Barge Date:  06-10-2019

North on the Champagne

We are on the C/B Canal. The locks are working well with a clicker.  The barge is purring. We are in for some pleasant cruising through some nice country. Big expansive fields of wheat and oats.  Some early growth of what will be corn.  Hay is being taken off.

There are very few towns that are on the early part of the canal so we have done some overnights out in the "wild". Makes for a very dark night when you normally have some lights nearby. One night we were doing the wild thing and I hear voices.  I look up and 2 people are putting a small boat into the canal.  Where did they come from?  I see nothing close by.  So they get into the boat and I am assuming they are going away. Not the case.  They cross the canal and get out then drag the boat down to a small stream.  This stream goes under our boat but it never occurred to me that it was good enough for boating. Looking on I see them drift on down.

We did tie up near the small town of Dommarien.  Our information said there was nothing of a commercial interest in town but that it was interesting.  It has the designation of Village Fleuri and we could see this. Old, interesting buildings.  The church has a cemetery that surrounds the building. One interesting tomb was for a Jewish couple with the comment that allows one to believe that they were saved by others in town and that they wished to be buried with them.

The locks have been very easy.  As we approach, we are able to call the lock and the doors are open when we get there.  No waiting.  Because we are in the locks by ourselves I have been practicing getting the bow up near the concrete sill at the far end using the cameras to guide me.  Once you trust the camera and know what you are seeing and how far away the sill is, as seen through the camera, it is easy to do this.  Here are some pictures.

Of course there is always excitement when a tunnel is in our future.  This one, the Tunnel de Balesmes,  is straight as an arrow and about 5K or about 3 miles.  The longest we have been through. It has good ventilation, good lights and is well maintained. With their light and my bow light I was able to get through with not a touch.

After the tunnel we tied up at the port that serves Langres.  The town is about 3K away and mostly up hill.  We made the trip 3 times.  Very interesting walled city.  As you will see from the pictures, there is a good reason the city was never captured.  Goes back to the Gauls and the Romans however most of the major works began in the 14th century. We had several meals in town, did some museum stuff, did the tourist train ride through town.  You walk the streets and know that what you are looking at is 200-300 years old, but inside people have modernized.

This is the home town of Denis Diderot, famous for creating a famous encyclopedia for the French.  His town statue was done by the fellow from Colmar (see visit to Colmar from last year) who also did the Statue of Liberty, Bartholdi.

Next big stop:  Chaumont