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| Where are you all coming from???!!! |
Despite being tired after our
long emotional day on Monday 7th, we were up sharp, filled with
water and away just before 9am the following morning. As we had to do a bit of catching up and had
done the River Marne last year, we decided to do a few long days, and as the
sun was out, it was a pleasure to be boating.
However, our early start and good humour ground to halt as we approached
the first lock of the day and pulled in to let the commercial barge that had
come up behind us, pass and go up the lock first. In France commercial barges have priority and
on some busy waterways you can wait for over an hour if one is coming, as
they’ll make you wait so it can go through the lock first. As he past us, the marinier on board gave a
wave of acknowledgement and headed into the lock. Then a tiny cruiser entered the lock from
above and came down, and on them exiting and seeing the light go green, we
pushed off and moved towards the lock, only for the light to go red, at which
point I turned around and saw another commercial behind us in the
distance. The lock keeper (who had not
responded to my VHF call) came out of his hut and told us we’d have to
wait. It’s the rules, but it was
annoying as we could have been up the lock and away before he even
arrived. So we turned around and moved
back to let the Commercial through and couldn’t believe it when as the lock was
emptying for us to go up, I looked over my shoulder and saw a huge gravel barge
barging up the river. Mike was all for
going, so I hung off the quayside, but the barge just kept coming and was
clearly taking the lock.
Finally after he was gone, we
were allowed up, only to catch him up as we’d gone onto a section of canal
running alongside the river, a deviation, and his draft was such he could only
crawl along. Give him his due, at a
wider section Mrs Mariniere came out and waved us past, which we did gratefully
as we didn’t really fancy doing the next 10km at tick-over……
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| There are lots of rowing clubs along the Marne, it really reminds us of the Thames in places. |
We arrived at the next lock
to see the second commercial in front going in and up and radio-ed the
lock-keeper – no response……. So we hung
back and waited but when the commercial left the lock above us, the gates
remained open and the lock didn’t start preparing for us to go up next. We pulled over onto the side and Mike went up
for a look to see if there was a boat waiting to come down, but there wasn’t, and the lock-keeper had vanished as well.
Mike went into his hut and could see us clearly on his screen via the
cameras looking down the canal, so he must’ve seen us waiting as he put the
commercial up. Mike shouted and hung
around, but it was deserted. So we
waited. We waited 40 minutes, at which
point the big gravel barge appeared around the corner behind us and
miraculously the lockie appeared and the lock began to prepare. But bless the gravel barge, he hung way back
and made his intention clear that we should go up first, so we got a green
light and were finally underway again. It was annoying because the lock-keeper
clearly had decided that he would put the gravel barge up before us and we’d
have to wait, despite the fact he had more than enough time to put us through
first and then have the lock ready for the gravel barge 40 minutes later, so
technically, he held up the gravel barge unnecessarily.
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| Exiting the tunnel de Chalifert you pass under a bridge carrying the TGV line - there WAS a train passing over! |
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| And at the lock just past the tunnel, surprise, surprise, we had to wait for a commercial coming down! |
The last time we’d been on
this stretch of water we had seen a couple of commercial barges but not the
amount we were seeing today and we wondered if they were all catching up from the
stoppage we’d had on the Seine.
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| One in front and one coming towards us....... "Gasp!!!" :D |
Anyway,
the two hold-ups made our long day even longer and it was nearly 6pm when we
pulled in to the port at Meaux, to discover that the port had suffered flood
damage over the winter and they were only now getting around to repairing
it. So whilst we managed to get onto a
pontoon, there was no way to get off the pontoon onto land – they’d removed the
wooden quay the pontoons attach to. We
needed a couple of things from the supermarket – a well-deserved ice-cream
being one – so we got our plank off the roof and used that – although it was a
bit tricky getting back onto the pontoon again as there was nothing to hold on
to – yikes!!!
The lack of access also meant
we didn’t really socialise with the first two pleasure boats we’d seen for
days, Kokoro (with Steve and Pay-Chen onboard, who we’d met when we wintered in
Auxerre), and Archangel, a pretty barge with the most beautiful flower boxes
I’ve seen. We ended up just shouting
across to them! As they had arrived
before the quay was lifted, the workers had left their pontoon connected, but
I’m not sure for how long………
We allowed ourselves a little
bit of a lie-in the next morning and left just before 10am, looking forward to
a cruise on the quiet river in the sunshine.
