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.

Tuesday 3rd May 2016 Château-Regnault to Pont-à-Bar 33.4kms 7 locks

8.9° C After heavy rain in the night which woke Mike (he could hear dripping – it was the rainwater off one of the solar panels dripping into a jug – water for our house plants) great

Adding new flags and flagpoles to Nouzonville bridge

grey clouds and a cold wind, brief glimpses of sun later. We could just hear the forge hammers at Bogny as we set off at 9.10am. Jackets on again. Up 45 Levrézy and on upriver. In Braux there were some women walking the towpath with their children. Mike waved to one toddler who was pushing her dolly pram – to his amazement and her mother’s – instead of waving back she did a beeline towards the boat! Fortunately her mother grabbed her before she went in the river. Further upriver we could see flashes of

Loaded Dutch boat Jenny from Hasselt
heading downriver at Nouzonville

orange hi-res jackets through the trees where men were working on the railway track. Past the shiny new pontoon at Joigny, under the road bridge then kept hard right to follow the narrow navigation channel to the right of a small island leading to 44 Joigny lock. A huge black cloud came over so Mike got the brolly out expecting rain (the insurance worked, it didn’t rain). The flow off the weir shoved the boat sideways as we went crosswise into the lock due to the motion sensor being on our right and the rod in the chamber on the left, it almost shoved us into the corner of the lock wall. An old yellow dog was sleeping on a

Houseboat peniche by island at KP77

patch of grass opposite the lock house door, he didn’t move as we went through the lock. A short lock cut and we were back on the river. The barragiste’s house was beautifully maintained with a panelled fence around the garden and a very neat and tidy needle weir on the far side of the house. As we came into Nouzonville we spotted a pénichette from Pont-à-Bar tied to the rocky bank and thought what a strange place to moor. At the road bridge in the centre of Nouzonville there were men adding flagpoles and flags to the bridge and a loaded péniche coming

Sports hall mural.
 Sad little boy looks like he's about to burst into tears!

towards us. We passed the loaded Dutch boat, Jenny from Hasselt, under the navigation arch of the bridge. It was motoring hard downriver – oh dear there’s a hireboat tied to a rocky bank just downriver, we hoped they survived the experience and maybe it taught them a lesson – not to tie to a rocky bank even though it seems that there is no traffic on the river. Shortly afterwards an Eau-Claire hireboat from Pont-à-Bar went past heading downriver. Then at KP77 by a small island we saw another péniche heading downriver towards us, this one was a houseboat, flying a large French flag on its stern. After that flurry of traffic activity, there was no one around at lock 43 Montcy and the lock was full (we reckon the locks are programmed to refill). Under the high road

Two barragistes at work on a needle weir

bridge with massive stone re-enforcements put there after the last huge flood and into Charleville-Mézières. I made some sandwiches for lunch as we came up in the deep lock 42 Mézières. Deserted, no signs of life. On upriver to Romery lock 41. There were lots of cyclists on the towpath and fishermen along the bank as we came up to the lock. Saw the first orange tip butterfly of the year. Up the lock and another 2kms long lock cut. At the end of the lock cut Mike took photos of two barragistes practising their dying art of tending the needle weir,

Two way working through the right hand arch
of the railway bridge at Lumes

only nowadays they have electric hoists to help shift the tree branches that come downriver and smash needles out of the weir (there are lots of busted needles in wood piles and floating in the river) and they have to wear life jackets even though they are tethered with safety lines to an overhead wire. Soon all these very dangerous wooden stick weirs will be gone, replaced by modern technology - the automatic hydraulic weir, and the job of barragiste will no longer exist. Under the motorway then hard right for the navigation arch of the railway bridge. Here they have made an error with the signs for the bridge, there is only one navigable arch and so it has two way working (boats up and down river have to use it) therefore it should have two yellow diamonds. When we first saw it we thought one diamond had fallen off, nope there is a single yellow diamond on the other side of the bridge too and what are the chances of two of them falling off (and not being replaced)? No traffic about. We paused at Lumes to see if the water supply had been turned on – it had! Hooray for that, we don’t have to go up to the hirebase to buy some water. We filled up. Noted that there was still no passerelle to the bank from the pontoon, keeps the kids and fishermen off it, unless they can jump or they’re brave and walk down the supporting A-frames (boaters use their gang planks!). Up lock 40 Dom-le-Mesnil and noted there was a herd of various types of goat on the lock island. Fingers crossed that lock 7 (Meuse) Dom-le-Mesnil would work OK for us today. It did, except once we left the chamber for some reason the gates failed to close. Now back on the canal des Ardennes, we tied to the steeply sloping grassy bank at 5pm. Almost eight hours again, tired.  A few days of R&R....

