Nogent sur Marne to Cumieres (Or, Champagne – Here We Come!!!)

Where are you all coming from???!!!

Despite being tired after our long emotional day on Monday 7^th, 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……

 

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.

 

Exiting the tunnel de Chalifert you pass under a bridge carrying the TGV line - there WAS a train passing over!

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. 

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.

Cute treehouse as we leave Meaux

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.

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!!!

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; 1^st May is labour day and everything including a lot of the locks are closed, 8^th May is victory in Europe day, and extra special this year as it is the centenary, 10^th May is Ascension, 21^st May is Pentecost.  There’s then a break until 14^th July followed by Assumption a month later on 15^th August.  1 November (All Saints Day) is next then 11^th 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.”

WWI memorial to the US Troops

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.

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.

 

Some very unusual and very noisy pets in the lock garden.

Pope Urbain II surveys the Marne Valley

Even with crap weather the views are spectacular

Back at the boat, the French had moved on (must have been something we said….) and we only just closed the door when the rain started again and stayed on for most of the evening.

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!

 

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 :)

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!!!

Dormans to Mareuil sur Ay (Or, ‘Is there such a thing as too much champagne?)

Sampling the delights of Philippe Benard Champagne

Firstly, congratulations to all who spotted the spelling mistake in the last entry, Dormant should be Dormans.  It was actually a secret plan to thwart Fran Jam, one of our stalkers, but unfortunately it was him who pointed it out……  Secondly, yes, too much time spent drinking recently and not enough blogging so I’m a bit behind but loads to talk about so will catch up with a few smaller entries rather than one large ‘War and Peace’ type effort.  So we were at Dormans….

We woke to rain on Tuesday 8^th, which along with slightly woolly heads, didn’t encourage an early start for our 14km and 1lock cruise to Reuil and we arrived early afternoon.

There was an excellent track for some Ninebotting practice, so we headed off down the path in search of a stuffed toy garden that had been mentioned.  It’s no longer there, so we headed back into the town and had a look around.  Asides from champagne there isn’t much to the little champagne villages but there is clearly money and the villages are really tidy and very well kept.

Lock amongst the vines

Happy Cheeser enjoying the views

Well kept gardens at the port in Reuil

Showers were to be the theme of the week with them coming and going and us dodging in and out of them, which was slightly disappointing given it’s summer in France and in the south it was up to 40 degrees!  A quick hop to the next village of Damery, 7km and 1 lock where the pontoon mooring had free power and water which we took advantage of as our short cruise hadn’t given the batteries time to charge up and the overcast weather was rendering our solar panels less useful than usual.  After lunch we headed into the town for a look and visited the champagne house of Louis Caster.  Their front of house is like a trendy bar where they offer tastings to clients both corporate and people like us in off the street, and we were given 5 different champagnes to taste.  It was very nice, but we couldn’t really tell the difference between them to be honest, and decided that we’d need to taste a lot more before we could start to differentiate.  We did note that this was a dry one with 6gm of sugar per litre, which is the lowest grammage before it becomes an extra-dry (extra brut).  We learned that Extra-Brut is 0-6gm of sugar per litre, Brut is 6-12, Demi-sec is 12-20, I think, but my memory gets a bit hazy here.  So far, we prefer something around 9gms.

 

Our one lock of the day - our favourite 'V' shaped..... :(

Very nice tasting bar at Louis Casters, but even all this champagne is not enough to distract Mr Queenan from his bloody iPhone...

We were joined by Paul and Elaine on Luv at Damery and it was a lovely evening.

In France when a house has shutters, they have little metal arms to hold them open when the day cools down.  This was the first time we'd seen these shutter holders modelled as little people.

