Narrower channels take more concentration, it can be shallower near the edges. The commercial drivers are very courteous and do what they can to move over and slow down.

The locks are beautifully adorned with flowers - and there's my little flower working the lines.

Need a spare anchor anyone?

Alongside the canal, these plump apples were just out of reach!

Renovators delight - anyone?

Weather watching - this only brought some rain, nothing too horrid.

House collecting again.

And here's the rain - we're in the lock with a commerical barge.

Leaving the lock behind the commercial barge - with two barges tied on starboard.

Another tunnel - name to be advised!

Still behind the commercial vessel today, view from our wheelhouse.

Our evening stop.

A bit more detail on our location tonight.

We are now north of Paris - the spaghetti of blue lines below the red circle is Paris.

We've done some miles!

After the lock we quickly caught up with the commercial boat. The Dutch vessel's captain allowed us to pass fairly quickly, with a hearty wave.

Plenty of room and good radio communication meant over-taking was not a problem.

Further along this empty vessel clearly shows that for quite some distance, when you are directly in front of the boat the skipper wouldn't be able to see you from the wheelhouse. Most vessels use radar.

Turning right.

Lock keepers cottage

Along the canal de l'Oise a l'Aisne another tunnel.

As we entered we turned on our navigation lights - the first part was lit, then the lights went out and we realised our nav lights hadn't come on! Rather frantic scrambling to switch the spotlight on occurred! The light you see here is from the camera's flash - it was completely black, just the pinprick white dot to steer by. Needless to say I took the boat out of gear until we lit the tunnel with our spot light.

With our spot light on.

The spotlight is mounted in the perfect place - this it the first time in 15 months we have used it!

Ahhh! The lights come back on. There is a vessel way up in front.

It was pretty black for a while!

Back to being fully lit!

Warp speed!

Sludge from the tunnel wall when we glided alongside within the black void!

We made it without a drama. When we tested our nav lights again they worked perfectly!

Tonight's mooring.

There was just enough room at the end. Another beautiful spot!

Whoop whoop, look at us!

A bit more information of where we are. We stopped at 1815 after 14 locks, camping at PK25.

Reims

I felt like tying up under this roof and hiding today!

Industrial, but still interesting to wave to workers and check out the commercial vessels.

Behind us grey skies and pea-soup water

Heading towards blue skies!

I don't envy the owner of this boat, their job of keeping up with varnish is going to be a tough one!

Courcy lock keepers cottage

We stopped at a reasonable time today. We are in Loivre - next to a factory, nicely tucked away out of the wind.

As soon as we tied up the heavens opened.

Secure and some shelter - a Scandinavian sailboat joined us for the night.

The village of Loivre didn't have any shops but a few photo opportunities - the government buildings.

Not the brightest of churches. I was eager to have a look inside, but the doors were locked. It wasn't long ago I found churches a sad place to be - somewhere to contemplate those gone. I always light a candle for a few people, especially those who were taken too soon - but now I feel more positive in churches, akin to the circle of life of which I'm part of - now I just feel lucky that I'm able to light candles for others.

Our mooring location (red circle) - now north of Reims

An early start, for the camera anyway. So quiet was the night that I totally forgot where we were - see my previous blog posts on that little memory lapse event!

The day started clear, allowing us to view the marvels of towns.

A skinny croc? No - just a fence!

The green line is our route, we are the red circle. We are about to turn onto Canal de L'Aisne a la Marne. This means we now go up for about 8 locks, before another tunnel. Then we'll be going back down in the locks again.

This neat little train used to pull the boats through the tunnel.

I love how the countryside opens up around us.

Here's our next tunnel.

They might be dark and long, requiring helmsman-concentration, but they cut out the need for locks!

This one is well lit - wait 'til you hear about the next one! Talk about plunging into darkness!

Our evening mooring.

Near Reims.

Today we did 52 kilometres and 13 locks (and 1 tunnel) - the wind is picking up - we think we'll have to stop for a while soon. With a strong wind it can make handling tricky. Of course, it is all doable, but being in the wind becomes wearing - besides it's time for another day off... perhaps.... Catch you tomorrow - let's see what happens then...

It's not just lift bridges and locks we have to deal with - this schmozzle of half submerged steel kept us steering a very straight line!

We keep pinching ideas for when we build our next house. - curved roofs, verandas.....

Shutters, verandas and large attics catch our eye!

One side of the canal - a modern bungalow.... meanwhile....

.... on the other side of the canal -it's more industrial.

The locks here have an interesting design fault. Note that I am standing in water. Our fenders become completely ineffective as the water in the lock is as high as the wall - interesting!

These vessels are moored, but they are still very imposing.

Great tie up spot - and great for a party no doubt!

our own park - where we tied for the evening - perfectly tranquil!

This is where we are.