Monday 2nd May 2016 Vanne-Alcorp to Château-Regnault. 36.5kms 7 locks

Building a new weir at 52 L'Uf

2.2° C Sunny but chilly start, much warmer later – no coats! Set off at 8.50am expecting there to be moored boats at Fumay to chase us upriver and were greatly surprised to find the whole mooring empty. The water flow increased to about 3.5kph as we neared the first weir at lock 52 L’Uf, where work was in progress on a new weir. There were VNF vans at the house as usual. All the locks today were full so we had to time it to get to each lock as the gates opened. On upriver to 51

Spot the spelling error. 50 Revin

St Joseph. Deserted, no one about. A long run up to the next, 6.1kms, 50 Revin. Cyclists were racing along the towpath and some paused to watch us come up very slowly in the lock. Mike spotted that on the sign alongside the lock where they’d translated to English, they’d not only put “Yachting” harbour instead of Yacht harbour, but they’d misspelt it as Yatching. Into the tunnel, dripping icy water on us. Two cyclists came through on the towpath, which is about the height of our roof

Needle weir in action. 49 Orzy

and Mike gave a little toot on our air-horns which must have made them jump. Naughty. Out into bright sunlight. Under a bridge on a slant across the river to lock 49 Orzy which still has its impressive long needle weir. Mike had to get very close to the post before the zapper activated it, then we had a wait below the lock while it emptied. 4.7kms to 48 Dames de Meuse. There were workmen on the lockside with lorries, who were working on tree lopping on the island between the canal and river just up above the lock. The chamber filled then nothing happened. To the amusement of the workmen, Mike went up to the top end of the lock, checked the lights (still on single red not double red) then proceeded on to the gates and gave the right one a heave whilst standing on the left one. Sensors! The gates opened. The lock cut above was beautiful to start off with, magnificent rocky hills covered with mostly pine trees, but the deciduous trees along the canal were now all coming into leaf and the sloping grassy bank up to the towpath was ablaze with spring flowers, red campion, ladysmock, violets, forget-me-nots, dandelions, wood anemones and wild garlic,

Allotment shed??? Anchamps

plus a flower that looked like grape hyacinth. Out on to the river. Another long needle weir and no signs of it being replaced yet. On past Anchamps, lots of the weekend houses along the towpath looked derelict and tumbling down. Other bits of land between the river and the steep hills beyond had been used as allotments and had some real hillbilly buildings, again mostly falling down. Round the bends through Laifour. A VNF van with ladders on the roof went past on the towpath, closely followed by a VNF car. I made a cuppa after we cleared 47 La Commune and Mike spotted a barragiste working on the needle weir, putting some of the wooden needles back we hoped

Was it once a greenhouse?? Anchamps

(it would slow the flow down a bit and save us some diesel). Up 46 Monthermé lock with more workmen on the lockside with lorries. They were working on a small overflow weir above the lock, next to the old hydroelectric plant. Into another lovely lock cut. Brimstone butterflies were making their appearance and there was loads of evidence of beaver, chewed bark and paths where they slide down the bank. Through Monthermé, always full of tourists, the mooring was empty but most of the electricity posts were in use by the seventeen campervans lined up along the bank. The crew of a cruiser waved as we went past, they were tied to the bank a bit further upstream of the town moorings. It was 5.30pm when we arrived at the old quay in Château-Regnault. Tired as it had been a long day, nearly nine hours travelling. 

Friday 29th April 2016 Givet to Vanne-Alcorps. 20.7kms 6 locks

A new gate going rusty 57 Ham

1.9° C. Sunny first thing but cold and windy, clouds gathering. Rain and hail later. We set off at 8.50am heading back upriver to spend a few days at Pont-à-Bar as the dry docking had been postponed by the yard to the 17th May due to emergency repairs on a commercial boat that took preference over our booking. What a difference going upriver, with revs on to do 7.5kph and doing 5 so the river was running at 2.5kph, so it had slowed down a bit from when we came downriver. Lock 58 Trois Fontaines was ready for us, the young lady resident keeper lowering a boat hook to take a rope for us. Mike asked her how she knew we were coming but didn’t get an answer, probably as she didn’t understand the question. Through Ham tunnel (spotted a bird’s nest built into one of the dished recesses in the stone wall) and up lock 57 Ham, again our lady lock keeper took our centre rope for us with a long boat shaft. A man in a van arrived at the lock house. Through the short lock cut and back on to the river. Men were cutting the grass at Aubrives, using mowing machines and strimmers.