Thursday 10^th was quite cool and had Mike hinting at putting the fire on, but it wasn’t that cold at all!  After 3.5km and 1 lock we were heading to the pontoon at Cumieres and looking through the binoculars I could see a large boat moored up already.  As we got closer I suggested it was WB Lazybones with Jane and Bill on board, which Mike poo-pooed – turns out I was right!  We last saw them in June at St Jean des Losne when we headed off up the Bourgogne and they went east on to the Rhine, and now travelling clockwise back to Roanne we passed them going anti-clockwise to the same winter destination.  It’s always nice to meet up with people especially when you’ve not seen them for a while, so we had a good chat.  After getting our bearings we headed off up the hill on the bikes to the town of Hautevilliers where we had a nice lunch (apart from being pestered by wasps!) and then visited the little church there where Dom Perignon is laid to rest.  Feeling thirsty after our cycle and wander round the town, we headed for Champagne George Thibault where they have amazing views across the valley to enjoy while you sample their wares.  Here you pay for a tasting but then get the money back if you buy six bottles, so we sampled three each, and she threw in the final one for free.  This time we sampled the demi-sec and it was definitely too sweet for us at 13gms of sugar per litre, but we purchased six bottles; 2 of Reserve Brut which is a blend of grapes, 2 Blanc de Blanc which is 100% chardonnay and 2 Blanc de Noir which is 100% pinot noir grape – do we sound like we’re starting to know our champagne stuff??

 

There were great views on the climbe up to Hautevilliers, this one looking out over to Epernay

All the vines are labelled ;)

Still a bit of ripening to go on this pinot noire - or is it the pinot Meuniers....

Roses are planted at the end of the vines to give advance warnings of any pesky bugs, as they'll go for the rose first.

Many of the houses in Hautevilliers have these little 'signs' above the door, showing what the house is or was.  This was a champagne maker.

Carpenter

Butcher!

The very pretty Mairie at Hautevillier

Dom Perignon lies here

The benefits of an oversized beak!

If we drink enough we might start being able to taste the difference :)

Looking back down to Cumieres you can just make out the boats in the bit of water in the centre.

In the evening Jane and Bill came round for a drink and we caught up on where they’d been, plans for next season and their fun and games in a lock when their bow caught on a gate – terrifying!

We decided to do a second night at Cumieres so accepted Bill’s offer of a lift to the supermarket to stock up.  We then washed the boat and felt bad when we saw bits of rust appearing here and there under the flaking bits of paint and decided to make a start on the season’s ‘touching up’.  This also involved t-cutting the whole roof which was followed by waxing – Karate Kid doesn’t have a look in……….  To reward our hard work, we then took the Ninebot out on the most excellent towpath and I put my running gear on so I could get a bit of exercise whilst Mike tried to stop looking like Ian Curtis dancing as he wheeled along.  Returning to the boat 40 minutes later or so, Bill’s curiosity was piqued and it didn’t take much to persuade him to have a try.  It was a very short try as it proved harder than Bill thought it would be and we only just got back indoors when the sky darkened and the rain came on – inevitable when you’ve just washed the boat I guess.  In the evening we went to Bill and Jane for drinks where unfortunately Mike a)drank too much and b)discovered Jane’s accordion – or squeeze box as it really was, but that sounded a bit rude to write ‘Mike discovered Jane’s Squeezebox’………  I nearly bought him one for his Christmas a few years ago, but when I went back to the Bethany shop to get it, it was gone.  I think I had a really luck escape.  It was awful and he was really annoying, deciding that instead of speaking, he would sing everything whilst squeezing the box in and out.  I hope you never have to experience this for real.

On Saturday morning, Lazybones was off sharp as they were out of water so wanted to get to Damery to fill up and we left shortly afterwards to Epernay where we cruised down to the end of the navigable River Marne, turned around and moored up near the supermarket on the edge of the town.  We did some shopping, got some fuel and then headed into the town, the Champagne Capital.  Despite its claim, it’s a rather uninspiring town, until you go onto the Avenue du Champagne, where the big champagne houses line a stunning avenue; Moet et Chandon, Pol Roger, Vieuve Cliquot to name a few.  After taking the little tourist train to get a bit of the history, we were too late for any of the tours which all seemed to stop at 4pm, so we returned to the boat and decided to get up early to do the Mercier tour before we headed off on Sunday.  It’s a really interesting tour as they have 18km of caves so you are taken around on a train.  We then tasted a their Brut and Rose champagnes, and bought a bottle of the Brut which was rather nice before walking back to the boat and making our way to the first lock of the day which would take us off the river Marne and onto the Canal Lateral a la Marne.

