Where have they been?

What is unusual about this picture?  How about two American flags?  Other than a sailboat we passed just before the Mauvages tunnel this is the first American boat we have seen on our trip – lots of Dutch, German, British, a few Aussies and a Kiwi or two but not many from North America – oh, and the occasional French.  Peter and Lil are from Florida, a very nice couple.  We also met a boat load of expat Californians living on Vancouver Island and a couple from Melbourne.  Must be being close to Paris.
We are staying for the historical spectacle they do through the summer here and then into Paris on Sunday.

La Ferte-sous-Jouarre

(The Fort below Jouarre)

Lots of changes. Noodle is gone and we are just three.  We are on the Marne River, not the canals.  The sleepy forgotten little villages with their lovely old abandoned houses are behind us.  Once we hit the Champagne district all the waterfront property was suddenly prime real estate.  There is a different class of boats for the river which are wider and in most cases quite flashy.  We are now in the I’le de France and it’s a straight run to Paris from here with just a few locks.  The towns are larger and closer together.  Many have train stations for the Paris commuter.  Every kind of shopping and many restaurants. 

Today was the type of day I pictured in all my dreams of canaling.  Coffee and chocolate croissant for breakfast.  A trip to the florist to buy a huge pot of pink geraniums for 15Euros.  Rob said, “Does that include the pot!”.  “Yes”. 

A visit to the tourist office where a pretty young woman talked about the history,with all the French little hand gestures and gave us brochures and maps guiding us to the brie cheese factory, 1400th century Abbey (with crypts) that still house Nuns, historic homes and buildings, forest walks…you name it they got it.  In the old times this area was known for their hard rocks that were made into mill-stones that were shipped down the Marne, all over Europe, to the mills to grind wheat into flour.  The Church and many of the building are made from broken up stone wheels. 

Today was market day.  Well, what can I say.  It was like being in a  French film.  Suddenly there are make shift shops appear on  the street.  Half the town come to do the week shopping.  The best market and best quality I’ve ever  seen.  Competition is fierce so the displays, service and prices are amazing.   Butchers cut the steaks, chops and various pieces on the spot according to your liking.  Our perfect pink veal is cut thin, as we prefer. 

What is that fish with spots?

This is the center of the Brie area and the 1/8 of a Brie wheel and the local bread was to die for (I hope not).

Here is a photo of the things we bought.  Total Price:  34.20Euros

That a half kilo of spinach, beans and cherries.  Those perfect mushroom to have with our veal were just 2.60. 

Even Rob said he had a good time and he hates shopping.   

This is too much fun.  

PS.  I got a haircut here too.  Exact same cut as when I was 5.

See below when my hair was red.

We are soooo lucky. 

Sad Days in Champagne

There is a hole in our life and one less traveller in our party.  Our beloved little black dog Noodle’s heart finally gave out last weekend. We think she had a heart attack last Friday night but she soldiered on through the weekend and on Monday the Capitan of the port in Epernay took us to the Vet who found her heart was barely functioning and we had to make the hard decision to have her put to sleep.

Those of you who knew Noodle know what a great dog she was and how lucky we were to have had her.  Poor little Rosie (above) doesn’t know what to do in life as Noodle was her leader and guide, but she, like us, will adjust.

We buried Noodle in the middle of a field of poppies next to the Marne, overlooked by the vineyards of Champagne and right beside a field of wheat.  So we will be reminded of her whenever we have a glass of bubbly, eat some great bread or see bright red poppies.

Locks, damn Locks and Statistics

Today we passed the town of Vitry-le-Francois and left the Canal de la Marne au Rhin and entered the Canal Lateral de la Marne.  OK so what?  Well time for a little reflection and some statistics. The Canal de la Marne au Rhin is a a connecting canal, not a “lateral” that follows a river.  In this case it is a triple connector in that it connects the Rhine Valley  through the Vosges mountains to the Moselle valley and then the Moselle to the Meuse Valley and then to the Marne Watershed. 
What this means, in short, is that from Strasbourg to here we have travelled 338km and gone through 150 locks, 4 tunnels (one nearly 5km long) and a 45m boat lift.  The uphill locks are a lot of work but the downhill locks are more relaxing – unless they have low sills and there is wind so you have to worry about the fenders lifting and the hull getting scratched.  Guess what  - most of the lock here have low sills and it’s been windy.
On the other hand, the weather has been fabulous and the country green and beautiful.  Not a lot of culture or interesting cities since Nancy, but pleasant cruising all told.
Now, for comparison – from Vitry le Francois to Paris is 247km and only 33 locks and we did 5 of them today!
In a few more days we will be in Epernay drinking Champagne and then down the Marne River into Paris.

