Chateau Thierry to La Ferté-sous-Jouarre

40 kms, 4 locks

Yesterday evening, just before sunset, a mother duck settled down for the night with her brood of 6 ducklings right next to the boat.

A quick jaunt to the boulangerie (no pastries) and off we went.

It was a glorious morning, once again.  How could it be mid-winter last week and mid-summer this week? 

We passed some large properties with the houses hidden in tress and grounds stretching down to the river.  This one had a boat at a dock.

Simpler houses with vineyards in the background.

The gatehouse of ....

a grand house.

We are moving out of the vineyard area so I had to take a last photo

We were undecided where to stop.  Tomorrow, Easter Sunday, the locks are closed so we wanted to find an attractive place to spend 2 nights, preferably with water, we don’t need electricity.  Just 12 kms past Chateau Thierry there is a pontoon near the village of Nogent l’Artaud where we stopped to take a look.  The pontoon was good, no services (there used to be but these have been vandalised), and the village was not right up against the river so we pressed on to Nanteuil which is noted in the cruising guide as having a pontoon with services.  Last year we tried to stop there but the pontoon was damaged with most if the wooden platform missing.  We hoped, a year on, that it would have been repaired, but unfortunately not. 

In anticipation of stopping there, and it being a small village, we made a pit stop at Charly which has a huge supermarket close to the river and a long quay where we could tie up while I took a stroll to do some shopping.

30 minutes later we were on our way again and after the brief sojourn at Nantieul we continued on to La Ferté-sous-Jouarre.  

Two little tykes, one rather bashful and the other full of confidence.

As we leave the vineyards behind us the banks of the river become heavily wooded

My goodness, a commercial barge waiting to unload, probably after the Easter weekend.

The pontoons at La Ferté are behind an island.  Approaching from upstream you have to double back into the creek.

We spent a couple of days here last year and really like the mooring and the town.