Canal Des Ardennes - Part 2

After the descent of Montgon locks we stopped at Attigny - a small, typical French town - which was pretty much shut for the night and then moved on to Rethel, a comparative metropolis - it had an Intermarche - fab! We stocked up as the first night at Rethel ended up with a boat party on Half Moon with all of our neighbours. The wine cellar was empty!

What are these birds? Very hard to photograph; they have white trailing edges to their wings and they 'dip' like dippers.

We sailed close past a bittern - by time stopped boat, reversed, got camera ready, it had sensibly decided to fly into a tree.

Left Rethel - had two nights there - lovely, tree lined canals, we saw loads of herons, a bittern, several kingfishers and lots and lots of different dragon and damsel flies.  Stopped at the tiny hamlet of Variscourt, a halt fluvial  - very picturesque -  and free.

b-b-q for tea.

We often have wildlife visitors hitching a lift.

this was a tight fit to pass.

We have seen just over a metre below the keel for the first time in weeks!  All good……

We then ran aground and got stuck in the mud on the edge of a wide section of canal - Thank heaven for 54BHP and a big propeller - ploughed a furrow back to the main channel.

Locks are going up again for the first time in two weeks.

On 28th July we made it to Reims - several boats were there that we knew and once again Half Moon proved very convivial! We are moored about 500m from the Cathedral which has the most fabulous light show with classical music in the evenings; sitting in the square in front of the cathedral watching it being painted by lasers was magical

We had a view of reims Cathedral from our mooring!

The light and sound show was amazing.

As this is the centre for champagne we went to the house of Veuve Clicquot for a tour, 24km on tunnels in the chalk stone provides them with enough storage for their bottles! - good tour, very slick presentation

Steps down to the Veuve Clicquot cellars.

Heading off towards the Tunnel de Billy today, 2.5km long, and back into deepest rural France

Carole’s Interesting Facts

No. 9:  The top level between the highest lock and the first of the down locks is called the ‘reach’.

No. 10:  I am the fender queen.

No 11: There are over 240km of tunnels under Reims, mined for the city stone, but now used by all the champagne houses for wine storage, a World Heritage Site.

No 12: Veuve Clicquot is damn good champagne