Before we left this morning Peter drove Pete, Tony and Hannah to the supermarket where they bought a number of heavy items like water and wine (we are always grateful for a ride to the supermarket in the car - it saves us lugging the bulkier and heavier stuff in our back-packs, or on the bikes). One critical item which they managed to buy at the supermarket was a new "blow-up" double bed. Unfortunately for Chris & Peter, (but not for us, as we were OK in our own proper bed) the blow-up bed we've had onboard for the last 5 years has sprung a small leak. Apparently (not that we knew - we were fast asleep) it went down a couple of times during the night. We showed the appropriate sympathy with them in the morning, as did Pat & Tony (who also slept well in a very comfortable conventional double-bed). We were pleased however that the problem was solved after only one night (good, electric powered, deluxe "blow-up" double beds are not always easy to lay your hands on in the French countryside).
We headed out from Chalons-en-Champagne by noon in terrific weather, confident all would sleep well tonight. Our plan was to go to Tour-sur-Marne for the night, however the day was quite hot and by lunch-time (around 2:30 pm) we were looking for a cool place under some trees to eat. We found an agreeable place just past Ecluse 11 (Lock 11), and so moored up and had lunch. Lunch in the shade was pleasant, and before we knew it it was late afternoon. Since we were already in a good mooring and Peter & I had to go back and pick up the car anyway, we decided to stay and to have dinner where we were.
Peter and I jumped on the bikes and headed back to Chalons-en-Champagne to get his car, while the others either continued eating and drinking or went for a walk along the canal.
When we returned with the car we set up the BBQ. It was a very very pleasant evening with good company, good food (the chickens BBQ'd to a "T") and some good wine in a picturesque setting.
Some of us worked hard at the BBQ ....
And some of us didn't ....
Ay-Champagne: Wednesday 02/07/2008 Monday 07/07/2008:
Today we took a leisurely trip from our country mooring at lock 11, on to the Champagne village of "Ay", which is in the heart of Champagne. I read recently that before Champagne was called Champagne, it was called "le vin de Ay" ("the wine from Ay").
Ay is also famous as it was the location of a Royal wine press of Henry IV's (Henry was king of France around the same time as Elizabeth I was queen of England). He was a quite well respected monarch, especially in Ay, and particularly after he went on the record as saying "if I was not the king of France, then I'd want to be the Sire of Ay".
The other good thing about Ay is, while it is small and relatively quiet, it is only 3 kms from Epernay - one of the large Champagne towns which has many top Champagne Houses, some of which offer good tours of their cellars.
On the Thursday we all went for lunch in Epernay and then did a tour of the Champagne caves.
Unfortunately Pat & Tony and the rest of the family had to leave us early on Friday morning to get back to the UK (via the Chunnel).
It's a pity they couldn't stay for the weekend as following their departure there was a festival on in town; the "Henry IV Fete". This is on every two years and we just jagged it to be here on this weekend - we didn't know anything about this 'Champagne festival' until we got here this week.
All the Champagne Houses in Ay, the likes of Bollinger, Roger Brun, Gatinois, are open to the public, and each has put on food and music to have with their champagne. As well as the typical French food, there was also Italian cuisine (courtesy of Ay's Italian twin town), paella, oysters, etc.
We had a great time in Ay on the Saturday listening to the various bands that were playing; lunch and dinner there, courtesy of two different Champagne Houses. That evening Meg (our friend from our old university days) arrived to spend the week with us. She arrived by train from Paris getting into Epernay at about 10:30pm, and then caught a cab into Ay - just in time for a drink and to watch the fireworks display in the vineyard on the hill behind our mooring.
On Sunday we all went back into Ay for the final day of the festival. We had lunch and listened to some different music and in the afternoon watched some medieval fighting displays. The festival finished with a grand parade through the town. This consisted of medieval flag throwers ("gonfaloneurs"), guys on 5 metre high stilts, floats from all the Champagne Houses, Morris Clog Dancers (courtesy of the town of Newton Abbot in England - another twinned town with Ay), and much more. It was a truly interesting festival.
The ultimate float in the parade was the Royal Cortège of Henry IV - with Henry riding his white horse (symbol of royalty) with fleur-de-lys on its livery.
We stayed around the Ay area, making just one day trip to Dizzy and back. This was because we had to wait for Meg's bag to be delivered from the airline. Like me, Meg travelled the last leg of her trip from Australia with British Airways - who unfailingly lost her bag in London Heathrow (my bag disappeared for 4 weeks before BA found it and shipped it to me). Fortunately for Meg, her bag was only lost for several days ...
(Its pathetic, isn't it? ... when we think BA has done an OK job having only lost the bag for a couple of days).
Mareil-sur-Ay: Tuesday 08/07/2008:
After getting Meg's bag we made a short trip of about 6 kms to the village of Mareil-sur-Ay (home of the famous Billecart-Salmon champagne house), in order to spend one night there. While in town we had a good 'cheap & cheerful' lunch at the local cafe and then walked to a small Champagne House called Benard Pitois, which is at the outskirts of the village. They graciously opened up their tasting room and let us try their wines. There are many small places like this, the champagne form which is just not available in Australia (or outside of France for that matter). Some are better than others, I'm told, (though they all seem good to me). Its great while traveling through the area to try a few different places - outside of the big houses, whose wine is available everywhere.
We split a case with Meg and carried it back to the boat (which is in itself thirsty work and deserves a reward).
Cumieres: Wednesday 09/07/2008:
After getting the bag delivered we moved on to Cumieres, a great mooring provided by the village with free water and electricity. We had to have a quiet afternoon here given all the heart-racing excitement of the weekend fete. We had a pleasant dinner ondeck.
