Frogs Legs

Having left Reims we are now pushing hard to get to Chaumount where we meet our next group of friends.  I need to spend more time on deck, or at least looking out the windows.  The scenery changes continually and we find interesting sights along the way. 

It is a good thing that we have an automatic ice maker on board.  The temperature is now 95 degrees with terrible humidity.  The pilot house with 4 walls of glass (that don't open) doesn't have air conditioning yet.  I'll bet Wilco gets the air installed once we reach Chaumount!  Meanwhile, we are going thru a lot of ice and drinking gallons of water.  

We spent a night tied up along the canal with nothing around.  I watched the iridescent dragon flies hovering just above the water along the canal's edge.  Frogs were climbing up the slender reeds coming out of the water.  Let me tell you about those little frogs.  I have never heard frogs that sounded like these.  They are a cross between a cat, a bird, and maybe even a monkey.  They may be small but their voices are mighty!  The air was filled with their sounds.  Completing the chorus were the birds.  Believe me, we may not have the sounds of the city out here, but it is noisy!  Tom says French frogs sound like they do so the French won't eat them.

After a 12 hour day cruising in the intense weather, when dinner was done I persuaded Tom to take a walk with me.  It was beautiful.  The light was magical.  When we came around a bend we saw mist rising from a large field.

The storms here are like nothing we have in Southern California.  I sat in our pilot house admiring nature's show.  Lightning was streaking across the sky which was being lit up every second.  The air went from calm to trees being lashed by the wind.  First there were a few drops of water that sounded almost like hail, then came pounding rain that deluged everything.  The canal went from totally still to looking like we were in a storm.  Oh yes, we were in the eye of a storm.  This show went from in front of Rabelo, to directly overhead, and then drifted off taking its thunder and lightning along to soak another town.

We spent a long weekend in Saint Dizier while Wilco had some days off.  We went on a very long walk (in the heat and humidity) to a supermarket and restaurant in search of wifi.  We passed a cemetery dating to the 10th and 11th century that was being dug up.  It is amazing how well the bodies are preserved (the bones) with no caskets.

We see little bits of color lining the canals, contrasting with the brown, blue, green water and greenery on shore.

I rushed up on deck with camera in hand when I heard the roar of jet engines.  We sailed by a French air force base where the fighters were practicing touch and goes.  That means they would take off, circle around, come in for a landing and immediately take off again.

We have passed by many lifting bridges and came very close to some of them.

Dig:  10th and 11th Century