No crossing lock gates! 56 Mouzon

Spotted an inflated rubber boat lying on the bank – health and safety now requires a rescue boat in case anyone should fall in the river, we wondered? Up lock 56 Mouzon. Still several VNF vans at the house/office. As the lock filled the top end gates made a loud screeching noise, sounded like a diesel train hooter. You’d think being right by a VNF inhabited lock that they’d slap some grease on it! I took a photo of a very old lockside sign forbidding the crossing of lock gates. An empty péniche called Pirate was moored above the lock opposite the building site

Lock house 56 Mouyon

where a new weir was under construction. On the next reach it was suddenly busy, first a two man rowing skiff went past heading downriver followed by three hireboats from Pont-à-Bar. The speed of the water flow increased to around 3kph as we reached the next lock, Mike had to increase speed to compensate. Up lock 55 Montigny without any problems. Noted that the passenger trip boat Charlemagne from Givet was behind us below the lock. Mike took photos of trees in the lock

Peniche Pirate moored in the lock cut abv 56 Mouyon

cut that had been chewed by beaver and I made sandwiches for lunch. Mike slowed off to let the tripper catch up and overtake at KP21 as he runs to a timetable. After Charlemagne cleared lock 54 Fépin we zapped, the lock emptied and then we went up. As we left Mike spied a white cruiser behind us also coming upriver. I took a photo of the old observatory in a garden at Haybes. A large cruiser from Wexford in Ireland was moored on the quay. Up lock 53 Vanne-

Beaver at work

Alcorps and as we headed for the bank to tie up it started hailing, big stinging lumps of ice! That was annoying, just enough to get us wet and the maps and guidebook. I got off on the hummocky bank and held the centre rope while Mike banged pins in behind the piling to tie to. While we were tying up an empty péniche called My Way from Dunkerque went past, crew waving, heading downhill. Bet they were thinking – what are those crazy Brits doing

Garden observatory at Haybes

tying up in a lock cut?? Well, it’s deep enough, very quiet, TV and satellite reception are OK and it’s free. It was 2.40pm. A VNF van went past and the lock lights had turned to en panne double red. The lockie had taken over as the cruiser we’d spotted coming up behind us must have arrived below the lock and zapped. As the working péniche has priority he’d reset it for him, gates opened and My Way went down. Shortly afterwards a very large white Dutch cruiser went past, followed ten minutes later by another very large cruiser going upriver, a German one from Düsseldorf, just as the tripper went past heading back downhill! That was a busy half hour! And it tested our mooring ropes. Mike went to look at the progress of the new weir, he said they’d laid some square tubes half way across the river - making a bridge so that their plant could drive over from one side of the river to the other, while the river flowed through the holes. After dinner, well after lock closing time, empty péniche Paraguay arrived. When we looked out later he was still in the lock chamber with the top end gates open and spent the night in there as there is nowhere to deep enough for him to moor above the lock. 

Saturday 23rd April 2016 Vanne-Alcorps to Givet. 20.7kms 6 locks

Tree felled by beaver near Montigny

5.6° C After heavy rain overnight it was grey and chilly when we set off at 9.40am. Zapped and the lock lights went to red/green - then double reds, out of order – what a good start. Phoned the controller at Quatre Cheminées (the last lock on the French Meuse just downstream of Givet) the lady said she’d phone an itinerant for us. We tied to the rails around the intake for the old hydro-electric plant as the banks are far too shallow to get close to as they still have the original, as-built underwater

Northern entrance to Ham tunnel

sloping stone walls. A cheery grey-haired man in van arrived just after ten am and reset the lock for us, working it from the cabin. We were soon down 2.15m in 53 Vanne-Alcorps lock, back on the river and flying along past the little town of Haybes. Just 3.24kms to lock 54 Fépin, which worked OK, no house, very quiet. Dropped down another 2.10m on to a 5.2kms reach. We passed two cruisers heading uphill, the first one was British-flagged – first one this year – and the one

Northern entrance to Ham tunnel

behind had a large flag all folded round on itself that may have been Canadian. Another weir was being reconstructed at the entrance to the lock cut leading to 55 Montigny. We thought we were going to have to phone again as the bells started ringing and the lights flashing on the top end gates, then they stopped, but then they started again and, once in the chamber, the top end gates closed behind us very slowly. It worked OK, down 2.5m and the wind picked up as we went north on the river reach

