Our second canal holiday of the year, this time we chose to explore part of the Saone river starting from St Jean de Losne. We had planned on visiting the Henrietta Barge in the Netherlands with a view to purchasing a share on our way down to St J de L, however after a very difficult boat handling course in Bisham earlier in August we had knocked that idea on the head and so instead took our time travelling down through France. The rationale for this holiday was that we had decided we needed to improve our boat handling skills and have another canal holiday before making a decision on Henrietta, so we booked the holiday and decided to go ahead with it. Complicated and emotional times!

Visiting Saint Quentin

Saint Quentin hails itself as a city showcasing Art Décor style architecture following rebuilding after WW1 when a lot of the historical buildings were destroyed. We thought it worth visiting as we had enjoyed our time in Reims a few years back. The two cities are very different and a lot of StQ is now down at heel, I think Covid lockdowns and the cost of living crisis have taken its toll. Saying that there were a number of beautiful buildings and we enjoyed wandering around on our short stay.

In particular

  • we had a lovely meal at Chez Jean on our first night, chatting to some people on the table next to us who ended up buying a glass of plum brandy to end the evening
  • we enjoyed looking round the Basicilla see some pictures opposite
  • we walked down to the river, visited the war memorial and felt humbled by the numbers of fallen in WW1 in particular. That war hollowed out so many of the towns and villages in France of their menfolk
  • the main street down to the river Rue d’Isle was an interesting showcase of many art Décor buildings, some in better repair than others but very ornate and enjoyable to look at
  • I probably should not have gone on a walking city tour as just before leaving Wales I got a pain in my heel, quickly developed into a plantar facia injury which impacted the rest of my summer holidays and even now in November is causing me problems. At the time I did not appreciate how debilitating it would become. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Folding Bike trial – Gouaix

We could not check into our B&B until 5.00 so decided to go for an explore along the Seine river and Canal in the afternoon. Parked up outside the town hall at lunchtime and had our picnic lunch before heading out on our new folding bikes which we had purchased in anticipation of buying into Henrietta. I had already used mine a couple of times, both at home and on our way down when we stayed at Bisham. However, Mike had only been on his once riding round in circles in the car park after we purchased it!

We headed out of town, experienced a few hills which we managed and then had a relaxing ride along the canal. Grateful for the shade as it was a hot day. Overall very successful. Our ride was about 30km but only 100m of elevation gain and an ice cream reward at the end

The B&B was run by a charming French man who had bought his parents house, spent a few years, and all his spare money, renovating it and was now looking at selling it to invest in a B&B yacht we think in Japan. He was really kind and allowed us to have a picnic dinner in the garden along with a bottle of wine he sold us to go with our meal. There was a cute cat which paid us lots of attention, partly I think because we allowed it to lick out the tuna mayonnaise container. A lovely relaxing stay but probably somewhere we wont revisit as it was quite out of the way.

He had a number of antique cameras and photographic memorabilia. One particular item we found interesting was a early example of a 3D slide projector. A wooden box which housed a glass slide library of photos, one for the left eye and a slightly different picture for the right eye which gave a 3 d image when you looked through the viewing window.  He said the apparatus is quite easy to find, however the glass slides are quite rare now because they are so fragile. Really special to experience someones home and family heirlooms in this intimate way

Chaumont ride and Overnight at Montigny le Roi

We planned on making the most of having our folding bikes with us, plus we were limited walking as I have hurt the heel of my foot, I think a Plantar Fasciitis injury. So we decided on a more adventurous ride from Choignes, below Chaumont, along the Entre Champagne et Bourgogne Canal before heading uphill to Crenay and back to the car. All in all we did about 32 km with 246m of elevation gain in a moving time of just under 2 hours. See here for a link to our ride LINK TO RIDE

The canal is shut to boat traffic as water levels are too low, apparently this is normal in the summer months and not just because we have had an exceptionally hot dry summer this year. We did see the entrance to this canal on our boat trip a few days later which was neat.

We parked up by the river in some shade and had our picnic lunch before setting out, again a hot day with thunderstorms forecast for later. I had spotted a possible coffee stop a couple of km into our journey at ‘Au Rendez vous des Amis’ in Chamarandes. Had a delicious coffee there together with a homemade Panacotta whilst Mike had homemade nougat ice cream. Felt we could enjoy this with the ride to come. The hotel has rooms, bike storage and we would definitely think of staying there.

Our ride along the canal was over all to quickly and then it was a tough sustained uphill of 100 m to Crenay before an enjoyable downhill whizz and cycle through a charming river valley. The bikes felt very stable and handled well even at fast speeds. I got up to 48km per hour which surprised me. Bit more climbing before we descended back down to the canal at the point where we had coffee earlier and then back to the car. Managed to miss any rain and headed off to a local bar for a beer before driving to our B&B at Montigny le Roi.

Would definitely stay here again, its close to the motorway, very friendly owners, an indoor swimming pool that we enjoyed and an area next to it where we could prepare our dinner and relax.