July
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Diana’s viral throat started with almost complete loss of voice (!) and seemed to go on for weeks but the wrist was slowly improving…….so prescribed a few days in port at Chalons en Champagne. It’s a delightful town with classical architecture and everything we need. There are beautiful shady parks nearby to walk with our friends and their dogs, who just love to swim in the canal at least once daily. Avoiding the heat has become a necessity. We’ve been to Chalons before and this time made new American friends including Paul and Carol on Fairhaven and enjoyed the local bands in the town square, typically French summer street entertainment.
Live music, Chalons
Beautiful parks at Chalons
We like our duck pink of course
Heading south now to Vitry le Francois and onto the Canal Marne au Rhin. Rural, pretty, wild flowers, birds singing, tiny villages and many locks (70 on this stretch), each with the loud sounds of a waterfall; no weirs here, the locks just overflow to maintain levels. So with viral throat and very sore wrist, the third thing to happen to Diana was when stepping off the roof twisted her toes right back, black and blue again and sandals only for a week or two; swelling not helped by a couple of wicked insect bites. She isn’t a hypochondriac, just clumsy. They say it comes in threes , so hopefully that’s it for now!
Well into summer season, we’re seeing more boat traffic, moorings becoming all the more busy, rafting up and meeting other boaters every day. We see very few commercials ships, just two or three a week on this canal.
Look - Andante of Ipswich..…who are you?
Garden on a lock gate
Harvest time, Marne au Rhin
We chose Bar le Duc for our Bastille Day celebrations and planned a week here. Actually it was so hot and the celebrations so late that we didn’t join in much. After a large meal, a relaxing evening on deck and a glass or two of wine we watched the fireworks from a distance, partially obscured by trees. Lazy, but that’s how it was.
Incidentally, TV does not feature much in our summer except for Wimbledon. So sorry to Roger Federer defeated.
Bar le Duc
Bar le Duc
Another favourite spot is Ligny en Barrois where we paused briefly. Couldn’t help noticing that the fields of sunflowers were facing away from the sun…….maybe it was too hot for them too. A couple of long days crewing on deck in the summer heat drove me take the helm while Chris crewed out on deck; role reversal can work and he can tolerate the heat better. We spent a night on a silo quay at Void which is a truly delightful village but not this time. With incessant grain lorries unloading and 7am church bells we quickly moved on; our earliest start at 7.30 with 18km before the first lock opens at 9am.
We encountered a loaded commercial ship approaching us and pulled over by an old quay to let him pass in the deep water. In firing up the bowthruster, the exhaust fumes shot out right into a hole in the quay wall. Unexpectedly a family of bats flitted out, staggered around on our foredeck; remarkably they all recovered and it seems we caused no wildlife crisis. A close run thing but how could we have known?
Waterlilies
Sunflowers
Quiet spot for the night
Mauvage tunnel 4.4km
Pagny sur Meuse
Now we were heading (via a couple more tunnels, the Mauvage and the Foug) for Toul in Alsace Lorraine. Toul is a fine fortified city with a quaint medieval quarter and our mooring a peaceful spot with no passing traffic, just joggers and dog walkers. Easy access to town, just perfect.
We were here to meet up with Michael and Susan on ”Nautilus” who hosted a great barbeque party on our arrival. Our friends Rocky and Michael were here to take the EGP advanced barge driving exam (which Chris took last year) and to meet Tam (the examiner) and Di of barge school fame. Nice to see them again and catch up with the latest. For the exam day, perfect weather but many other unexpected maneouverings and strange emptyings and filling of locks by the VNF summer students…..all quickly overcome; they were probably surprised to see La Tulipe going in the lock backwards! The canal too narrow to turn…..we just chilled out, been there already. Good spectator sport!
Another convenient attraction in Toul is a wine cave close by. The tasting was a cool retreat on a hot day and the local Cotes de Toul white from the Auxerrois grape is particularly good.
A series of explosions during the night and the arrival of the pompiers at 4am caused a bit of a stir. They pumped water from the canal to put out a big fire in a local Bricomarche about 2km away.
Pompiers
You never know who you'll meet on the waterways and it's a big close family. One morning we noticed a familiar ship approaching; what a pleasant surprise to meet with Prof. Walter Stamm Teske on his handsome ship "The Batelier". He is the architect responsible for Esme's design who did a fine job of converting her from a freightship in the 1980s; he's a special part of our ship's history.
A weekend visit and a sad goodbye took place in Toul when friends Craig and Michelle, having sold their barge are heading back to New Zealand. They spent their last few days in France with us.....party time and a good send off.
