Champagne

Week 42 — June 7th - 20th (Sally).

Summer has arrived in all her splendour. Who would ever think that we would complain of being too hot and be seeking shade, but it has been sunscreen and sun glasses for the last two weeks.

Fran and Lester arrived from their tour of Scotland and England and after a night at Sedan and a trip to the weekly market we set off downstream with the help of a good strong current. It was a very short journey before we turned west to join the Canal des Ardennes which links the Meuse to the Aisne and takes one through some of the most fertile farmland we have seen. Day one was cows and grazing, which as the Pauls are dairy farmers from NZ, was of particular interest to them. We arrived on Saturday at La Chesne, a small village at the top of the plateau to learn that our next stage would be delayed as Lock 20 in a chain of 26 was broken and we could be held up for a few days. Sunday we spent in what has become a regular pattern, ie. find a restaurant and enjoy the Plat du Jour: four courses for a ridiculous sum, in this case 14.50E and then Tony took advantage of the glorious weather to start some pre painting preparation. This involved removing windows and getting rid of some rust spots, with a grinder. It didn't make us very popular with the neighbouring boaties who had had a much more industrious Sunday cleaning and polishing their boats. Lester and I decided to take the motor bikes and investigate the repair work which we hoped was being done so we had a pleasant 6km drive down the towpath to the trouble spot. What a hive of activity, three frogmen, and seven assistants or lookers-on plus a few interested boaties all keen to get on their way. We were told it would be fixed that day, welcome news as La Chesne is not the place one would choose to spend extended time. Tuesday we set off in convoy as by then there were eight boats waiting to proceed and dropped gently down the full 26 locks past fields of barley, wheat and corn. It takes a bit to impress a farmer from South Canterbury but they were both struck by the quality and yield of all the crops, and we all loved the beauty and variety of the trees that line the canals. My impression of this time will be the shades of green in the trees and the birdsong from all sides.

My favourite spot in the boat is up the front where the engine noise is only a whisper and one can really appreciate the beauty all around. Unfortunately, Tony doesn't get to share this very often so it was lovely when Lester took over the wheel and he could spend time there as well.

At Rethel we had time for a good meander around the town and found ourselves at the top of a hill which is now the war cemetery for 3,500 French soldiers. The Battles of the Marne and Champagne have certainly left their mark in this area as at the next stop, Berry au Bac there was an even larger cemetery and after we left Reims at the small town of Sillery, the cemetry there holds the bodies of 116,000 French, plus a hundred or so commonwealth soldiers. Very sobering.

At Berry au Bac we left the Canal des Ardennes and joined the Canal de l'Aisne à la Marne for a pleasant 20km run into Reims. We floated above farmland all the way with views on all sides. Some harvesting has started with silage and hay being cut and in a few weeks the crops of barley and wheat should be ready. Reims is one of the must see cities of France, and how fortunate we were to arrive on the major festival weekend of the year. The city was celebrating the arrival of Joan of Arc and the young King Charles for his coronation in the year 1429. The celebration lasted for three days with many dance and music groups from around the world plus a mediaeval market place in the two main squares. There were groups dancing or performing on every street corner with lots of audience participation. This with the abundance of outdoor cafés, wonderful sunshine and a very happy crowd made for a truly memorable experience in this city.

Saturday evening we were farewelling Fran and Lester at a local restaurant when the Bavarian Band that had also been dining there struck up an impromtu concert, so we had the harp, accordian, tuba and cornet playing while we ate. Just another wonderful memory in a year full of them.

Sunday, our visitors left to continue their travels and we took advantage of the lull in activity to continue the painting. That is before the sounds of the full on procession with 1,500 participants took us away from the labours. All the bands and dance groups plus many others: stilt walkers, national dress groups, mediaeval weaponry and soldiers plus of course the star of the day, Joan and Charles with their cortage of attendants. All good fun. Once the painting was started we were both keen to see it finished so Monday we moved 10kms south to Sillery, where we took over a quai, spread ourselves out and removed and resealed windows, and painted all the superstructure. (We still have to do the decks.) Sable looks lovely and loved again, just in time for us to be captured by French Television that was doing a piece on sport and recreation. They were following a group of walkers when they spotted us in a lock so we were filmed sailing gracefully out. I'm sure we will never see it but it was nice that Sable looked good for them and not covered with a multitude of anti rust spots.

We are now deep in Champagne country. Grape vines cover the hills on either side of the canal and we have sampled, and will continue to sample, some of the produce. Strange, we haven't yet come across one we haven't liked... With 327 Champagne houses producing 229 million bottles annually we will not get to them all. Well not this time anyway, but we will be back.

Ardennes, Meuse

Week 40 — May 24th - June 6th (Tony).

