Joining the locals in Joinville

Just a quick post this week, mostly pictorial, because I wanted to share images of the morning we spent in Joinville last Saturday.

As I've mentioned before, Joinville is the nearest town to the Crumbly Cottage Mk 2, which is a real bonus for us as we love it there. It's such a delightful place with its narrow, winding streets clinging to the hillside below what remains of the castle. However, the prettiest part of the town is the Quai des Peceaux, a narrow quay lined with charming limestone houses and shops. It runs along the Marne through the centre of Joinville and looks across the river to another row of gorgeous typically French houses whose ancient garden walls dip their footings into the river.

I've noticed before that the Quai des Peceaux is often the location for town events and last Saturday there was a bouquiniste, which is a market for second-hand books. There was also art, photography and music involved and the brass band playing at the end of the Quai was remarkably good. In many cases, the books on display were not just second-hand, but antique too, and we found it fascinating to browse through them.

Koos met a photographer selling books of his own work and was surprised to find they had several mutual Facebook friends, reminding us that the Internet makes the world smaller by the day. 

Anyway, enough of my rambling. The photos below give a better idea of our meanderings along the river.

I forget quite where this was, but it looks like
an old laverie or wash-house. Don't you love
the higgledy-piggledy roof tiles?

Approaching the Quai des Peceaux with the bouqueniste
all set up

A closer view

At the end of the Quai des Peceaux is this fine old bridge.
I loved the tall, narrow house on the end.

Here's a closer view of that too!

A little beyond the bridge, it's clear to see how low
the river is now. I loved the old stone walls that line it.

Looking back to the barrage in the river that helps protect
the town from flooding. Not much danger of that now.

And lastly, this is the bridge over the Marne in our village
Again, you can see how low the river water is due to the
lack of rain

That said, we have had a bit of rain in the last two days; not a huge amount but it has raised the river level slightly and cooled the temperatures temporarily. As for the canal, it seems that the VNF (the French waterways authorities) are deliberately draining it, possibly to do repairs. The water level has dropped far more in the last week than could be considered reasonable. Where last week, it was just a few centimetres below the normal level, now it is at least twenty-five centimetres lower and I can see the bottom of the channel. 

My village friend, Colette tells me it will be closed for two months. How she knows, I haven't yet ascertained, but Colette has her ear to the ground and seems to know everything. I went for a walk with her last week and despite only understanding 10% of what she said (she speaks faster than a TGV train), I learned more local news in 45 minutes than I'd picked up all week.

Other than this, our DIY adventures continue, so more on that next time. Have a lovely week allemaal.