CLOISTERS AND NAVIGATION - NOW

When you have a forced stoppage you do things you probably wouldn't do in normal circumstances. Being unable to navigate we became Châlon-en-Champagne ambassadors doing all the sites. We visited the Musée du Cloître de Notre Dame en Vaux, a cloister museum. Yes I know what you're thinking, have they lost the plot or they definitely have too much time on their hands. Well I agree, partially. Being limited to walking we did what was available and local. We heard about this museum and thought let's give it a few minutes then a coffee. What a surprise, it was fascinating. Basically a 13 century cloister of fantastic quality had been literally smashed apart in the 1700's next to Notre Dame en Vaux to build a new presbytery for the resident priest. They used the deliberately broken cloister columns, arches and other pieces as foundations. Jump to the 1970's the presbytery was unused and partially derelict. Upon demolition large sections and fragments of the cloisters were found. Careful demolition, excavation and conservation took place and a substantial part of the cloisters were found and jigsawed back together.

Christ washing the disciples' feet.

What is amazing is the quality of the carvings depicting scenes from the Bible. I also feel that the fact they had been buried, entombed in walls they have been in effect 'preserved' and kept protected from the ravages of pollution, wars and general handling by human. They are in better condition than they would have been. Biblical scenes are just like they were carved in the last few years.

A section of rebuilt cloister.

Cloisters aside Châlon-en-Champagne has been good. It's a very pretty mooring close to the city centre surrounded by Le Jard, a series of parks with good walks and features crisscrossed by waterways. What also made it fun was the number of bargees and other boat owners waiting for the Canal enter Champagne et Bourgogne to open after the winters renovations. It's the last real mooring before the split to go south to the Mediterranean or east to Strasbourg, as in our case.

Soraya about to set off from Le Jard in Châlon-en-Champagne.

My arm has recovered enough now to start some easy navigation, so Metz, Nancy and Strasbourg here we come.

MORE CHAMPAGNE AND FEMINIST WINE

Sometimes I feel if someone wants to progress their business, especially internationally, they need to take cognisance of the local language and attitudes.

Fagot Champagne? Not for the USA market.

Darling are you ready for a Prat?

The next bottle I really don't understand. The previous Champagnes were obviously family names that get lost in translation. The wine below seems to be marketing itself for girls. 'Le Concours Féminalise base sur le concept original d'un concours de vins exclusivement dégustés par les femmes.' Perhaps I don't understand the nuances but it does seem to be potentially halving the market or perhaps women and men have quite different palets for wine. Is a medal winning Samur from the Concours Mondial des Féminalise really different from a medal winning Samur from any of the many Concourse de Grande Vin de France? Or is someone trying to get women to drink more wine? 

A Gold Medal Saumur - Concours Mondial des Féminalise.

BEE KEEPING ON THE CANAL

There's a person after my own heart. Not only do they have a barge but they keep bees. Yes there were three hives all looking like they were productive. I don't think they go anywhere so the bees won't get confused and not find their way back to the hive. If they do move as long as they seal the hives up at night before they set off and follow the not more than 3 feet or no less than 3 miles (sorry 4.8km) rule they should be alright.

Retired commercial barge with 3 beehives in Chalon-en-Champagne.

Not connected to bees the well known song in English 'How much it that doggy in the window' just came on the radio in French! It does not improve, it's definitely worse.

MANHOLE ART!

Move over Urban Guerilla Knitting, Manhole Cover Illumination is the new now. In Chalon-en-Champagne (you can't get away from the local tipple here), all the rage is manhole cover 'Art'. There does seems to be a bias towards known cartoon characters, however, the more we explore a greater diversity may arise.

Snowy - Tintin.

Professor Calculus - Tintin.

A French boy with baguette - Unknown provenance.

It does seem to be supported by the Hotel de Ville. I assume as long as it does not get out of control.

