Dormans

Moored up next to the campsite here yesterday. Nice spot, as you can see, so we decided to stay 2 nights. There is a very impressive WWI memorial here, in the park of a 14th century chateau. Dormans was chosen as the site due to it's key position in the 2 battles of the Marne. Photographs at the memorial show how much of the town was reduced to rubble.
Those of you that are going back to school tomorrow, hope you have a happy term. I shall be thinking of you, sitting on the deck in the sunshine (hopefully) with a large glass of red!

Cumières

29th August

We are now in Cumières, which is a free, village mooring with electricity and water. There is a big race going on here this weekend, involving cycling, running, canoeing and shooting. We’ve had ringside seats for the canoeing. This morning we cycled to Hautvillers, the home of Dom Perignon and a really pretty village. (Cycled isn’t quite true – there is a very steep hill which we walked up and zoomed down.) The weather is crap, it’s Sunday so I am lazing around. Pity as it is a truly beautiful place.

The river is quite full with a 1 ½ Kts. current in the right direction. Good for a trip tomorrow. Roll on the Indian summer.

The Marne

29th August
We are now off the canals and on the river Marne, on our final stretch to Paris. We had an eventful day on Friday. We made an early start from Vaudemange as we knew we had chain of 8 locks to get through. The sun was shining and we were making good progress until just after the lock at Mareuil. There was a keep left sign and one buoy to indicate the water was shallow on the other bank. The shallow area obviously extended a lot further than we realised as I managed to run us aground! David tried various manoeuvres without success, we were stuck fast. What to do? Luckily, there was a man on the bank who offered to drive over the other side and attempt to tow us off with his land rover. I phoned the vnf to let them know what had happened as we would be blocking the navigation with the rope. We launched the dinghy and I got in and rowed across with a tow rope and, with the help of the 4x4’s winch, the boat was freed. What a relief! We gave our saviour a bottle of (David’s) champagne and continued on our way.
We had hoped to moor at Ay or Dizy and then cycle into Epernay, but Ay was too shallow and Dizy was full so we ended up turning towards Epernay. It started to rain and we had the heaviest downpour we’ve seen, (David sent me down below – a first). To finish off the day nicely, we ended up on our most expensive mooring yet @ €2/m!= 34
However, we liked Epernay and were able to get the fridge cold, charge all our electrical appliances, fill up with water, do the washing and visit a Champagne producer (included in mooring fee). The tour did go some way to explain the high price of champagne. All the pinot noir grapes have to be picked by hand so as not to damage the skins, which would taint the colour of the wine. They are then pressed very slowly, again because of the skins. A second fermentation takes place in the bottle. The bottles are gradually turned upside down so that the sediment collects in the neck. The necks of the bottles are then frozen and the gas in the wine forces the frozen sediment out, et voilà. Ready to drink in about 3 years.

Reims & Sillery

We stayed in Reims for a couple of nights. I did all the cultural things like the cathedral, basilica, art museum and archaeological museum. The cathedral does have a big 'wow' factor when you first see it and the art museum had some beautiful early portaits by Cranach. The archaeological museum is housed in a UNESCO world heritage site and houses an interesting collection of tapestries telling the life of St Remi. He baptised the first Christian king of France, Clovis, in 498.










Have been in Sillery for the past couple of days with some friends that we met last year. We are right in the middle of the champagne region and went for a cycle through the vineyards yesterday. There are little stone markers at the side of the road, naming the owner the vines - Moet et Chandon, Taittinger, Mumm, etc and loads of smaller producers.

Canal de l’Aisne a la Marne

21st August
It is now truly hot and sunny. We have left the Canal des Ardennes and turned onto the Canal de l’Aisne a la Marne and are moored in Reims. We had a visitor recently. We were in Rethel and heard a few plaintive cries from a young ginger and white cat. She came on board and was very friendly and, yes, of course we fed her. We put her out when we went to bed but kept hearing footsteps so guess she stayed on board as she was still around in the morning. Very tempted to take her with us but didn’t think it would be fair – she looked well looked after and expect she had a home somewhere nearby.

17th August

The weather has not been kind to us for the past few days. There has been persistent, heavy rain for at least 48 hours. I don’t recall it raining like that at home – not without any breaks? We decided to stay put on our rural mooring for a couple of days as it’s not much fun cruising in the rain. Went out for Sunday lunch to the local restaurant – what a treat. There were a couple of local families, us and someone playing all the old favourites on an electric guitar. In between serving and cooking, the owner came and did a bit of karaoke. Peter Kay couldn’t have done it better! The meal was excellent and it was a very entertaining way to spend a wet afternoon.
Scenery on this canal is stunning. The surface of the water is often flat and still, showing a full reflection of the trees along the bank. The leaves are just beginning to dry out, they’ve lost that lush, green look, and you can tell that Autumn isn’t far away. There is a huge variety of wildlife – millions of pond skaters, vivid green damsel flies, herons, cormorants, kingfishers, coypu… and we travel slowly enough to be able to watch it all.

