Moving on to the Marne River. 14th May 2018
It is now mid-May, we have moved off the Seine River, turned east and now on the Marne River and the Marne la lateral canal for the next 3 weeks. Paul, Johns brother now with us for this section of our journey.
First stop
Nuilley Pliasance,
A great mooring by appearance only, lousy town and a night with the towns rif raf playing music till late. The mooring turned out not so great as lots of logs coming down the river collected at the bow of the boat and held all the falling blossom which clogged our toilet flushing system and the spurter thing that cools the temperature of the engine. Another maintenance job for John. The toilet flushes with water from the canal and yes everything goes out that way too. No black water tanks in France. And the French catch fish in the canals yuk. We pass fisherman everyday and in port there is always someone fishing at the end of your boat, mind you I’ve only seen them catch something on a few occasions.
Lagny
A lovely town with lovely old buildings, a town square where a “ trois bierre s’il vous plait” (3 beers please) was a must in the many cafes. Had 2 nights here and the 2nd night ended up joining with 3 French men (local bar flies), one spoke some English and a night of far too many wines, champagne and beers. The French shouting, plus dinner of local cakes, and then back to a bateaux for more alcohol which was our shout. I was practising my French with the English-speaking guy and him telling the others what we said as even when I spoke French to them, my accent and poor French not allowing the others to understand me. A great night was had by all.
The abbey dated back to the 14th century and like most churches was designed with Gothic ceilings, this church had a doorway axis depicting the miracle of Joan of arc in 1430 that prayed and resurrected the life of newborn child who died without receiving the sacrament of baptism, after being baptised the infant died again and was buried. Or so the story goes.!
Esbly
A quiet mooring where we took a 2km walk each way to see the Museum of Loius Braille, the founder of braille for the blind, a quaint little cottage and garden, however the museum was closed even though the website said otherwise. A common event in France. Braille was born on the 4/1/1809 in Courvay, near Esbly. He lost his eyesight at 5 and start developing Braille at age 9.
Productivity here is not what we are use too in aussie. We often travel in the mornings and arrive in towns after lunch, we go into the town everything is closed, they all go home for lunch from 12 till 2pm except the big” supermarche” but even the big hardware stores close. Drives us nuts but when in France one must get use to their ways. Some little towns look like ghost towns, no-one around, shutters closed and barely a car to be seen. Larger towns are better but still the lunch closing is often found. Mondays hard to find anything open except the odd café.
Meaux
Known for Brie cheese, we visited a small museum on its manufacture , and brought some cheese for lunches on the bateaux.
Lunch in France is frequently the fresh baguette brought that morning at the boulangerie eaten with cheese(fromage) and pate (mousse de canard…duck.. my favourite to date) or ham (jambon). Any left- over baguette” kills a duck the next day”, it is so hard, no preservatives in their bread here. Makes it taste great but doesn’t last 12 hours.
Meaux quay was out of action and we had been told about a mooring just on the outskirts of town, however the quay was overgrown, so once we moored John got the sickle out (just one of the many tools the previous owner has on the boat) and hacked as a track out onto the road. Then a 2km walk into town.
We ended up spending two nights in Meaux as lots of old buildings, ramparts and Cathedrals (12C) to visit and we spent the afternoon at the museum de la Grand Guerre which included an amazing amount of history of WW1 and the battle of the Marne. Very much an American influence but enjoyable just the same. Apparently, the Americans financed it and hardly a mention of Australia or New Zealand’s massive contributions to liberating the French
Saint-Jean-les-Deux-Jumeaux
Just an overnight stay , nice mooring but nothing in the town except a closed church and a nice Boulangrie, and as it was closed the next day we got our baguette and some croissants for breakfast the next day. Croissants a treat we often don’t have for breakfast.
Charly
A small town where lots of photos were taken with Paul standing under signs saying Chalry, as this is Paul’s nickname.
The supermarche U was very close to the boat, a new fridge was brought and wheeled back to the boat with a mover’s trolley that also just happened to be on the boat. Anja certainly has a large range of tools and gadgets, all came included with the boat, extremely handy. The bar fridge was removed and donated to the live aboard bateaux (boat) we were moored next to, and John began his carpentry skills to fit the new fridge into the space. You had to crawl on the floor with the old fridge to see what you wanted to get out and never enough room for the most important ingredient’s, Wine and Beer.
We visited our first champagne house here and had our first taste of the renowned French Champagne, it was very pleasant so we took three bottles back to the boat. We were thinking of my two sisters Leanne and Lynnette who love champagne, or sparkling wine as it is called in Australia, as the French own the name of champagne and don’t allow anyone outside the champagne area in France to use the name.
Chateau Thierry, the start of the champagne area.
A lovely town with an old chateau ruins providing a high look over the town, and we found a traditional French food place for dinner. Duck for me, delicious.
