News for June 2007
As indicated in the May missive we moved on from Sedan on the 29th May with Pont-a-Bar our destination. There was a cold North wind and choppy water. It felt a bit like winter and a marked change in the weather that we had been experiencing. Since that time we have lurched from scorching hot days to cool days, occasionally with rain, during the month of June. That has not stopped us from doing a fair bit of very enjoyable boating over this month.
Pont-a-Bar was an important stopping point as chandleries are few and far between in France and there was a need to replace four batteries for the domestic supply on the boat. Diane with the French language and Paul with the technical knowledge resulted in sorting out what was needed. The people in the chandlery were very helpful. They only had two batteries in stock but ordered a further two for us. The woman was 'on the case' and made 'phone calls to chase up the order whilst we spent a few days moored up. During that time Diane was called upon from time to time to interpret! Batteries installed and diesel tank filled we turned around to head for Charleville. There was space on the pontoon at the end of the port and not knowing what there was in the port we moored up. As it happens we could have entered the port which we did on our return journey. However, the pontoon mooring had it's advantage. At around 21.00 hrs. we heard the delightful sound of a soprano saxophone. A fellow boater entertained people for about an hour, brilliant.
At Charleville there was a footbridge which normally would have given access to the town with a couple of minutes walk. Unfortunately there was a lot of work happening on the bridge rendering it unusable. However the town had organised a free 'navette' service, a passenger boat, to ferry people from the port to the town, a five minute journey across the water every hour. Paul used his bike to visit the town and Diane, sometimes walked and sometimes used the navette. Whist at Charleville we were delighted to accept an invitation from a French family that we had briefly met at Sedan and live in Charleville. We had a lovely evening and a tasty meal with Eric, Virginie, Antoine (6yrs), Thomas (4yrs) and Quentin (4 months). Eric and Virginie spoke good English and so it was a change to have an evening of English conversation. Another address to add to the directory. We were thrilled that they were able to join us for an Aperitif when we were moored up in the pleasant port of Charleville on our return from Namur.
|
Charleville river mooring
The trip from Charleville to Namur was memorable, an understatement really. The scenery through the Meuse valley was incredible and difficult to capture through photographs. Hills of forest interspersed with high craggy rocks surrounded us for miles and miles. At one point there was a beautiful 'wall of slate' which almost created a pattern. They are views that will never leave us, wonderful. We had been told that it was a lovely journey but it surpassed all expectations. Our first stopover was at Laifour where we just managed to fit in with the help of a boater moving forward a little. We found ourselves in a bit of a 'diplomatic row' between French and Dutch. However we talked with all of them and relationships were fine. Later that evening the French boater showed us an impressive 'viol', a 'hurdy gurdy' which dated back to 1856 and had been part of the family since that time. The different coloured ribbons apparently represented water, wine and wheat. Laifour was a pleasant mooring with water and electricity, no charge!
The following morning we took our leave with the help of the French and Dutch, 'entente cordiale'. We had been rightly advised that we would have no problems mooring at Fumay, again a well organised port, this time with a charge for mooring, electricity and water. We have no objection to paying, especially if it helps with developing further services and repays the people of the town for welcoming boaters. It was at Fumay that we met a British couple Ian and Anna, with their dog, on a boat called 'Ex Libris' and we got to know them even better later in our journey. Continuing through the beautiful scenery we moved onto Givet. The pontoons in the port were a bit short for a 17 metre narrow boat but we were able to moor up on the opposite side where there was a good set up with a pontoon running alongside a quay and a short ladder to climb onto dry land.
The journey from Givet to Dinant took us into Belgium and at our 2nd lock we met up with 'Ex Libris'. It was at this lock where we had to present boat papers and were issued with an A4 sheet permitting us to boat in Belgium. We had expected to pay a nominal sum for a permit but this turned out not to be the case. As we boated there was a marked change in the architecture and the locks. The locks were not particularly deep but very long, clearly geared up for the big commercial barges. We saw quite a few on the move. The lock keepers were situated in their towers and operated the locks. Knowing that we were going to be doing a return journey we observed the locks keenly and trying to decide how we would manage them when climbing rather than descending. Whilst at Dinant we had a visit from a couple of swans with a very young signet, still white and fluffy. We could not resist feeding them but had to be strategic in the process to make sure that the signet had it's share. We have never seen a signet so young.
