Unexcused Absences France 2014 - Week 2 Recap (he said)

France 2014 – Week 2 Recap (he said)

by Kent 22 Jul 2014

We pick up the weekly narrative where we left off, in Chaumont near the southern edge of the Champagne/Ardenne region. Chaumont has an extensive and amazing history – but then name a city in France that doesn’t. It played an important role in the religious wars of many years ago and became an stronghold of Catholicism. After the wars faded the commitment remained and soon the city was host to a Jesuit college, as well as convents of the Ursulines, the Carmelites, and the Capucins.

Chaumont skyline

Near the canal we came across a WWI American cemetery, and a stone monument (with fresh flowers) that read something to the effect of, “This simple stone recalls for future generations that this cemetery contains the bodies of more than 600 Americans who fought on our shores for peace and liberty.” Trust us, the French do remember.

An American cemetery in Chaumont

The old section of the current city, which used to house the tanners quarters, boasts a bridge from the 16th century, and a railway viaduct of epic proportions. It stands close to 165 feet high, and was built in the mid 19th century to get the railroad all the way to the city center, which is located well above the Marne valley on a plateau. The resulting structure is over a third of a mile long and required 60,000 cubic meters of stone and cement. A beautiful example of post-revolution French engineering.

Either Argentine fans grieving after their World Cup loss or a scene from inside the Basilica St. John

We spent Sunday touring around Chaumont, and of course took the evening to watch the World Cup soccer finals. We had to do a bit of searching for a venue, because the first bar we found, called the “Third Half” and clearly themed as a sports bar, was, yes, closed both Saturday and Sunday evenings for the final two matches of the biggest sporting event in the world. People who haven’t visited France just laugh when we tell them that much of France is usually closed. The second bar was terrific, though, and had wide screens throughout so we could watch in glorious technicolor as Germany and Argentina played almost 115 minutes of fantastic, but scoreless, soccer. With only about 5 minutes remaining, a young German player, substituted in during the waning minutes of “regular” time, scored a quick strike to propel his team to the winner’s circle. He will probably have minimal trouble finding a date from this point forward in his life, since he secured Germany’s first World Cup trophy in almost 25 years.

Chaumont’s awesome railway viaduct

8th century BC breastplate

While in Chaumont we also visited their local art and archaeology museum, which contained paintings, sculpture, high-fashion gloves (Chaumont was known for its glove manufacturers), and archaeological finds from the area. The centerpiece of that exhibit was, if I read the plaque correctly, an 8th century BC warrior’s bronze breastplate. The museum is a good bargain at 2 euros, but is a little hard to find. It sits near the base of the big donjon (central keep) of the castle that used to house the Count of Champagne.

Afterwards we discovered an amazing restaurant (le Petit Jardin) which served incredible fait à maison (home-made) dishes for an equally amazing low price. Look for it just around the corner from le Grain de Sel, the city’s top-rated restaurant. In the evening the city does something interesting; they project images onto the Hôtel de Ville (roughly translated as “city hall”) that are perfectly aligned with the architecture, such that it appears that the window decorations change, and sometimes you think you see people moving about in the offices, to very striking effect.

Chaumont city hall at dusk

As if all this wasn’t enough, Chaumont found itself at the center of the western world on March 1, 1814. It was then that the powers of the time gathered to sign the Treaty of Chaumont, which effectively sealed Napoleon I’s fate. Chaumont is justifiably proud of the fact that Tsar Alexander I of Russia, Emperor Francis I of Austria, King Frederick William III of Prussia, and British Foreign Secretary Viscount Castlereagh, all stayed in the city during March 1814. Perhaps the sports bar was open that night.

Basilica of St. John, Chaumont

Monday morning we caught a train to Dijon to take up Marianne and Jean-Pierre’s invitation to join them for the big Fête Nationale (Bastille Day to us Americans). They knew of a secret spot perched high on a bluff overlooking Lac Kir, which hosts Dijon’s annual feu d’artifice (fireworks) display. We had an amazing viewpoint several hundred meters above the masses gathered around the lake for the Monday evening display (It is so important to embrace local knowledge). And the show was truly a spectacle in all senses; not only were the fireworks world-class, but the entire thing was set to the music of a solo violinist whose amplified music reached the cliffs where we watched, about half a mile away.

Incredible fireworks over Dijon (and an almost full moon, as a bonus)

Tuesday the four of us drove back to Chaumont, and Marianne and Jean-Pierre joined us for a 24-hour cruise on our boat. They have visited us many times, but have never spent the night. Fortunately the weather was perfect for our cruise, and we think the 8-day cycle of rain has been broken. We ate dinner under the stars, just like a week ago in Oisilly when they came to visit for dinner. This time they just happened to have with them a bottle of Burgundy red with the words “Gevrey-Chambertin” and “Grand Cru” on the label. Yum.

Canal-side dinner with Marianne and Jean-Pierre

Wednesday we walked through the small village of Bologne, and then took a small hike into the hills to the north-east of town. The local boulangerie easily earned a place in our informal “top five boulangerie of France” list – the bread was exquisite. From our hike we came across a little chapel with a view out over the Marne River valley. Near Paris the Marne is a major river with enormous cargo boats, but up here in the Haute-Marne départment, the “river” is not much more than a creek.

Our new lock team

After a picnic lunch of sandwiches, Marianne and Jean-Pierre left to catch a train back to their car in Chaumont, and we continued north along the Champagne/Burgundy canal, stopping in Froncles. We learned later that they had a bit of an adventure returning to their car.