IT ALL WENT HORRIBLY WRONG

Normal Friday night a beer in a local pub and a good find too, The Red Fish. Back to Soraya and a traditional Friday night pizza. I then thought I should fill up Soraya with water before the off tomorrow. Turned the water on at the bourne (water point) went to push the hose into the freshwater filler and managed to get 'both' feet under a very short rope. Over I fell hard onto the concrete quayside. Instantly I knew it was bad, I could not move. Margaret came rushing out and fortunately a young couple who were walking passed stopped to see if they could help. We all came to the same diagnosis. I had dislocated my shoulder and badly bruised a knee. Fortunately the guy walking passed was a pompier (fireman) and knew what to do. More importantly he knew who to telephone and within a few minutes the ambulance arrived and it was off to Centre Hospitalier Chalons-en-Champagne.

Getting into the ambulance.

All good fun blaring through the streets of Chalon at 10 at night. Blood tests, pain killers, drips, morphine, more morphine, reflex tests, X-rays. Then it was time for the real fun. I must add that I was in so much pain even full of morphine. Despite state of the art facilities, equipment and expertise the cure was very traditional. Sit sideways on a chair with arm over the back. While I breathed gas, more painkiller, one medic almost sat on my knee to hold me down. Two other medics pulled with great force my arm down towards the floor. There was a small crunch then a pop. Pain over and shoulder back in position. Taxi back to Soraya at 02.15. Good news all seems OK but I have to keep my arm in a sling 24/7 for a couple of weeks, so no navigation. Fortunately we have an excellent quality mooring next to the big and little Jard (parks), good walks, so it will be time to get to know Chalon-en-Champagne very well as we may be here for a few weeks??

We've both tested out the French Health service recently and both times they have been excellent. Let's hope we see a little less of the inside of hospitals.

NAVIGATION 2017

Another year and it's time to plan more adventures. This year, canal systems and rivers willing, we are proposing to go south onto La Marne, south east on the Canal latéral à la Marne to Châlons-en-Champagne then onto the Canal de la Marne au Rhin to Nancy up to Metz on La Moselle, back to Nancy then east to Strasbourg, south along the Canal du Rhône au Rhin then Le Rhin turning south west to Mulhouse, Belfort and Besançon on the Canal du Rhône-au-Rhin towards La Soâne and Dijon. Well that was quite a sentence and it sounds quite a trip, about 1000km. Time and events will tell. Next winter?

It's been great in Reims, lots of good times, friends and yes Champagne. One guest, the name shall remain secret, managed to pass the entire long weekend with the only liquid intake being Champagne. Not even a glass of water! Well done. We finished our stay with a university reunion. The highlight (of course) being a Champagne reception on Soraya.

Champagne, charcuterie and characters!

We are off now and on our first day of navigation we were informed that the Canal de la Marne au Rhin was closed due to an accident at the end of March that has written off a a set of lock gates!!! We have carried on and have been informed today that all is good the gates have been replaced. We nearly had a major diversion before we had hardly started.

L'ARCHITECTURE DE REIMS

Reims suffered from war damage more than most cities/towns. It is said that before the First World War Reims had 6700 houses after the war 60! Even if these figures are not totally correct it illustrates the magnitude of the destruction. Damage was again done in the Second World War but not to the same scale. There was great building activity after the 1st WW to restore the town. This was not to reproduce a facsimile of what had been there. Reims took to the Art Deco movement, current architecture style at the time, for inspiration.

Plaque on many of the reconstructed houses and other buildings.

Shops below with decorative elements higher up.

Some of the reconstruction was more elaborate. A fine example is the La Bibliothèque Carnegie de Reims, the Carnegie Library. This was built by a wealthy American philanthropist and given to the city of Reims. It encompasses the Art Deco style and carried out with amazing quality. The library is still in use today. Great surroundings.

The lantern in the foyer, about 3 metres tall.

Detail of the staircase balustrade.

The library card index. Now reduced to a PC.

