WELL! The answer to that was a big fat nowhere!!

What with medical problems for both of us - Mike was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes during a routine over sixties screening and I found out that I had Meniere's disease (and, very fortunately for me, have had no symptoms since) plus various other reasons to visit the UK for longer than normal, we have spent less time on the boat than ever before and, for the first time in its thirty nine years, Temujin has not moved from its winter mooring - it's still attached to the pontoon in Conde-sur-Marne. 

Never ones to waste time doing nothing, we have been doing some refitting of the interior. Whoever it was that said "You can paint the outside of a boat as much as you like, but it will still rust away from the inside", they were spot on. It started when we noticed flakes of rust on the end of the bed several years ago and we said "We must see what's causing that, probably under the gunwales needs some work". That was the understatement of the year. 

Rust on the cabin wall back of the shower cubicle.

When the cladding came off the bedroom walls and we saw rust flakes throughout the glassfibre we knew we were facing a long job. We've stripped the bedroom and shower area back to bare steel, removed the rust (which wasn't as bad as it looked) repainted it, re-insulated and re-cladded the walls, done the plumbing and wiring and now we're in process of refitting all the fitted furniture. With any luck we'll have it all back together before Christmas.

Same wall, now almost back to "as new"

And lots of new plumbing!

Plans for next year are to meet up with Wandering Snail in Belgium (as we did in 2011!) and head to the far north of the Netherlands to access the safest route for a narrowboat into Germany. Then we'll have the long slog across the Mitteland canal, to winter 2013/14 on the Polish border in East Germany, and maybe we'll have a little time for exploring on the way (we've done the trip twice before but it will be the first time for the Snails) keeping our fingers crossed that we actually get to Poland in 2014!  So watch this space for a link to the next blog!
And here is the link to the next blog:-
http://nbtemujin2013.blogspot.fr/

Time to start a new blog - where have we been this Winter so far.....

Temujin is tucked up nice and warm at the junction of two canals in Champagne-Ardennes. Here, at Conde-sur-Marne, we still see occasional passing commercial peniches, busy earning a living transporting all sorts of cargo to and from the area - or just passing through!

I thought I'd show you some pictures of the local area. Here are a few photos of the Champagne area taken last Autumn:-

A flowery viewpoint from Champillon

The restored windmill at Verzenay.
This is an exclusive hotel for clients of Mumm champagne.

The Mumm vineyard at Verzenay.
La Montange de Reims.

View from Verzenay

Marne valley champagne vineyards from La Montagne

The lighthouse among the vines at Verzenay

The derelict canal de la Haute Seine

As we approached Troyes the canal disappeared, swallowed up by agriculture, only the lock houses remained.

Lock house in a field

Another lock house in a field

Still signs of a canal bridge

Derelict mill not far from Troyes

2011 The derelict canal de la Haute Seine

The canal in navigable as far as Marcilly-sur-Seine where there is a pontoon mooring where the river Seine is joined by the river Aube.

Pontoon mooring at Marcilly-sur-Seine

Junction of the rivers Seine and Aube

Paddle racks

2011 - The derelict canal de la Haute Seine

Disused canal de la Haute Seine 

Disused lock on the canal de la Haute Seine 

Disused lock on the canal de la Haute Seine

The amazing Church of Our Lady of the Thorn

Close to Chalons-en-Champagne (which used to be sur-Marne until the media men decided to change the town's image!) lies a very beautiful church with a chequered history; Notre Dame de l'Epine:-

Notre Dame de l'Epine
Our Lady of the Thorn

This magnificent church dates from the 15thc and has the most wonderful collection of gargoyles.

And the reason for the left hand tower being shorter than the right is because in 1798 it was dismantled so that Napoleon could have a Chappe telegraph 

built in its place!

see the link    http://telegraphe-chappe.com/chappe/strasb/lepine/lepine.html  for pictures and the full history in French

The communication system fell into disuse in 1852 and in 1868 Napoleon III paid to have the tower rebuilt. 

Discoveries in the Argonne Forest

A reconstruction of a chapel

A reconstruction of an artillery shelter

On an afternoon voyage of discovery by car we found the following in the Argonne Forest, scene of WWI battles:-

More reconstructions of shelters

Photo of WW1 German trenches in the Argonne forest

The war of the trenches WW1