Sahula
Epernay to Haute (upper) Marne
Twisting, turning, the river Marne, wends across the central valley flood plain. Too shallow, too fast for navigation; barges, pleasure boats, slowly, wistfully, follow the tree lined, Canal Lateral a la Marne, parallel and straightened, to Vitry le Francois and beyond to the rivers source.
Canal des Ardennes routes north via Reims to Belgium
Fisher folk, idylly, rods reaching, float bobbing, sit waiting...waiting, passing time. "...bonjour..."
"...I always dive (into canal) to check line around the propellor...no...maybe every day..." Skipper steers clear of fishing lines.
Villages offer "Port de Plaisance" pontoon or wall, some with facilities (water, electricity, showers [adjacent van park]). Alongside, Guide depth 1.8m, is usually far shallower.
Birdsong backgrounds motor humming.
Sahula enters St Germaine lock. Activates automatic leaver - gate fails to move. Crew calls VNF on press button phone; "...yes (English) we are coming..." Patience an essential ingredient of canal life.
Manual operation requires VNF removal of a beehive.
Weed thickly parts for large 40m churning, behemoth. Sahula moves to side - 1.4, 1.5...
At lock VNF staff check Vignette (permit).
"This town is worth a stop..." (free) - Chalons-en-Champagne (founded 20BC - Roman), previous administrative centre for the Champagne region.
Prosperous - substantial building, canyon, cobbled, heritage lanes - 12th century St. Etienne cathedral - inside magnificent stain glass light soaring arches - outside - Revolutionary (anti-church, anti aristocracy, violence removed door saintly icons (oddly, not inside).
Under full moon, a summer concert in the city square.
"No place..." - Port is full at Vitry-le-Francois. A barge welcomes Sahula alongside. World Cup (Brazil) excites the bar - all male, all immigrants, consume no alcohol, smoke.
Smoking is pervasive in France - illegal inside, in public places is ignored.
Canal de la Marne de Rhin runs north to Germany.
Rain teems upon cosy Sahula.
Sahula "teams" with French motorboat for a day of locks (7-10). Crew climbs, green, slime, ladders to place mooring lines and assist other boat.
"...what side in lock...which side is ladder on..." - decides a fender changeover.
Tanya (engine) breathes air, no cooling water - moves to side, Crew hammers in mooring stakes.
Skipper checks water intake, engine belt, water pump empellor and plate. The empellor (in pieces) is replaced - Sahula continues in weed, ears tuned. Skipper checks water filter some three times a day.
"...can't find my wallet..." Hector conveys Skipper back to Vitry. "...it is here, handed in last night..." (Gendarme) less money and credit card.
Gendarme station's, bullet blasted walls, testify to violent past.
Post Vitry-le-Francois, the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne shadows every twist of the winding Marne.
Weed jams the canal gate - VNF staff to rescue.
VNF weed cutting boats plow amongst the weed.
"...after Joinville weed clears...it is town pollution..."
Students, after 0900, on scooters between, raise (assisted by crew) manual heritage bridges.
"...next year all automatic...we will find another vacation job..."
Chalk white cliffs, river sentinels in wide, green, yellow, valley.
Homeland of the Lords of Joinville, seat of the Dukes of Guise, remnants of their vast, hillside, castle, dominates Joinville (bollards, 6e, camping "douche"). Down the nobles, et al, would file for festives, entertainment to the small but magnificent (rebuilt 1990), Chateau du Grand Jardin, adjacent to a village lake.
"...a jewel that has come through the ages..." (16C).
Hot, limpid day, crew suggests a swim in the swift, clear, flowing river below a canal aqueduct (some are lead lined). Sahula is tied to hand driven stakes.
A avenue of tall, dark green, trees, lines the narrow, scenic, canal. Wildflowers, yellow, mauve, colour the grassy sides.
Lock on lock passes. Sahula manages at most 14 per day.
Lockmaster houses provide colourful flower and gnome (risqué!), gardens.
Vieville (3 e, facilities) old town, new citizens. Hector and Hermoine convey crew to tour villages.
"...they're a commune..." - villages comprise many large house and a large barn. Renovations suggest outsiders buying.
Jo Jo and wife (late 80s, Dutch, ex ships engineer), seated, transfixed, alongside the canal, near their small caravan, provide Sahula with fresh bread.
"...we have the mayors permission...(for the permanent site)"
"...we like it here...quiet...live here winter and summer..."
Guide 1.80m alongside wharf, realises to some 1 m - Sahula bow, angled, juts into the canal.
Early, crisp, misty morning, grey stork stands regally, church bells herald a new day.
Long piles of cut timber testify to the long hard, coming, winter.
