Saturday 27th April 2013 Pont-à-Bar to Bogny-sur-Meuse. 34.5 kms 7 locks

Preparing to leave Pont-a-Bar

5.5°C overnight minimum Cold night, grey skies with brief glimpses of sun. Very cold NNE wind blowing in our faces while we were cruising. A péniche went past slowly and quietly before we were up. Got ready to set off at 9.20 a.m. just as a Rive de France hireboat came down lock 6. Untied and followed it into lock 7 Meuse. The young French men on the hireboat said they’d never been boating before so it was all new to them. Ten minutes after we set off we were turning left on the Meuse heading downstream towards Charleville, while the cruiser headed upstream towards Sedan. 

Lock 7 Meuse. C. des Ardennes.
No walkways on the top end gates!

Mike didn’t steer for long without his coat on. 1.5 kms to the first river lock 40 Dom-le-Mesnil. Although the lockhouse had new shutters it looked unlived in. I saw a bird land on one of its chimney pots then hopped inside, must have a nest down in the chimney. 10.5 kms to the next lock. A musk rat was swimming leisurely along the right hand bank against the flow, which Mike had just commented was running at about 2 kph; we had revs on to do 6 kph but were doing 8 kph according to the GPS. On some of the bends the echo sounder recorded depths of over six metres. Mike remarked that the boat was doing sudden sideways jaunts at some of these deep spots and he reckoned they were deep holes in the riverbed caused by many years of floods. 

Lock 41 Romery. R. Meuse

We passed a fisherman in a small dinghy powered by a little electric outboard; he was banging the surface of the river with a thing like an upturned cup with a long handle. We’d seen fishermen doing this before, apparently the sound it makes attracts the fish. The river poured over a weir to our left and we went on into the lock cut leading to lock 41 Romery. Again the lockhouse looked locked up and left, uninhabited, and I can’t say as I would blame them as across the road behind the house there was a large, noisy stone quarry, still hard at work on a Saturday. 

Lock 42 Mezieres with old lockhouse to the left
overshadowed by blocks of city flats

A jogger jogged past as I was taking photos, first signs of terrestrial life. 2.97 kms into Mézières. Under the railway bridge and the river ran over a weir to our left again and we turned sharp right into a short lock cut leading to the deep (3.4m) lock 42 Mézières. Mike zapped but nothing happened, in fact he tried it several times and the lock light remained on single red. We could see a car on the lockside and suspected that there may be a lock keeper on duty, so Mike gave a long hoot to attract his attention as we’d seen no signs with VHF channels to call him on. Nothing. 

Deep river lock at Mezieres

Mike reversed towards the zapper post to have another go when the lights changed to red and green and the gates opened. Hmm, asleep was he? – or just got to a good bit in his book? No sign of him (or her, maybe) up in the lofty cabin way above us. Mike tucked the centre rope through the ladder and I lifted the blue rod (waste of time as the keeper had control) and eventually the gates closed behind us and the lock emptied slowly. Immediately we were out of the lock we did a sharp right again with the river coming in from our left (the canal section leading to the lock chopped off a big meandering loop) then about a kilometre downstream we went under another railway bridge, the river went off on another big meandering loop (with the Port-de-Plaisance and campsite situated about half a kilometre down the loop) and we turned sharp right again into another short lock cut between very high banks, that had recently been underpinned and re-enforced with concrete and tie bars plus a mound of very large rocks at waterlevel. 

Lock cabin with unseen keeper at Mezieres

Zapped and this time lock 43 Montcy worked on automatic. Floods back in about 1998 (I think it was at the time that we were stuck for a month in Fumay) swept great chunks of the bank away to the right of the lock, making a new course for the river, which the VNF later made into a new weir. There was a VNF van on the lockside and the VNF man with a mower had just gone into the (uninhabited) lockhouse for his lunch. Dropped down about 1.75m to rejoin the river again below the lock. There were sounds of shotguns firing in the woods to our right as we left the lock on the 9 kms reach. 

