7th to 10th June 2024, but deserves longer
Two things – WordPress offers AI to improve my blog (scary) but this all my own work,, plus the Captain’s additions. And my Captain says I should try to make the blog posts shorter, so here goes ……
Heading north from Saint-Jean-de-Losne on the Saône to Belgium provides lots of route options. Some options were removed due to lock or canal closures. Others would take too long. We made our plan in May and so far had travelled up the Saone for a couple of days, through the Canal Entre Champagne et Bourgogne, cruised lateral to the Marne and the Aisne, and were now onto the Canal Des Ardennes which would take us across to La Meuse. and Belgium
All of it is a stunning, lovely route.
We reached the end of the Canal Lateral a L’Aisne, and although the river Aisne continued to run along side us up into the hills the name of the canal changed.
It was a seamless change! We reached PK 0 (kilometre marker zero) and went into a lock at Vieux-les-Asfeld. This was lock 14 on the western section of the Ardennes and the only thing to tell us that we had changed canals.
Nanteuil
There is a serious, heroic climb of 27 locks just over half way along the canal. We planned two stops before the climb, then one stop at the top and another at the end, where the canal joins La Meuse.
We quickly discovered what a beautiful canal this is, sometimes narrow and wooded, sometimes wide and open.
At this stage the locks were 5 or more kilometres apart, giving the crew plenty of time to make tea and take in the view!
The locks from Vieux-lés-Asfeld to Écluse (lock) 27 at Rilly are operated by means of the good old ‘pole’, or rubber tube. Clear signs let you know what to expect, and a quick small turn prepares the next lock for your arrival.
Normally it is easy to grab the pole as Calliope passes by, but I used an umbrella method when it was just out of reach!
This was much to there amusement of local young lads out fishing!
There was an interesting small difference to the levers to push inside the lock – stage 2 of the procedure. If you are not a boater, skip over this nerdy bit of information!
In most locks I have encountered the red and blue ‘levers’ (alarm and operation) continue from above the quay level straight down the lock wall – so that boats like us coming in at the bottom of the lock can reach them.
In these locks the same principle occurred, but the lower levers were to one side and behind the ladder. Just as easy – when you know where to look!
We continued pleasantly on through the morning, with crew taking the helm for a while until we reached Châtea-Porcien where we stopped for lunch opposite a big working silo.
A little over an half and a half later we were tied up to a long quay above the lock at Nanteuil-sur-Aisne. It is designed for the big commercial barges to be able to stop overnight on their working journeys – but definitely long enough for a Calliope to sneak in as well!
Spot us in the distance!
It was another very quiet and peaceful place to moor. The one lone fisherman on the quay went home for his tea, and then it was just us ……
…… and the occasional visitors!
The evening passed gently, with wine, supper and a walk round the village with its church perched high on a hill above possible flooding, and then down to see the river.
Attigny
We had looked ahead to find a town on the canal with a shop where we could spend a night and do a food top up. Attigny seemed to fit the bill and we set off to cover the 23 kilometres to be there by lunchtime if possible.
It always sounds such a short target distance, but at 6kph and with locks to negotiate that is how long our super slow cruises can take. We love it – lots of time to enjoy the countryside and tranquility.
Funnily enough our fist lock of the day, at Ace-Romance, was rather more bright and breezy than tranquil!
Occasionally we find a lock house where the current owner loves to brighten up the garden around the lock; this was one of those.
We were soon on the outskirts of Rethel, one of the larger towns along the canal and one that we had considered stopping at, but tranquility won over utility for us!
Their bridge was decorated with many of the flags of Europe, but not the Union Jack since our departure from the EU, so our red ensign ‘showed the flag’.
There was time as we wandered on for me to give the white cabin roof a bit of a clean.
I quite enjoy this chore, cleaning as we carry on slowly through the countryside under the sun.
Looks quite good after my efforts!
Not far beyond Rethel we cam to a magnificent widening of the canal. The whole world seemed to open up into one huge blue space, with a thin strip of green between sky and water.
I discovered that at this point river and canal almost merge and we were moving as much on the former as on the latter.
And then – I just have to include this because of it’s name – we were at the écluse at Thugny-Trugny!
How can that be the real name for anywhere???
A few kilometres on from Thugny-Trugny we came to Ambly-Fleury. We had been told to call the VNF when we reached this point as someone would need to meet us at Givry lock, so we made the requested call.
