Rolampunt to Chaumont

It was a long day not helped by having to wait half an hour for someone to lift the lifting bridge followed by a another delay at a malfunctioning lock, but on the plus side saw kingfishers, jersey cows and shire horses. The delays meant we actually passed through the final lock after 6pm when the locks officially close to pleasure craft, but there was nowhere to stop so we had to get to the Chaumont Halte. That was where we had told the vnf rep we were going to dpend the night when he saw us at lunchtime and asked. Other weird thing of note was that we were extensively photographed going through the last two locks by the same guy, not sure what for but we saw him again in Chaumont town.
One of the reasons for choosing this Halte was the viaduct 600m long with 50 arches of 52m or so said the info board, it was definitely impressive sadly the public is no longer allowed to walk along the lower level as they are doing maintenance and cleaning. Chaumont also has a few nice older buildings, some seriously grotty new ones as well. Lots of the older buildings featured spiral staircases that protruded partially over the front door almost like a turrel. The other reason was the proximity of a supermarket for fresh milk and bread for us both, most of the villages are more hamlets and no longer have bakeries or shops.Read more