Leaving Mezieres lock,
weir on right not flowing today.

I made some hot sandwiches for lunch, as we were cold, still battling into the wind. Through Nouzonville, keeping left to avoid the submerged island and left past another island and the weir (noted that nesting Canada geese had spread this far now up the river, we’d seen them in Belgium before but not this far south into France) before taking the canal to lock 44 Joigny. A house that was lived in, with decorated lock cabins, old and new, plus a sign showing flood levels in the 90s. Past another island on our right, round a bend and under a bridge, then on the right just downstream of the bridge was a new pontoon (looked like it had water and electricity too) and a hireboat from Pont-à-Bar was moored there, its crew were having lunch and fishing. A winding 6 kms reach with factories at Braux on the left bank lead us to lock 45 Levrézy. I took a photo with the four peaks of rock on the hill beyond the lock, the Rocher des Quatre Fils Aymon. The sign saying “zap here” was missing but the blue box and yellow flashing light were there. Mike was concerned that there were no lights showing at the lock. The bulb must be broken, I said. 

Flood water levels from the 1990s,
 at Joigny lk 44

He zapped, the yellow flasher flashed and the green light came on down by the lock – see, the red bulb wasn’t working! The lock worked OK. Just another kilometre and we arrived at Bogny, winded to moor bows pointing upstream next to a newly refurbished pontoon. It was 3 pm. New electricity posts and water had been installed, we couldn’t use the water as we had no push in connector that would fit it. It’s made by Staubli, and going to be the new standard Mike was told at the marina at Pont a Bar, but no-one has any connectors for them. It’s the type of thing BWB would do, remember the new sized tapers on the paddle spindles than no-one had a windlass to fit? The bank had been completely done over, trees all gone and new concrete steps at the downstream end and a slope connecting to a steep passerelle at the upstream end (where we’d tied). Set the TV up, connected to the electric and unloaded the moped. Mike went to collect the car from Pont-à-Bar.

Rocks called Quatre Fils Aymon with Chateau Regnault town below

Thursday 25th April 2013 Malmy to Pont-à-Bar 11.4 kms 3 lks 1 tunnel.

Moored at Malmy

4.6°C Sunny and much warmer all day. The previous evening I’d helped Mike get the bike off the roof and stow it in the car ready for today. First he went to the village of Vendresse for a loaf, which he brought back to the boat (11 kms round trip) then over to Pont-á-Bar, parked the car by lock N°6 and returned on the moped. We set off at 11.20 a.m. I walked halfway back to the zapper post before it would work, then I walked back and got on the boat as the lock was filling. Some farm tractors were arriving around one every ten minutes, bringing loads of soil or compost in tipping trailers, 

Minor surgery on the car

which they were dumping beyond the quay. A fisherman had set up his rods right by the lock. Down lock 3 Malmy and on to the 5.9 kms pound. I made a cuppa and Mike put the sunshade up. On our left, meadows stretching up the slopes of the low hill to the woods were occupied by cows and calves, while on our right the canal was bordered with wide arable fields. The low hill, called Mont Joly curved round to the right and the river Bar wove a meandering path around it while the canal took the quick route via a tunnel called St Aignan (197m long). The entrance was around a blind left hand bend and there was a zapper post and a new set of traffic lights as it and the locks were one way working. 

The quay at Malmy

The lights turned from red to red green after Mike zapped, which meant that no one was coming through the tunnel and therefore the two locks, 4 & 5 St Aignan, at the far end of the tunnel were filling. Green light and we went through the tunnel and straight into the lock. The lock house on the left had smart blue shutters and a young lady at the house on the right was grooming a horse in the garden. The pound between the locks is very short, but wide, to allow big boats to swing out and turn sharp left into the lower lock.

