Froncles and Chaumont

19th July Froncles

On leaving we were met by our first mobile lock keeper Maximillian. He was waiting to start an internship in the military and the lock keeping was a summer job. Although he didn't speak any English we had a good laugh with him, he was very energetic and was really helpful catching the ropes for us.

Arrived mid afternoon, at a very pretty halt, unfortunately the village wasn't quite so pretty, but it was unusual as it seemed very much like housing estates in England, hard to imagine I know, but it was definitely not an organically grown French village. We had a bit of an odd experience here.. tuning the radio station in found ourselves listening to BBC News…hmm I said odd maybe I should have said strange. Then we listened too a programme on whether the moon landing was a fake. Then it was Eastenders ..ahh!! Having puzzled this for a while we noticed an English camper van nearby with a satellite dish, as the chap came out of the van and Jim asked him if he had been watching Eastenders and the space programme, he gave us a funny look almost as to say have you been peering in our windows!! So we told him we could pick up what he was watching on the radio..so that’s how we met Steve and Alison, who had taken a year out and had travelled Europe for a year and were now on their way back. We had a chat and a couple of beers and we got on just great.

Next evening they came on board and we sunk more wine and beer had a really good evening, we are hoping to keep in touch with them. We left at 9am the next morning Alison and Steve kindly getting up to wave us goodbye, although I must say they looked slightly the worse for wear after last night! they were heading to Paris to meet family and see the city before going back to the UK.

21st July Chaumont

We were met at the first lock this morning by Marion, a very pretty French girl,
she spoke excellent English and we really enjoyed her company she was very friendly, once again taking our lines for us at each lock. Marion had just finished University and about to start a Primary School Teacher Training Course. We also hope to keep in touch with her. Marion saw us through 6 locks chugging between them on her moped, before heading back the other way with 2 boats, one a Canadian.

Solange took over from Marion, she was a very pretty, very slim redhead. She didn't look like she had the strength to operate the lock mechanism. She was a smiley, giggly girl, once again she spoke excellent English, even down to the slang, Yep!!.

We arrived at Chaumont mid afternoon; we moored alongside the quay which was a bit dilapidated. The town was just across the bridge so we got the bikes out for a little explore and did some shopping.

Next morning (22nd) we decided to ride up into the town and down to the Viaduct. The town was quite busy and it nice to see that they had put on summer activities for the kids, with boat pool, beach for volleyball and various rides.

The viaduct was quite spectacular but we didn't fancy the ride back up the hill so we took the long way round on a very busy main road which found us dicing with death with the articulated lorries. On the way back we also picked up more provisions (making the most of being out on the bikes!).