Damery: Thursday 10/07/2008:
After a late start we moved on today to Damery, just an hour or so away from Cumieres, where we had a great lunch at the restaurant there.
Damery is a favourite stop for us because it is the home of the Haton family, who have several family establishments in town. We like Joel Haton's Champagne in particular. We went there with Meg, did a tasting and bought 4 cases to keep us going over the next few months.
Chateau-Thierry: Friday 11/07/2008 to Monday 14/07/2008:
Meg left us here in order to go to her conference in Paris. It's been good having visitors over the last two weeks, and feels a little strange with just Pete & me onboard now.
We've taken the opportunity here to do some serious shopping (even moving the boat up to moor outside of the supermarket), to have a lunch and a bike ride, and to walk around the town.
After a Sunday lunch in the main square, we went to a free concert put on by a visiting American group of college students from N.Y.. They had an orchestra, and also a choral group - both really good. It was a sort of 'Friendship Tour' I think. We really enjoyed it.
Above the lock at Ecluse 6 (at Azy): Tuesday 15/07/2008:
This is just a pretty place; above the lock there is water on hand and a great view across the Champagne hills that run East-West along the Marne Valley.
Charly-sur-Marne to La Ferte-sous-Jouarre: Wednesday 16/07/2008 Saturday 19/07/2008:
Continued along the Marne and in La Ferte we met an interesting couple (Jean & Michelle Delfosse on "Nirvana"). Jean was formerly the CEO of a nuclear medicine equipment company, but is now retired and is artist-in-residence at the port. His speciality is creating sculptures from driftwood he finds along the riverbank.
La Ferte has a good market near the port and although the port was quite busy when we were there (we had a couple of Dutch cruisers moored outside of us), we found everyone in good spirits and had a pleasant stay there.
We also picked up Helen here; she arrived by train. She's joining us for the next part of the trip toward Paris. Jean and his wife came onboard for a drink in the evening. (Fortunately for us Helen was there, as Jean speaks no English and our French is only good enough to keep a rudimentary conversation going.)
Meaux: Monday 21/07/2008 Wednesday 23/07/2008:
Arrived at Meaux and moored up just across from the lock, next to a young Englishman by the name of Matt McKenzie. He had just bought an old wooden boat called "Water Lily" that he was still working on. His is a BIG project - not the sort of thing I'd feel comfortable to take on. Much work. Good luck Mat.
Unfortunately my photographer did not get any photographs of the project - you just can't get the crew these days!
We also met up with a few friends in the Port de Plaisance; including Jim & Mary on "Festina Tarde". We had a great dinner with them onboard their boat (as usual) , courtesy of Jim's efforts in the kitchen.
During our stay in Meaux we had another "scheduled incident" with the electric toilet. I say "scheduled incident", because the only times I have ever had any problem with the toilet, the problem has coincided with Helen's arrival on the boat. Three visits, three problems. This time it was an olive pit, which I assume had passed through someone, which had jammed in the pump's impellor. Not a huge problem to fix - it just requires dis-assembly, removal of the offending pit, and re-assembly. Easy ... but a little time consuming and certainly not for those with an acute sense of smell or who are squeamish in regard to putting their hands into murky places.
(Fortunately I have no sense of smell and am used to nappies from a former life. Over this last point, however, Pete and I seem to have a different memory).
Helen sensibly caught the train into Paris for the day while I fixed the toilet.
Lagny: Thursday 24/07/2008 Saturday 26/07/2008:
Toilet functioning, we sailed on to Lagny.
This is a lovely little town on the River Marne which has a superb long pontoon. There are both free water and electricity at the port - though the electricity ceased to work after the local council used it to power their water pumps while cleaning off the pontoon.
The council workers didn't, fortunately for us, spend the whole time we were there stuffing things up .....
We had a great time in Lagny with Helen. We even caught the train into Paris with her (about 20 minutes) and had lunch there - I returned while Pete & Helen shopped.
Unfortunately there was, however, an incident which seriously shook us a little. When I returned from Paris the woman from the boat which was moored down the pontoon from us came over to talk to me, to ask if we still had power connected to our boat (we didn't). I spoke with her for a while and she then returned to her boat. Later in the day Pete & Helen returned from Paris and we had a nice meal and all hit the sack around midnight. At about 1:00am I was woken up by noises on deck - someone was running along our boat. I immediately got up and went up on deck to see what was happening. There were two guys standing at the bow with torches. I approached them and asked them what they were doing and what they wanted. When I got closer I could see that they were both policemen - one in uniform and one in fatigues. They told me that a woman from the boat down the pontoon (the same woman I spoke with during the day), had fallen overboard and her husband had called the police and they were there trying to find her. I could see then that there were also a number of ambulances and fire trucks along the wharf and at the bridge... I immediately got out our large searchlight and, along with a number of guys from the other boats, started looking into the water.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, the police eventually found the woman's body about 100 meters down the river about 45 minutes later. They could not revive her. The police took the husband away - they wouldn't let him back onto his boat. Two policemen guarded the boat overnight and in the morning a forensic team arrived and placed yellow number tags around the boat, photographing everything. They also interviewed us; though we really had nothing to tell them.
When we left Lagny a day or so later, we noticed that the husband was back on the boat - so I guess it was eventually put down as an unfortunate accident. It did however leave us thinking about life and luck.
Meaux: Sunday 27/07/2008 Thursday 31/07/2008:
Back to Meaux, where we are leaving the boat in the care of our friend Anne, while we spend two weeks in Paris and a week-end in Germany at Sam & Vanessa's wedding..
The weather was particularly warm, so before heading to Paris we spent a little time "at the beach" (Plage-de-Meaux), which was right next to our mooring.
Off to Paris ...
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