is dotted with the remains of outposts and garrison
towns as well as other more romantic ruins and the view is spectacular from the
ramparts but unfortunately all the tourist attractions are closed for the
season. We stop in at the museum (finally
something that is open all year round) and are pleasantly surprised by a really
interesting selection of artefacts and a great audioguide. We while away several hours in the warm dry
surroundings before making our way back down the boat.
We are nearly at the highest point of the canal. Just 4.8 kilometres of tunnel between us and
downhill to the Med… what a feat of engineering! When we reach the tunnel it is eerie but
surprisingly nice, if a little narrow.
Murray goes cross-eyed keeping CC straight in the semi-darkness for the
hour or so it takes us to get through.
Once out the other side we prepare for our first down locking in
months. No chance to get a system sorted
out as it’s straight into a staircase of consecutively opening locks remotely
operated by the triggering of the first one.
It’s so much easier than going up.
Very little movement and hardly any adjusting of string required just
fenders down. It might be our
imagination but the weather seems different on this side of the hill and a warm
breeze caresses us as we descend quickly through open fields. We may be over 300km from the sea but it
still seems coastal somehow. 8 locks at
5.2m means we rapidly leave the highest point behind and pull in at an old
grain quay for the night.
20km walk today as we make a slight miscalculation and end
up 5 km back down canal. Beautiful
countryside. More cattle country than
previously and some lovely charolais bulls lounge about in the fields. We have a slight faux pas with our French
today and wonder why it is the bolangier (car painters) doesn’t sell
croissants! Bolangerie, bolangier; it
all looks the same on a sign when your dyslexic, not sure what my excuse is
however! Luckily a bolangerie van toots
past so we don’t go hungry…
We are all stiff from yesterdays “short” stroll so it’s a
bit of a slow start. Amusingly we have
stopped in the middle of a chain of locks and no one noticed so we have to call
from the first lock to get it activated.
Lots of laughs on both sides and finally they get the message to “ouvert
la porte”!
The locks are small again and in some we have 6” all
round. Good job Murray has nerves of
steel and is an excellent close quarters boat handler. CC doesn’t have a scratch on her so far and
the only time we have touched the wall the stainless steel rubbing strake just
peeled a bit of paint off a rail. Pretty
good going compared to some of the damage we have seen on boats.
FYI - Murray is on a “regime” at the moment due to the
effect all the wonderful French pastries are having on his physique ; his
version is entitled “diet by dog” and involves only eating some your food and giving the rest to the dog … I have point
out that as this is Bramble we are talking about, this should really only be
viewed as mini-diet.
We are now leaving the Haute Marne and entering the Côte
D’or region. The countryside is flatter
and less treed. Plenty of crops are
being grown and the soil is a thick rich red.
Bramble begins to turn orange with daily digging sessions. There is a surprising amount of
wildlife. Coypu peer inquisitively out
from the canal banks and frogs whistle their approval as we wait for the
locks. Cormorants are numerous and this
reminds us we heading towards the sea once more. It’s still very unpopulated and the villages
appear deserted for the most part. It
all adds to the feeling of space and a slow pace of life.
At one stop we take a walk to the nearby village of
Fountain-Francaişe and are once again reminded that British royalty once spent
a lot of time in France hunting and chasing skirt! One of the Henry’s enjoyed this area very
much and left his mark everywhere and we can see why. This is beautiful part of France and the
landscape seems to be one that we are genetically driven to enjoy. Fountain-Francaişe epitomises the perfect
French village for us. Just the right
amount of locally run shops, a stunning chateau with a fabulous lake, a pretty
river running through a backdrop of beautifully restored honey and pearl stone
buildings and funky local bar/café. What
more could you ask for really??
The weather has turned again and we get to enjoy some
beautiful autumnal days and strip back down to t-shirts and shorts. We know it won’t last but it’s nice to make
the most of it.
Bramble finally gets to see coypu up close and personal over
the next few days. We share a lock with
one much to everyone’s surprise… I suppose it’s one way to transverse the canal
system!
We hadn’t realised how many of these furry beaver like critters there are on the canals. Brought in from South American to control aquatic weeds, they are now considered a pest and efforts are being made to eradicate them from sections as they damage the banks and are known to supplement their supposedly vegetarian diet with the odd choice bit of wildlife.
Unfortunately though they must have also have a lovely rodent smell and after seeing a dead one on the road Bramble decide to investigate more closely and heads off down a burrow. Many stressful minutes later for Murray she emerges literally blood red, and possibly victorious, with several nasty open wounds to the top of her head and face. Bearing in mind an adult coypu (or “rangondon” as the French call them) is about the same size and weight as Bramble it could have been a lot worse but it still has to be a quick up sticks and off to the nearest vet for a stab of tetanus and antibiotics!! Interestingly enough at the vets we learn the word “terrier” means “burrow” in French – how appropriate!
We hadn’t realised how many of these furry beaver like critters there are on the canals. Brought in from South American to control aquatic weeds, they are now considered a pest and efforts are being made to eradicate them from sections as they damage the banks and are known to supplement their supposedly vegetarian diet with the odd choice bit of wildlife.
Unfortunately though they must have also have a lovely rodent smell and after seeing a dead one on the road Bramble decide to investigate more closely and heads off down a burrow. Many stressful minutes later for Murray she emerges literally blood red, and possibly victorious, with several nasty open wounds to the top of her head and face. Bearing in mind an adult coypu (or “rangondon” as the French call them) is about the same size and weight as Bramble it could have been a lot worse but it still has to be a quick up sticks and off to the nearest vet for a stab of tetanus and antibiotics!! Interestingly enough at the vets we learn the word “terrier” means “burrow” in French – how appropriate!
Due to Bramble’s adventures we have now left the canal
system prematurely and turned right onto the Saône River. We have been expecting the worst because of
potentially increased flow rates but the river turns out to be quite benign and
we enjoy a bit more room to manoeuver.
It’s not as pretty as the canals but interesting none the less. The stopping places include giant stone stepped quays. As the level of the river changes more or less steps are exposed. Not the place to be in a flood but handy none the less. The towns are definitely not as pretty as the Haute Marne either but they do grow on you and I imagine they are prettier in the summer when the trees are in leaf and the hanging baskets planted. We stop in Auxonne at the H2O marina. We had thought about overwintering here but are glad we changed our mind as it is very exposed to the wind and prone to flooding. The town has a military base but sadly even that doesn’t really add to its appeal in any way… next stop St Jean de Losne and our base for the winter.
It’s not as pretty as the canals but interesting none the less. The stopping places include giant stone stepped quays. As the level of the river changes more or less steps are exposed. Not the place to be in a flood but handy none the less. The towns are definitely not as pretty as the Haute Marne either but they do grow on you and I imagine they are prettier in the summer when the trees are in leaf and the hanging baskets planted. We stop in Auxonne at the H2O marina. We had thought about overwintering here but are glad we changed our mind as it is very exposed to the wind and prone to flooding. The town has a military base but sadly even that doesn’t really add to its appeal in any way… next stop St Jean de Losne and our base for the winter.
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