Eurotunnel to France and Chalons-en-Champagne – Day 1

After nearly four months in England, it’s time to head to France for a 10-day driving holiday – staying at interesting little hotels, speaking the language as best we can, and checking out a couple of rivers, canals and locks in advance of Summer 2017. Testing the waters, so to speak.

In an era where travel has become an everyday sort of thing for so many people, there’s been a rise in special-focus travel: healthy holidays, like a wellness workshop in Warsaw; giving-back-to-your-fellow-man getaways, such as house-building in Cambodia; or culinary escapes, like cooking classes in Katmandu. Our current visit to France is even more niche – we’re seeking out waterways!

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Piper Boat Rally, Henley-on-Thames 2016

Back again at Henley for the annual Piper rally – our last expedition on Karanja before closing her up for the winter and heading south (like migratory geese) – we moored up opposite picturesque Temple Island, at the end of a row of 11 Piper Dutch barges.

The idea of this annual UK event – another rally is held in France, at Saint Jean de Losne – is for prospective clients to come along, see examples of the finished product, traipse around them and talk to their happy owners about their experiences.

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Kinky Boots and More – a great day out in London

Morag Frew, our neighbour and the boss lady of the Boaters Bar at Thames & Kennet Marina, not only raved about the West End show, Kinky Boots, but had been to see it three times! So I went online to book a couple of Wednesday matinee tickets; it would be our last trip into London before heading to France next week.

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Family Matters 3

Last Sunday, Roy’s sister Lyndsay Clemmow and her husband, John, brought their mother, Leila Titchmarsh (93), to have lunch with us on Karanja. Marianne and Phil came down from Welford-on-Avon, too.

Though we’d been keeping Leila up-to-date with our barging exploits and shown her all the photos, it’s never the same as actually seeing it for yourself, is it? In the end, though we’d been unsure about how difficult boarding the boat might be, it was no problem.

The weather could have been warmer, but it was good enough to allow for a short cruise up and down the Thames.

Not only did Leila stand up next to Roy at the wheel for a better view, but after lunch she also managed to negotiate the fairly steep steps from the wheelhouse into the saloon. Thank you, everyone, for a lovely and most satisfactory day – especially the appointed (press-ganged?) drivers, John and Phil, who forwent champagne in favour of coffee. Nespresso, yes, but still.

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Henley-on-Thames, Reprise

All shagged out after a long squawk – our one-day VHF radio course at Bisham Abbey Sailing and Navigation – it was time for Roy and me to resume our new lives of leisure with a celebratory cruise. Where should we go? Henley-on-Thames again, we decided.

A light wind was behind us, as was the summer’s final Bank holiday weekend, so conditions on the river were perfect. Few other boats were out there, but several groups of summer-happy kids were swimming, camping, barbecuing and generally having a jolly time. Sonning and Shiplake locks comfortably negotiated, we found a convenient mooring very close to town, just 300 metres from the bridge.

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By Dinghy to “The Bull Inn” at Sonning, and more

I’d been wanting to try The Bull Inn at Sonning ever since I read Jerome K. Jerome’s description in his comic masterpiece Three Men in A BoatNot to mention the dog (1889): “If you stay at Sonning,” he advised, “put up at ‘The Bull’.”

Built in the 16th century, it is still owned by the neighbouring St Andrew’s Church (which rents it to Fullers).

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The Bull Inn at Sonning
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Mapledurham Food Festival

Summer in the UK is festival time! In the immediate run-up to the big Reading Festival (from 24 August), tiny Mapledurham village has just hosted an enjoyable food festival in the grounds of the 16th-century Mapledurham House – with everything from artisanal cheeses and locally produced rapeseed oil to Provencale rosé, South African biltong and the fruit scones I’m scoffing right this minute with butter and tea.

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Running and Cycling from Wallingford to Shillingford

 Like the bear that went over the mountain, what often keeps me going is the urge to know what’s coming up ahead. So wherever we stop to moor up, I can’t help wondering what the next lock or village looks like. (Whereas Roy, apparently, has no such interest.)

Fortunately, the place that’s ahead is often close enough for me to be able to gently jog there along the towpath. Here’s what I saw on the 10km route from Wallingford to Shillingford and back, via Benson lock.

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