Courcy to Sillery

21kms, 4 locks, 4.5 hours

Yet another day of cloudless skies and unrelenting heat.  I went for a short work early, before it got too hot, and by 9.00 we were on our way.  The first job was to get rid of all the yellow flowers.

I intended taking a photo of the reflections but Ian was still hard at work

On the outskirt of Reims, there is an Aldi supermarket.  Not much over an hour after leaving Courcy  I hopped off to get some bread and paté for lunch while Ian drifted, watched a barge come past (the only one we saw)  

and the local canoe club which was really busy this being a Saturday morning.

The canal through Reims passes the rather impressive Centre  de Congrés

And runs through a lovely park

The canal south of Reims is much wider and more industrial than the northern section, so not quite as pretty. But we passed an old lock-keepers cottage, still inhabited by a VNF family (the VNF company car was next to the house), well looked after and the family were dining al fresco.

We arrived at the Porte de Plaisance in Sillery at 13.30, the temperature was already 27 degrees and still climbing.  It peaked at 29C, a trifle cooler than yesterday.

Sillery marina

There is an Intermarche supermarket just 5 mins walk from the marina and after a few days without doing any grocery shopping it is time to stock up again on the essentials, but the first thing on the shopping list was a new phone.  We are using our phone as a wi-fi hotspot, tethering to our laptop and tablet, and it has started over-heating.  Every day since the weather  has got hot we have had to put in the freezer to cool down when its alarm starts bleating!  We were really worried that it would die completely and have been on the lookout for a new phone.  What a relief to find one.

There is also a laundry at the supermarket so guess what I’ll be doing tomorrow.