On to Meaux

After putting Steve and Alison on a train for Paris at Gare de Nancy,  we were off, also heading for Paris but in a much slower manner.  As we have said, one and a half hours in a train, who knows on Matilda?

Leaving the Moselle at Toul we were off into new country again. The next day, on the Canal de la Marne au Rhin we met another of those tunnels that the canal designers kept digging. This one at Foug was only short and apart from snapping a fender rope on the tunnel wall, it was an easy passage.  

After passing the junction of the Canal de l’Est we  were climbing continuously towards the summit. There was plenty of water in the canal, overflowing all the lock gates. They looked like vertical green carpets.

However the next day we were confronted with the longest tunnel in the French canal system, the Mauvages tunnel. It is 4.9 kilometres long and until recently barges and pleasure boats were towed through it by an electric powered tugboat. They now go through under their own power. We were given a time to enter the tunnel and because of our previous experiences we decided to dismantle Matilda’s rear awning.

She looked a little forlorn but it eased Peter’s mind negotiating the tunnel. The trip through took nearly an hour.

Those who have travelled with us have admired Marg’s garden and we were now eating the results of her efforts. These strawberries are the sweetest we have ever tasted. They went well with the breakfast cereal.

We were again in rolling agricultural country and the canal traversed some beautiful scenery.

There are no two structures the same on the canals. Here we are going down in a lock and Marg looked out over the front gates to see traffic crossing a bridge well below us.

A little further on the engineers decided to widen a road across the canal.

They just built a second bridge – like the first.

 

We are at Bar-le –Duc and the French are proud to announce that this is where the bicycle was invented and have this monument on one of the town’s main corners celebrating the efforts of father and son team – Michaux. Something stirs in Peter’s brain, he thinks someone else has also claimed to have invented the bicycle but will have to get more information. The Russians probably!

Bar-le-Duc boasts this beautiful old chateau, now a community centre – but don’t be fooled, it was built by an eccentric in the 1920’s

The geologists amongst us – as well as the wine drinkers will know that most of France is covered with very good limestone rock.  It makes a great construction material for cathedrals, castles, bridges and buildings in general as well as producing the perfect soil to grow grapes. It is also the main material used in the manufacture of cement and concrete. Crush limestone, cook the powder using a good wood fire and - Voila – cement. France has a plentiful supply of good coal as well so cement is easy and cheap to produce. Cement and concrete became the preferred building material of the 20^th century

Above shows Matilda moored at a wharf of a derelict cement factory. We stopped for lunch and Peter climbed into the old factory that was totally overgrown by the reclaiming forest.

We were getting into champagne country and the hills were alive with the sounds of growing chardonnay grapes

We had reached Epernay. At the head of the navigable Marne river, Epernay is the true centre of the champagne growing region and we spent a few days investigating the industry – as one needs to do!

We took a couple of tours through the cellars and storage tunnels of some of the major champagne houses.  The tunnels under Epernay are reputed to hold over one thousand million bottles quietly mellowing to maturity. Even though modern methods are used to bottle and disgorge it, nothing has been found to replace the effect of ageing in the cool dark tunnels under the town.

We visited the cellars of Mercier and Castellane who, together with Moet & Chandon have the largest presence in the town.

This stack of bottles is over one hundred metres long.

The town, like many in France has a very chequered history and in its history has been ruined, pillaged and burnt over 25 times including suffering damage in both world wars. Little remains of its early buildings though the opulence of the area shows through with the older buildings still today.

The houses in the avenue de Champagne are all magnificent.

Another item that makes this ideal wine country is the plentiful supply of irrigation water if needed for the grapes. This bank of over 20 large electric pumps lifts the river water high up the hills was only one of many we passed.

Epernay is a lovely town and the champagne industry brings lots to it. We could have stayed longer and enjoyed more of it but we have to move on. We are due in Meaux to meet some friends from Victoria who would join us for a few days.

There will be more stories to tell then so – stay in touch.

A little post script:

Some of our followers have asked for more specific information on our adventures and the places we visit. We mention town names so you can follow us on google earth. When we can we will give links to items of interest so that you can plan them into your next trip. You can always email us at pandmosment@yahoo.com

Epernay: www.ot-epernay.fr