We had intended to leave earlier and reach Mery-sur-Marne by lunchtime,
to take advantage of the fantastic restaurant, Quai de Brunes, but having
checked, realised it was closed on a Wednesday, so we’d just go past and not
need the two-hour pause in our cruising day.
Last year we saw no commercial traffic on the river after Meaux, but on
our way to La Ferte sous Jouarre (Still sounds like they named the place Fart!)
we saw four commercial barges on the move and more passed us after we moored. Having spent a few nights in La Ferte last
year, we did a top-up at the Carrefour supermarket, filled with water and were
off sharp the following morning.
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| Cute treehouse as we leave Meaux |
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| This is the site of an inclined plain that used to take boats from the Marne onto the Canal de L'Ourqe that we cruised last year. |
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| Last year after Meaux, we saw no commercials at all on the Marne. This time we're seeing at least 3-4 every day. |
It was a stressful departure
as we were at the lowest we’d ever been on diesel with the tank showing just
below a quarter full. Now, if the gauge
is correct, this wouldn’t have been a problem, but we’re just not sure quite
how accurate the gauge is, as our water one still shows two bars full when the
tank is dry! Slightly concerned, we had
decanted some red diesel from our front tank (which the gauge for has jacked in
completely and is showing no reading, but we’re not too worried as we filled it
before leaving Roanne and we’re only using it for cooking in the evening). As usual, our little pump, operated by the
drill, and which is fantastic when it works, was doing its usual intermittent
thing but we eventually managed to sook out about 5 litres. We refrained from putting it in the
propulsion tank though, as it’s illegal to use red diesel for propulsion in
France and although we’ve never been stopped and checked, we knew that knowing
our luck, today would be the day.
The Marne had a bit of a flow
on it, and I was a nervous wreck, not made to feel any better as Mike ran through
the drill of what we’d do if the engine cut out (anchor launched, top up with
the red diesel, head for the side – having probably not been able to get the anchor
back up and having to cut it and leave it on the bottom……). So as we got held up at the first lock by a
commercial ahead of us, I was almost having a meltdown at the thought of all
the diesel we were wasting sitting there.
Once up the lock, we pulled into the side and had another go at
decanting some red out of the front tank, much to the amusement of the next
commercial of the day heading down the lock, but gave up with a dribble when
the motor began to smoke……. I insisted
that we put in the red diesel we had which would give us another 6 or so
kilometres out of the 20 we had left to do and to where we could get diesel.
For some reason, doing this
pacified my racing pulse somewhat, and the rest of the journey was slightly
calmer as the flow eased on the river as moved away from the lock and
weir. However, it was still with some relief
that four hours later, we pulled into the lock at Charly and moored on the quai
above for the night. For us, Charly
signals the start of the champagne region, the vines start to come into view
and it was where we did our first tasting and buying last year. But for the moment, all we wanted was diesel,
so it was off on the first of four trips to the Super U 200metres away to fill
the tank and then refill the two jerry cans as spare – we didn’t want another
day like today!!!
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| View from a porthole at Charly - vines, lovely vines! |
We had intended to do a big shop
but the supermarket itself was closed as it was a public holiday (again!) in
France. They have a few in the month of
May; 1st May is labour day and everything including a lot of the
locks are closed, 8th May is victory in Europe day, and extra
special this year as it is the centenary, 10th May is Ascension, 21st
May is Pentecost. There’s then a break
until 14th July followed by Assumption a month later on 15th
August. 1 November (All Saints Day) is
next then 11th November, Armistice and lastly Christmas Day and New Years
day. Not that you needed to know this
but it’s got it clear in my head now!
Mike had a teleconference for
work as I did the last petrol run and having checked if the restaurant next to
the mooring was open and finding it wasn’t (holiday), we cooked the tea and settled
in for the night.
After a leisurely browse
around the Super U in the morning, we had a lovely cruise the next day taking
us all the way to Chateau Thierry, winding our way through the beautiful countryside
in glorious sunshine – shorts weather all round! On arrival we couldn’t get on to the high
wall quay, so ended up on the pontoon mooring for 5euros 44 for the night. It was a glorious day, so we packed a picnic
and headed off to the American war memorial on the hills above the town. When we visited last year it was being
restored and was fenced off, but even then it was still hugely impressive and
we were keen to see it in its full glory, but it’s also just a great place to
visit. It’s so peaceful and offers great
views and just has a special feel to it.