New Territory

After climbing the 12 locks back out of Toul two days ago, we turned left into new territory. The last few weeks have been retracing our steps (or is it paddles) back from Strasbourg to where we left the Canal de la Meuse last September.  Now we are heading west on the Canal de la Marne au Rhin towards Paris.

Immediately we turned left we felt like we were in new country – high rolling fields in front of forested ridges – as we climbed out of the top of the Meuse valley towards the beginning of the Marne watershed.   The canal was very rural and lovely and the water so clear you can see to the bottom and all the fish. We moored behind Chris and Helen who we had met waiting for the Nancy canal to open and shared wine and snacks in green surroundings at Sauvoy.

After seven more locks we had to wait for our escort through the  4.9km of Mauvage’s tunnel.  We were the only boat following the electric chain driven tug through the tunnel.  It is supposed to tow the boats through but the pleasure boats aren’t suited to steering in a narrow tunnel with no power so we just followed it.  It wasn’t very relaxing as the tug goes at 4km/hour and the slowest Armida goes with the engine engaged is a about 5km/h.  So there was a lot of on and off and correcting, for the 80 minutes in the tunnel.

 

 

We are now at a pleasant mooring in the nice little village of Demange-aux-Eaux which was quite prosperous back in the 1850s when about 2000 people lived here building the tunnel, but is now sleepy and still nice.  The only store is run by a self described “political refugee” from Paris who sold us some good wine, delicious cherries, vegies and spoke perfect English.  We chatted for a while. He has two of every canned and packaged grocery items and drug store things.  He probably runs the store as much for company than what little income he makes.

The Mayors office is one of the many ornate buildings built in the 1800’s.  Once again there are many old buildings boarded up and unused.  As our shop keeper says, there is no employment for miles.  A much too common story here in France with thousands of dying small villages.     

“It is all downhill from here” as the canal goes through 70 locks in 86km and drops 170m to the join the Marne  at Vitry-le-Francois and we will be in Champagne.  It’s a lot of locks but downhill is much more relaxing than uphill and we won’t see another uphill lock until after Paris.

Where’s Terry?

If you haven’t heard much from Terry lately well I haven’t either, and the picture shows why.

She did warn me that when she got started a good book might suck her in.  At least she’s on to the last book of the series so she should be back soon.

Au revoir Nancy

Today we left Nancy. The third time.  It has come to feel like our home away from home.  We saw fiends we met last year.  Alan and his two dogs waved us in.  The dogs, Lucy and Minnie, were sisters rescued as pups and loved trying to play with Rosie and Noodle.  Lucy, a lady, got us tickets to the Opera last year stopped by for drinks and a long visit.  I finally met Michel, her husband, who was away last year.  Also ran into Rod and Di, Rudolph and his wife from Germany who were moored next to us last year.  And Frank the friendly port Capitan who gave us parting gifts.  A T-shirt, sticker, two pens and key chain. 

Even the people who walked by port on their way to work, dog walking, jogging or just strolling were the same.  Right on time at 4PM the two elderly ladies we saw each day last year appeared with their little dogs.  One is a brown poodle, the other a white dog with large black spots.  They sit on one of the benches for half a hour then go back to were ever they come from.  And the guy who looks too large to walk arrives on his motor scooter complete with oxygen tank for the tube in his nose.  We did not see the frail little old lady from the old folks home across the street who would come around every day hassling people for cigarettes.  We were told she was still alive but apparently sick.

Terry visited the Musee De L’ecole de Nancy and raved about it.  It’s an estate on the edge of town with beautiful gardens and a perfect totally art nouveau house completely furnished with the best examples of period furniture and art.  Right up her alley.

We didn’t go very far today, just a few kilometres up the canal to Champigneulles where there is a Laundromat and supermarket close by.  At the marina the market was setting up.  It was charming at first then the music at the beer venue started up so we’ve moved to a quiet spot around the corner. 

Tomorrow, direction of Toul. 

The weather is still warm, almost hot, with the occasional showers which are entirely unpredictable.  For the last two days I have been trying to get some caulking done on the deck.  The sky is cloudless and blue so I get my tape out to start caulking and just then a big black cloud would appear from behind a tree. I’d have to scurry around covering everything with plastic.  After two days of this I finally got my caulking done this morning before it rained this afternoon – Ha!