Waterside scenery

We had confirmed the day before (both on the SNCF website and on the timetable posted at the train station) that there was a train leaving Bologne at 1:50pm, stopping in Chaumont about 20 minutes later. They dutifully waited at the platform, but 1:50 came and went with no train. They found a local (there was no office as the train “station” was abandoned and was now just a platform) and asked him about the train. They were told that the train has been replaced with a bus, and in a bit of logic only understood by the French railway system, the bus did not pick up at the train station, but rather at a secret location somewhere else in town. Fortunately Jean-Pierre had brought his vélo (bicycle) and was able to pedal back along the canal the 12 kilometers to his car. “Un peu du sport” (a bit of athletic activity) was how JP texted us.

Scenery outside of Froncles

Evening in Froncles was enjoyable. There is a nice quai and captainerie, and the port is also home to a little camping-car (RV) park. The man in a nearby camping car greeted us in almost perfect American English, with just a hint of an indeterminate European accent. Later, I overheard him speaking perfect French with a local, and then later I heard him speaking German to another camper. On top of all that I later heard him say something to his wife in Dutch. In talking to Hank later we found out that he had been born in the Netherlands, gone to college in the south of France, lived in America for 30+ years, and retired to Germany, but spends his summers cruising around France in his RV. In different parts of his life he had been an engineer, an antiques dealer, and a real estate investor who had sold his business in Florida in the mid 2000’s, about a month before the big real estate crash hit the southern US. It has been said, by people way smarter than me, that timing is everything.

“Après Ski” parked next to “Excargot”

Thursday we drove on to Donjeux, and as we rounded the corner to the small halte-nautique, discovered that our friend Peter, on the boat Excargot, was there. We had met Peter in the fall of 2011 in Nevers (on the Loire Canal) but had not yet met his wife Sonja. That evening we had a nice long happy hour catching up with Peter and getting to know Sonja. They have a gorgeous custom péniche with a garage (!) up front and a crane to lift their car out and onto land. Peter was born in Britain, then I think worked for a French company (or a French division of a British company) and was later went to America to try to sell control units for electric vehicles. He found a niche in the coal mining industry, which relies heavily on electric vehicles. After selling his business in the early 2000’s he now splits his time between living on his barge in France and the US. In a twist to the story, it was Peter who met our friends Audrey and Dimitri in Vail this past spring and discovered that they all knew Heather and me, as Heather explained in a previous post.

La Source Bleu (the Blue Spring) near Donjeux

Friday morning we continued our storytelling with Peter and Sonja, then moved our boat north to Joinville. At a halte-nautique run by a local hotel, we met Sue and Gain, Australians who own a Dutch river cruiser. It was fun getting to know them because they know our other Australian friends from last year’s cruise, Ron and Robin on Tiara, Peter and Jo on Joyeux, and John and Judy on Vivienne. Apparently there’s a “French canal cruisers club” back in Australia where folks all get together and swap stories in the off-season. Sue and Gain had very similar stories to tell as the folks from the previous two nights; business owners who sold at the right time about 10 years ago and have been cruising through Europe ever since. Heather and I decided that the boating life seems to attract people who, instead of complaining about their lot in life, go out and do something about it, either by moving to another country to escape egregious regulations and taxes (as in Hank’s and Peter’s case) or by setting out to see the parts of the world that interest them (as in Sue’s and Gain’s case). Either way, we seem to meet the most interesting people on the canals.

Joinville

Late Friday evening our friends from Paris drove out to meet us in Joinville for a weekend aboard Après Ski. We originally met Marine at the Vosne-Romanée vendanges (grape harvest) a couple years ago. When we met, she was just about to set out for New York State to start an 18 month internship with Alstom, the big French train manufacturing company. She spent the last two Christmas holidays with us in Virginia, and this year we finally got to see her in France. We already had a chance to meet her and her mom and boyfriend the day we arrived in Paris three weeks ago, and now their schedules aligned so Marine and Guillaume could join us in Joinville (I’ve been waiting all week to type “join us in Joinville”).

Dinner in Chamouilley. And the “flag” actually has 14 stripes, so it’s not a real American flag.

Saturday we hit the Super U supermarché and Marine and Guillaume helped us restock our cheese collection with some awesome new cheeses, including a mustard-seed encrusted goat cheese and one called Le Chevillon, which was similar to a Brillat Savarin or a Delice de Bourgogne. Fortunately, our two guests like to eat as much cheese as we do, and the four of us devoured probably close to a kilo of cheese in one sitting. And Marianne, I know you say it is not healthy to eat so much cheese, but it is Just. So. Delicious.

Church in Roches-sur-Marne

After lunch the four of us cruised about 5 hours north to Chamouilley, a village on the right bank of the Marne, and directly across the river from Roches-sur-Marne. The town had a brand new waterside park and boat quai, but oddly no bollards. It appears that no one ever informed the marina’s architect that boats need something to moor to, so we had to pound iron spikes into the flower beds. Perhaps, next time, someone involved will consult with an actual boater (or at the very least with someone who has seen photos of parked boats) before designing a new marina.

We closed out the week with a late dinner in the park, and the four of us enjoyed Thai peanut chicken pasta courtesy of Heather. As we continue heading north the Marne River will continue to get bigger, and we will enter the world-famous wine-growing region of Champagne, hopefully as early as next week.

France 2014 Week 2 Numbers