26th - 27th May 2017. A visit to the laverie at Vouécourt and a thunderstorm, with hailstones the size of marbles at Villiers-sur-Marne.

The lock cottages are very pleasant on this stretch of the canal, with all of them in use.

Most trees have straight trunks, but this one was really different!

Vouécourt is an attractive village.

In Vouécourt there were bells on the outside of the church tower. However, having waited ages to see them ring, they didn't move at all, with the sound coming from inside the tower.

The laverie at Vouécourt is one of the best preserved that we have seen.

Inside, it probably looks the same as it did when the ladies of the village used to do their laundry, many years ago.

A frog joined us in a lock, next morning. These frogs are not enormous, but do make a loud noise at all rural moorings.

At Viliers-sur-Marne a thunderstorm began, pelting us with hailstones. It continued for nearly an hour.

It was as though we had been in a snow storm.

These are a few of the hailstones which Andy collected over an hour after the storm.

We brought the main flower pots in as the storm began, but had not anticipated it being so bad! After half an hour I braved the storm to rescue the remaining pots.

They weren't very happy!

Next morning it was as though the storm had never been!