CIRQUE DE MANÈGE - SCÈNE NATIONALE

We've been wanting to go to an event at the Centre National Des Arts du Cirque also called the Scène Nationale - Reims, all very confusing, for a while. We've either been away, the event was sold out, we missed it or we were busy. Anyway success at last. The performance, by about 15 people, was a combination of circus, contemporary dance, gymnastics, ballet, comedy and music. It was packed and great fun. It took place in an old theatre? in the round, pity about the hard bench seats.

The opening sequence a girl seemingly floating in a ring.

It was hard to say what the performance was trying to say, does it matter? What it achieved was one continuous movement of people who 'flowed' across the stage and up or down the various props and trapezes. The flow was beautiful like a liquid. You could not see any normal walking, running, jumping or jerky movements. We could not work out how they flowed as a group off the raised platform, about 1.2m tall and across the stage floor to the exits. All to the sound of a massive crescendo. A bit mad, well yes and why not.

Lots of flowing and rolling around the floor with trampoline sequences.

INTERFACING WITH THE FRENCH HEALTH SYSTEM

Skiing was not good for me this year! I fell badly on the first day, knocked myself out and ended up in hospital overnight for observation!

Margaret being taken down the mountain after her fall - still smiling!

I recovered well after a day apart from dizziness when I lay down and turned my head. Back in Reims I decided I needed further tests. So off to find a neurologist. The first was fully booked for two months, the second was available but I had to be referred by the polyclinique. So we went into what was the UK equivalent of A & E. 

A long drawn out process of tests, blood samples, balancing exercises and eventually a CT Scan which was what I wanted, for peace of mind. All was perfectly normal but we had to get to the bottom of this dizziness. So it was back to the neurologist that I'd tried to see five hours earlier but now I had a referral!! He heard my story and said 'Ah, you are suffering from vertigo, BPPV. I have a friend who will see you. The crystals in your ears have moved and need to be relocated.' Crystals?? In my ears?? What crystals?? He then proceeded to tell us he could speak some English as he had watched Little Britain and really liked it!

That night I was googling crystals in the ear, BPPV etc. and sure enough we all have crystals in our ears!! Next morning, un rendez-vous with the vertigo consultant. This was in a new clinic which only opened last year. It is the only one of its kind in France and is called C.E.R.V.E.M. centre d'évaluation et de rééducation des vertiges et troubles d'équilibration et de la marche (what a mouthful). Amazingly it was a couple of hundred metres from where we were moored. The neurologist was there as well even though it was across town from his surgery. He was still joking about Little Britain and trying to explain it to the consultant who didn't speak a word of English!  

The neurologist and consultant studying my eye movements which were relayed to a computer

After lots of head movements, shaking, vibrating and turning, the consultant performed the Epley Manoeuvre. I then had to be really careful for the next 4 or 5 days not to do sudden or extreme head movements and sleep on my back propped up on two pillows. Not very comfortable. 

Still it seemed to work.....dizziness gone and confirmation from the consultant that the crystals are back where they should be. 

I must say I was impressed by the system and had all that treatment for €44 with my European Health Insurance Card. What will happen with Brexit? I presume we'll all have to claim on our private insurance and surprise, surprise our premiums will go up!

HALLES DU BOULINGRIN

Saturday morning and it's back to the food market. Halles du Boulingrin in Reims is a fantastic 1920's Art Deco structure which after being open for many years suffered from the arrival of supermarkets. The building went into disuse, then dereliction, squatters and vandalism. The city authorities wanted to tear it down and build apartments. Fortunately there was a huge backlash and recently a multi-million Euro project saw the total renovation of this unique building. The space has been renovated to allow for vegetables in the morning and concerts in the evening or was it Vodka and Caviar in the morning and culture in the evening. Either way it's good.

Detail of the hyperbolic roof, apparently only 70mm thick.

Always lots to buy for a Saturday night feast. We were amused by a couple of chocolate croissants. Do you bite the head off first, or a leg. Probably the same as you do with jelly babies!

Chocolate Croissant anyone? Or should I correctly say 'Petit Bonhomme?.