The country side is now changing and as we go along the canals the vineyards climb up the surrounding hills………….scenery excellent.
Dormans
A great stop, the town had a large war memorial and 14th century chateau, now used as the tourism de bureau, an old mill and small museum on old wine and bread making equipment. Our mooring was by an old silo not the most glamorous setting but convenient to town, the main mooring full with other boats. John and Paul went kayaking with our inflatable kayak and Paul swam which is fine in the rivers with a ladder to come back on board. You don’t swim in the canals! The old French boats which includes Anja do not have black water tanks, everything and I mean everything flushes to the canal or river, which is the norm in France.
Our mooring at Dorman was by an old silo, the other moorings full, but this suited us as we were close to town.
We were now in the start of the Champagne region and we had hope to visit a few surrounding vineyards, but they were to far to walk, the push bikes available but there is three of us and two bikes. Taxi we thought. But so many of these small to medium sized towns there are no taxis so disappointed we moved onto another town the next morning.
Epernay / Dizy The capital of the champagne area.
Our mooring was at Dizy with a 4 km walk into Epernay, the capital of the champagne area. We did the standard tourism walk through town following our guide in French map and descriptions. Fortunately my French is average when reading (reading say 50% , speaking 20% and listening < 10 %) so can generally read enough to understand what we are looking at and when it was built or what ever.
The late afternoon a tour of a Wine Cave ( champagne house) and the tunnels and cellars under Epernay, 110 kms of tunnels overall, the one we chose had 6.5kms of tunnels. Vats held up to a million litres of champagne. The tour interesting and a museum in the tower was left till the next day, when we also strolled the Avenue of champagne with many samples tasted. We didn’t go into Moet and Chandon, a bit pricey. We did buy a few bottles to drink and 2 are put away for my 60th birthday next month. This street is home to all of the major French Champagne houses. It was very impressive and was dripping in wealth.
Took a taxi to the cute town of Hautvilliers, yes Epernay a big enough town for a taxi, this town is where Dom Perignon is buried and it had scenery amazing over the vineyards and hills. The town described as the pearl of the champagne area.
Hautvilliers also famous for all its iron work adorning the houses. They symbolise the vineyard work and the passion or origin of the owners.
The champagne in this region has 3 varieties of grapes , Pinot noir, Meunier and chardonnay. Most Champagnes are a mixture but the better ones have more concentration of Chardonnay.
Tours-sur-Marne
A small town with a pretty foreshore, lots of champagne to be drunk and a lovely sunset.
The weather has really warmed up now and we are getting days into the 30 degree temperature.
Charlons-en -Champagne
Arrival mid- afternoon and an a few jobs to be attended too. Next day a tour of the town, stopped for café’ expresso, typically French style small and black. I have got quite accustomed to these, small but yummy.
More Cathedrals, old timber (bois) houses typically found in these areas, a bit of shopping and back to the boat with after dinner game of Petanque (a very popular French game with large steel balls called boules it is played on any rough fine gravel surface), with an English couple from the boat in front of us.
Pogny
An overnight stay, a walk over to the river which was next to the canal, where a small beach was found and Paul was straight into the river for a swim. We are now on the canal la lateral en Marne so no swimming in the canal. We first experienced mossies here so our afternoon of nibbles, beer and soda water for me was adjoined indoors. We often use the outside deck in the early evenings.
Vity-le—Francois
This town is a home for old barge and a boat yard for their repairs but once inside the centre of town it was quite nice. We spent some time talking to an aussie couple from Perth having maintenance done on their boat. We spent 2 days here as we wanted to buy a new driving stool at Brichomarche and of course it was closed on Sunday when we arrived so back again to town the next day. Our mooring was a few kms out of town so the following day we attempted to move closer into town. As the boat yard was shuffling boats which blocked the canal for hours we had to reverse (not an easy task in Anja) because at 17.5 metres long the boat was too long to turn around in the narrow canal. We waited at a working silo quay only to find the canal was still going to be blocked for a few more hours. We went back to another mooring and walked into town for our supplies and stool. Returning back to the boat with John, Paul and I all loaded up, the trolley on wheels you see oldies use was full as well.
We are now at the end of the Marne river and canal and our next blog and ventures will be of us travelling down the Champagne et (and) Bourgogne canal.
The Marne didn’t have a huge amount of locks each day, the next canal will have lots 115 in 225kms.
However, the Marne did throw some tricky locks at John with side currents on entering taking the boat sideways just as you lined it up. New skills tried and after a few bumps John soon learnt a new way of entering these locks Slowly slowly. Some of these locks were very violent when filling with water and had some very high walls that were very hard to get ropes up to the bollards at the top. We have been challenged in this early part of our barging life but we are adapting and becoming more confident in developing our boating skills.