Tall silos await the millet, rapeseed, wheat, product of the yellow, green, patchworked valley.
A large 40m barge rumbles by, churning, bow sweeping for greater depth. Sahula rocks and rolls.
Past Bologne, Sahula slows, ploughing the canal shallows (1.3m or less).
Through the lock, into the Tunnel des Condes (308m) to moor near hilltop, ancient, wall encircled,
Chaumont (7.60e, washing machine, 2.30e).
Hector and Hermoine (bike), convey crew up a long, arduous, hill to enter the city wall gate, and explore the castle, mansions, public buildings, lining, narrow, cobbled streets, centered around the towering, St John the Baptist Basilica (13-16C).
A 19C, multiple, arched viaduct (600m, 52m high) carries trains from the town.
Dinner in hillside restaurant - meet Tony and Nicola (UK), retired scientist, school teacher, Greenpeace activist, live (2 years) on a purpose built (UK) barge.
"...I looked at old barges...they say a rag and hammer is essential if own one (leaks)...if rivet pops they all go...so had built a new one...cost much the same..."
They say "...take lots of butter...hardens in cold water..."
Work on pastel of champagne valley vinyards and villages.
Sahula must depart at 0900 to meet students who will work (with Crew's assistance) some 16 manual locks to Langres.
Sahula stops at Rolampont (free), in need of well earned rest.
Sahula alongside a beautiful, Dutch canal boat owned by Gus and Mary Anne, retired from business. Dinner, wine, resolved the world!
Its Museum d'Art et d'Historie houses the best collection in eastern France.
City son, philosopher, Denis Diderot's (1713-84), together with Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, et al, provided the principles of freedom, that sparked democracy and the French Revolution. A musee, Maison des Lumieres celebrates his life.
Hector and Hermoine glide, gratefully, downhill to Sahula moored (free - no facilities) alongside a barge
Dinner is with Peter (UK).
"...I retired when 40...rebuilt this boat...14 years sailing Mediterranean, 10 years on canals,...partner left..."
Sahula is in Haute Marne - at 340 m, the highest point of the canal and Sahula's cruise. Here three dam lakes feed the Marne canal ensuring its water level.
Ahead a red/ green lights signal Sahula's arrival at the gate to the Ballesmes Tunnel, 4820 m (2.4m depth, 5 m width) , through the mountain, to Heuilley-Cotton, to commence the descent to the Saone and Rhone rivers to the Mediterranean Sea.
Its inky confining, threatening, blackness denied by eerie green lights; Skipper requires full, tiring, concentration to keep to the center. Ahead, finally, a pinpoint light, enlarged to thankful daylight.
"... you'll use less fuel going downhill..."
Entry to another canal section requires collection of another remote electronic hand control.
Eight successive, laddered locks, seven more, (two, where VNF opened malfunctioning gates) quitely lower Sahula to pleasant, Dommarien village wharf (free), facilities, showers (1e) in campsite
Local, Alsatian dog confronts Skipper. Mayor is informed by campers who cautions owner.
Crew hammers in stakes to moor Sahula, preparatory to Hector and Hermoine conveying crew through picturesque rural country to Fontaine-Francaise village. A regional centre, it has shops, restaurants and a superb château (private (owners lives in Château), manicured garden open; interior by guided tour).
"...very good (food)...of this region..."
Lunch (13e) in the village square
"...wine?..."
1st course: starters
2nd course: a large platter, "...is this main course...it must be...",
"...thank you...tres bien..."
3rd course: large salad, jambon (ham) in cheese, olives, mushrooms.
4th course:7 cheeses, bread
"...you like desert first or chocolat..."
"...coffee...tea..."
Hermoine and Hector know the downhill road to "home."
"...please join us..." tradesmen offer drinks while enjoying lunch, while renovating an ancient monastic house and water mill (grain).
Crew bicycle on to Chateau de Rosieres - privately owned, open to public (8e) with accommodation (28e). Built as a fort with a moat, for farmers security.
"...my father bought it for me...now I have no money..."
"...you will join us..." tradesmen insist, on crews return, they enjoy a drink.
A dull, wet day. Sahula is staked to shore while crew bike to Talmay (superb Château on lake, opens 1500) in search of Le Pain (bread). Thunderstorms threaten.
At the last lock, the electronic control is placed in a security box. Sahula enters the VNF Saone River sector.
Sahula ploughs the shallowest section of the entire cruise, at the end of the canal before joining the Saone River. How odd it would be, after so far, that so little could deny so much, within sight of the flowing Saone!
Fortunately, Tanya moves Sahula through into the wide, flowing, Saone River
Next Report No. 104 - On the River to Lyon.
Best
David
Toulon, France
September, 2014.
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