Unexcused Absences

Sunday morning in Reims we visited the Basilique Saint-Remi, named after the bishop who started the trend of French kings being coronated in Reims by baptizing Clovis in 496 AD. That afternoon we took the Cathédrale Notre-Dame roof tour, which was possibly the best way we’ve ever spent 7.50 Euros (other than maybe on a wheel of Epoisses cheese). After climbing the 249 spiral steps we reached a balcony between the north and south towers. Today this area contains several 15-foot-tall, 8-ton statues of various kings and bishops. When you have too many statues to display at ground level, I guess.

Basilique Saint-Remi

The Reims Cathedral suffered numerous times throughout its 800+ year history. The most egregious damage began when it was hit by shellfire on Sept 19, 1914, during the Great War. This set the wood roof on fire, which melted the lead casing and damaged the stonework. Over the next four years the building was hit by more than 300 shells from the German army occupying the forts on the outskirts of the city. The only thing keeping the structure upright during this assault was the outstanding design and assembly work from the early 13th century.

Cathédrale de Reims

The most amazing thing about the roof tour, not so ironically, was the roof. During the cathedral’s reconstruction during the mid 20th century, which was funded by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., the original wood trusses were replaced with 1200 tons of ribs made with reinforced concrete. The ribs in turn support 400 tons of lead cladding. The tour follows a walkway right down the transept, in between the concrete ribs above and the top of the cathedral’s vaults below. No other “roof tour” we’ve ever taken gives you this inside look at the construction techniques.

Roof tour – in between the vaulted ceiling and the roof

The cathedral also had a photo exhibit from the time around the Great War when both Reims and the cathedral were bombed and burned. Some sobering numbers; at the start of the war Reims had 13,806 houses, yet by Armistice a little over four years later, 8,625 had been completely destroyed, 5164 were badly damaged, and only 17 remained unscathed.

Reims Cathedral after WW I

Reims the town predates Roman times; a tribe called the Remi based their capital on the site of the current city. During Julius Caesar’s conquest of Gaul in the mid ’50’s BC, the tribe allied itself with the Romans and came to be favored by the imperial power. Later, Reims became a favorite target of invaders. Over the centuries, the town has been sacked by the Vandals in 406 AD and Attila the Hun in 451 (you’re nobody unless you’ve been sacked by the Huns), was briefly ceded to the English in 1420, brought back into the French realm by Joan of Arc in 1429, taken by Henri IV in 1590, anti-Napoleonic armies in 1814, the Prussians/Germans in 1871, the Germans again in 1914 and the Germans one final time during WW II. Ultimately Reims was the place where, at 2:41am on May 7, 1945, General Eisenhower and the Allies received the German army’s unconditional surrender, ending World War II in Europe. But everybody is friends now; Reims is “twinned” with the German city of Aachen, famous as the place of coronation for German kings.

Roman-era Mars Gate

Monday we topped off the bread supplies with two delicious baguettes tradition from 114 Rue Gambetta in Reims. We then cruised about five hours to the junction where the Canal de l’Aisne à la Marne meets the Canal latéral à l’Aisne at Berry-au-Bac. On the way we were waiting at a lock for a boat coming the other direction, and as the doors opened we saw that it was an English-style “wide” narrowboat (?) named Renaissance. Just as I remarked to Heather that we know that boat, a head popped out the helm station and said “Hey, Yank!” We first met them three years ago in Joigny, on the Yonne River, and have crossed paths a few times since, but always going in opposite directions. So we don’t actually know each other’s names. But each time we see them we always get a hearty “Hey, Yank!” from the captain.

A young Danish family on a 3-month canal trip – by catamaran kayak

Tuesday we passed through the final lock of the Aisne-Marne canal, then turned right (east) and followed the Aisne RIver to Asfeld, which is home to the wackiest church in France. Because this area suffered so much destruction during both world wars, many (most) of the churches have been built during the past century, in some cases in very, um, imaginative styles. This one takes the cake, although amazingly it was built in the late 17th century and actually survived both wars completely intact. From the air it resembles a viola, supposedly so that prayers ascending to heaven might be accompanied by music (this from the history plaque).

