26.August - We are
now in Epernay, centre of the Champagne producing region around the River Marne . 
It is around 4 days to Paris and a further 5 days to our destination in Rouen.
 

Since we were last in touch we have left the Saone River, travelled up to the Langres plateau in the Canal of Burgundy and Champagne (disappointingly, it contains nothing but water!!), descended the same canal, entered and left the Canal Lateral de Marne and are now about to proceed down the River Marne to Paris.
 

Our last blog finished with us at Macon having said goodbye to Will and Emma. What we didn’t tell you was that they told us we would become grandparents early in the New Year!! What a wonderful surprise.
 

Shortly after they left, our friends Dave and Anne turned up for a week’s cruise up the Saone to St Jean de Losne where they would be catching the train home.

 

Tournus

Our mini cruise found us in Tournus for the first night . We got there quite early, found the hire boat pontoon full but there were two other mooring areas. One was a scruffy old quay designated for hotel boats but was packed with boats in transit (like us). The other was a brand new quay which was meant to be for boats in transit but just had a few boats from the local boat hire firm. Naturally we parked Tiercel with the other transit boats.
 

We then went out to explore this interesting medieval town and its Gothic Abbey. On our return we noticed that the local hire boats had mostly gone and the other boats like ours
were on their pontoon, leaving us the only boat on the quay. Rob spoke to another of the skippers who said thathey had been on the hotel boat quay for 3 nights and thought that they no longer called there.
 

Thus assured we headed out for dinner in a restaurant by the river. Rob, not being of a particularly trusting nature, kept trotting out to have a look at the river from time to time when, lo and behold, a sodding great hotel boat floated gently past and headed for the quay where Tiercel was the sole occupant . He and Gina managed an Olympic record time for the 400
metres , leapt aboard Tiercel and headed upriver to our new mooring. It must have been an impressive sight, a pensioner athletic spectacular only slightly marred by the giggling of the crew at Gina’s bollocking of their Skipper
  

Chalon Sur Saone.

The following day we sheepishly departed Tournus at the crack of dawn and legged it to Chalon sur Saone. It is a lovely town, a mix of the old and the new. While there we visited the museum of remembrance of the armed forces for every action that France has been involved in from 1914 onwards. It is situated down a side alley and is in quite a small room but is staffed by some remarkable old guys who were veterans of the actions in Vietnam and Algeria. They spoke very little English but Rob, who has just completed reading a book on the French military in the 20^th century was able to chat with them for quite some time. Their enthusiasm and knowledge were enthralling .
 

On leaving we noticed that there was an international
cycling event taking place. It was a women’s time trial, with teams from all
over the world there. We were able to watch as the competitors arrived at the
finishing line and then went to their support trucks to wind down and relax
afterwards – fascinating – just like on the telly!
 

Seurre

 At 7.00 we left Chalon on a beautiful, calm morning. The river was like a mirror glass, the reflections were lovely as Tiercel tip-toed out of the marina and back into the Saone. We arrive a Seurre in good time for lunch, moored Tiercel to a pontoon, had lunch, a beer or two and set out to explore the town. It was chock-full of 15^th and 16^th century buildings but we could only find one restaurant open. The menu looked good so we descended on them fpr dinner. Rob was quite adventurous and ordered poached eggs in a red wine and onion
sauce. It looked dreadful but was actually quite delicious .

 

St Jean de Losnes

We arrived in the marina here quite early so that we would have plenty of time to explore this major canal port. The marina here used to be a huge terminal for the commercial cargo boats (peniches) which ply their trade here. 
 
Up until a few years ago it was canal trade central but the port is now filled with private boats. The many liveaboards are mostly of our age group (old!). In fact the canals are now mainly used by the ageing flower power generation of Northern Europe cruising around in craft
ranging from the latest modern power cruisers to converted peniches - we have even seen 2 British narrow boats. In essence the whole French waterways system has become an aquatic old folk’s home catering for these adventurous, ageing souls eaking out their remaining
years in their own water borne playground.  

Before saying cheerio to Dave and Anne we went out for a meal at a riverside restaurant where the food was good and the live jazz was superb . It doesn’t get much better than this!
 

The Canal De Champagne et Bourgogne

After saying au revoir to Dave and Anne we set out to get to Rouen as quickly as is reasonable at our age and fitness. We entered the canal to find the waterways a lot narrower, the locks much smaller and the depths sphincter-twitchingly shallow. At the first lock we were given a remote control with which to operate the locks – tres high tech! 
 

We then proceeded to climb the 43 locks to the Langres plateau. This took us 2 ½ days of hard work. Our technique was to approach the lock, press the remote control, wait for the gates to open and move into the lock. In the locks Gina would grab the stern rope and climb, a la Erroll Flynn, the slimy metal ladder to the top of the lock, tie it to a bollard and then Rob would throw the bow rope up for her to pass round a bollard and return . She would then shove a blue pole upwards and the lock would fill up. The boat would rise, the lock gates open and 
Tiercel would progress gracefully out of the lock and this was repeated 42 times.
 

When we had passed through the 43^rd lock we came to the 5km Balesmes tunnel. After a short wait we were allowed to enter it. It was wonderfully chilly inside and fully lit. At about the half-way point of the tunnel we began to notice that there was a London Underground train
about to enter the tunnel. This was a tad disconcerting, to say the least. Were we about to be wiped out by the surreal 3.15 to Cockfosters? In fact, As we got nearer we saw that it was a trick of the light – a trick that Rene Magritte would have been proud of!
 

We stopped for 2 days at Langres but were too knackered to walk into town. We have resolved to take a Gite in the area next year to explore the places that we just got a tantalising glimpse of.
 

The following day we headed down the remaining 71 locks and 4 days later arrived in our next canal . 
 

The Canal Lateral de Marne

This was a lot more laid back with only 15 locks and 67km. We completed this in 2 days without incident.  

During our time in the canals we stopped overnight in a variety of moorings ranging from marinas, via the camp site type haltes fluvial, redundant industrial quays to banging in a couple of stakes to a remote canal bank and tying up to them.
 

Epernay

Yesterday we arrived in Epernay, moored at the Club Nautique d’Epernay, changed the engine oil (not much fun with the temperature outside at 34C), did 2 lots of laundry,
cleaned the boat, filled with fuel, did a major shop and collapsed in the cockpit with a beer or two.  

Today we took our first day of for quite some time and decided to explore Epernay. The town is dominated by the Champagne industry .   The main attraction is the Avenue de Champagne (surely the most prestigious address in the world) where all of the champagne producers seem to have offices in large, immaculately kept houses/palaces/warehouses/villas.
 

We decided to burble into town, have lunch and then spend the afternoon - mimsying up the Avenue de Champagne sampling their products and buying a few bottles. Such an
afternoon should be on everyone’s bucket list – excellent! Tiercel is now stock full of the stuff!! 
 

By the bye, on our return Rob decided to give Marley his
regular afternoon swim. On putting him into the water he overbalanced and, fully clothed, joined the dog in the river, losing his last working pair of glasses . Subsequently he has been sat down with all of his broken glasses trying to glue together one working pair!! Marley hasn’t stopped chortling since!