For the entire month of May we meandered along some of the waterways of Belgium. And what a delightful country it is. On the one hand the countryside is predominantly flat with verdant pastures and picturesque villages; and on the other hand, especially along the big rivers and commercial canals, it displays enormous industrial plants and massive factories producing everything one could think of, from raw steel to concrete products and pharmaceuticals. Such was the Meuse downstream from Namur for two days — to Maastricht in Holland. The valley is attractive with deeply forested slopes and rocky outcrops but every available piece of flat land adjoining the river is a site of frenzied extractive industry with huge barges being loaded or unloaded. Sometimes the volume of commercial traffic caused delays of up to two hours to get through the locks — not that we minded, there's always a lunch to be eaten at leisure, or another meal to prepare. We were told the visit to Maastricht is worth the journey; and it was. A small city but lively and full of character and charm. We sojourned there for two days and enjoyed a couple of very memorable meals as well as indulging in a few beers and a bit of shopping. The rest of Holland will have to wait for another year...

After fuelling up we turned Sable around and returned upstream, back to Namur. After a good shower of rain I was mystified by an orange sediment all over the boat. Apparently it was dust from the Sarah Desert whipped up into the atmosphere by a huge wind storm and caught in the precipitation of the clouds over Europe. At Namur we picked up our friends, Tony and Nancy Stenton, who joined us for a week as we headed further up the Meuse, back into France through some of the prettiest scenery we have encountered. No industry here, just glorious forest and attractive towns, small locks and clean water. Most of the time we spent doing what we always do when we're together — eating fine food and drinking copious amounts of wine, along with many big brown Belgium beers. Boy, do the Belgians make great beer! No beer is less than 5% alcohol and many top 9%. And except for a couple of brews, they've all tasted fantastic. Everyone in Belgium appears to drink litres of beer, and who would blame them? But it may account for their growing obesity problem — something that hasn't been obvious at all elswhere in Europe.

At Dinant, a beautiful town nestled beside the river under an overeaching rocky outcrop that occasionally breaks off and destroys the cathedral beneath it, we moored up alongside a restaurant and as we supped champagne we were tempted to ask the waiter to serve us Belgium's famous specialty on Sable's top deck, such was the ambience of the evening. However, after contemplating the likelihood of him being run over crossing the road and the repast being spoiled, we took ourselves across to his establishment and gluttonously consumed a kilogram of moules (mussels) and frites each. Served individually in a family-size Crueset casserole dish, we all agreed that it was the finest feed of mussels ever! None of us managed to finish the delicious creamy soup/sauce at the bottom. An hour later, and forsaking dessert, (imagine!), we teetered back across the road for a game of 500. Tony S's attempt to go misere resulted as it usually does, in failure. How wonderful it is to share our life afloat with good friends!

Next day, after riding a cable-car to the citadel above Dinant to take in the panorama, we crossed the border back into France and arrived at the town of Givet where we made the unfortunate error of mooring at the only available spot, under a bridge. It took more than an hour the following morning to scrub the pidgeon shit from the decks, and if that wasn't enough, in the early hours some brats had pelted our roof with half a dozen eggs! We were disappointed that there was nowhere to moor a boat at Monthermé, an intriguing looking town that spans the river at a big bend and is close to where some fierce fighting occurred in both world wars. It is not far from where the historic WW2 Battle of the Bulge took place. Lots of old gun emplacements and bunkers remain visible along the banks and in the hills above the Meuse which is still a mighty river here and extends a long way farther up, almost to Toul, close to the start of the Moselle which flows into the Rhine.

The city of Charleville Mezieres with its magnificent central square appealed to all of us and we visited the centre several times for a beer or three and a window shopping stroll through the pedestrian ways. After an overnight stop there we continued on, past the start of the Canal des Ardennes at Pont à Bac, to Sedan which is overlooked by one of the biggest mediaeval forts in Europe. Whilst making a u-turn to face the current prior to mooring, I managed to terrify the passengers and crew when Sable was caught broadside-on to the fast flowing current and swept rapidly towards the bridge pilings. I earned more than a beer rescuing that situation and after a change of pants we all raced into town for a pacifying drink.

We all returned to Charleville next day by train to further explore the city, and for Tony and Nancy to pick up a hire car for the next stage of their trip — a week in the Loire Valley. This morning they left us to drive to Tours while we wait in pouring rain (the first real rain we've had in more than a month) for Sally's sister Fran and Lester, from NZ, to arrive. A more thorough reconnoitre of Sedan has revealed a rather pleasant town with lots of interesting places, including the impressive fort, that were missed on our first, cursory stroll into town. If the weather improves tomorrow we will turn around and head down to the Canal des Ardennes to make for Reims and the Champagne region. I am looking forward to sampling lots of their local produce.