The non-standard 17th century church in Asfeld

When the Count of Avaux needed a to rebuild the church in his stronghold of Ecry, he hired a Dominican monk and architect named François Romain, famous for designing the Pont Royal bridge in Paris. He constructed the building entirely of curved bricks, and it houses the congregation in a five-sided rotunda. There is not a single straight line in the church. All shapes, both horizontal and vertical, are beautiful curves. Each brick was fabricated as either concave or convex. It is completely, and utterly, unique.

Inside is more like a Las Vegas wedding chapel

Wednesday the Canal de l’Aisne became the Canal des Ardennes (in name only; there was no indication other than in the guidebook that we had changed canals), and we continued upstream to Rethel, a large town in the south-west Ardennes département. We found a terrific restaurant called Au Sanglier Des Ardennes (roughly, “wild boar of the Ardennes”), and ate an amazing meal that included the local specialty sausage called boudin blanc. The following morning was our first street market since Chalons-en-Champagne several weeks ago, and we took full advantage, loading up on fresh vegetables, fruit (the peaches have been amazing this season), and some boudin blanc to try cooking ourselves.

Rethel town hall

The church in Rethel has had quite a history, and has taken an inordinate amount of abuse and rebuilding over the centuries. It originally dates from the 12th century, and has been restored in bits and pieces using whatever style was in vogue at the time. The west gate has square doors in the 13th century design, but the south gate is from the 16th century and reflects the architecture of that era. Then in the 17th century the bell tower was demolished, and rebuilt in 17th century style. During the French revolution the building was damaged and converted into stables. Then during WW II both the church and the town around it were destroyed by fire, and its roof collapsed during the winter of 1940-41. Amazingly, the only time the church wasn’t damaged was during WW I, when most of the surrounding countryside was completely devastated. And on top of all this, the church boasts two complete (and parallel) choirs and naves.

Twin choirs in the Saint-Nicolas church, Rethel

After the market Thursday we moved east to Attigny, where we found our first decent bread in 3 days (the two best boulangerie in Rethel were both closed for summer vacation, and neither Asfeld nor Berry-au-Bac had good ones). The shade trees lining the quai were beautiful but unnecessary, because for the past few days the temperature has not risen above 70 degrees F. Ah, mid-summer in France. A fuel station and small supermarket near the port were very useful, because east of here the Canal des Ardennes passes through several days of extremely rural countryside.

A rare navigational decision on the canals; we took the lock on the left

Friday we continued east and began our ascent up a 27-lock staircase towards the summit of the Canal des Ardennes. We stopped part way up the flight, at Neuville-Day, a gorgeous spot at the foot of a village between locks 19 and 20. The surrounding countryside was very scenic, but any shops in the village (including the restaurant adjacent to the lock) closed years ago and probably a third of the houses were for sale.

Village of Neuville-Day, Canal des Ardennes

Saturday morning we cycled back a few km to Semuy, home to an obscure but amazing WW II museum. A lock keeper became interested in the war about 40 years ago, when he was 12 years old, and began amassing guns, bullets, grenades, mortars, radios, uniforms – basically anything related to the battles of May/June 1940 that raged in the countryside here. He set up an astounding display in a huge barn on his father’s property, and now he and his father give tours of the museum to history buffs during the summer. No kidding, he must have had 10,000 items on display.

One small corner of the vast barn full of WW II artifacts

That afternoon we finished climbing the staircase, and parked at Le Chesne, a small village in the middle of its annual summer carnival. The streets and squares around the canal were packed with carnival rides, junk-food vendors (now we know that “cotton candy” in French is “barbe à papa,” or “dad’s beard”), and a portable “disco” stage complete with flashing lights and multiple disco balls. Unfortunately (or possibly fortunately), the music was not actually disco but tended more towards the club/house/euro-techno. The only drawback is that the “music” continued until 3am. They had turned the amps up to eleven. And did I mention the stage was right next to the boat? But that’s ok, it was all part of this week’s fun in rural north-east France.

