Wednesday 13th April 2011 Villegusien – Champigny. 19kms 10 locks

View down the canal from lock 4

1.4°C Frost on the cabin roof. Clear skies first thing, white clouds later. Sunny but chilly as we set off at 9.15 a.m. There was a group of fishermen on the far bank; they were there when we arrived the day before – had they been there all night? 9.30 a.m. we entered the bottom lock of the flight of eight leading to the summit, lock 8 was the only one named (Percey) the flight was called La Descent Versant la Saône. Each lock had a 5m rise, so just 40m to go to the top level. All the control rods were on the left hand side, the wrong side for our boat (prop in reverse pushes it away from left hand walls) so I had to hang on to the bar to keep the boat near enough to reach it, then I couldn’t lift the blue bar, Mike had to do it – me and my weak wrists!  

New control cabin lock 3

The lock house at 8 was lived in and had a beautiful set of semi-circular stone steps up to the front door where outside shoes were left in a row. VNF workmen were tree cutting opposite the house. Each lock was between 400 – 500m from the next, and all were linked. We were soon in 7 and up in it. The lockhouse at 7 had been empty a long time. Into 6, the view behind us getting better and better as we climbed the hill, on the ridge a few kilometres away we could see a long line of wind generators. A reed warbler was singing loudly, just back from Africa and glad to be here. The house at 6 no longer existed. Into lock 5, the house had been refurbished with new doors and windows, possibly lived in. Immediately below lock 4 there was a road bridge with a memorial plate and a date, after the lock filled Mike went to have a look. It was a memorial to four young men who died there on 2nd Feb 1973. The gates started to open then stopped, we heard the motor stop running so Mike went to the intercom and pressed the call button, no answer and I was about to phone the top lock when the gates started opening again. Lock 3’s house looked lived in, possibly, and the new lock cabin was waiting for a roof.

Leaving the top lock Heuilley Cotton

The lockside was a clutter of building materials, including a stack of roof tiles plus a bright yellow portacabin on wheels. Lock 2’s house had gone completely and there was a dead cat and duck floating in the chamber. Several workmen building a lock cabin stopped to chat with Mike as the lock filled, asking the usual questions. The top lock at last. The house was now part of the workshops and a large new cabin housed the control office. Madame came out to take the boat details and ask how many crew, the usual statistics that VNF collect. Asked her about the plaque by lock 4. She told us it was a car accident when four young men driving in thick fog missed the bend by the bridge went down the very steep embankment and into the canal. They couldn’t get out of the car quickly enough and all four drowned. 

New control cabin for tunnel access Heuilly Cotton

Mike asked if they were drunk and she replied, oh no, just missed the turn on to the bridge in the fog. Very sad. When we said we were surprised to see no boats she told us she had ten boats on their way from the Vitry end. All one after the other no doubt! Yes, she said and laughed. She knew Floan and I told her they’d been stuck because of the accident at Chalons but they were on their way now. She wished us bonne route and said the tunnel was OK, no traffic lights were on but the tunnel was lit throughout. We were now on to the summit level and pushed on through Heuilley Cotton village. Beyond a winding hole and a bridge there were several boats moored by a portacabin office with SER2E an electric company. Alongside it were two small boats also with SER2E on them and huge coils of cable on the bank.  Next to them were two sheeted up cruisers and beyond them, next to a house and new blue poles for a péniche mooring, was a shortened (about 30m, but unconverted) péniche called Peter Pan from Chaumont. 

Old radar (headlamp) detector at start of one way section.

At the start of the one-way section, where the canal narrowed to péniche width, there was a radar headlamp, which probably no longer worked, and a long length of green tubing ran all along the edge of the bank all the way to the tunnel. There, it went up and over the tunnel entrance to the left hand side where the towpath ran through the tunnel. Outside the tunnel was a sparkling new, and totally useless, information board, which gave the name of the tunnel and its length. The green tube had carried a telephone cable, which had been installed throughout the tunnel and every 500m there was a box for emergency use which said you could use your mobile phone to call the pompiers (French emergency services). Whatever next? The tunnel was illuminated with pairs of fluorescent lamps every 20m and by our estimation that was a whopping 10Kw of electricity – just for us, and we’ve got a headlight! 

Tunnel southern entrance

Hope they turned that off when we’d passed through the other end. I made us a cup of soup as it was very chilly. I put my windproof jacket on. Made a hot sandwich for lunch and we ate it going through the remarkably dry tunnel, that was until we got to the northern end then there were lots of drips. When we emerged into sunlight at 1.00 p.m. our Garmin GPS was totally lost and couldn’t find any satellites until Mike rebooted it. Then it thought it was in Nigeria and he had to manually reset it! A couple standing on the first bridge waved and said hello in English, then followed us on foot down the muddy towpath, overtaking us before we arrived at the lock. There were geese on the towpath by the lock. 

New sign at tunnel entrance.

Zapped lock 1 Batailles ((3.90m) and it filled, back to armchair boating, no need to lift the blue rod to activate the automatics. The lockhouse was beautiful as were its gardens and the most wonderful shed with ceramic figures plus gnomes and Snow White with the dwarfs, etc. It even had a post box for passing boaters to post letters. The walkers weren’t English, they spoke German and it wasn’t until they got into a car parked by the lock that we realised they were Austrian. 2.6kms to lock 2 Moulin-Chapeau (3.60m). A smiling fisherman was sat on the bank above the lock. Took photos of Langres up on its hill before we entered the lock. There were better views further back along the pound but too many trees for photos. 

What a shed! By the top lock 1 Batailles.

1.6 kms to the next lock but we stopped before it at Champigny-les-Langres on a long quay which had been refurbished with water and electric posts. A red-hulled cruiser with a Swiss flag was moored at the uphill end with a hosepipe connected to a tap but, disconcertingly, a generator out on the bank. We moored at the downstream end by the car parking. As we gathered, the water was on but no electric. That’s a blow. Mike needs to go and help Paul sort a few problems on Liberty at St Jean-de-Losne and I need electric, otherwise I shall be running the boat engine for power. Mike went to collect the thermostat from the post office and call at the Mairie in Champigny to see if he could get the electricity switched on. Failed on both counts, the post office was in the middle of the fortified hilltop city of Langres. 

Mooring at Champigny-les-Langres.
Not finished yet - so NO electric!

He parked by the main gate and walked in, calling at the tourist information office, which was right by the gates. The lady gave him a map to indicate where the post office was and he asked about electricity at the port. She rang someone. The port was undergoing refurbishment and the electricity would not be connected until it was finished, she didn’t know when. Great. Decided to move on down to Rolampont the following day after Mike had been to the post office again. Rats!