Zapper post and lights at St Aignan

 There was a new picnic table on the far side of the pound and a family was using it to have their lunch. Into lock 5 and a little boy in the garden of the lock house waved before he was grabbed by a parent and taken inside. 5.1 kms to Pont-à-Bar. I made some sandwiches for lunch as we cruised along. Mike saw a couple of herons having a fight over a disputed length of bank while I was in the cabin. Heard the first cuckoo of the year while we were having lunch. The banks were covered in ladysmock and cowslips, but here and there were bright patches of wood anemones and celandines. A buzzard landed in the corner of a field and watched us watching it as we passed by. 

St Aignan tunnel, note new railings for pedestrian safety

As we went through the village of Hannogne-St-Martin I spotted a radio amateur antenna farm with more aerials than we’d ever seen before at one house. Very impressive. A row of cruisers were moored on the right by the boatyard of the Chantier Maubacq. Loads of boats were out on the hard and an old British campervan stood next to a small Dutch barge called Jenny B, which was undergoing a major refit judging by the amount of new wood standing outside it. Into the lock as the VNF crew were leaving the yard after lunch in one large and one small van. 

Out of the tunnel and into lock 4 St Aignan

They waved. We passed the hire base on the left where a long row of pénichettes were waiting for this seasons hirers to take them out. Into the lock, 6 Pont-à-Bar, which emptied OK, but the bottom end gates refused to open. Mike shinned up the ladder and gave the gates a shove from the middle and wobbled the sensor on the mitre post, THEN the hydraulic power pack started up and gates opened. We trundled past more moored boats, noted that the restaurant boat had gone and been replaced by several houseboats. We moored at 2.10 pm beyond the last of a line of cruisers, on the right next to piling at the foot of a high grassy bank. 

Below lock 5 St Aignan

A DB was coming up in lock 7 and seemed to be taking ages. A woman walked up the towpath (the opposite bank to where we’d moored) and asked if the next lock was working. She said the top gates on lock 7 wouldn’t fully open, so they couldn’t get out of the lock. They’d called the VNF but she said they would take a long time, maybe two hours. Mike looked through binos and saw that one gate looked as if it hadn’t fully opened, probably had tree debris behind it. The power pack had sensed an overload and had shut down. The light triangle displayed two, vertical red lights, “en panne” out of order. 

Hireboats waiting for this season's hirers above lock 6 Pont-a-Bar

We got on with our routine and set up the TV, etc. Mike moved the car, which he’d left parked on the road by the lock this morning, and brought it down the path so it was next to the boat. I gave him a hand to get the empty gas bottle out of the front locker and he went to get a refill and get some petrol for the genie. Just before he left at 4 pm the DB Rosa went past heading uphill – it HAD taken the VNF almost three hours! Nice boat with a lovely sounding slow-running diesel engine. 

Friday 19th April 2013 Tannay to Malmy. 11.9 kms 2 locks

Moored nr Tannay on summit of C des Ardennes

3.6°C (Glad we lit the coal fire overnight!) Grey clouds with sunny spells. Cold wind. Shell boat L’Heritage went past at 9.45 a.m. heading the same way as us. We said we’d follow them today. I asked if they’d had a pleasant stay in Le Chesne and she said they’d had a meal out. We set off at 10.10 a.m. It was about 3.5 kms to the first lock. Beyond the derelict house there was a row of green buoys along the right side of the canal and we could see that a whole length of piling had collapsed. Not really surprising as they don’t add bracing bars when they do their piling here in France. A buzzard sitting in a tree remained there long enough for Mike to switch the camera on and he just got the tail and flight feathers of it as it took off. 

Bank erosion caused by excessive wash. Below lk 1 Sauville

We could hear another buzzard close by in some dead trees and guessed there might be a nest. As we went round the last bend before lock 1 Sauville we could see the blue cabin of L’Heritage leaving the lock. The telecommand now came into use and we zapped the post where there was a lightning pyramid on top, the yellow light on it flashed to say it had received a signal and the lock lights went from just red to red and green. We crossed a little aqueduct over a stream that runs into La Bar, a tributary of the Meuse, whose valley the canal follows down to the river. 

