Tuesday 9th March 2004 Vendhuile to Masnières

Tunnel chain tug, still plodding on in 2011

It was sunny but cold when we got up. Temperature outside had been down to 2.5°C overnight. It clouded over mid-afternoon and we had snow blizzards. Set off at nine. I got the bed up to find extra woolly hats, gloves and scarves. I put the bed back in order whilst en route to the first downhill lock in the Escaut valley. Side-by-side again with Rosy as the automatic locks were working OK like that. Down 17 Bosquet, 16 Moulin Lafosse, 15 Honnecourt, then a longer pound of about two kilometres wound down to 14 Bateux and 13 Bantouzelle. 

Cafe & tabac by lock 17

More bends to 12 Vaucelles. The locksides were wet where someone had reversed - both sides, so it must be a péniche - and the water was murky after the mud had been stirred. We met an empty heading uphill called L’Atout, from Watten, the skipper said he hadn’t seen us as he’d left us just enough room to get round a left hand bend between his bows and the bank. We could see the boat in front across the long sweeping bend down to 11 Tordoir, where we caught up as he was entering the lock. While we waited for him to clear the lock, I went inside to turn a stale loaf into bread pudding and cooked a hot sandwich of fried luncheon meat and eggs to warm us up. Down 10 Vinchy, 

In the control cabin at Crevecoeure

then 9 Crèvecoeure, where a VNF man came out from the control centre cabin to ask for our papers. I went in to the office to collect them and had a chat with him. He said he’d been to Cardiff last weekend. It didn’t dawn until I got back on the boat that France had beaten Wales at Rugby. I told him I was English not Welsh! He asked if we were going back to England, no off to Belgium to dock the boat and paint it. As we left the lock I ‘phoned Christelle to tell Jean-Max that we would be at Masnières around 2 p.m. She said she would tell him and ring us back. 

Moored in 2011 at Masnieres

Crossed the tiny river Escaut on an aqueduct before lock 8 Saint-Vaast, then ran down to the last lock, number 7 Masnières, eating hot bread pudding. Bill said he would have made some custard to go with it. Mike said it wasn’t one of my best, but still ate it. Christelle ‘phoned, Mike answered, she said she was coming to pick him up at 2.30 p.m. We moored to the quay by the road bridge and park at 1.20 p.m. Mike tested Bill’s temperature sender and thermostat, but he could detect nothing wrong with either. Christelle arrived just after three, she’d done a small diversion. She came on board for coffee and she tried some traditional English bread pudding. Jean-Max called at 4.15 pm to find out where she was, we were still chatting. She took Mike back to St Quentin to get the car and collect Gaétan from his minder. I put the Mac on to catch up again. Prepared a stir fry ready to cook for dinner as soon as Mike returned - he was late back as he’d been out to find a motor spares place with Jean-Max in St Quentin to get a new thermostat for Rosy.

Sorry, photos are from 2011

Monday 8th March 2004 St Quentin to Vendhuile

Long straight section before Lesdins tunnel. Aug 1993

We were up bright and early at 8.00 a.m. to get ready to move off. The temperature overnight had been down to 0.9° C, we had sunshine all day but with a bitterly cold northerly wind. Mike set our water tank refilling. Bill went to try and get tablets for Fanny but the vets and the pharmacy didn’t open until 2.00 p.m. Jean-Max and Christelle came back from taking Maeva to school and Gaétan to a minder. Jean-Max had collected bread for us while he was getting theirs. I took Christelle some books. Mike went to sort out a problem Bill had with a short circuit on Rosy.

The very famous Riqueval bridge
 (see below for link to WW1 picture) this pic taken Aug 1993

He’d dislodged a wire to his ammeter which had shorted the battery main cable. We set off a little later than intended at 10.55 a.m. Decided that going through the automatic locks side by side was the best method. We motored through St Quentin and up lock 22, St Quentin, a short distance then up lock 21, Moulin Brûlé. The number of water fowl on the canal through the town was astounding, ducks and coots for the most part, but also lots of moorhens and a few crested grebe. It was 12.10 pm as we went up lock 20, Omissy, then 19 Pascal and I made lunch en route to 18 Lesdins, the top lock. 

Southern entrance to Lesdins tunnel. Aug 1993

We had to go slowly on the first bit of the summit as a VNF man had told us that an empty was coming through the tunnel and we would have to wait for him. We passed Sahete from Strasbourg moored to the bank just before the tunnel lights, wheelhouse down, skipper probably having a bite for his lunch before starting the descent. Power on, I started the washing machine running. I set up our hand-held spotlamp to look for evidence of the German WW1 occupation of the tunnels when they were part of the fortifications of the Hindenberg Line. We passed several bricked up doorways but there was nothing more interesting in Lesdins tunnel than rusting bollards set at the base of the wall all along the towpath, plus a panicking moorhen galloping along the towpath in the dark until I shone the spotlight on it. Came out of the tunnel at 1.10 p.m. into the shallow summit cutting. 

Tunnel tug towing a cruiser Aug 1993

A very chilly wind blasted across the fields as we passed through Bellenglise. Bill let Fanny off on the towpath for her to trot along while the boat was moving - the first time he’d tried doing that, she seemed to take quite well to it. I turned the washing machine on to tumble dry for the last twenty minutes until we got to Riqueval, and the entrance to Bony tunnel. We moored up at 2.15 pm to await the tow at 3.10 p.m. A VNF man came for our papers, no, we couldn’t pay him today, they would send us the bill by post. I gave him our last invoice from the VNF for last year’s péage (licence). He photocopied it and brought it back as we were getting ready to set off. Bill had put a long line on his bows to our stern. We trundled up to the ancient chain tug and took a single line from the young chap off the tug. Once the “râme” was sorted out we set off. I tried to tell one VNF workman that we wouldn’t be breaking any records today with only two boats and that the record was seventy four peniches in the good old days before they built the Canal du Nord. He didn’t understand me! I had to resort to telling him again in English! Then he understood! I got the video camera out to record what might be our last tow through Bony by chain tug as there was talk of the VNF replacing the tug or stopping towage altogether. It took from 3.20 pm until 5.10 pm to travel the 5.67 kilometres underground. At the far end a convoy of péniches was waiting for the tug, three loaded Dutchmen, Ancilla from Othene, Evolutie from Amsterdam and Vincita from Rotterdam, with two empty French boats at the rear - Sta Maria from Denain and Gourbet from Dunkerque, the latter was motoring to catch the rest up as we came into Vendhuile. We moored in the village, before the road bridge, next to a sloping bank that was crumbling with the amount of undermining by rats or moles. It was 5.30 p.m. when we tied up. After a lovely sunny day we had a superb sunset. Mike finished doing his engine shutdown routine while I made dinner.

The very famous bridge at Riqueval - see the WW1 photo

and a bigger image of the WW1 photo

Note: No photos from 2004 so I've added earlier ones from Aug 1993

Sunday 7th March 2004 Jussy to St Quentin.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

More pictures of Cristal'canal

and their performances for next month (December 2013) in Nancy 

Still a severe lack of photos from 2004, pre-digital for us!