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| Chris - mariniere, actor and good friend 2012 |
3.5° C overnight. Sunny
spells and showers (some very heavy) all day. Set off at 9.15 a.m. I did my
chores on the run up to St Simon. An empty from Marchienne called Cassia was
moored by the houses on the left and Marylene was waiting to load at the silo
quay before the Point Y, the junction with the canal de la Somme. Bill was in
front, but paused by the sensors below lock 25, Pont Tugny, for us to catch up.
We went through with the regulation twenty metres between us. Still the stupid
lock went “en panne” - the red light at the top of the rods was flashing, not
the green one! We ‘phoned the number in the book, on answerphone, I left a
message. Eventually the itinerant turned up and
sorted out the lock. When Mike questioned him about what had gone wrong, he
said we’d gone through the sensors too fast. We fell about laughing at that –
narrowboats too fast? He said the computer had registered three boats! Then he
said there was an empty coming down and that he would be at the next lock.
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| Bateau-theatre Cristal'Canal leaving Conde for Paris in 2012 |
We
passed Lore from Nancy at KP 64. Bill waited before the next set of sensors and
this time we went through side-by-side. The lock, 24 Séraucourt, opened and we
went in - still side-by-side - and the lock worked perfectly. There was no sign
of the mobile keeper. The lock filled with four gate paddles lifted causing
quite some turbulence in the chamber, which was almost wide enough for three
narrowboats. We exited together. It started to pour with rain. A long line of
fishermen sat along the left hand bank at Fontaines-lès-Clercs. A fishing
contest in the rain! They must be as mad as us! The rain continued to pour down
as we motored into the outskirts of St Quentin. The sun came out as the rain
stopped just before we reached the quay and tied up behind theatre-boat
Cristal-Canal, which belongs to our old friends Jean-Max and Christelle.
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| Bateau-theatre Cristal'Canal leaving Conde for Paris in 2012 |
It was
1.00 p.m. No signs of anyone on board. Mike wanted to get off to collect the
car while the sun was still shining, so we unloaded the moped and he went to
fetch it from Jussy. He was back at 3.00 p.m. having passed through a hail
storm in the car (luckily). We put the moped back on board, then Mike ate a
late lunch while watching the Grand Prix. We had a visit from three cheeky
lads, all aged about twelve, who wanted to come on board. I was delegated to
speak to them. Mike went out the back and they went off to talk to him instead.
Bill came out too and they must have felt outnumbered because they left.
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| Bateau-theatre Cristal'Canal leaving Conde for Paris in 2012 |
Another squall came over so we battened the boat down before it poured. After
we’d had dinner Mike went to look see if there was anyone on board
Cristal-Canal. There was, they’d been at home all along! Jean-Max asked if we
wanted electricity, so Mike ran out a cable and connected up. Later we went on
board for a natter. Their daughter, Maeva aged nine, had just come back from
two weeks’ holiday with some friends who live near Belfort and was due to go
back to school in St Quentin next day. Their son Gaétan aged three, was getting
bigger, so Christelle said she had had to find a child minder who would have
him during the day so that she could help J-M get on with converting the
downstairs of their apartment from two bedrooms to three now that they’d had
the péniche’s old ballast tanks opened out.
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| Jean-Max - wind-swept marinier, actor and good friend. 2012 |
Christelle took us downstairs to
look at the work under construction. Maeva and Gaétan were playing in the
theatre, which was loaded up with their belongings while they were working on
the reconstruction. The kids were playing “cabins” under the mattresses leaning
against the rows of theatre seats. J-M was making three new bedrooms and
converting the ballast tanks - port side for wardrobes and starboard for a
shower and toilet. Christelle said the kids were sharing Maeva’s bedroom and
she and J-M were having to sleep on a mattress upstairs on their living room
floor. It will be wonderful when it’s finished and also when the terrace on the
theatre roof is done too. We went back upstairs. Bill came over to join us with
his wine box of Merlot. J-M had opened some champagne from Condé and we toasted
our favourite French village. I told them that it was Gérard’s sixtieth
birthday the day before, so Jean-Max tried ringing him to wish him a belated
happy birthday. (For those who don’t know, he lives in Condé and is the Port
manager) I said it was also the last
night of the play “La Bonne Anna” at the village hall in Condé, which Alix was
directing. Christelle told us that the theatre company called A.C.T.E.1 was
composed of Alix’s Am-Dram students. We chatted until 10.30 p.m. Bill had
departed a little earlier to go and feed Fanny the Woof. Christelle said they
were going to be performing in Beaucaire this summer, and not Avignon as
previously planned. Back on board our boat Mike relit the coal fire - we’d left
the front of the Torgem open and the fire had gone out, he also lit the Refleks
central heating too as the temperature was dropping sharply.
Still a severe lack of photos from 2004, pre-digital for us!
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