Canal des Ardennes

The French seem to keep their wifi locked up more than the Belgians and so we haven’t been able to log on for a while. It’s Sunday 15th and pouring with rain, so I’m writing this off-line to upload when I can.
Charleville-Mezières was a great town. It was all built to design in the 17th century and has a fabulous town square based on the Place des Vosges in Paris. From there, we turned onto the Canal des Ardennes and found a quiet mooring at La Cassine. The landscape is much more open than on the Meuse – rolling farmland studded with yellow-stone buildings and woodland. We’ve been doing lots of cycling, exploring the countryside and villages and burning up the calories from all the pain au chocolates!
We are getting used to French life. Everything is shut on Mondays and all the shops shut between 12 and 2 for lunch – even the big department store in Charleville-Mezières. The food is delicious and all seems to taste so much better than at home. There are lots of fruit trees along the canal and we have foraged apples, blackberries and plums so far. I made a crumble and managed to burn it by placing it too near the burner at the bottom of the oven!

ABOUT JOHANNE

Johanne is a Dutch Barge, type Zeil Klipper.
Basic dimensions are 17.27m. long x 4.43m. wide & draws about 1.5m.
She weighs around 38 tonnes & was designed to carry about 60 tonnes of cargo, possibly grain & coal.
The mast is raised & lowered easily by a forward deck winch & a fixed A frame. We do this in about 10 minutes of light labour to raise & lots less to lower.
She has a full gaff clipper sailing rig which unfortunately is not in commission. The standing & running rigging all needs looking at & maintenance though the sails are in fine condition. The mast is bad & needs serious repair. Hopefully we will get her sailing again when we reach the Baltic which is slated for 2012 / 2013.
The motor is a fairly well used Ford 6 cylinder diesel of around 120 hp with a hydraulic Borg Warner gear box driving a three blade propeller. We cruise using about 1100 rpm which gives us about 4 knots depending on canal or river conditions. At this rate we use about 3 l. per hour running or less. The boat has capacity for 600 l. of water & the same for fuel.
The steering system is a reverse worm screw and referred to by the Dutch as the ‘English system’. When facing forward the wheel is behind you. Not sure about this one. Penny has recently been demoted from helmsperson to assistant helm after a couple of incidents, one when we seemed to go in the wrong direction at a crucial time.

Domestics. There is oil fired central heating, just like home, an air pressure water system, shower, hand basin & wc in the forward wet room. The fresh water lasts us about 2 ½ weeks though we try not to run out.
We have electric lighting etc. which we can plug in for shore power or use an inverter to boost 12v to 240v.
We have a wood stove & I have recently been collecting wood from bankside sources. That’s all.

Charleville-Mezieres

Just a quickie. Slowly getting closer to the Canal des Ardennes. Have had a few 'rural' nights and David has collected loads of wood for the winter. Won't say our wood pile is rivalling the one we have at home, but the deck is getting fuller! They've had some terrific winds down this valley which have torn down lots of trees and roofs. Bright and sunny today, waiting for the washing machine to finish then off to explore the town.

On the Meuse

At last - have finally managed to work out how to do this on the iPod. We are now in France, moored on the Meuse beside a pretty little town called Haybes. Have had some cloud and rain but today there is sunshine and blue sky. We had some trouble with the engine initially. The ferrule came off one of the injection pipes. David fixed it with araldite but that didn't last very long. 2 lots of solder later we decided to get some help. My technical French is coming on in leaps and bounds! Found a very nice diesel mechanic called Eric who came out on a Sunday afternoon, fixed the ferrule and came back the next morning to fit it. That was Monday this week and it seems to be holding out - so far, so good.
We have bought a new cooker for Johanne. The old one was incredibly old and rusty. The hob was ok, but you had to keep an eye on it as the gas had a tendency to go out, I never used the oven as it looked revolting! The new one came from the local electrical shop in Erquelinnes who offered excellent service. Next day delivery and fitting and they took the old one away. Still, no excuses for not cooking now!
The scenery here in the Ardennes is stunning and our progress is slow enough to be able to take it all in. It certainly is a great way to travel. When I get the ipod synced with the laptop, I'll post some photos.
Encountered our first tunnel just after the French border at Givet. Of course we don't have our navigation lights up and running properly yet and we could see light at the other end as we approached the entrance to the tunnel, so thought we would be fine. Well, the tunnel seemed to elongate as we went in and it got darker and darker. Lots of scary things hanging/dripping from the rocky roof. I was on the bow with a fender and couldn't see well enough to walk back down the boat to get the torch. Fortunately, David managed to reach it from the steering position and it gave us plenty of light for the rest of the passage. (Thanks to Norman for the big torch!) Have since met another boat who have assured us that the Givet tunnel is the worst one and the only one which is unlit - so all the rest should be a doddle.
Thanks to everyone who has emailed and will write more soon.