Chauny not a meltdown

Chauny to Berry au Bac

69 km

13 locks

1 tunnels

0 lift/swing bridges

17 hours

After the long days we’d had, we decided to take a day off at Chauny and have a nice lie in. At 8.30am, we were awoken by a nuclear fallout siren (see video). It was so loud that I dashed to the side hatch to see if the streets were full of people running and screaming. They weren’t. It was surreal, like a scene from the sixties classic ‘The Prisoner’. “What’s happening” I screamed above the ear piercing decibels to a fisherman standing at the back of the boat. Shrugging his shoulders and balancing his fag on his bottom lip he said “It’s the factory”.

Later on that day we met an English lady, and she explained that there had been a fire at the paint factory behind where we were moored. Later that evening when we were walking back to the boat we saw the factory. Now I’ve seen some factories in my time and I’ve got to say this was not just a factory it was a chemical plant, the following morning we were gone.

Lovely cake shop in Chauny

Having zero will power, resistance was futile

This made us laugh - monument of the month!

Example of public art in Chauny

A local cat-napping

While we were in Chauny, missing home comforts, we found ourselves in a Chinese restaurant. Apart from the smoked diced ham in the fried rice and the toxic desert that looked nothing like the picture, the meal was superb.

As neither of us are wine connoisseurs, we washed it down with a bottle of ‘China Nights’ red wine on the recommendation of our waitress, asking her what part of China it came from had her hysterical.

We finished our meal and asked for the bill, it came with hot towels and a small cup of sake. “Pink for the lady and blue for the man” the waitress said, I had to laugh at Tracy’s face as there was a pornographic image in the bottom of each cup which you could only see with clear liquid inside. I raised a complaint about mine as the waitress had given me a lovely lady holding her manhood the size of a rolling pin.

My X-rated sake cup that nearly had my eye out, good job it wasn't 3D

 The next morning as we went to escape another factory meltdown, we popped across to the port de pleasance to top up with water. “€3” the haven master snapped “we only want a top up” we explained, “€3” he snapped again.

We didn’t bother and noticed at the first lock we came to, and every lock after, that a drinking water tap was available for free. That put a smile on our faces.    

€3 my arse

We were now on the Canal de L’Oise à L’Aisne, a beautiful rural canal. There were locks galore all simple to operate with the remote control.  Each lock gave details of the next available mooring place in kilometers and approximate hours. 

Close up and with binoculars we were still struggling to read to board

Reaching Guny, a very small village, we decided to moor up for the night.  After tea we walked into the village for a drink at the only bar, thinking it would be a lively night with it being a Friday.  Things didn’t bode well as we were nearly run over by a car sporting a ‘I love country music’ sticker and confederate flags flying from the mirrors.  Oh dear, are we about to be requested to oink like porkers here? 

We were the only customers in the bar for the first half an hour until joined by three local men. They were extremely jovial and we all tried to engage in conversation, without the benefit of being able to understand each other, the wine helped and we had a really good night with them even with one of the chaps peeling a heap of spuds at the bar.

A lively Friday night in Guny

Hope it's chips, it's chips

It was a shame we couldn’t converse with them because we wanted to find out the significance of St George to the village. There were lots of St George place names and even a stone carving of St George and the dragon.

Our moorings at Guny

Pinon was our next stop where we bumped into a couple of English boaters who told us everything they thought we should know about boating in France without stopping for breath.

Our moorings at Pinon

Pinon moorings from a different view point

While we were moored at Pinon, we had a lovely long walk and came across a nature trail, an outdoor ping pong table (shame they didn’t have a couple of bats and a ball on a chain), a barbecue and an unusual rain shelter, amongst other things.

Pinon even provided facilities for disabled fishermen

Our final stop on the Canal de L’Oise à L’Aisne was at Bourg et Comin.  We had pulled into a mooring spot a few kilometers down the canal but were put off by the €7 charge and so were elated when we discovered this mooring was free with electricity and water included, we even managed to buy six eggs for €1 from the next door bed and breakfast.

De Braye tunnel on the Canal de L'Oise a L'Aisne

Oddjob took it all in his stride

Our mooring at Bourg et Comin

Yurts at the B&B where we bought our eggs

Some people have privet, here they have vines

The next day we turned left on to the Canal lateral à L’Aisne and slowly followed a commercial peniche (we didn’t realise there were boats that could go slower than us) all the way to the only lock at the end of this canal at Berry au Bac.  It was now pouring with rain and so we decided to spend the night on the lock mooring and set off for Reims in the morning.

The canal had more of an industrial flavour

Berry au Bac our mooring for the night on the lock side

Moorings in Guny

Cost: Free

Facilities: None.

Location: Ten minute walk to the village centre where there is one boulangarie (selling the nicest croissants bar none) and one pub.

Moorings in Pinon

Cost: Free

Facilities: None.

Location: 10m away from a large Carrefour supermarket which also sold fuel and gas.  Town centre was 10 minute walk away with launderette and tabac.

Moorings in Bourg et Comin

Cost: Free

Facilities: Water and electricity both free.

Location: Village 15 minute walk away with a boulangarie.

Moorings in Berry au Bac

Cost: Free

Facilities: None.

Location: Lock moorings in an industrial setting, the pouring rain put us off investigating any further.