Steam from cooling towers at Chooz

through Villers-Wallerand making it very cold and choppy. Another new weir at 56 Mouyon, where the VNF have an office in the former lock house and they must have all been at lunch, judging by the number of vans and cars parked there, as it was just after midday. No one about and the lock worked perfectly. Down 1.6m and down a wide windswept reach, we could see steam rising from the nuclear power station at Chooz beyond the hills in front of us. On past the statues along the bank at

Long empty commercial quay by huge slate quarry, Givet

Aubrives and into the shelter of the lock cut, entered via a set of flood gates with a little liftbridge on top. The next two deep locks have always been keeper-operated and the same young lady that worked them last year for us was there again today. Down lock 57 Ham (3.20m) and she drove off in her VNF car down to lock 58 Trois Fontaines while we went through the 565m long tunnel (an unusual one for modern-day France as it had no towpath, lights, emergency phones, etc, just plain rock walls with brick lined entrances) Down another 3.28m and back into the bitingly cold north

Moored on the quay in Givet

wind again. I made a cup of soup to warm us up as we did the last stretch of river for the day. Moored on the upstream end of the quay at Givet. It was 1.45pm and immediately there were gongoozlers to watch us tie up. Mike attached ropes around the timber baulks (saves having ropes being lifted off bollards by passing youth on a Saturday night) and took the mast down and all the flags into the engine room, plus the mop and boat shafts. On the far bank down by the road bridge there were five or six parked campervans. Lunch. The sky brightened up and the sun came out so Mike decided to go and get the car from Pont-â-Bar rather than leave it until the next day when the forecast said it would be colder with a chance of snow! A British guy from one of the campers had wandered over to chat with him while he was getting the bike ready to go, that took an hour longer than it should have! He went to retrieve the car a little after 4pm. When he returned, just after 8pm, I gave him a hand to put the bike back on the roof. It had poured with rain while he was away but, fortunately, he didn’t ride through more than a few spots of rain. He said he was very, very cold when he got to the car – even though he’d got a microfibre vest on and a pair of my thick tights he was shivering! Still not warmed up when he arrived back at the boat an hour later after having the car's heater on full blast. Now we have a few days to wait before continuing downriver into Belgium where we know there will be commercial traffic, only more four moves to the dock. 

Friday 22nd April 2016 Château Regnault to abv Vanne-Alcorps lock. 37.1kms 7 locks

Empty pontoon mooring at Bogny

7.5° C Hazy clouds most of the day, chilly breeze, jackets back on. A loaded péniche went past heading upriver at 7.10am which woke Mike so he got up. Left at 8.50am. There were no boats on the pontoon in Bogny, but five campervans were parked on the opposite bank of the river. Likewise in Monthérme, no boats on the quay, but thirteen parked vans. A new hydraulic weir replaced the needle weir at Monthérme. Into the lock cut, there was a VNF van and a contractor’s van

No boats at Montherme - but 13 campervans

on the towpath – the contractors were a firm that did maintenance of green spaces, about half a dozen men were in the van – they all drove off after we went past. When we arrived at lock 46 Monthérme the lock gates didn’t open fully as a big chunk of tree trunk was behind the left gate and the VNF man in a van had just driven off! We went into the chamber and Mike tried the intercom, it didn’t work, but there was a phone number on the cabin door so he rang that. Reply

Brightly painted buildings in Revin

came in English “Man come!” He did, a few minutes later, from the lock house. He closed the gates and made sure no more debris stopped them from closing properly and re-set the lock. It emptied and we went down 3.4m and out on to the river again. We had no problems at all with lock 47 La Commune even though the river was bringing down loads of debris. 2m drop and back on the river to loop around Laifour. Spotted a tree trunk stuck in the bank that was

Evidence that beaver live here!

completely stripped of bark – when did the French start re-introducing beaver?? The quay at Laifour was empty, no boats. Round the bend under the railway bridge and into the lock cut, bypassing a shallow rocky stretch of the river at the foot of the rocks known as the Dames de Meuse and into the lock of the same name, 48. An old liftbridge over the top end of the chamber remains always in the open position. A man and a wet black dog crossed the bottom gates and went to play

Swallow nesting in lock gate at L'Uf

catch the ball in the weirstream. Down 2m and as the gates opened we saw the second boat of the day coming upriver, a large smart white Belgian cruiser from Ostend. We passed on the wrong side as he was hugging the bank. 4.7kms of river in a big S-bend took us to the outskirts of Revin and lock 49 Orzy. In the lock house garden there was a sheep with the thickest woolly coat I have ever seen, amazed it could walk. A Canada goose was

I can't see you - so you can't see me!

