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Our aim: To make
our first French venture south through Lille, on to the St Quentin Canal and
then to head east to Pont a Bar on the Ardennes.
The Journey: Lille
to Pont a Bar Dates: 15th
of June to 5th of July Distance: 352ks Locks: 102 Tunnels: 3 The Journey: Impossible
to generalise: busy commercial waterways, winding canals though mountains and
forests, busy towns, rolling hills, flat farmlands, and short and long distances
between locks then some sections where the locks came thick and fast. And the weather varying from glorious sunny
or blisteringly hot days and cooler weather with sudden storms.
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The
big challenge we had along the way was finding a mooring where I could
get off with the wheelchair. Thanks to new
friend Catherine we were able to use the place where her fellow barge-living
friend Willy normally ties up. A perfect
spot! It was freezing cold when we
came past this very spot in February.
Now the weather was perfect and we re-explored the city and it’s Citadel.
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Endellion tied up amongst the
commercial barges in Lille |
Lille is full of
splendid old buildings |
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Lille’s Post
Office; a dog guards Lesley’s bike |
Leaving Lille, one
of France’s largest inland ports |
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Heading finally,
off from Lille we were very much still on a commercial waterway, even
equipped with container terminals. But
we have found the big péniche skippers were always courteous and helpful.
After two days travel we left the main “drag” to head due south along the
Saint Quentin, first stop Cambrai a great town but a bit of a challenge in a
power chair.
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Cambrai street
scene |
Cambrai cheese
shop…. And a potential customer at the window |
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Cambrai Chambre de
Commerce |
A
professional barge shows how its done – slow and steady
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The St Quentin was once so busy the authorities fitted dual
locks to handle all the traffic.
Unfortunately on our trip only one of each pair was operating. The challenge was often to work out which
of each pair was the one presently in service. We generally had the canal to ourselves,
but occasionally empty grain barges gently squeezed by. The green of the
trees was intense and it was pleasant journeying. We knew that before too long though, we
would be confronting the challenges of the worlds longest canal tunnel. An ancient tug running on a chain would
drag us through in a procession of boats. We really started to get anxious when
a lock-keeper up-stream mistakenly gave Lesley the briefing sheet in German
due to her peppering her earliest attempts at French with some of her
German. When she returned on board and
discovered the mistake she had to really scratch her head to make some sense
of it. We had to be at the mouth of
the tunnel at 9 AM Monday so two nights were spent in little villages along the
way over the weekend biding our time.
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Along the Saint
Quentin; green, green, green! |
Moored
overnight at Vaucelles – a canal side farmyard next door
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At
Honnecourt; the bollards were so far apart we needed our longest ropes |
Entering
the Souterrain de Bray under tow; 5.67 ks long – the world’s longest
navigation tunnel
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The
conga line of boats tied behind us |
Finally
after almost two hours, the light at the end of the tunnel |
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South of St Quentin, the canal became wider and straighter. The weather too got warmer. After nearly seven hours underway and with
the temperature in the wheelhouse topping 34 degrees and 39 ks done, the port
at Chauny was a very welcome sight.
There we got to know the very friendly and colourful Englishman Ron
and his wife Pat during our stay and also Peter and Brigitte on My Suna. Ron who had spent time in the RAF and Peter
an ex-Navy man were a very humorous pair with hundreds of jokes and stories
to share. After five nights, and with
new fenders kindly fitted in the heat by Peter we had to say farewell and
head on.
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Tied up for
lunch on an island where the Canal de la Somme and the Saint Quentin meet |
The
Port de Plaisance in Chauny; a stop for several memorable days |
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The next few days were the longest and toughest we had done
since we first set off from Mirfield 9 months ago. Long straight stretches, few towns and hot,
hot days. We started off early and did
better than 40 ks a day on two days. We finally
pulled into Attigny and had three nights there before we would move on to the
lock intensive start to the Ardennes.
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Our friends Peter and Brigitte’s boat My Suna tied up alongside Endellion |
One
of many, many beautiful lock-keepers’ cottages |
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Farming country |
Another,
thankfully shorter tunnel |
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A little old lady and her much loved dog, our neighbours at
Berry au Bac |
Heading
off early on a day which threatened to be warm – and was |
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To open the lock, on this stretch you have to find, then twist the pole
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The
downtown traffic in Rethel
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The tree-lined Ardennes.
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Harvest
had begun |