Champagne Lifestyle on a Brown Ale Budget!

Chalons-en-Chapagne has been lovely, once we caught up on our sleep! The river here is canalised but the park is adjacent to the flowing river Marne and there is a good circular walk which allows Sprocket to swim, though the river is still running really fast and high.

There are some fabulous restaurants and of course the obligatory champagne house to visit, but we need to move on , and it's not cheap here.

Actually, to stay on the waterways thus far has been extremely cheap, mostly we have not been charged anything, I think maybe as the weather hasn't been great that many of the little ports haven't had thier spring opening and maintenance done yet.

Our plan is to carry on to Vitry-le-Francois, the end of this canal and the junction with the much smaller Canal de Champagne et Borgone.

Two other boats are due to follow this route today also, it seems strange to be travelling with others. Though actually we didn't as one left very early and one much later, and due to the locks we never saw each other until we stopped for the evening at Vitry!

There was a feeling of anticipation as we set out, as we had been told horror stories relating to our depth and the WEED !

Not to be put off, we set off with a positive attitude and decided to see if we could reach Vitry this evening ,where we had been told we would not be able to moor as it was too shallow for us.

At least travelling without meeting others avoids the negativity and grumpiness of some... usually men of a certain age boating on their own (I wonder why)

Normally our lunch stops aren't planned as it will depend on:

the weather,

if the locks 😉are working

and if we need to go to a shop- in which case we must time it so we don't arrive at lunchtime ( which could be 12-14.30) or closing day of the week, which could be Wednesday, Tuesday, Friday... and definitely don't plan on anything being open on a Monday 😊..did I mention Thursday?

But today...Mike had heard tell of a pizza machine in a village very close to a lock with a halte which we would probably reach around lunchtime. He was so, so excited, even though he knew it was France and the chance of it actually being open and working may be too much to ask.

So we pottered along , with just a couple of locks to do, using the 'twisty pole' method, and no problems.

The lock was reached, the Brompton assembled and off he rode to become a 'deliveroo' rider

IT WORKS!

Not a great deal of choice , but it's worth a try.

Previously we had come across a similar such machine in France which baked baguettes, in a village far from anywhere, they were quite good baguettes so we have high hopes.

The 'deliveroo brompton' peddalled back at speed ,so the hot pizza stayed warm.

And the pizza was actually quite good, who'd have though of such an idea, but as our journey progresses we have seen a few such machines in quite obscure places!

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After quite a large lunch we once again set off for Vitry-le-Francois.

There were a total of eight locks in all to do today, but everything went well and , although we were starting to see areas of the dreaded weed, the boat seemed to be coping well with it.

Before leaving the UK, Mike had fitted a disc rope cutter on the prop shaft, between the P bracket and the propeller, hoping it would also be useful in cutting through weeds. At the moment, everything seems trouble-free, and we just have to make our way into Vitry, where we have been told we definitely won't be able to moor due to our draught.

Guess what... we managed to get into the small port of Vitry, we did touch the bottom but it wasn't too difficult to manoevre, probably lucky as there has been so much rain this year.

A strange port on the edge of the city centre amongst a large school area.

The town centre was quite nice, a very impressive town hall, with many 'youth' hanging out and drinking, the usual large cathedral in the town square, and not a lot open after eight pm, so back to the boat to eat.

I walked through the town hall park the next morning expecting to see it littered with cans, but they had all been put in a bag and left neatly by the bin.

Tomorrow we will start to travel on the Canal Entre Champagne et Borgogne.