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Calm Canals with D2 Detours
(opens in a new tab)Howard & Whitney from Calgary, Canada, full-time travelling the globe and the waterways of Europe.
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A 70km day of biking the French canals - Next to the canals and navigable rivers of Europe are "towpaths", which, as the name implies, were used up to the late 1800s to tow barges using horses until motors were invented and became widely used. Those paths have been put to good use throughout much of Europe as walking and bike paths. From our current home of Chalons-en-Champagne we easily biked the 70km round trip to Épernay, the home of Champagne, and walked along the famous Champagne Avenue, the home of many Champagne houses and mansions.
We're currently moored about a block from Châlons Cathedral, and while not religious, I can appreciate the architecture of a building that's over 400 years old. A half hour ago I was walking past and heard organ music, so stopped in. It was someone tuning or practicing, but it's still impressive.
We head into the Champagne region of France, on the way to our six-month winter mooring in Chalons, transiting a 2.3km tunnel on the way.
En Route to our Winter Moorage - D2 Detours
d2detours.com
We head into the Champagne region of France, on our way for our six-month mooring in Chalons, transiting a 2.3km tunnel on the way.
Mooring at the park at Bourg-et-Comin at the confluence of the Lateral Canal to the Aisne and the Oise-Aisne Canal was one of our favorite stops of our cruising this year due to being so peaceful. It was a great place for a couple of nights' stay, with the bonus of having free power and water.Aboard our 1927 Dutch barge, Change of Pace - 18.6m length x 3.55m beamCalm Canals: calmcanals.com
A drone view of passing through Écluse n°3 near Fontenoy, France, on the Aisne River in our 1927 Dutch barge, Change of Pace.
Looking at some photos from the last few weeks, I was struck by the juxtaposition. One photo was taken while cruising through the canal in the middle of Reims, France, and the next was taken a few hours later in a lock on the same canal, in a farmer's field in the middle of nowhere. Even though we're usually only travelling about 9km/hr, it's this sort of changing scenery that keeps things interesting.
A few shots of us on the canals leading to our winter moorage in Châlons-En-Champagne
We posted about the Twisty Sticks, but these remote controls are almost as good. Get within 300m of a lock, press the button indicating you're going up or down, then the preparation of the lock begins, and gives you a signal to enter when it's ready. Some locks took a few tries, but it usually worked right away.
We came across a new method of activating the locks on the canals today... "Twisty Sticks". Line up your approach at the stick hanging over the canal, gives it a quarter twist, then the green light at the lock turns on as it prepares the lock for us to enter.
I think we've found our favourite mooring spot so far! At the confluence of two canals is this nice pontoon, just right for Bisou Bisou and us. Last night I went outside and could barely see anything until the moon came up, and it was amazingly quiet.
Some pictures from the last couple of weeks along the rivers northeast of Paris, as we move onto smaller waterways.
Sunrise on the Aisne River, and the view into town. The smaller boat of the two moored together is our home, "Change of Pace".
Sunrise on the Aisne River in France at Vic-sur-Aisne
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Sunrise on the Aisne River in France at Vic-sur-Aisne, and the view...
A year after admiring a video by a relative of Whitney's cruising their Dutch barge through Paris, we have the pleasure of doing the same trek now that it's become our new home.
Cruising Through Paris - D2 Detours
d2detours.com
A year after admiring a video by a relative of Whitney's cruising their Dutch barge through Paris, we have the pleasure of doing the same trek when it becomes our new home.
The video of our cruise through Paris.
Cruising through Paris on our century-old Dutch Barge
youtu.be
This was a red-letter day, and one I'd been looking forward to for ...
Many of the towns we've cruised through in France this last month were fortified in the old days, with high walls, and still retain the city gates at either end of the main streets. Here are some we came across in Villeneuve-sur-Yonne and Moret-Loing-et-Orvanne.
For our first foray, we left Auxerre to head a little over 10 km (6 miles) downstream on the Yonne to Gurgy.
d2detours.com
For our first foray, we left Auxerre to head a little over 10 km (6 miles) downstream on the Yonne to Gurgy.
I'll be sharing photos of interesting things we come across during our travels on this page, but if you're interested in our canal barge life, you can subscribe to our other page that will have more details.
We're moving down the river from Auxere in our barge tomorrow, but had a nice lightning storm here a few days ago.
We go through the transition to our canal boat life and the history of our 100-year-old Dutch barge.
Training, Transition and Terrible Temps - D2 Detours
d2detours.com
We go through the transition to our canal boat life and the history of our 100-year-old Dutch barge.