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Monday Paris/Condé sur Marne/Château-Thierry BLD
We meet as arranged in Paris. We transfer by coach to the Libellule moored in Condé sur Marne, a smooth journey eastwards along the A4 motorway that takes about two hours. The scenery changes gradually as we leave the bustle of Paris behind and cross the fertile rolling hills of the Champagne region. There will be a break midway at
a service area and we arrive at the Libellule towards the end of the afternoon, moored at Château-Thierry, our mooring for the evening and birthplace of Jean de la Fontaine, author of the famous fables. The crew will offer a welcome glass of champagne as the bags are carried to the cabins, after which there will be time to settle
in or stroll into town before dinner.
Tuesday, Château-Thierry/Cumières BLD
We cast off early and cruise upstream on the Marne; we pass a number of stone-built villages as the river describes wide meanders on the valley floor. As the morning advances the river valley gradually narrows and becomes more steep-sided, its slopes covered in vineyards and dotted with a number of remarkable properties as well as
picturesque hamlets, owing their existence to the affluence brought to the area over the last three centuries by their produce. Just after lunch we moor at Cumières, a charming riverside village surrounded by Premier Cru vineyards and overlooked by the former Benedictine monastery of Hautvillers where, at the end of the seventeenth
century, the celebrated brother cellarman Dom Pérignon first blended grapes to make champagne as we know it. We drive about forty minutes to make an afternoon visit of the cathedral at Reims, regarded as one as the greatest Gothic edifices in the world. Remarkable for its unity of style, it is one of the largest cathedrals
in Christendom and its history is inextricably linked with that of the monarchy. Since the conversion to Christianity of Clovis in 496 A.D., the coronations of no fewer than twenty-five kings of France have taken place here. There will then be a visit, with tasting, of the cellars of one of the great champagne houses (such as Veuve
Clicquot, Pommery, Mumm or Taittinger) before we return to the Libellule at Cumières in good time to relax before dinner.
Wednesday, Cumières/Condé sur Marne BLD
We cast off during breakfast and cruise upstream into the town of Epernay, centre of the champagne wine trade. We moor close to the town centre, in the shadow of the evocative silhouette of the sixty metre high tower built by the de Castellane family above their cellars. After breakfast a few minutes walk or a very short ride in the
coach bring us to the Avenue de Champagne, where the offices of several of the great wine houses are housed in ornate mansions. We visit the famous cellars of Moët and Chandon after which there will be a tasting of the produce of this, the first of all the champagne houses, founded in 1743. Afterwards there will be time free to explore
the town of Epernay before returning to the Libellule at her mooring for lunch. We then cast off and turn to cruise back downstream to the junction of the Canal latéral à la Marne with the river and pass through the first of the narrow, canal locks and cruise eastwards along the Canal Latéral à àla Marne, passing several traditional
stone-built villages. The towpath, which was once used by horses, mules and even people hauling heavily-laden barges, still exists along this part of the canal and several locks make it possible to disembark and stroll alongside or take a bicycle into one of the nearby villages. In the mid-afternoon we pass the village of Dizy of
and then the village of Ay, famous for its vineyards since the Gallo-Roman period, where some of the most prestigious champagne houses own land today. Towards the end of the afternoon we moor at Condé sur Marne, a peaceful rural community at the junction of the Canal de l’Aisne à la Marne with the Canal Latéral à la Marne.
Thursday Cumières/ Château-Thierry BLD
We leave the boat after an early breakfast, and make a detour to the south on the return journey by motor coach to Paris, to Vaux le Vicomte to visit the magnificent château built here in the seventeenth century by Fouquet, Louis XIV's minister of finance. The tremendous wealth acquired by the owner through his office allowed him
to employ the most famous architect, decorator and landscape gardener of the day, namely Louis le Vau, Charles le Brun and André le Notre. Some eighteen thousand workman also contributed to the project which, completed in five years, was to incur the jealousy and suspicion of the King and prove the undoing of his minister.
Afterwards the rest of journey to Paris will take about an hour, arrival around 1pm (depending on traffic conditions).
Note: Itinerary operates in reverse on alternate weeks.
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