We weren’t disappointed. This
time, not only was all the fencing gone allowing us to see it properly, the
visitor centre was open which has a small exhibition explaining the events of
WWI in this area and the involvements of the American troops. It’s very well done and the story told well
so you come away understanding what had happened and what might have happened
had the allies not had the support of the US troops at that point. There are some fantastically sad photographs
of the devastation of the small towns and villages in the area, and one which
sticks to mind of red cross nurses assisting troops at a train station, and
written on one of the train doors is, “It’s a long way to Chateau Thierry.”
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| WWI memorial to the US Troops |
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| Mike's delicious Greek chicken pie he made for tea |
After a full English breakfast
the following morning it wasn’t such a long way to Dormans; 24km and 4 locks to
be precise. We moored at the same spot
at the campsite as last year and settled down to get on with some work on the
boat. Around teatime there was an
amazing thunder storm with heavy rain that must have lasted the best part of an
hour. Fortunately the rain had stopped
by the time we were heading out for a most marvellous dinner at Sylvian Suty.
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| The amazing Chariot de Fromage! |
After more rain overnight
everything felt a bit damp and cold, so first thing on Sunday morning we lit
the fire! Unbelievable that we had had
shorts on for the previous ten days or so.
It was another quiet day on the Marne seeing no other boats on the move,
not even the usual 3 or 4 commercial barges we’ve been seeing – they must take
the weekend off! We pootled along taking
turns to warm up in the boat and after 11km and 2 locks reached our evening’s accommodation,
the pontoon at Port-a-Binson. After
getting the French couple on their little cruiser sitting in the middle of the
pontoon to shuffle up, we moored up and took shelter as the heavens opened
again. As we sat a commercial barge and
then a hotel boat passed by but all else was still. With the rain abating an hour or so later, we
got our jackets on and headed off up the hill to Chatillon-sur-Marne. We had seen the town from the river last
year, with the big statue of Pope Urbain II looking out over the valley, but
hadn’t stopped to explore, so this was a new mooring and new town to visit for
us. It was quite a climb and with it
being Sunday the town was closed when we got there, all apart from the tourist
information office, which was open and had the most gorgeous cat welcoming any
tourists! The cat’s human confirmed our
worst fears – all the champagne houses were closed, so there’d be no tasting,
but he gave us a leaflet with the history of the statue and we went to take in
the views.
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| Some very unusual and very noisy pets in the lock garden. |
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| Pope Urbain II surveys the Marne Valley |
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| Even with crap weather the views are spectacular |
It was still raining when we
woke up, big, wet drops everywhere, but on a plus side, it was washing all the dust
and crap off Quaintrelle! We hadn’t bothered
plugging into the power the previous night, but as our solar was now rendered
useless by the weather and we weren’t going to move in such weather, I dashed
out and hooked us up. Mike meanwhile got
the fire lit again……….
The rain eventually eased off
and we filled with water and prepared to push off, unable to see the
surrounding countryside as it was coated in mist – just as well we saw it last
year then!
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| Last year we moored at the town of Reuil and went off along the towpath in search of the Teddy Garden. It was nowhere to be found but we saw a fenced off area that looked like it had been something. This year the teddies are back, if you look closely :) |
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| A picture to show it's not all shorts n sunshine on board Quaintrelle ;) |
We just did a short hop of
13km and 2 locks (2 and ½ hours) to Cumieres with no rain but surrounded by
grey and at times very black looking clouds.
A forecast 5pm deluge came to nothing as we walked up the champagne
house, Phillipe Martin and enjoyed our first tasting session of the year. The champagne was delicious and the trainee
receptionist spoke very good English explaining about the house’s history and
the different kinds of champagne they make.
We had four generous samples and settled on buying a few bottles of
their Rose and one of their Blanc de Blancs which is made with 100% chardonnay.
We were now back on track
with our schedule to get to Nancy for the end of May, but unfortunately I’m
still running slightly behind with the blog!!!
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