Wednesday 20th April 2011 Froncles - Joinville. 22kms 9 locks

Lock 36, Froncles.

Sunny and warm, getting quite hot later. Mike and Maeva went a walk to La Poste and came back with our post, calling at the VNF to say we’d leave at eleven, which we did. Lock 36, Froncles (3.30m) was operated by the keeper pressing buttons in the panels by the gates. On the 3kms pound to the next lock I spotted orchids growing in the grass but not closely enough to identify them. Three VNF vans in a row went flying up the towpath, heading back to the new base at Froncles (perhaps) for lunch. Lock 37 Provenchères (3.30m) worked with the zapper but not the bassinée button so Mike lifted the blue rod. The lock house looked as if it might be lived in. On the next pound we saw a digger sat atop the end of a bridge abutment and at first we thought it was demolishing the old bridge but then we noticed a dredging tip had been constructed alongside it. 

Temporary power supply lock 37 Provencheres

A man was sitting in the cab of the digger and two more were lurking in a metal container turned into a shed. Lunchtime. 2.5ksm to lock 38 Villiers (3.30m), which Mike zapped, and it worked OK. A beautiful red magnolia was among the trees in the splendid garden to the lockhouse. Our shadow of the day before went past in his van with a flexible “Danger man at work” sign on the top. 2.7kms to Gumont lock 39 (2.80m) and we met the first dredging boat Opa Sigi heading uphill taking a load of dredgings to the tip. There was a liftbridge carrying a fairly busy road right before the lock. Our shadow must have come to make sure it didn’t fail. The sequence seemed a bit wrong as the lock filled and the bridge lifted before the gates were open, would have thought the gates would have opened first before the bridge lifted?

Loaded peniche Opa Sigi

2.9kms to lock 40 Rouvroy (3.90m) and we saw a couple walking the towpath. Our shadow was on the lockside at Rouvroy. Tried the bassinée button, didn’t work, tried the blue bar, didn’t work – so our man in van pressed buttons in the lock cabin to work the lock for us (and near deafened me as there was an extremely loud bleeper on the post with the blue and red bars). The next dredging boat, Elo-Yan, passed us on the 1.7kms pound to lock 41 Mussey (3.20m) where there was a liftbridge in the raised position which hadn’t been used in years (and was red rusty) just before an aqueduct over the Marne then the lock. Zapped and lifted the bar. 

Lock 39 & liftbridge Gudmont

On the 2.8kms pound to lock 42 St Urbain (3.20m) we passed Noliser, empty and washing down the hold moored just below lock 41, then a short distance further on Banco was tied next to the dredger (a floating platform with another bucket digger on it). The digger driver used the bucket to pull them over to the right hand bank and the skipper on Banco steered the péniche away from the left bank. As we passed by it on the left side Banco’s steerer almost blew us sideways up the bank with his prop wash, fortunately we only bumped the bottom and kept going. Lock 42 was full and overflowing with muddy stirred up water, we were soon down it and on to the 1.6kms pound to lock 43 Bonneval (3.40m). 

Loaded peniche Elo Yan

The keeper was at the lock and there were no lock lights on. He worked the lock for us using the panels by the top and bottom end gates. The new cabin was open so Mike took a photo of the new style controls. A simple computer screen, three green buttons and a red emergency stop. 2.7kms to lock 44 Joinville (3.20m) no sign of our shadow, we zapped and it worked OK. Into a shallow cutting lined with stone walls, on top of which were growing masses of wild strawberries all in flower. We paused by the bridge where we last moored. Three men and a woman were fishing and drinking by the HLMs (council high rise flats), they were all drunk and the loudest shouted “klaxone, kaxone!” 

Maeva. Moorings in Joinville

He wanted us to sound the horn for him. I went to look beyond the bridge but could see no other mooring, and then Maeva said there was a port just around the corner; she’d stayed there on her Mum and Dad’s boat. The quay was empty but a row of campervans were parked by it separated by a garden. There were electricity posts along the quay, the old ones didn’t work but there was a new one, which needed a plastic payment card for electricity for a duration of 55 minutes (Mike found out later that the amount charged to the card was 2€ for each 55 minute session, Maeva said she thought it was illegal to charge so much). We didn’t need electricity after a full day’s engine running.