France 2014 Week 6 Numbers

• Km: 102
• Locks: 48
• Hours: 22
• Cost of Moorings: 5.0

France 2014 TOTAL Numbers

• Kilometers: 569
• Locks: 211
• Engine Hours: 112
• Cost of Moorings: 123.50

France 2014 – Week 6 route

Basilique Saint-Remi

Overflow statue storage – Reims Cathedral roof between the North and South towers

Western slope of the Canal des Ardennes

Inside the Reims Cathedral

View from the Cathedral roof

Stained glass depicting the wine-making process

Hotel de Ville, Reims

Church covered in shrapnel damage, WW II

Hand grenades from WW II

Reims Cathedral roof

The big excitement in Washington DC these days, as the “sequester” talk fades, is the annual display put on by the two thousand or so cherry trees given to the United States by Japan a century ago. Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo sent a gift of 3,020 trees, which were planted in both New York and Washington. In a little-known side note,  the United States Government reciprocated with a gift of flowering dogwood trees to the people of Japan in 1915. Only about 100 of the original trees from 1912 survive (cherry trees are relatively short-lived), but as they die the Park Service replaces them, so each spring the Tidal Basin is completely surrounded by an immense number of flowering Prunus Serrulata (ornamental Japanese Cherry) trees.

National Cherry Blossom Festival

In our annual attempt to be tourists in our own city, Heather packed a lunch of curry chicken salad (with grapes, celery, mango, and cashews – wow!) and we drove to West Potomac Park, which sits roughly between the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. I “embraced local knowledge” (inside joke) and got a parking spot very close to the Jefferson Memorial, under the outbound span of the 14th street bridge. From there we ate lunch on the memorial steps, and spent a few hours in the beautiful warm weather wandering the park with a few of the 1.5 million annual visitors to the National Cherry Blossom Festival.

The Japanese started the picnic-with-the-cherry-blossoms tradition over 1,200 years ago, with the Hanami (picnicking under a blooming cherry tree), so our outing wasn’t really an original idea. The custom originated with the Imperial Court of the Heian Period (794–1185), and then spread to Samurai society, and eventually to the common folk during the Edo Period (roughly the 17th through mid 19th centuries). The rapid bloom and quick death of the cherry blossom carries deep symbolism in Japan, and citizens track the sakura zensen (cherry blossom front) as it moves northward through the islands.

Blossom closeup

One amusing tidbit, we found a Park Service informational sign that gave a brief history of the cherry trees, the festival, and the cherry blossom traditions in Japan. The sign contained this sentence; “After the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, relations between the countries deteriorated.” I guess “deteriorated” is one way to put it when talking about a state of total, all-out war.

Spring weather

While we were enjoying shirt-sleeve weather, the northern half of the USA was enduring blizzard conditions (west) and soaking rain (east). I feel somewhat entitled to gloat, because for the past four months we’ve brought snow with us wherever we went, so I’m happy to finally shed the winter clothes and re-acquaint myself with warmth and humidity.

Without any more rambling, some photos:

Pink blossoms

Crowds around the Tidal Basin

Jefferson Memorial

Blossoms on an old trunk

A tree getting a closeup

“El Presidenté”

Spring in Washington

Sunday morning in Châtillon-Coligny found us still scratching our heads, trying to figure out the “animation” we had seen the night before. Definitely fun, but slightly curious. We enjoyed a kebab lunch and cruised south to Dammarie-sur-Loing. The canal is quite pretty in this stretch, with a few château visible through the woods and several sections of old canal still standing. Remember that the Briare Canal is the oldest one in France, and it’s been upgraded several times as cargo barges got bigger, so one can see the old structures quite often.

Marina in Châtillon-Coligny

The mooring at Dammarie-sur-Loing is a bit of an oddity, although definitely of the good variety. The town provides a nice quay with lighting, picnic tables, and modern water and electricity connections, and all this at no charge. While some bigger towns provide free services to entice visitors into the shops and restaurants, Dammarie has no services other than a small Bar/Tabac that is usually closed. Not quite sure who pays for the upkeep and the utility costs, but we’re happy to plug in for several reasons.

Ancient lock pair near Dammarie

After starting the motor Sunday morning I noticed that the alternator was not kicking in as it should have. This was not a huge crisis (c’est ne pas grave as the French say) because as long as we can plug in at night we can keep the batteries topped off. But it absolutely needs to addressed sooner than later, because someday soon we’ll come to a stretch of canal with no plug-in points for several days, and being unable to charge the batteries while we drive is ultimately not a good thing. The excellent news is that Briare, our destination in a couple days, is home to a respected mechanic, Allain, who owns Charmes Marine.