Goodbye to Craig and Michelle
Next, down the River Moselle to Nancy where we'll meet up with Jo and Dave. They're on their summer holidays, on the way to Madrid by motorbike......
Live music, Chalons
Beautiful parks at Chalons
We like our duck pink of course
Heading south now to Vitry le Francois and onto the Canal Marne au Rhin. Rural, pretty, wild flowers, birds singing, tiny villages and many locks (70 on this stretch), each with the loud sounds of a waterfall; no weirs here, the locks just overflow to maintain levels. So with viral throat and very sore wrist, the third thing to happen to Diana was when stepping off the roof twisted her toes right back, black and blue again and sandals only for a week or two; swelling not helped by a couple of wicked insect bites. She isn’t a hypochondriac, just clumsy. They say it comes in threes , so hopefully that’s it for now!
Well into summer season, we’re seeing more boat traffic, moorings becoming all the more busy, rafting up and meeting other boaters every day. We see very few commercials ships, just two or three a week on this canal.
Look - Andante of Ipswich..…who are you?
Garden on a lock gate
Harvest time, Marne au Rhin
We chose Bar le Duc for our Bastille Day celebrations and planned a week here. Actually it was so hot and the celebrations so late that we didn’t join in much. After a large meal, a relaxing evening on deck and a glass or two of wine we watched the fireworks from a distance, partially obscured by trees. Lazy, but that’s how it was.
Incidentally, TV does not feature much in our summer except for Wimbledon. So sorry to Roger Federer defeated.
Bar le Duc
Bar le Duc
Another favourite spot is Ligny en Barrois where we paused briefly. Couldn’t help noticing that the fields of sunflowers were facing away from the sun…….maybe it was too hot for them too. A couple of long days crewing on deck in the summer heat drove me take the helm while Chris crewed out on deck; role reversal can work and he can tolerate the heat better. We spent a night on a silo quay at Void which is a truly delightful village but not this time. With incessant grain lorries unloading and 7am church bells we quickly moved on; our earliest start at 7.30 with 18km before the first lock opens at 9am.
We encountered a loaded commercial ship approaching us and pulled over by an old quay to let him pass in the deep water. In firing up the bowthruster, the exhaust fumes shot out right into a hole in the quay wall. Unexpectedly a family of bats flitted out, staggered around on our foredeck; remarkably they all recovered and it seems we caused no wildlife crisis. A close run thing but how could we have known?
Waterlilies
Sunflowers
Quiet spot for the night
Mauvage tunnel 4.4km
Pagny sur Meuse
Now we were heading (via a couple more tunnels, the Mauvage and the Foug) for Toul in Alsace Lorraine. Toul is a fine fortified city with a quaint medieval quarter and our mooring a peaceful spot with no passing traffic, just joggers and dog walkers. Easy access to town, just perfect.
We were here to meet up with Michael and Susan on ”Nautilus” who hosted a great barbeque party on our arrival. Our friends Rocky and Michael were here to take the EGP advanced barge driving exam (which Chris took last year) and to meet Tam (the examiner) and Di of barge school fame. Nice to see them again and catch up with the latest. For the exam day, perfect weather but many other unexpected maneouverings and strange emptyings and filling of locks by the VNF summer students…..all quickly overcome; they were probably surprised to see La Tulipe going in the lock backwards! The canal too narrow to turn…..we just chilled out, been there already. Good spectator sport!
Another convenient attraction in Toul is a wine cave close by. The tasting was a cool retreat on a hot day and the local Cotes de Toul white from the Auxerrois grape is particularly good.
A series of explosions during the night and the arrival of the pompiers at 4am caused a bit of a stir. They pumped water from the canal to put out a big fire in a local Bricomarche about 2km away.
Pompiers
You never know who you'll meet on the waterways and it's a big close family. One morning we noticed a familiar ship approaching; what a pleasant surprise to meet with Prof. Walter Stamm Teske on his handsome ship "The Batelier". He is the architect responsible for Esme's design who did a fine job of converting her from a freightship in the 1980s; he's a special part of our ship's history.
A weekend visit and a sad goodbye took place in Toul when friends Craig and Michelle, having sold their barge are heading back to New Zealand. They spent their last few days in France with us.....party time and a good send off.
Goodbye to Craig and Michelle
Next, down the River Moselle to Nancy where we'll meet up with Jo and Dave. They're on their summer holidays, on the way to Madrid by motorbike......