Lock 2 La Cassine

The lock filled and we went down. Each of these seven locks were equipped sometime during the 1920s or 1930s with pumping stations that back pump water from the river up to the summit in times of water shortage. 3.65 kms to the next. The wind was chilly as the countryside changed from pastureland to woodland. A jay flew over, squawking loudly. The sloping grassy banks supporting the towpath had been eroded by the excessive wash of passing boats; the VNF had made a vain attempt to stop this by adding a few large plastic sacks full of earth along the edge. Beyond the towpath there was a long open grassy field with the woodland still beyond it. 

Back-pumping station at La Cassine.
Each of the seven locks down to the Meuse has one.

To our great surprise there was a coypu sitting on the bank beyond the grassy towpath, watching us watching him. He ambled off before I could take a photo. A few minutes later exactly the same thing happened again, another coypu stared at us for a few minutes before diving into the canal and the safety of its den. Zapped lock 2 La Cassine. Mike took photos of the sun shining on the mellow stone ruins of the château beyond the lock house as we went into the lock. An old black dog from the lock house woofed at us while wagging his tail. Their garden was full of gnomes and stone animals. Below the lock there is a useful quiet mooring, today the grass between the picnic tables was being eco-mowed by a large brown un-tethered goat. 

Chateau ruins at La Cassine

As we chugged on along the last few kilometres of canal for today I made a cuppa to warm us up. More buzzards, a group of four, were soaring high up far off to our right and being attacked by a solitary crow. Flocks of fast flying darting birds took off from the towpath, too swift to see accurately what they were, I guessed they might be finches. The road alongside the canal became busy with lunchtime traffic, one vehicle every five minutes! There were low tree-covered hills beyond arable fields as the canal started to wind around to the next lock, 3 Malmy. We didn’t zap the post, as we wanted to moor on the quay just before the lock. It was 12.40 pm when we tied up. Again the Internet was useless so no blogging today. The quay here is suitable for Mike to do the job on the car he’s been waiting to do for some time. As soon as the bitter cold Northerly wind stops he’s going to renew the camshaft timing and auxiliary drive belts. He doesn’t know the service history so it’s safer to change the belts rather than risk them breaking. If the camshaft timing belt breaks the repair could be very, very expensive. 

Thursday 18th April 2013 Attigny to Tannay KP24.

Quiet mooring at Attigny

12.3°C Grey start, then sunny spells later. Cooler. Set off at 8.50 a.m. to get to the first lock at nine. 1 km to lock 5 Attigny. A young lad was fishing from the quay beyond the road bridge where there were some new buildings. The shallow lock was already empty. It filled slowly. The house at N°5 looked empty, shame as it looked a good house. 4.8 kms to the next lock, the banks were covered in cowslips and ladysmock. Half way to the lock we spotted a poor hedgehog trying hard to continue to swim, looking exhausted and near to drowning. We fished it out and I put it in a box with some newspapers and rags to cover it. 

Lk 27 Rilly leads on to the river Aisne

We came to the junction where the canal off to the right followed the river Aisne up to Vouziers, a dead end. We took the lock on the left which leads to a crossing of the river then a flight of locks climbs a steep valley. River lock 27 Rilly was ready and operated by a VNF keeper, a pleasant, friendly chap with a plaited beard. The lock filled and we rose less than half a metre on to the level of the river Aisne, which we followed for 650m to the first lock of the Montgon flight of twenty six locks. 

Lk 26 Semuy. Bottom lock of the Montgon flight

Lock 26 Semuy was operated by a middle aged lock keeper and a young lady who was there to take boat details. I climbed the lock ladder on the right hand side (opposite the lock cabin) with our centre rope and held the rope round bollards while the lock filled. Once the lock was full we shoved over to the left hand side of the chamber and gave the young lady the rest of the details from the licence that she required for her form. They almost forgot to give us a zapper. I asked how many boats they’d had through this year and the keeper jokingly said five hundred, to which I replied “You’re hoping!” He laughed. As it turned out we didn’t need the zapper yet as the whole flight was “chained” – as one filled the next one got ready, etc. 

