We have had a couple of 'whose idea was this?' moments recently. Usually, life afloat is a pretty relaxed affair. Decisions about destinations can be pondered over and put off for weeks sometimes and need to be made (or changed) only on arrival at a junction in the waterway. Even then we've been known to toss a euro.We've come to several of those junctions recently. We've had to think about where we might leave the boat this winter and even (and this will be a first) where we might cruise to next year. Suddenly, 'we've got plenty of time left' has become 'we've only got.....' So, we're turning south once again, albeit in meandering (no, not dithering) fashion.
Leaving Sedan, we turned onto the Canal des Ardennes which we've been on before and I've no particular desire to see again. It's very pretty but we had a couple of 'incidents'. Leaving Chesne, one of the few stopping places and on the canal summit, you are faced with a day of solid locks - 26 in all to the end of the canal. They are all linked which means after you work through one the next is automatically activated which generally works reasonably well but means you really have to do the lot in one go. The team of lock keepers like you to go in pairs. Last time they said it was to save water but as the canal was full to brimming this time they couldn't give that as a reason. I imagine it's to make things less complicated for them when things go wrong. The fewer the lock operations the smaller the number of callouts.
26 locks is a lot particularly on a hot day which this was. At least we were going down rather than up. Nearing the bottom of the flight we were tired and perhaps not paying sufficient attention and failed to notice that the footbridge of the lock we were exiting, whilst exactly the same in design as the previous 20 or so was, in fact, closer to the water. Consequently, our mast (along with our tempers) snapped.
In a previous year's diary I'd remarked that I was glad that we hadn't met any commercial barges because in many place the canal is rather narrow and overhung with trees and shrubbery. There are commercials using it particularly at harvest time. And yes that is now. We had just come to the end of the canal and were at the first lock of the next. It has a pole hanging out about 5m over the canal a hundred metres or so before the lock which you turn and it begins the lock operation. Only, as sometimes happens, it didn't. So, off I went to call up the control centre. Events were conspiring against us. A few minutes later it was all sorted through some sort of remote rejigging and we were down through the lock and rounding a bend overhung with trees about a hundred metres or so beyond the lock. Suddenly we were facing a wall of steel -the bows of a huge peniche whose skipper had pulled right over to what normally would be the middle of the canal but at this particular narrow point was our side in order to twist the pole so he could go up in the lock.
 |
| Not the barge in question but you get the idea |
We had both arrived at the worst possible point at exactly the same moment. Panic stations! With absolutely nowhere for us to go except through the shrubbery at full speed that's what we did -even then we missed each other by inches. In case you've ever wondered, your life doesn't flash before you in the face of imminent disaster but the moments leading up to that disaster seem to last a long time. Whose idea was this again?
 |
| Reims Cathedral |
Then, on to Reims which we almost didn't stop at because we've been before and it has the noisiest moorings in the world being right beside the motorway to Paris on one side, a busy city road on the other and virtually underneath a bridge carrying more traffic. But the Chagall Windows beckoned and I'm so happy they did because Reims cathedral has, like many cathedrals this summer, a sound and light show and it was fabulous.
Must've been my idea- surely
 |
| Chagall windows Reims Cathedral |