It was soon clear why this was necessary. When the lock came into view we could see that there were no lights in the traffic signal!
But a pleasant young lady éclusier was there waiting for us to operate the lock. It was in the process of being modernised, so not yet ready for the remote control that was coming its way.
That was our last lock of the day. We discovered that the same éclusier would be with us in the morning for the lock leading up to the ‘big climb’.
In the meantime Attigny turned out to be a small, pleasant and popular mooring. We used our time there for a walk over the canal bridge to view the Aisne, a trip round the village square (where we discovered that the local restaurant was on 2 weeks holiday, so our date-night pizza was off!), and a bit of a shop in the Carrefour mini market.
And as you can see I found one of the bright blue Ardennoise cakes to try. It was ok, but not as good as the one you can buy at Charleville-Meziere!
Before settling down for a good night’s rest in preparation for the exciting day to come (27 locks upwards through stunning scenery) we read up a bit on Charlemagne’s links to Attigny.
That was all something of a surprise to me – not a very good historian!
Le Chesne (silo quay) via 27 + 1 locks
Two of the other boats at Attigny were heading for the flight of locks next day so we agreed an order of setting off. We were second and left at about 9.15 towards the first lock around the bend, which would open at 9.00.
Everything ran smoothly, with the éclusier (not our lady from the day before) there waiting to run the lock for us, and a dog walker to watch.
The beautiful weather continued – warm and sunny, but not hot and uncomfortable. There was about 5 kilometres to cover before we got to the ‘pond’ at Rilly where the canal arm down to Vouziers separates from the Ardennes and its locks to the summit.
It is hard to see in the photo, but we had a green light for the lock towards Pont-à-Bar, and open doors. In we went for the first of the 27 ascending. The numbering ends at the bottom, so we were travelling towards from 27 at the bottom to number 1 at the top.
In this photo you can more clearly see the old and even older signs above the lock entrance indicating that we were off to Pont-à-Bar.
We could also see by the ‘tidemark’ on the lock wall that we would not be ascending much in this lock – despite the tall walls.
We left the lock past some beautiful old ‘dolphins’ where boats can moor while waiting to go down.
We also left with our means of opening all the locks before us – a tele-command, or remote control.
It is hard to summarise the next 6 hours, except to say that it was more glorious and easy than we had anticipated it might be.
The tele-command was only used occasionally as much of the flight is linked; leaving one lock automatically opens the next. As long as we tied up in the lock and elevated the usual blue lever we would continue to the top.
I will just pick out a few moments.
Lock after lock with sparking water rushing in; locks where crumbling old walls had been replaced with smooth new ones; and learning to use a hook rather than a bollard.
Lock houses, kempt and unkempt.
Calm open ponds between the locks.
Our restful lunch stop at Neuville-Day, after the first 8 locks, so plenty still to go!
We made gentle enjoyable progress, each lock elevating us up around 2.8m at a time. Our only unplanned slow down was, ironically, at Lock 13.
Here we rose comfortably to the top of the lock, but the gates in front of us failed to open.
Walking round the bank and looking back showed the 2 red light signal, meaning en panne, or out of order.
It was not long until the VNF sorted out the problem and we continued upwards through the final 12 locks.
Stewart was beginning to look relaxed as we left lock 6 behind us.
From Lock 5 we could see through to Lock 4, and knew we were nearing the summit.
The beer was in the fridge to cool!
I have brought together the ‘number-plates’ from the final countdown of 10 locks, 6 named after Montgon (a village half way up) and the final 4 named after Le Chesne (the town at the top).
If you look carefully at the older four amongst the 10 you will see how numbers were shown on the lock houses in the past, either cut into the stone, or with nice blue very French metal plaques.
We had a clear plan to moor in the centre of Le Chesne where there is about 40m of quay each side of the canal, but regretfully it was full of boats waiting to go down the flight of locks over the next few days.
We always have a Plan B for mooring, but surprisingly that was also full.
Luckily another boater called out a Plan C – and that was free.
We tied up beside a silo that now transports its grain by road, leaving an empty and unused quay.
The other side of the canal was green; the silo was quiet; and the beer was cool!
