A foray into France

 I'm late posting again. I should have written this blog last week, but life and then interruptions in the form of Dudley and Eunice (storms of note) got in the way. The last few days have been spent anxiously tying things down and watching the stormy conditions from the Vereeniging's windows. Luckily, the worst we suffered personally was when we saw my handmade steering wheel cover, which I thought would be almost impossible to remove, lift off and take flight across the water. 

Others were not so fortunate, sadly. The cost in damage and life has been high and the news has been sobering. We have lost one of our own community to Eunice in a tragic accident, and our hearts go out to his family.

But before Eunice came to disrupt and destroy, Koos and I took a trip down to Chauny in the Aisne department of northern France last Sunday. The reason for our trip was to chase a dream, which proved to be just that, but we had a lovely day anyway, which justified the journey.

One of my hobbies is looking at houses for sale in places I love. I have apps for France, Portugal and South African property sites and whenever I feel glum about Dutch weather, I start browsing. It keeps my dreams of travel and moving alive and I can spend happy hours looking at houses, finding their locations and following Google street-view to see what the area is like. 

The week before last, I was immersed in the French app when I came across what looked at first to be an unprepossessing bungalow. What caught my attention, though, was the waterway in front of it. Where was that? I asked myself. So clicking on the image, I checked the details of the ad. It claimed the bungalow was near Chauny on the Canal de St Quentin. 

Immediately interested, I checked the rest of the details, which mentioned the bungalow had two bedrooms and a large garden. I showed Koos, who was instantly captivated by the idea, and he set about finding its location based on the photos shown of the bungalow's environs. He’s quite a wizard on Google Earth, so with the clues provided, it wasn’t too much of a challenge.

I should mention that we both love Chauny, we adore the canal and we particularly like the scenery in the area. This little house had all the hallmarks of 'the dream', added to which it was incredibly cheap. Well, Koos's sleuthing found it and we became even more excited as it was very close to the junction with the Canal de l'Oise à l'Aisne where there is not only a lock, but an aqueduct too. We’d stopped below the lock in 2017 and had fallen in love with the tranquillity of the area.

Long story shorter, we decided not to wait for the estate agents to respond (they never did), and last Sunday we made a day out of travelling down to see what the bungalow was really like. In reality, it was a disappointment, confirmed when a delightful old lady living in one of the other houses said it was no longer for sale; the owner had withdrawn it from the market.

Not to be denied our day out, though, we took our picnic lunch to the lock and then went for a walk along the aqueduct. The photos below tell a better story than I can of the magical scene. The Oise river over which the aqueduct is built was in flood and water inundated many of the fields along its route. To me, it looked as if this often happens as the houses were built on rises and there seemed to be plenty of room for the water to spread out.

The Canal de St Quentin (looking north)
with an flooded field to the right
The entrance to the lock is behind me

The Canal de St Quentin
looking south

The lock into the Canal de l'Oise à l'Aisne

Looking across the aqueduct to the river below

The aqueduct over the Oise river

Mistletoe in the trees against a dramatic sky

I liked the aqueduct, as you might have realised

Looking back to the lock from the top

Canals always call me. I just want to go!

As you might have noticed from my snaps, the weather deteriorated, but not enough to spoil our day. Still, it was getting cold and blustery, so we retreated to the car and took a drive to another bridge across the Oise/Aisne canal, by which time the weather improved again, which made for another nice canal photo or two.

What was interesting here was the sign showing this to be the area in which Robert Louis Stevenson made a journey along the Oise river with a friend as part of a longer trip starting in Antwerp. The river here is popular with canoeists who are encouraged to follow in Stephenson's...erm...paddle strokes? (well, they can't be footsteps, can they?). 

What I liked most is that the Oise also runs parallel to the Canal de la Sambre à l'Oise, and goes through some of our absolute favourite places. It's special to know that RLS loved it here too and must have seen or known of all these charming villages, like Tupigny and Vadencourt. He wrote a book about this particular journey, which I have and have read parts of but still need to finish. Koos also paddled along the Oise in this area with his sons many years ago although he didn't know of Stevenson's journey at the time.

Our last destination of the day had us circling back to a bridge we could see from the aqueduct, but before we reached it, we found another piece of interesting history. The photos below tell the story of why this particular section of bridge is mounted on blocks next to the Oise river.

In brief, and as I understand it, the real bridge over the Oise at Manicamp was destroyed at the end of May, 1940. As the information says, it was brand new but was never reconstructed during the war. Instead, this section of a 'floating road bridge' (designed by English engineer, Allan Beckett and used as temporary ports in Normandy) was installed so that locals could at least cross the river and use their normal route. However, as it was only put in place in 1947, the poor souls had to wait nearly seven years to regain access to the villages and towns on the other side.

Now replaced by a real bridge, the 'passerelle' as it was called was put to rest here as a historical war monument in 2016. I may have got some of the details wrong, and I've just tried to glean the main points from the boards without going into too much detail. But all you French experts out there, feel free to correct me! I'm just translating what I think it means.

So, a fascinating and highly enjoyable day was had by the two of us. We haven't been on such an excursion for ages and despite the distance (a round trip of 500kms which Koos nobly drove single-handed), it did us both a power of good. We might not have found our dream cottage, but with trips like these, we're quite happy to keep on seeking.

Enjoy your week, allemaal. Take care. It's stormy out again tonight, so keep out of harm's way!