3rd July. A visit to the citadel town of Langres.

The citadel town of Langres lies on top of the hill, 150 metres above the canal.

Leaving The Puzzler quite early to avoid the heat of the day, we climbed on up to the town.

There is a walkway all around Langres on the ramparts.

This is the fantastic view which these houses have.

This Gallo-Roman arch was built 30 years after the conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar, in around 20 BC. It is the oldest preserved edifice in Langres, and was built so that the road coming from Reims led directly into the town.

St-Gengoulph's Tower, on a rocky outcrop, was the last artillery tower to be built at Langres in 1553. A military pigeon loft in medieval style was added in 1883, as pigeons were an unnoticed means of communication, flying 100 km in 80 minutes.

Further on are the Navarre and Orval towers. Built in 1512 – 1519, the Navarre tower, to the right, has a diameter of 28 metres and a height of 20 metres, having 20 openings for firing, spread over 4 levels. The Orval tower houses a spiral ramp to bring cannons up to the Navarre tower, safe from enemy fire. Behind these two towers is a modern campsite, with all facilities! What a place to camp!

We enjoyed looking down on the town from the ramparts. This is the rue de la Tournelle.

Langres is an attractive town.

St. Mammes Cathedral dominates the centre of town. Langres is on a major pilgrimage route between Canterbury and Rome.

Inside the cathedral is just as impressive.

My favourite was the carving of the raising of Lazarus, which was in great detail. It came from the Clairvaux Abbey, and is said to be a major piece of the “Langroise” statuary art.

Shannon was delighted to see us on our return, and celebrated with a swim on the slipway.

23rd June - 2nd July 2015. On the Champagne Burgundy Canal from Chamouilley and Joinville to Langres.

John and Brigitte joined us at Chamouilley, which was a charming village.

There is a new mooring here, with no charge, so long as you do not want water or electricity!

Andy and John cycled back along the towpath the next evening, moving the car to Joinville, ready for a train at the end of the week.

The town of Joinville lies below the ruined site of the old Chateau. which was a medieval stronghold, belonging to the House of Guise.

The Chateau de Grand Jardin, in Joinville, was originally called the lower castle, and was a summer retreat built between 1533 and 1546 by Claude de Lorraine, Duke of Guise. Mary, Queen of Scots belonged to the House of Guise, and lived here for a time. Most of the garden is very formal, with each section having a different design. Sally and Brigitte liked the box plants, of which there are 120 different varieties here.

The next part of the canal after leaving Joinville, was extremely weedy. A central section had been cut away, to allow for passage of boats.

We have enjoyed finding country moorings and this one even had a private swimming pool for Shannon! We were jealous of this, as the weather is now extremely hot.

Le Pont Canal de Mussey was one of several aqueducts taking the canal over the river Marne, which is following this valley with us.

Continuing on, it is good to have shade from the trees by the canal. I have to water the flowers twice a day in this hot weather.

Several villages in this area have a communal lavoir, which is a building with clean running water, for the villagers to do their laundry. This one was built in Vouécourt in 1862.

Here Andy and Brigitte are sailing on to the lock at Vouécourt.

This lock is particularly deep, at 3.9 metres, so it would have been difficult to put our front rope on to a bollard from the boat.

The canal continues to be lined with trees, and is lovely.

We stopped for lunch at Riaucourt, and stayed until the next day, at the mooring beside an old dovecote. We ate our meals at the picnic tables provided in the building here, which was really cool.

At Condes there is a short two-way tunnel. Most tunnels are one way with traffic lights. We then sailed on to Chaumont, but decided that it was just too hot to climb up the hill to see the town. The next section of locks are manually operated, so our first lockkeeper accompanied us to Foulain. This brings back pleasant memories of the canals in Ireland.

On to Langres, where we relaxed in the shade near to the canal. The temperature reached 100 degrees today, which is just too hot for comfort. John and Andy went later to retrieve the car from Joinville.

Next morning John and Brigitte set off on their long journey back to England.

19th - 22nd June 2015. Past Mont de Reims and vineyards for champagne by Verzenay. On to Châlons-en-Champagne.

The chalk hill of Mont de Reims lies over to our right, with champagne vineyards to the left of the village of Verzenay. The chalk is perfect for the grapes for making champagne.

We continue steadily up the locks to reach Billy Tunnel. A barge was just leaving the tunnel so, as the lights went green, we hoped for a quick passage. However, only one barge was allowed through our way before the red light, so we had to wait about an hour before we were given permission to go.

The tunnel has lights all the way through, with a narrow towing track, where the train used to run. As the tunnel is 2302 metres, or 1.43 miles long, it was good to see sunshine at the far end.

We were delayed again at a lock, while we waited for the barge, Opa Sigi, to squeeze through, then pass The Puzzler. The lock size here is 38.5 metres by 5.05 metres and Opa Sigi is 39 metres by 5.05 so it is a very tight fit for him.

Having gone down 8 locks, we reached the village of Condé sur Marne, where the original towing train was by the last lock.

 

The covered market can be seen in the centre of Condé sur Marne and gives the village real character.

On Saturday we moved on to Châlons-en-Champagne, which is a lovely town, with two cathedrals. We visited St. Étienne Cathedral first.

The stained glass windows are most impressive, using this green colour which, we were told, is special to this cathedral.

We saw several timbered houses in the town.

Next it was on to the second cathedral, Notre-Dame-en-Vaux.

Both cathedrals were quite light inside, due to all the glass, which has been used wherever possible, either as stained glass, or as plain leaded windows.

On Sunday we sailed as far as Soulanges, where the village church was quite a contrast to the cathedrals. All these village churches are locked, which is a shame.

We continued on through Vitry-le-François, which is a centre for the restoration of old barges. This one is just having new portholes cut, so has a long way to go.

Just past Vitry we joined the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne. The banks of the canal are lined with many different varieties of trees, and remind us of being in an arbotetum. No labels to identify them all though!

13th - 18th June. On the canal des Ardennes to Rethel, and on to Reims.

The canal des Ardennes continues peacefully between the trees. Thankfully it is a little cooler today.

Our next stop is at Rethel, which is a bigger town. There are five English boats here tonight!

A contrast in mooring the next night, below lock 12. Barge Tonga arrived after us, dwarfing The Puzzler.

He left before us in the morning, to go up the lock, and he completely fills it.

Yet another big fellow coming along. We had not expected as many working boats on this canal.

We had a visitor today, who was not at all frightened.

The countryside is much more open beside the canal as we look across the fields of corn towards Cormicy. It is a good harvest this year.

We liked this lock cottage at Guadart. Sadly several of these attractive cottages are now uninhabited.

In Reims it is the ladder to the top window that is of interest. There is a platform mounted on it for furniture to be lowered to the waiting van below.

Sally paused for a rest by the fountain, in the middle of Reims.

Obviously Reims Cathedral is the major point of interest in the city, although we saw no jackdaws! Sadly the front facade is partly covered as renovation is under way.

Inside, the cathedral was lovely, if rather dark. There is a great deal of traditional stained glass but this is a modern window by Imi Knoebel, a German artist.

Outside, the cathedral is covered with superb carvings and statues. This is the north door, with Andy showing the scale of it.