Moving from Dinant to Namur was a slower journey than anticipated because of waiting for locks, not that we are in a hurry, pointless in a boat. There was again plenty of commercial traffic but also leisure craft travelling South. We counted nine boats coming out of a lock. That gives some indication of the length of the locks. The main port at Namur with electricity and water once again had fairly short pontoons but there was plenty of space on the quay opposite, admittedly without water and electricity but for a couple of days that did not create a problem especially with our new batteries. Using the mini-bus and a 'petit train' we were able to visit the citadel at Namur which covered a vast area. There was a commentary on the 'petit train' which gave useful information about the barracks, ancient church, an arsenal and military hospital designed by Vauban, amongst other things.
|
The 'hurdy-gurdy'
Meanwhile we were thinking about how to manage the climb through the locks to return to France. We left Namur with a big wave from the folks on 'Ex Libris'. At our first lock of the day we actually saw the lock keeper. He appeared to take our ropes and to inform us that we had about a 5 minute wait for a trip boat to join us in the lock. As we waited so the heavens opened and there was a very heavy downpour of rain which lasted until we had finished locking and on the move again. We both looked like drowned rats and had to each take our turn to have a complete change of clothing whilst still boating and dressed to protect ourselves from further showers. Going through the subsequent locks in Belgium we mainly used ladders to rope up, not good practice but bars that should have been set into the lock walls were often missing and when the bars were there they were not necessarily staggered above each other which meant having to unrope whilst still climbing, move the boat backwards or forwards to be able to latch onto another bar. As we arrived back in France there was something quite homely seeing the familiar VNF logo. At the first lock back in France we had boat papers checked and were issued with a 'zapper' to control the locks. After an overnight stay at Vireux Wallerand we moored up at Fumay for lunch and by coincidence met a couple of lads with their mother who had chatted with us when we were moored up there overnight when we were on our way to Namur.. The father is an entertainer and they had brought us a present of a couple of promotional posters with a lovely message written on them. Nicholas, the elder boy wants to be an English teacher and so it was an opportunity to try out a few phrases.
After lunch we moved on returning to Charleville for a couple of nights and then headed for Canal des Ardennes. We took the opportunity to top up with diesel again at Pont-a-Bar and then boated on new waters for us. We spent our first evening in this canal at La Cassine and did have some difficulty in mooring up. Had other boaters been a little more considerate we could have pulled the boat right into the moorings. As it happened we had the stern jutting out a little but we came to no harm. It was a little annoying though that there was at least 5 metres of wasted space on the mooring. It was an earlier start than usual the following morning because of a chain of 26 locks in a 9km stretch of water. According to the information in the guide book it was going to take 7 hours! Speaking with a VNF man, he assured us it would be 4 to 5 hours. He was absolutely correct, it took us 4 hours and 35 minutes. Most of the time we locked with a pleasant French couple . We moored up at Attigny and not having been able to stop for lunch we had a BBQ making use of a picnic table at the mooring and had lunch / dinner. Our journey the next day was showery and bright sunshine in between the showers. We found a good overnight mooring at Variscourt and started boating the next day with nice weather but it turned out to be a less enjoyable boating experience.
We had two loaded peniches (commercial barges) in front of us which considerably slowed the movement through locks and we also had difficulty in organising the activation of the lock at Berry-au-Bac to enter the canal l'Aisne a la Marne. However the worst moment of the day was when a couple on a cruiser seemed to appear from nowhere, some do travel at speed. We were about to start a chain of four locks. We were already moored waiting for the lock and so Paul invited him to enter the lock first which he did. They roped onto the ladder by the blue bar which has to be pushed to activate the lock and immediately pushed the blue bar. The lock gates started to close just as Paul was entering the lock. This could have been very dangerous but fortunately the VNF gentleman shot into the control hut and stopped the gates. Clearly these particular boaters did not want to share locks. After some negotiation with the VNF gentleman he agreed that we could travel separately. We certainly did not want to boat with people behaving in that way. It had felt like a journey full of hassle and so we decided to cut that boating day short and moor at Courcy moving onto Sillery, our intended destination, the next day. Sillery was just as we remembered, a nice setting and not at all busy unlike our next stopping point, Conde sur Marne. Two years ago there were three boats moored including us. The small town has put extra pontoons in place, provided water and electricity, no charge. People seem to have taken up residence. Still, with the help of a British and a French gentleman we managed to moor with a little difficulty because the bow thruster had stopped working and there was some wind. Exploring what had happened to the bow thruster we discovered that it hadn't really been installed correctly in the first place. Just as well Paul understands the technical aspects of the boat. Fortunately our next destination was Chalons-en-Champagne, a large enough town to be able to buy necessary equipment to do the necessary repairs with the help of various people directing us to shops and offering advice. An added bonus was meeting up with Linda and Eric on 'The last Farthing' who we had met at Sedan. Eric kindly loaned Paul some additional tools to carry out the necessary repairs and the bow thruster is in action again. It was also an opportunity to share boating experiences since we last met. We were really pleased to see them again. Now we are heading for Vitry le Francois and then St Dizier where we will be meeting up with visitors who will be boating with us for a few days, extra crew members, always useful.