What a trip! I love watching our progress!

There are plenty of lift bridges in this section. This one has been lifted for quite some time. The lock lights indicate that we should be ready to enter.

Crossing the bridge prior to the lock.

Here the water is clean and clear, you can see the bottom at about 2.5 - 3 metres (mid channel).

I miss my horses! These toughies look like they could pull us along easily! The strawberry roan on the right is the exact same colour as one of my ponies when I was a kid.

Black cat luck? Taking a quick drink from the lock.

This commercial barge has just come through a narrow passageway under a lift bridge. The traffic is patiently waiting.

Each town's Mairie Office is always adorned with bright, cheery flowers.

What a funky roof!

The sign clearly indicates that we should keep to the right-hand side in the channel when passing the blue mooring post (for commercial vessels). You can just see the back of the sign for vessels indicating that they should be on the left of the channel (when going the opposite way). It's only for a brief time, but when passing one of these mooring posts another vessel came around a blind corner on my side. He was following the signs instructions - so was I....

Chamouilley. A free jetty (with about 10 Euros to pay for electricity and water if you want it). A pretty and tranquil town and the entire jetty to ourselves! As it's Friday we gave ourselves an early mark and stopped at 16:00.

The clouds indicated that wind was coming!

Our legend (the red circle) is right over the mooring post - we are in the right place! We thought this was an ideal place to sample a beer in the small village.

Here's our green route. To the left of us is Paris, the windy, light blue channel.

Making great progress! So we celebrated with some Chavignon. What? You've not heard of Chavignon. It's a homemade blend of .... well you can guess, can't you?

The town's water supply - back-when....

We first thought this could be the communal laundry house, but you'd soon get a back-ache reaching down to the water. Perhaps it was the bathing house.

First painted monument we've seen.

Every town and village in France takes great pride in displaying flowers wherever they can.

We met Jean-Wiffnid Leroy when Noel spotted his rather fancy motorbike. We started to chat (well, 'chat' as well as we could). This gentlemen is a very clever artist. He does artwork on bikes and is a bike fabricator too.

He turns barrels into chairs! Aren't these neat?

This is just fantastic - his attic - I want one! He has a trap door in the floor so he can haul up bikes.

The attic is incredible and his home is beautiful (on the ground floor) - it's surprising what 'ordinary' houses contain!

His skill extends to other areas - the nose of a plane.....

... is a shark! Yikes!

We spent about an hour with Jean-Wiffnid, fascinated with his clever talent and his home. We thought we'd have a beer at a bar in town - the only bar shut at lunchtime.... a very different culture to what we are used to for Friday! But, we were tired and glad to get back home.

It wasn't long before we are at another tunnel - although this is much shorter than the last.

Even though you know you fit - at the last minute you always wonder....

In this tunnel I particularly liked the top of the wall. The sharp metal edge protrudes out at about the same height as the lines on the fenders - perfect height to slice through them!

You can see the top edge better here. When a moving vessel is near to a structure such as a wall, bank, or another vessel, there is a sucking motion, called barge effect (venturi effect). This is why you should slow down when passing other vessels. The same happens when moving in shallow waters, you are sucked down (called sucking the bottom!) - so we were keen to try not to get sucked into this wall.

Pretty lock-keepers cottage.

Even prettier view!

Can you see the Heron? They always fly off in front of our bow - even though, I find it hard to take a decent shot!

France provides wonderful (and often free) mooring quays.

This is the lovely Jill from Matilda Rose. Don't be fooled by her sweet smile - look carefully to the right of her left shoulder. There's a black triangle with two red lights. this means the lock has a problem - and Matilda Rose has just come through the lock!

Double trouble - Rouge Corsair and Matilda Rose (Narrow Boat) - Jill and Graham have spent many years on board traversing the UK canals and now France.

(l to r) Noel, the lock-keeper, Graham and Jill. We all enjoyed a strong cup of coffee and some biscuits - then out came the pear schnapps!

The lock-keepers wife joined us and we all sampled the schnapps - except Jill who rather sensibly declined. The lock-keeper dunked a sugar lump in the liquid for my try - as I chewed on half a lump my head became instantly light - Noel muttered something about feeling numb after he took a sip! I'm guessing the thick liquid was about 100% proof!

It was time to move on. Another lock-keeper had got the lock back to working order and we bid our farewells. I hope our bows will cross another time with Jill and Graham and the lovely, homely Matlida Rose.

Munching a bag of apples that Matlida Rose donated to Rouge Corsair (thank you!) - we enjoyed the fine views and the endless flowers that the French take pride in displaying.

The lock-keepers' gardens usually have interesting items on show - here, we think, is a sluice box for panning (for gold?).

And here's our fabulous tie up for the night. Free power and water too.