Pont-a-Bar
There are many lovely places to stop along this canal. On this occasion we needed to keep moving. We were on our way to Belgium and a booked date in a boatyard for Calliope’s regular 5 year lift out, hull clean, and re-blacking.
So next morning had us moving on the final 28 kms of the canal to where it meets La Meuse at Pont-à-Bar. We had thought to stop at a mooring 6kms from the end, next to Saint Aignan’s tunnel, but when we got there we found that maintenance of the canal bank had changed the mooring options.
It was one of those days that was not sure whether to be sunny or wet; looking out from the canal towards the village of Tannay there was more grey than blue at 0915.
Half an hour later we were going through our next Écluse 1 – the numbering started again on the way down.
The signage was different too; we were on the Canal Des Ardennes, the name and number of the lock, and that ports Pont-Bar and Ambly were in opposite directions, about 4kms away.
Initially I thought that Pont-Bar was Pont-à-Bar and was confused by the direction and the distance, but then discovered a silo quay at a farm called Pont-Bar in the right place.
There is only a 15m drop from Le Chesne to La Meuse, compared to over a 100m drop the other side. The landscape was therefore flatter and the agriculture mixed between sheep, cattle and arable, with the occasional few cows.
I prefer the white dots of sheep to the pink blobs of baled hay! But it was all part of the scenery we passed through.
Some of the lock gates and bridges are a wonderful mix of old metals.
Whilst a few of the lock houses on this side are occupied and well cared for.
Our only hold up on our way down to Pont-à-Bar was at Saint-Aignan’s tunnel. We arrived at the run in to the tunnel, and the sign indicating the use of the remote control (yes, the telecommand was still in use), but as soon as we pressed the button all the lights on the traffic signal went out!
I made a call to the VNF and we hung about near the tunnel entrance. Although you can see through the tunnel there are two locks immediately the other side and it is impossible to know if a boat is about to appear and come through the tunnel – so you have to wait.
About 10 minutes later a cabin cruiser did emerge from the tunnel, noticed that we were hanging back, saw our blank traffic signal. The Captain shouted across that it was ok to go! No other boats were following.
So we set off through, at a slower pace than my time-lapse video suggests!
There was a very helpful VNF man at the first of the two locks, making our descent even easier and quicker than it normally is. Then we went round the right angle bend into the second lock – I had some fun with a panoramic view of going from one to the other!
The same VNF éclusier rushed round in his van from one lock to the next and saw us through that one too. As mentioned earlier we had hoped to moor here, after the second lock, but as it was no longer a recognised mooring we continued.
Just a quick mention of the reason for the tunnel. The canal has followed the Bar river almost from Le Chesne at the top, down to the Meuse. But at this point the river takes an 8km loop round a hill. Canal engingeers reckoned that a 258m tunnel through the hill would speed shipping up a bit!
We now had just five and a half pleasant kilometres to the lock at Pont-à-Bar, and we would moor below that. Pont-à-Bar is a good boating centre with a chandlery, boatyard, gazoil (diesel), marine engineers etc. We had thought to top up our fuel tank there, but we passed through at lunch break time, so we decided to leave it.
We moored up below the lock, in the rain that had been threatening all day.
We have moored here before and quite like it – the canal widens and a long quay, shared with camper vans, is a quiet stopover for a night.
A photo from the bridge, after the rain, puts it more into perspective. The two old workboats add a touch of reality to life on the canals.
I think this photo clearly shows why we are off for a re-blackening of the hull!
Just time to add in a photo showing the wild flower meadow alongside Calliope that evening.
Next morning, 11th June, with the sun back in the sky, Calliope completed the final half kilometre of the canal.
We were reminded that we were leaving Canal Des Ardennes by this sign.
Hard to see through the shrubbery, but we could see that we needed to turn left to go to Charleville-Mezieres, our next stop.
Soon after 0900, lock opening time, we were into the top of the final lock, looking through to the river below,
And then out onto the Meuse – somehow it always feels a little bit like being set free – free from the narrow confines of canal banks, and out onto the enjoyable wildness of a wide river.
I should maybe also explain here the strange glass top to our bow! At the moment we don’t have a flag in the foreward staff, so to avoid spiders, wasps, rain and rust filling it up we have covered it with a shot glass!
Bye-bye for now Canal Des Ardennes – and hello again La Meuse.
goodshipcalliope 
One thought on “Le Canal des Ardennes – both gentle and demanding.”