sitting in the grass right next to the lock but went for a walk around while we went down another 1.7m. A short tunnel cuts off a big loop at Revin and then the deep lock 50 Revin dropped us down a little over 4m. Tall top end gates (for times of flooding) make it seem even deeper. A pile of logs had been left on the lockside, among the tree trunks was a broken wooden weir “needle” that looked as if it had been chewed by beaver. A long reach of over 6kms to the next lock so I made some sandwiches for

Moored above Vanne-Alcorps lock

lunch. Mike took photos of some workboats at KP36, maybe we’ll see on the way back what they were building in the middle of nowhere. A VNF van was at lock 51 St Joseph (the lock under a railway bridge) and a medium sized aluminium yacht was coming up (third boat of the day!). As the gates opened the young man got back in his van and sped off downriver. The fourth boat, another small cruiser, made its appearance on the next short reach (2.8kms) heading down to lock 52 L’Uf. There were two VNF men in the fancy lock cabin but we operated the lock ourselves using the rod, dropped down 2.3m and were soon on our way again after taking photos of swallows nesting in the top end lock gate. No tunnel at Fumay so we went almost all the way around the town on the big loop, 4kms later ending up about 400m north of the start of the loop. Again no boats on the extensive moorings at Fumay. Boat number five went past just before we went under the road bridge, another small cruiser. Past the old slate quarry and the wood yard and spotted they were building a new weir to replace the needles above Vanne-Alcorps lock. We went into the short lock cut and went on just beyond a stupid Canada goose nesting on the edge with her head tucked right down so we shouldn’t see her(!) and moored about 300m from the lock, next to the piled edge opposite the towpath. Nice and quiet again. It was 2.30pm. Another boat came up about a half hour later, a smart Dutch cruiser (number six!). Number seven, an ex-Connoisseur cruiser at 5pm. 

Thursday 21st April 2016 Lumes to Château Regnault. 26.9kms 5 locks

Multi storey flats in Chareville-Mezieres

4.6° C Light grey clouds, hazy sunshine first thing, sunny later. Light breeze but warmer. Winded and set off downstream again at 8.50am. The German yacht that arrived the evening before was still moored at the top end of the pontoon when we left. Past the Citröen foundry, under the railway and motorway bridges, then the river dived over a weir as we kept to the right into a 2kms lock cut leading to lock 41 Romery. Zapped, the gates opened but nothing happened when I lifted the blue rod. Mike went to the lock cabin and used the intercom. Someone answered and said OK they’d send someone. Twenty minutes later two men in a van arrived and went in the lock cabin and we

A herd of domesticated deer nr Nouvzonville

were on our way down 2.1m and back on the river again just before 10am. A little less than 3kms to the next lock. Under the railway again, where the river starts the first of its mighty loops and we turned right into the lock cut leading into Mézières lock 42, its old weir had been replaced by a modern hydraulic one after a catastrophic flood. Down 3.4m – our men in a van were in the lock cabin high up above us - but I lifted the rod anyway and the lock worked OK. Into the city on the beginning of the second huge loop of the river and tied on the end of the pontoon by the campsite (lots of parked campervans) and Mike refilled our water tank while I went to find the office to pay 2€ for

Lockside flood level markers at Joigny lock

our 300 litre top up. Mike was rolling the hose away when I got back. Made a cuppa as we slogged back upriver, creeping against the current at 3kph – we came down it at 9kph assisted by the 3kph flow – makes a big difference going uphill. Soon back at the junction and on to the next short lock cut which leads into lock 43 Montcy. No one around and the lock worked perfectly, dropped down 1.8m and rejoined the river on a 9kms reach to the next lock. We were soon out of the city and at the start of the scenic bit – the hills became higher and steeper, covered in trees and closer to the river on both sides now. There is a small island close to the left bank and we had to cross to the far left as the navigable channel passed the island on that side. A pair of Canada geese

Moored on an old quay at Chateau-Regnault

were sunbathing, sitting on the edge of the tarmac cycle path. Road and railway follow the valley now and a brightly decorated diesel three car unit went past to prove the line was still in use. In the narrow meadow on the left between the river and the forest were a collection of old donkeys and then a bit further on a herd of deer beside a beautiful old château almost hidden in the trees. Through Nouzonville with its blocks of flats and factories, then down lock 44 at Joigny a mere 1.7m. 6.3kms to our last lock of the day, passing a modern industrial estate at Braux then down 2.4m in lock 45 Levrézy. Winded and ran against the flow to moor next to an old quay in Château Regnault, where we’d never stopped before. They started charging to moor on the pontoon a bit further downriver so we thought we’d grab a free mooring while we could - and it's quieter away from the noise of the factories in Bogny. It was 1.45pm.