St Dizier

Bill or is it Ben? Canalside art.

Buxom gnome. Interesting lockside display.

Here we are at St Dizier and almost at the end of this canal. and for the very first time in 4 years some unpleasantness with kids throwing stones at the boat. It's the last weekend before school goes back so perhaps they are at the limit of their boredom threshhold.
This may be between Champagne and Burgundy but there hasn't been much of either to be found. The canal is very rural and pretty passing through rich agricultural land. There are lots of villages but either there is nowhere to moor or if there is there are no shops - the huge out of town supermarkets have killed off most of the local shops. However, we have been really pleased to be woken at 8am on several mornings when a mobile baker van has visited the various moorings. Just love that fresh 'pain chocolat' for brekkie.

One of our travelling lock keepers swinging a bridge open for us.

This canal has been very quiet. Most of the locks are now automated but they don't  always work and my 'canal French' is improving thanks to having call up the control centre to report problems.The lock keepers never seem to be far away though. Today we had one accompany us to every lock even though they all worked and we had a very nice- and very hard working - student with us yesterday working us through the remaining manual stretch.

Our 'holiday job' lock keeper zooming along the towpath on his moto.

View from the ramparts at the fortified town of Langres. A very steep 2km climb from the canal but worth it.

Another tunnel. This one is lovely and wide - and well lit.

So tonight we have to decide what to do next. We can turn around and retrace our steps along this canal or... we can go like the clappers and continue north and west along the canal de la Marne to Toul and then south on the Vosges and Saone back to St Jean de Losne. The latter is a gamble. It's a long, long way and there are more locks than I care to think about. Will we toss for it??

No shortage of water on this canal.

 

Misty autumn morning in Langres