Saturday 7th May 2016 Pont-à-Bar to Château Regnault 34.7kms 7 locks

Empty peniche below Dom-le-Mesnil lock

6.8° C Sunny, warmer and breezy. After a few days to restock the cupboards, etc, we left at 9.10am, up to lock 6 to turn round, passing a pénichette hireboat that had just come down the lock, so we winded and followed it into lock 7 Meuse. (The gates had opened on lock 6 and we hadn’t zapped it – did the hireboat crew go zap-mad thinking it was the post to go down 7 instead of the one to go up 6? We’ll never know, VNF will sort it out) Surprised that when the

Fortifications in Mezieres

hireboat left Meuse lock it turned right, heading upriver towards Sedan. We turned left heading downriver for Charleville. The VNF man who lives at lock 40 Dom-le-Mesnil was just going into his garage as we entered the lock and he wished us bonjour. One of his chickens had wandered on to the lockside and lilacs were starting to come into flower. The flow on the river had now reduced to a mere 1kph. At the first bend we met Lucmar an empty péniche boat from Thaon-les-Vosges, heading

Overflow weir by Mezieres lock

upriver, running hard. On the bend in Elaire we passed a naughty Dutchman whose cruiser was producing wall to wall wash. He slowed down a bit to pass us. On the bend in Elaire our engine was turning at 1,000 revvs (which should give 5kph through still water) but we were doing 7kph so the flow had doubled to 2 kph. Into the wilderness, old flooded gravel pits and islands at Lumes. We paused at the pontoon to top up our water

Below Mezieres lock - overflow weir on right.

tank as my machine had done two loads of washing since we set off. Ten minutes and we were on our way again with the sunshade up and music on. A replica Dutch Barge (UK-flagged) came out of lock 41 Romery as we arrived. Loads of cyclists about as the weather was so good – a bunch of them paused to watch the boat drop down in the lock. I made a cuppa as we went on into the city. Down the deep lock 42 Mézières. Not a soul to be seen. Took some photos of the old gates (are they mediaeval?) then twiddled round the bends and into lock 43 Montcy where there was another audience of cyclists, mostly families with children. Saturday sunshine brings ‘em all out. 9kms to the next lock. The wind picked up as

Boat with huge prop

we rounded the bend into the start of the deep valley, hills appearing first on the right, then both sides as we went on to Joigny. I made some sandwiches for lunch. In the distance we saw two cruisers heading into Joigny lock 44 from downstream to come up, but when we arrived in the lock cut above the lock we were dismayed to see it had two red lights (en panne) and one of the crew off the two small Dutch cruisers was walking back and forth from the lock cabin to the house. Mike tried ringing the

Four sons of Aymon rocks at Chateau-Regnault

controller but got cut off. I rang and spoke to a breathless person (must have been lock worker as well today) at Quatre Cheminées lock who said they would send someone. Mike attached a stern rope to a bunch of grass as there was nothing at all to tie to and turned the engine off. Ten minutes later a van, which had been by the barrage, came up to the lock and a VHF man operated it from the cabin. The cruisers set off and we went into the chamber. Our guy in the lock cabin shouted bonjour as he worked the lock for us. Below the lock a smoky-engined German cruiser from

The invaders are multiplying - Canada geese with goslings

Oberndorf Ost was approaching as we left. More and more traffic on the towpath, cyclists, roller-bladers and walkers. In Joigny Mike took a photo of an interesting old open boat on a trailer which had an enormous propeller. 6.3kms down to Levrézy lock 45. Children at the lock house were bouncing up and down on a trampoline in their garden. We dropped down the lock and ten minutes later we were moored on the old quay at Château-Regnault. It was 3.55pm. As we were tying up, a large DB called Merwede went past heading upriver, we’d seen that moored at Givet last week. Half an hour later a hireboat from Pont-à-Bar went past also heading upriver. We guessed he wouldn’t get to Charleville before the locks closed and would have to moor at Joigny where they have a very nice pontoon.