“Après Ski” in Rogny-les-Sept-Écluses

From Dammarie we continued south through Rogny-les-Sept-Écluses where we got a double hit of bad luck, baked-goods-wise. The first boulangerie was closed Monday (naturally), and the second one that’s normally closed Wednesday was in fact on vacation. After asking around I finally found a small épicerie (grocery) attached to a salon-de-thé (tea house), which fortunately stocked baguettes.

Bruce grilling duck on “Rival”

After lunch in the summit pound of the Briare Canal, we began our downhill drive towards Ouzouer-sur-Trézée, a medium-sized town a short distance from Briare. In Ouzouer we parked next to Bruce and Yerda aboard Rival, who we had briefly met back in Montargis. They run a small B&B-type operation aboard their boat, and they invited us to the picnic dinner they were throwing for their four guests, who were departing the next day. The evening was delightful, sitting at the big picnic table in the port and chatting with everyone. Our hosts and their four guests all had very interesting stories to tell.

Dinner with the gang from “Rival”

Tuesday morning we cruised the short distance into Briare, then waited most of the afternoon until Allain had a free moment to come check out our alternator problem. In the meantime I hit my library of boat- and diesel-maintenance books, and after some troubleshooting figured the problem was either in the voltage regulator or the exciter circuit. The purpose of the failed circuit (as I understand it) is to detect when the alternator is spinning, and then supply a field current to the electro-magnet in the alternator rotor. The field current is needed to induce the spinning alternator to actually generate charging current. So, no exciter voltage, no field current, and no field current, no charging.

Once Allain showed up and confirmed that it was the exciter circuit, we rigged a simple work-around consisting of a push-button mounted to small scrap of plywood. The button was wired from 12 volts over to the business end of the exciter wire, so now I only need to tap the button after starting the engine to trip the circuit that begins charging the batteries. I helpfully labeled this the “Magic Charge the Battery Button.”

Magic Charge the Battery Button

Crossing the Loire River on the big canal bridge

That evening we made the acquaintance of Martin and Sue of Babushka, a very pretty steel Dutch cruiser moored near us in the upper Briare port. Happy hour on their boat turned into dinner on our boat, and we had a really fun evening getting to know our new friends. They have unfortunately been stuck in place for a week, ever since the water pump on their DAF engine gave up the ghost. They have been patiently sitting in Briare waiting for word on a replacement part. Conveniently they have a car with them (they’re British), so when the pump failed they simply hopped a train back to where their car was parked, and now at least have local transportation while they wait.

Mosaic floor in the Briare Church

Wednesday morning Martin gave me a lift to the Europcar office in the next town where I rented a car for our big excursion to Dijon and Maçon. Our French friends from this past summer (read about that here) had invited us over for un week-end plein de surprises (a weekend full of surprises). And that’s exactly what we got, an absolutely fantastic four days of amazing times.

On our way (by car) to Dijon we made a critical diversion to the tiny village of Cheilly-les-Maranges, where we stopped into le Domaine Chevrot where we had purchased the awesome 2010 Chardonnay wine last spring. To our immense disappointment, though, they were recently sold out of that wine (an Hautes Côtes de Beaune), and we tasted a few others, but nothing that achieved the combination of price and taste that had piqued our interest a few months ago. We bought a couple bottles of some more expensive white, and as we were leaving I said that we really really really liked their 2010 Chardonnay and perhaps there was a place we could buy it in Beaune or Dijon. The woman (I think the mother of the two brothers who own the domaine) asked how many bottles we wanted, and we said just a few, and she gave us a wink and said she could let us have three from their secret stash. Bonus!

Tasting room at Domaine Chevrot

After the success at Domaine Chevrot we continued driving east and north through the heart of the Cote d’Or, passing through the most famous of wine towns in the world, including Meursault, Pommard, Nuits-St-Georges, Vougeot, and Gevrey-Chambertain. Needless to say we didn’t bother stopping to taste any, as the prices are light-years beyond our reach. It was certainly a beautiful drive, though.

