Counting Down

16th September, 2012 (Sally)

The canal between Champagne and Burgundy— well, if you have to leave Champagne at least one is heading towards Burgundy, and when better to visit the Cote D'Or than when the leaves are starting to turn and the harvest is about to begin. All that is still ahead of us as we await the arrival of our last visitors for the year, Deb and Mark, who arrive at Chalons sur Saône along with their bikes tomorrow. What a glorious two weeks we have had on the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne with leisurely cruising, frequent stops and barely another boat to be seen. Two-a-day seems to have been the norm, though as luck would have it at our first stop after Tony's slight altercation with the Aussie boatie who screeched at him, they were taking up a large portion of the available quay and it was left to me to 'politely' ask them to move. Well did I get an earful, but at least they did move, though only a couple of metres, albeit grudgingly, and left us to squeeze into a space with barely half a metre fore and aft. The moral of the story, if you are going to have words, make sure the other party is travelling the other way.

At Chaumont we celebrated Fathers Day and the fifth anniversary of owning Sable with a Sunday lunch in the town. Chaumont sits on a prominent rocky spur, a nice walk up from the port but a scarcity of eating places as, like so much of France, they choose to holiday with the crowds. Luckily we found the quintessetial French restaurant, through an old arch to a flagged courtyard with the minimum of tables set in the sun. A delightful way to celebrate and reminisce over the sights and experiences of the last five years. It was at Chaumont three years ago that I picked crab apples off the trees in the port, and sure enough they were waiting for me again so we have jars of crab apple jelly, flavoured with sage or rosemary for our cote de porc, roti d'agneau or whatever takes our fancy.

The canal and its surrounds have not changed at all since we were last here. In fact it seems that in some of the villages time has stood still for the last few hundred years. We walked into litle hamlets that have no commerce at all and in spite of the obviously occupied homes an absolute dearth of people on the streets. It was close to here that Joan of Arc was born and it was through this valley in 1428 she passed on her way to Chinon to confront the king and tell him to, "get his butt in gear," or words to that effect. I'm sure she would still find the way familiar, probably more so, as the path she took is a recognized Joan of Arc trail with churches and chapels dedicated to her along the way. Nogent is renowned as a maker of knives, scissors, tools, as well as surgical instruments. We took the 13 km bike ride into the town hoping to buy some nice steak knives which we have seen at exhorbitant prices in the shops. The 13 km was fine, a gentle ride along the valley floor but like most towns here Nogent was set at the top of a hill. A good 1.5 km push to the top — to find the town was closed. The butcher, the baker et al on holiday. We did eventually find a small knife shop which seemed to have the worlds' biggest collection of pocket knives and embroidery scissors but little else. The steak knives were no better than what we have on board so a small tomato knife was the sole purchase, but it should be noted, it is a very good tomato knife... On the way back we passed the foundry, which is huge and expanding; manufacturing pieces for the airline industry is a big part of their business so perhaps knives are very much a secondary industry nowadays.

The other main town in the upper Marne valley is Langres, noted as one of the fifty most beautiful villages of France. It occupies a dominant position on the top of the hill, as it has done for the last 2000 years. Langres was founded by the Romans and still in the almost intact fortified walls is the original Roman arch that was one of the entrances into the town. One can walk the whole ramparts, which we did, enjoying the views from all points of the compass. From Langres it was into the tunnel at the top of the canal and then the easier task of locking downwards towards the Saône valley — 77 locks up from Vitry le Francois; 43 down to the Saône. Everywhere there are early signs that autumn is on the way, the harvest is in except for the last fields of corn and sunflowers but most of the barns are overflowing with hay and huge rounds of straw for the winter bedding. Leaves are ever so slightly starting to turn and evenings are getting much cooler. The markets are displaying autumn fruits and veg. The first bright yellow chanterelles, pumpkins, figs and lovely little melons. Our barbeque season has been too short but perhaps it will be nice to have a Boeuf de Bourgogne and a cassoulet before we leave for warmer, southern hemisphere climes.

After a quiet two weeks on the canal we emerged into the Saône and immediately we were among the mass of hire boats, all seemingly on their first day on the water. At the very first lock, there was a hold-up as two newly hired boats had managed to jam the whole works. How I don't know, but it took forty-five minutes to free them and as they left the lock we watched as one steered itself straight into the bank. The river was alive with hire boats, a great number flying flags from NZ or Australia. We moored at St Jean de Losnes and of the eight boats on the quay only one was from the northern hemisphere, but we found out later he was a young guy from Darwin temporarily living in Britain. Good to meet up with some old friends and make a few new ones all enjoying the leisurely life on the waterways of Europe. St Jean d L is always a good stop, a visit to the chandlers, new fenders, paint etc, fill up with diesel, all 700 litres, and to take into the book swap a huge bag of books and come out with just as many. Now well stocked up we have said goodbye to the Saône and made our first stop on the Canal du Centre at Fragnes, a delightful port. This is very much the final leg of another great year on the waterways of Europe and one we are looking forward to sharing with Deb and Mark. A few good restaurants along the way, some fine vineyards to visit and plenty of time to relax and enjoy the countryside, especially the Burgundy vineyards. They should be picking the grapes in earnest next week