About 100 metres along the bank from our mooring was this small grave - no higher than my knees. Respectfully I asked the occupant if I could take a photo - they didn't protest. I hope their life was a happy one.

And here are the maps to show you where we are.

The huge stone railway Viaduct de Chaumont is impressive. An engineer named Eugene Decomble is responsible for the structure that is 50 metres high! Work began in 1855 and after the first company running into difficulties, a second company took over the work.

More than 2,000 employees, paid 3.50 francs (for the strongest) and 2.75 (for the weakest), worked all day and even at night under electric lighting (a revolutionary idea for those times!)

Conditions were harsh and the bishop of Langres complained when he learned that work continued on Sundays.

The job took 15 months and the bridge was inaugurated in the presence of the Prefecture and directors of the railway company on 18th April 1857.

The completed structure, 600 metres long, has a slope of 6%.

The stones used to build the 50 arches come from the place of the present Chaumont station and other local quarries.

And we're off..... My thought process when waking from a deep sleep and always travelling is something like this: "Where am I?" "Oh yes, on a boat" "Which boat?" Ah yes, the barge" "Which country?" (yes, really, I often ask myself that) - then I have to figure out which anchorage or port we are in. It's always a bit of a relief, these days, to wake up realising we are not in the middle of an ocean - as we so often have been.

The weather continues to put on a fabulous show for us. Those that are now comfortably enjoying the view - would you like a tea or coffee? - Perhaps something stronger?

Sorry, you may have to wait for refreshments. It's time to work. These set of locks are manual. A lock-keeper does most of the work, driving between each log as we go. However, we help too. Noel and I take it in turns to cycle between locks and help open and close the doors, while the other brings the boat along.

Noel's at the helm, but my legs are tired, it's his term to do the leg work. I just have to pry his hands off the wheel!

Rouge Corsair is great to steer carefully into locks - she's so responsive and well behaved - a bit like me really!

Noel closing the gate behind us. The lock-keep had already done the gate on the other side.

Noel opening the gates for RC and me! Good chap!

The view behind us, after we've gone down. A pretty waterfall to cool us off, or make us want to pee! ;-)

Pretty view - arranged just for you.

And here's our evening mooring. We're at Chaumont - Port de la Maladerie. With shops nearby and power and water (luxury!)

I'm very impressed with our progress. And delighted to have such wonderful guests joining us on this voyage! Today we traversed 41 kilometres (well done team!) and 22 locks. We are at PK110.

We're a bit tired, and it was time to unwind. Noel couldn't be bothered to clamber up and down the companionway stairs, so he joined me in the cockpit - loaded!

We'd stopped overnight at Dommarien. You can just see Rouge Corsair under the trees on the right - with another boat.

The locks open at 9am, so at 8 we walked into the village to see if we could locate some fresh bread.

While we found not one shop, we had a delightful stroll in a stunning village - the cleanest village we've ever seen. Isn't this the cutest shed?

I dabble in a little photography from time to time - what better place to do this than in the middle of France!

I have this urge to keep moving and always see what's around the next corner... Noel's the same. And then when I spot a garden gate such as this, it takes everything I've got to stop myself from peering inside!

Rouge Corsair tied up behind a French cruiser. We let the couple go first - there was a short delay with the lock doors not opening, but the VNF are quick and soon we were all on our way.

Fourteen years ago when we traversed these canals we were permitted to use tyres as fenders. Now, tyres can only be used when docking alongside a sloping bank. Alongside the canal they've found a great use for old tyres - brilliant!

It's a hard life! I've had to furl my WOBs flag (FB group Women on Barges) at it was taking a beating in the wind!

Today is tunnel day - all 5 kilometres of it. We have to keep 800 metres behind the vessel in front.

While puttering through the Tunnel De Balesmes we are asked to slow down (via Radio) - we have to keep to 4 km/h. With a huge 80 cm propellor this isn't easy. We ease Rouge Corsair in and out of gear to keep to the slow speed.

The helmsman's view- the windows instantly fogged up

Nearly there!

Made it!

We are now locking down, which is far easier than going up. However, sometimes the lock walls are crumbling and lines can become caught in cracks. We keep knives nearby - just in case. Now we press Avalant on our little box instead of Montant. Imagine how embarrassed I was when I radioed the lock-keeper to say the lock wasn't working. He tutted and laughed, "press Avalant not Montant!" - oops! Those more observant readers will notice the red light in the picture. We can only enter on a green light- so just what are we doing? Well, the light was green right up until we were next to it (and taking the picture).

A tenascious garden clinging to the lock wall.

Where we stopped for the night.

Making great progress.

We're the red circle, safe on a tranquil mooring.

We had just passed a commercial vessel which stirred up all the water. It was a tight squeeze with 2 metres in the centre and less than half at the edges!

Our view for the evening - no bad eh?