Tuesday 13th June 2017 Champigny to Rolampont. 9.97kms 6 locks.

New liftbridge at Jourquenay

7.6°C Sunny with blue skies, clouding over later. Set off at 9.25am. A short distance to lock 3 Moulin-Rouge (3.40m). On the quay were a couple of “dead” boats, the UK catamaran and a new-build DB with a USA flag on the front, then halfway down the empty quay behind it was a UK cruiser which had moored overnight, no signs of life as we passed it. A VNF van went past us to the lock. A VNF man got out and told us off for not ringing Vitry

Lock 7 Chanoy

to book the locks (another one who could do with a customer appreciation course) – Mike thought the manual locks started after Rolampont where we  were headed for today. No? OK. As we went down in the automatic lock I phoned Vitry to book us to Rolampont today and to Chaumont for the next day. 1.8kms to the next lock 4 Jourquenay (3.90m) which was set up ready for automatic use. Our grumpy man in a van handed over to a very pleasant dark-haired young man who was

A tatty looking buzzard

driving the oldest VNF car we’d seen in a long while. He worked the lock from the boxes at each end of the lock. 1.9kms to the next lock but there was a bridge to work. The old swingbridge had been replaced by a new liftbridge, again set up for automatic use but worked by our YM from a building on the bank. Lock 5 Humes (3.90m) was automatic and switched on so we zapped, it worked and the YM sat in his car to watch and make sure it worked OK. As the lock was filling a herd of cows walked past

Our roving lock keeper at lock 9 Rolampont

the lock and into a lane heading uphill to a field. The cattle sheds stretched most of the 800m down the right bank to the next lock 6 Pouillot (3.60m) also automatic and working, our YM watched until we were in the lock then drove off to the next. The house alongside the lock was empty. 1.4kms to the next, between high banks, the red sandy banks on our left were well eroded by wash of traffic passing too fast. On the right was a big sloping field of wheat. Lock 7 Chanoy (3.80m)

New lock cabin at 9 Rolampont

was automatic, but not yet switched on, so our YM worked it from the boxes again. The chamber had been redone with new concrete, recessed bollards in the walls and ladders in the right places! 1.8km to lock 8 St Menge (3.80m)was our first manual lock, it was undergoing transformation to automatic, two men from the electric company Suez were working on the lockside and both very interested in our unusual boat. Had to hoot to let the YM know we could work through one gate. Said au’voir to him as we left through one gate and headed for the quay at Rolampont, no boats were moored there, but there were two campervans parked, plus picnickers and a man from a camper fishing at the far end. It was 12.30pm. Lunch then I started on downloading Microsoft Office as we had a very good Internet connection, full house 4G. Amazed it only took half a gigabyte. Mike went for a nap and I pressed on with catching up on the log. It was 6.20pm when I finally

Lockhouse 9 Rolampont

caught up. A French flagged cruiser moored right in front of us and caused me to close our front doors as its engine was filling our cabin with fumes. Later a German cruiser arrived and tied to the bank behind us as there was no space left on the quay.

Moored on the quay at Rolampont