Orconte to Bayard-sur-Marne

In Orconte, we had our first meal. The other boats were all tied up when we arrived, we were the last arrivals. We moored just behind the lock, keeping a distance from the other boats. From a distance, it was clear that all the electric sockets were already taken, in case we needed to use the washing machine, the generator would have to run. So we didn't want to disturb anyone and stayed at a distance.

After the meal, we explored the company. Our Belgian boat was moored between the larger boats, then a Dutch boat had tied up, a Frenchman had already closed the doors. The Dutchman was left and he had a lot to tell us about what to expect on the next stretch.

We heard a lot, most stories deal with little or no water, weeds and clogged filters, lock gates that don't open, missing bollards for mooring, turbulence and waltzes in the lock chamber.

I can only advise everyone to experience it themselves, we were surrounded by nice helpful yellow angels, if a gate was stuck, help was there after 10 minutes, of course we also had turbulence, probably because Gustav is a bit bigger and more patient, it didn't bother us much.

From lock 65 Canal-Champagne-Bourgogne upwards, the design of the locks changes. From here on, the locks are flooded through side channels and not, as before, through gates with sluices. This means that the boat is much calmer at the back of the lock, but the one standing at the front has a ride on the volcano. We could afford the luxury of almost every lock being driven alone.

We passed Saint-Dizier, a city with about 25,000 inhabitants. In front of the city, there is a military airport in the very wide Marne valley. It had announced itself already km beforehand, as the Mirage planes were flying their exercises very intensively on that day. I haven't heard such noise in our regions for years.

We had already excluded the port, in hindsight I have to say, if you want to visit the city, you can moor there well.

The river and the canal are very close together, the canal runs parallel to the winding Marne as if drawn with a ruler. Agriculture as far as the eye can see, a landscape that has accompanied us for days.

Along the canal runs a cycle path, which is frequented by all kinds of users, young moped riders, cyclists, hikers. The mooring places are rather sparsely distributed there, but you can almost always moor at a sheet pile wall, and two decent pegs do the rest in the insane :)) current.

In Bayard-sur-Marne we found a spot on Google where we could moor, it was 500 m away from the Intermarché, a tobacco shop was on the way. So we could do some shopping and finally the grill should be back in action.