One of the many chateau along the Cote d’Or

Arriving at Marianne and Jean-Pierre’s house north of Dijon, we sat down to a nice happy hour with two of Marianne’s children, Charline and Antoine, and then drove to a friend’s place for surprise number one. Their friend (name withheld) runs an “unlicensed bakery” on their farm for about 20 of their neighbors. Turns out the existing boulangers do not look kindly on folks who bake bread for themselves and neighbors, so everything’s kind of hush-hush, but we enjoyed a great evening watching their friends bake bread the old-fashioned way. The wood fire burns for about nine hours in the brick oven, which is then cleaned out, and the residual heat is enough to cook dozens of loaves of bread. Needless to say, the smells, and the bread, were delicious.

Illicit bread

The next morning we visited the street market in Dijon with Charline, then met Marianne for lunch at her school, where we also met the English teacher who practically spoke better English than we did! Friday night was time for surprise number two, and we drove to Beaune for a two-hour blind wine tasting with food and cheese. It was incredibly interesting to taste the wine without knowing anything about the “where” or the “who” of the producer. It definitely strips away any pre-conceived notions. After 14 different wines, I settled on my two favorites, which were then revealed as a 2008 Pinot Beurot (Burgundy’s name for Pinot Gris) from Marsannay (north end of the Cote d’Or) and a 2009 Pinot Noir from Montagne-St-Desire (near Pommard). Naturally these were the two most expensive wines of the tasting.

Wine tasting in Beaune

Saturday we visited a cheese factory (with tasting of course), followed by a visit to a local winery before Charline’s birthday party that evening with five of the six siblings plus assorted fiancée’s and boyfriends (if you’re counting, that’s a grand total of 11 for dinner). Heather made her banana cake and Marianne made some delicious mini-crepes and we were honored to be part of the family festivities.

Charline’s birthday party

And then Sunday morning was the truly amazing event (not quite a surprise since we knew about this one), but you’ll have to wait until next week’s post to learn the details!

Fall 2012 Week 3 Numbers:

• Kilometers: 35
• Locks: 20
• Engine Hours: 9
• Cost of Moorings: 11.60 euros

Fall 2012 Total Numbers:

• Kilometers: 201
• Locks: 69
• Engine Hours: 42
• Cost of Moorings: 57.00 euros

Fall 2012 – Week3 Route

Countryside near Montbouy

Flowers

Brouillard (mist) in Châtillon-sur-Loire

Apres Ski in Rogny-les-Sept-Écluses

Canal bridge in Briare

Local wine from Plombiers-les-Dijon

10th century church in Fixin

Cheese tasting in Gevrey-Chambertin

Epoisses cheese manufacturing

Very expensive grapes in Vougeot

I am seduced by photos of the past. Imperfect windows, they reveal life, people and the natural world long gone. French tourists must have sent hundreds of thousands of photographic postcards during the 19th century, and as a result market vendors and antique dealers often display boxes of them for sale for a few euros each.

I adore pawing through the old boxes of cards, looking at the old, sometimes surprisingly crisp photos. Occasionally, the handwriting is squashed and illegible, other times the clarity of the penmanship evokes the bygone era.

Since canals and the navigable waterways as well as their nearby attractions have long been tourist destinations in France, we’ve picked up a few post cards along the way of towns, rivers and château we’ve visited. Here they are, along with present-day photos we’ve taken. We’ve even reenacted a few with Après Ski!

Joigny

Joigny Today

La Bussière

La Bussière Today

Rogny

Rogny Today

Chateau de Tanlay

Chateau de Tanlay Today

Auxerre

Auxerre Today

Wine harvest 100 years ago

Wine harvest Today

Toile fabrics, short for Toile de Jouy, originated in France in the town of Jouy in the 18th Century (thanks, Wikipedia). Typically depicting pastoral scenes, complicated designs repeat in a single color (usually dark blue, burgundy or black) on a neutral background.  Toile continues to be popular, especially for draperies and upholstery.

Toile fabric sample – for sale today

Windmill in rural Bourgogne

Charolais cattle

The views on our journey south from our winter-over spot in Baye toward Decize on the Canal du Nivernais mirror these bucolic scenes. White Charolais cattle graze in green fields dotted with buttercups or placidly chew their cud in the shade of solitary, ancient oaks. Sheep and horses pasture near rural chateaux. All that was missing were villagers in period clothing!

Rural chateau, cattle and horses graze on the grounds

“La Fête” traditional Toile design from the end of the 18th Century