Its the end of the Marne (....as we know it...)

A great way to get an overview of Epernay, the Champagne Capital

The Mairie at Epernay has beautiful gardens open to the public.

Avenue du Champagne - Epernay

Posing with Dom outside Moet

Avenue du Champagne

Pretty champagne-themed roundabout welcomes those arriving by road

These large friezes are fairly common to brighten the workers' day being underground for most of it and latterly for the tourists.

The train at Mercier Champagen taking us through the caves

The huge Mercier barrell was taken to the Paris Expo late 1800s

Moet's pretty orangerie

Our cruise was only 7kms and 2 locks to the town of Ay which was like a ghost town.  For one it was Sunday and two, August is when France takes its holiday.  Yes, the whole country, it appears, shuts down; shops, beauticians, electricians, boat mechanics – if you’re going to break down, don’t do it in August as you’ll have to wait to September to get it sorted!  Also, in the champagne region, a lot of the houses take their holidays prior to the onslaught of harvest time late August, early September.  So it was like walking through a ghost town as we made our way to the back of the town and the Cite de Champagne, where we were taken on a fantastic tour by the lovely Margaret, who hails originally from Scotland!  They have a wonderful museum there and as the sun was shining, we were able to walk right into the vines for a closer look.  Their champagne was nice, but at 25 euros was more expensive than we’d been buying (our range so far was 14-19 euros) so we didn’t buy any, but I got a couple of postcards and a little champagne magnet.  Our little rural mooring there was lovely, so peaceful and with the sun making a return, we reluctantly roasted our pork (having the heritage stove heat the boat up on a hot summer’s evening is not a great idea) for tea and then sat out on the back deck enjoying the calm until the sun went down and it cooled down.

The museum housed old machinery and champagne-making gadgets as well as historical advertising.

The brick structures to the right of the picture are chimneys from the caves below.

We were on a roll with the weather and sunshine and blue-skies greeted us on Monday 14^th as we got ready to cruise the 3km and 0 locks to Mareuil sur Ay, pulling up on the quayside that was lined with campervans and motorhomes.  As we tied up, a scooter pulled up next to us, and it was Nicky from Puddleduck, one of the other Roanne boats we’d met earlier in the year.  They were a couple of hours away on the boat but she’d come along to see if there was space and as there was, they’d join us later.  Despite the amount of people around in boats and campervans, the town still felt very quiet, all the shops were shut and later on when we tried to visit a champagne house discovered it was shut and only then did we realise it was a bank holiday.  Our tasting thwarted, we went back to the boats and we took a bottle of fizz onto Puddleduck to enjoy whilst catching up with Nicky and Garrette.  As we finished off our second bottle a lady pulled up on her bike and asked if we’d done any tasting locally.  We explained we’d tried to but they were closed, but she had a plan!!  She and her husband were Belgian and in one of the motorhomes and come here every year to stock up on Philipe Benard Champagne.  They’ve got to know the family over the years and now will ask if anyone else at the port wants champagne, put in a large order and then Monsieur Benard brings it down to the port in his van.  He hadn’t done the delivery yet, so we went to the house with the Belgian man, who’d clearly been tasting all afternoon, and tasted Monsieur et Madame Benard’s champagne.  It was really nice and at 14 and 16 euros a bottle, having drunk the best part of two bottles between us with them, we felt it only right to purchase, so we bought two rose and two brut, as did Nicky and Garrette, then walked a squiggly line back to the port where shortly after, Monsieur Benard arrived in the van and started dispensing the orders.  I suspect the Belgian’s get a good discount for the business they drum up, but it’s deserved, it really was good champagne, and lovely to buy straight from the house from the man whose great, great grandfather had started the business – very nice.

It all started off quite civilised...

Monsieur et Madame Benard were charming hosts

And then it all went a bit wonky.........

Needless to say, after all these bubbles things were on track for getting messy, so we called it a day and headed to the restaurant for dinner where we had a glass of red wine each with our meal after which Mike was struggling to speak, so I took him home and put him to bed.

The thing I have come to notice is that after several heavy nights involving champagne, I never have a hangover after drinking lots of bubbly….not sure if this is good or not!!