Cruising Toward a Stop?

That is the million dollar question of the day. The rain has ceased for now, the sun is shining, and we're still not sure when the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne will reopen between the towns of Joinville at lock 44 and Vitry-le-Francois  at the beginning/end of the canal. We've not been able to find an official update on the canal status--and any prospective resumption of navigation--since the original announcement of the closure at the end of last week. So on Friday, July 16, we set off from Langres, figuring that the water levels had to drop sometime, and that we may as well be as close to Joinville as possible when the closure is lifted.

It was still grey and foggy on Friday (16th) and most
of Saturday (17th). Vnf staff has to operate the
lift bridges for us.

The bicyclist on the tow path was surprised to meet
a herd of cows being led to who knows where. 

They were an orderly group.

Our first two stops were Rolampont and Foulain, two small villages with old churches, but not much else going on. As with some previous areas, we were having trouble with internet and cell phone reception. As we briefly explored each town, we became aware of how out-of-date our Waterways guidebook was with respect to services offered in various towns. For example, Foulain has a Halte Nautique that had been rated relatively highly, and the town was said to have a restaurant, a bakery, and a grocer. The reality was that the park with the boat quay had not been mowed in a very long time and we had a great deal of difficulty locating the mooring bollards (but at least the neighbors were quiet--we were adjacent to the town cemetery!) and there wasn't much happening for shops and services in the town center.

No more boulangerie (bakery), an apparent
victim of ongoing changes in France.

We couldn't find a grocery store, not even a small
superette, but we could buy eggs from a vending
machine 24/7

The restaurant choices in town were a British
tea house (opened in hopes of getting British boaters
from the canal?) and this pizza vending machine. We've
seen a lot of these vending machines in France.

On Sunday, July 18, we stopped at the port adjacent to the relatively large hilltop town of Chaumont. The town was built in the 10th century on a rocky spur overlooking the Marne and Suize valleys. The "rocky spur overlooking" aspect of things deterred us from using our bicycles to go exploring the old center of town, but we're not sure the walk up the hill was much easier. 

The city is the current administrative capital of the department of the Haute-Marne. The center of town has maintained a lot of the medieval atmosphere from the time when its chateau was built.

Overlooking old Chaumont to the Suize valley. The
only remaining part of the original fortress, a relic
of the Counts of Champagne, is a square tower,
 the top of which can just barely be seen at the far right.
  

Pat and another perspective on the old city. The bell
towers of La Basilique St. Jean-Baptiste (13th-16th C)
 can be seen in the upper right

The "tourelles", the circular staircases with 
the lower steps visible on the building exterior,
are a characteristic of Chaumont architecture. Lon
just calls them a potential "head banger"

Created a bit closer to the present is Chaumont's most imposing monument, a huge stone railway viaduct. The viaduct was engineer Eugene Decomble's solution to the problem of how to get a train to the center of Chaumont, situated on a hill as it was. His idea was to take the railway line over the Suize valley on a viaduct 50 meters high. Amazingly for the times, the project was completed in 15 months. The structure is 654 meters long, has a slope of 6% and has 50 arches spread over its 3 levels. It suffered bomb damage during WWII, but was restored and is in amazing shape. Whether due to COVID or some ongoing repair work, the lowest level is currently not open to pedestrians.

Chaumont's railway viaduct

A slightly different perspective, but still not able
to see the end of the viaduct behind the trees

Maybe the walkway will be reopened
in the near future

Last, but not least, we were made aware of an American war memorial in the cemetery of the St. Aignan church (14th/15th C), located on the side of the canal opposite the port. From 1917 to 1919 Chaumont was the headquarters of the WWI American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) led by General John J. Pershing. From 1917 to 1921, an American cemetery existed in the St. Aignan churchyard and contained the remains of nearly 600 American soldiers. In 1921 the bodies were removed for return to the United States or to one of the permanent American cemeteries in Europe.

St Aignan church

The American memorial in the churchyard. The
inscription reads, in French: "1917-1921. This simple stone
will recall to future generations that here has been a cemetery
containing the bodies of more than six hundred American
soldiers who fought at our sides for right and liberty."

Our mooring at the port in Chaumont. The boat in
front of ours is that of Tom and Lyn Lewis, and we
had an entertaining "catch-up" with them last evening.

We moved on today, and are currently at a lovely, park-like Halte Nautique in the village of Vieville. Below is our cruise plan altitude profile, with our current position in Vieville denoted by the intersection of the purple lines.

We're coming down! Lots of locks on French canals

The portion of the canal that is closed is now only 30 km ahead of us. The last town with a decent mooring option on this side of the navigation stoppage is Donjeux, a mere 21 km down-canal. We can cruise to Donjeux in one or two days, and then we may be stopped. We're hoping any stop will not last too long, but we are currently at the mercy of Mother Nature and the vnf. C'est la vie!