A huge old waterwheel hidden in the undergrowth
below lock 22 Montgon flight

The first four were named Semuy, then there were six in a flight called Neuville-Day and the top sixteen were called Montgon. All of the locks had posh new lock cabins on the towpath side. The towpath was tarmaced all the way to the summit and used to be used by diesel tractor units, which hauled the working boats through the flight. Many of the locks had been repaired in the seven years since we were last here and some had new concrete chamber walls, some had new gates and some had new tail end wall cladding. Sadly, most of the lovely honey coloured stone lock houses were falling into ruin with no doors and windows, some had gone entirely. Into lock 25 and I lifted the first blue pole and we started. 

Derelict lockhouse beside lock 20 Montgon flight

Up 24 OK, then at the next lock (23) the lower part of the blue pole was missing so I had to climb another ladder to activate the lock. Up 22, at 21 there was a dipper sitting on the lock gate with a beak full of grass for its nest (the stream flows along side the canal in a deep ditch surrounded by trees). It hid when I brought the camera out and flew off as the gates opened. The village of Neuville-Day spread up the left hand side of the Montgon valley as we went thought locks 20 and 19. The sloping fields beyond the village were filled with cows, Charolais for the most part. Up 18, the lock house looked like it was being renovated. I made lunch as we went up 17, 16 and 15. 

New lock cabins, one for each of the 26 locks.

We could see L’Heritage occasionally in the locks below us. The house at 14 was lived in and was surrounded by more houses on the edge of the village of Montgon, the keeper worked the newly completely refurbished lock as the automatics were “En panne”. Ran out of diesel as we entered lock 13, the engine died so we’d no reverse and came to an abrupt stop when we hit the cill. I climbed another ladder with the rope to haul the boat back down the chamber and lift the bar to start filling the lock, while Mike bled the system and restarted the engine. 

Lock 13 with weir through the lock wall.

Up 12, the new cabin had been vandalised (the only one in the whole flight) and someone had broken two of the double glazed windows. Up 11 and 10, made coffee and sat down to drink it as we went up 9. Lock 8 had a derelict house, but as we climbed higher up the valley it took on a more remote air and the lock houses were missing altogether at 7, 6, 5, & 4. Lock 3 still had an inhabited house. This was where we had an embarrassing incident back in 1996 when we were coming downhill in the lock. The operating system then had a swivelling spring-loaded metal bar sticking out from the wall at the entrance and exit of each lock chamber, which full-width boats had no trouble pushing into the slot in the lock walls to activate the lock’s electronics. 

Rope grooves in the wall of derelict house at lk 12,
made by towpath haulage diesel-powered tractors

The wind shoved our bows over as we exited lock three, so we thought we’d missed the bar, Mike reversed into the chamber to exit again – then the gates closed, trapping us in the lock we’d just come down. A cheery grinning face appeared above us, the lock keeper, who asked if we wanted to continue down the flight – yes, please! I’m sure that the derelict house at lock 2 was being used as a goat shed, we could hear a goat but couldn’t see it. Our smiling keeper was at the top lock by the house up on the hill to our left. He wished us bonne route and we said thanks for a good trip through the flight. It was 3.20 p.m. as we went though a low cutting on the summit level into Le Chesne. 

Slots in the lock wall for swiveling metal bars that
activated the old system of automatics 

The Nicholls boat (Arcachon) that we’d seen in Rethel the previous Sunday was now moored in the middle of the quay under the Pont X on the left. Plenty of room for L’Heritage on the right hand wall, where they’d installed new electric points. We carried on out of town. More fishermen with campervans were parked on the old quay on the edge of town. Further on there had been extensive bank works and the towpath edge along the left bank had been sloped, the earth held back with chicken wire. The towpath had merged with the field and muddly puddles - it looked disused – no tarmaced haulage way here! 

Lock 3 Montgon - the one we got stuck in, years ago in 1996!

It will look better once the grass re-grows. Under the road bridge and moored by the now derelict waterman’s house, where the feed water from Blairon reservoir comes into the canal. Knocked pegs in behind the piling, then trimmed off the tree stumps that were poking through the holes in the piling. It was 4.45 pm. While I cooked dinner Mike let the hedgehog loose in the field. Later he lit the coal fire as the Météo indicated it would be 7°C overnight. The Internet too feeble to bother with so no blogging again today.

Tuesday 16th April 2013 Rethel to Attigny. 18.1 kms 4 locks.

Moorings at Rethel

7.9°C Sunny start then hazy clouds but mild. No jackets on, just fleeces. Set off at ten just as today’s boozing crowd of locals arrived at the picnic tables. 2.5 kms to the first lock 9 Biermes. A little terrier dog from the lock house came to look at us, wee’d up one of the bollards and left! Down the left hand side of the lock there were four large boat props and an anchor and outside the lock house there were various small agricultural machines. Madame and young daughter came out of the house and got in the car. She chatted with Mike about the weather. A fisherman had arrived and parked his car alongside the lock while it was filling and he’d headed off along the towpath carrying a load of fishing gear. We passed him half way along the 2.75 kms pound to the next lock, 8 Thugny.

Chateau de Thugny-Trugny

He didn’t speak as we passed as he was busy, head down searching for worms. Today we were having fun removing all the stray ants that had been marooned on the boat, we kept finding them on the roof and gunwales (they came trooping on to the back deck yesterday). Mike took photos of a lovely chateau at Thugny-Trugny hidden by the trees. (Later investigation found that it had been destroyed in WWI and subsquently rebuilt) Lock 8 was full as the top end gates were leaky. Below the lock there was another fisherman, but in contrast to the last one this one was very chatty. In the chamber there was a strong stink of rotting vegetation. 

Lock 8 Thugny

There were three cars on the lockside, but no one around. 2.7 kms to lock 7 Seuil. About 500m from the lock there was a moored boat, a small blue and white Nicholls, alongside a small caravan park. Several people were sitting outside at tables, but none of them saw or heard us passing by. The lock was full, it emptied and we went in. Mike had to lift the blue rod as I couldn’t – it was bent. The rods were so close to the edge of the chamber that they were easily hit by big boats. The lock seemed to fill very slowly. Left the top just after midday and set off on the long pound, 7.85 kms to lock 6 Givry. Paused at the quay before the silos at Ambly-Fleury to see if the electricity post worked, it didn’t and it didn’t last time we passed by in 2006 - so they haven't got round to fixing it yet then. No signs of a tap either. 

Bent blue rod at lk 6 Seuil

Two little boys were fishing on the opposite bank. They waved. I made sandwiches for lunch and we just managed to eat them before we arrived at Givry. The village of the same name came first, stretched out along the canal but higher on a long low hill. Lock 6 was empty, so the gates opened immediately after we turned the pole. No lock house, not even any signs that there had ever been one. A DB came round the bend above the lock as it was almost full. It was a lovely British flagged Luxemotor called Aurigny. They went into the lock with the lights on red/green, hope it worked OK as this sometimes causes automatic locks to go “en panne” and the VNF have to be called out to reset it. On into Attigny. Paused at the lower end of the quay and refilled the water tank (first tap since Berry-au-Bac and we didn’t bother to fill up there) then Mike bow-hauled up to the top end of the quay so we could get satellite TV later. It was 2.40 pm. We hadn’t finished putting stuff away when a large DB (a blue and white tjalk) arrived and came in to moor by the water tap. I went to give a hand as there are no bollards along the quay just bent steel hoops which are difficult for barges as normally the “foredeck hand” usually just drops a loop around a bollard. 

A Dutch barge waiting for the lock.

No, they were OK – all in French – so I went back to putting stuff away and getting Mike’s biking gear ready while he set the Markon up so I could do some washing. We unloaded the moped and Mike went off to get the car from Attigny at 3.35 pm. Put the laptop on and did the log then tried to check e-mails but the signal was weak, EDGE or GPRS so I gave up, no blogging today. Mike was back with the car within the hour. 

Saturday 13th April 2013 Asfeld to Rethel. 21.3 kms 4 locks.

Don't normally have to get off the boat to do this!
Some joker had moved it. Below lock 13 Asfeld.

Cold overnight, sunny spells and grey clouds, no rain until late afternoon but the wind was still chilly. Set off at 9.25 a.m. after Mike had moved the car from the edge of the quay to by the hedge. We could hear warblers in the trees. Not far from the moorings the towpath (which was about a metre above the water level) was closed off where a large section was missing; there were more chunks missing further on due to bank erosion. Mike spotted two men with clipboards among the trees and we wondered what sort of survey they were doing. It was only about 1 km to the first lock, 13 Asfeld. I had to get off the boat and walk back to the turn pole, (one that is suspended from a wire going from a post on either bank) as someone had pulled it right up on to the towpath. Usually they’re at least two to three metres from the bank. Luckily it worked OK. 

Leaving lock 13 Asfeld

A jogger went past and there were more men with clipboards, too far away to ask them what they were doing. Might be a bird survey, it was surely never a boat survey. We’ve only seen one other boat moving! The lock house had curtains at the windows but had that looked un-lived-in look. No car, no plants, no woodpiles. 7.9 kms to the next. Above lock 13 about a 2 kms section of the non-towpath side had been flayed – trees and bushes smashed into shreds, plants all decimated – just a few cowslips and primroses growing amid the loose soil. Prefer the wild look to moonscape with twigs. The towpath had almost been washed away over the next few kilometres. 

Silos at Chateau-Porcien

The turn pole below lock 12 Pargny was halfway across the canal where it should be, and it worked so the lock emptied and we went up. Two cars were parked by the lock and the people from them walked off up the path into the woods as we entered the chamber. The lock house this time was lived in, it had cars parked outside and rows of woodpiles. 7.7 kms to the next. The non-towpath side above the lock was ablaze with cowslips and violets where the VNF had kept the grass well shorn. The towpath all the way to Château Porcien was in good state too. The silo quay was empty and beyond the VNF house there was a workshop with three VNF vans and an old workboat (but no tug to pull it). The canal became wilder again and more like a river on the long stretch to Nanteuil lock 11. 

Leaving lock 11 Nanteuil

A pair of cormorants were fishing in the wider section of canal and kept flying away in front of us, landing, diving and catching more fish, then flying on again until we the canal became narrower. Turned the pole and Nanteuil lock emptied. The walls, ladders and control bars were very muddy. Again, the house was lived in and a new lock cabin had been built on the opposite side to the house. I made sandwiches for lunch on the 2.15 kms pound to the last lock of the day, 10 Acy-Romance. The resident VNF man went from his car to the house and wished us both bonjour and left us to it. Above the lock we passed a fisherman, a cyclist and a walker on the 2.5 kms into Rethel. 

Fishermen's camp on towpath abv Nanteuil

Nearer the town two young lads were throwing stones – but along the path by the footbridge rather than into the canal – they’d gone by the time we reached the bridge, we don’t think they even saw us. Under the new bridge taking the busy N51 up the hill and around the town, past two empty silo quays and moored on the quay before the port-de-plaisance at 2.15 p.m. A British registered tjalk (Dutch barge, called Claes Campaen) had been left, moored on the quay, and there were two boats in the port, a French yacht from Givet and a Dutch cruiser called Marrkesh, both of which looked like they’d been left there for some time. We tied up and went to look in the port to see how much they charge nowadays. 

Lock 10 Acy-Romance. C des Ardennes

Hmm. No water and no electric, all looked vandalised, but none of the boats had been touched, ropes fenders, anchors, etc, all seemed OK. Gave Mike a hand to run the bike off the roof down a plank and he went to retrieve the car from Asfeld. When he came back he said there was an empty péniche waiting to load on the silo quay at Asfeld, so we were pleased to find that there is still some commercial activity on the canal des Ardennes.  

Wednesday 10th April 2013 Berry-au-Bac – Asfeld. 21 kms 3 locks

The "large" at Berry-au-Bac. C. Lateral a l'Aisne

7.0°C Warmer overnight. Mike bought a baguette from the boulangerie then we got ready to move on. Overnight rain and milder temperatures had brought out the cowslips and violets on the bank alongside the boat. Mike parked the car down by the lock house and we set off at 10.20 a.m. heading up the 4.65 kms pound. A lone tern was flying up and down the canal searching for fish. The two swans we’d been feeding bread for the last couple of days were busily building a nest at the top end of the “large” opposite the busy (and noisy) grain and animal feed depot. 

Low bridge below Berry lk 1 C. de l'Aisne a la Marne

Mike took photos of the shunting engine and then of a large tractor which was coupled to a line of railway wagons waiting to be unloaded – the shunter must be out of sorts! Under the A26 motorway, busy with lorry after lorry. The canal was extremely quiet apart from loud birdsong from a stand of white poplars off to the right of the canal. We’d seen no one at all along the towpath until we arrived at lock 2 Condé-sur-Suippes and a silent man on a bike stopped to watch us lock through. The automatic lock worked perfectly. Took pictures of the two redundant lock cabins, a large capstan and a smart, lived-in lock house. Made a cuppa on the 7 kms long pound. Noted a new tap by some picnic tables at Variscourt. 

Tractor acting as shunter. Berry-au-Bac

The canal becomes more like a river after Variscourt, with overhanging trees on both sides. The water was very clear at the first wide bit with an island and we could see how shallow it was off to the left and the underwater tree debris. Through the village of Pignicourt, passing a house with an enviable antenna farm (radio amateur) then the VNF house – and spotted the man getting into his van. He was there in the cabin at the lock, number 1 Pignicourt, last on the Latéral à l’Aisne and only 1.89m deep. 

Lock 2 Conde-sur-Suippes. C. Lat a l'Aisne

He waved as we left, presumably he was just making sure that the lock worked OK for us. Just beyond the lock we left the department of Aisne and entered Ardennes. 6.9 kms of canal left before the start of the Canal des Ardennes. Black clouds loomed in front and made a contrasting backdrop for the photos Mike was trying to take of our new king-sized VNF flag as the wind swept it horizontal. I made some sandwiches for lunch. Fortunately the rain clouds were not coming our way. The bird life was very varied, we passed moorhens, coots, jays, ducks, crows and a lone buzzard, plus Mike saw a kingfisher on the way to lock 14 Vieux-les-Asfeld. I turned the pole and the lock emptied - it had been three-quarters full. 

A musk rat! Sharing lock 14 Vieux-les-Asfeld. C des Ardennes

No lock house or cabin, completely deserted except for us - and a musk rat! First time we’ve ever shared a lock with a musk rat. It swam up and down at the top end of the lock, diving down and popping back up by the gates, keeping well away from us. It sat in the hole by the blue rod, having a rest as the lock finished filling. As soon as the top end gates opened it was out and gone. A couple of kilometres further on we arrived at the little town of Asfeld and moored next to a quay almost as high as the boat roof – ideal for getting the moped off the roof without a plank. It was 2.55 pm.

Lock 14 Vieux-les-Asfeld. C des Ardennes

Moored at Asfeld. C des Ardennes