Thursday 16th August - Chalon-en-Champagne to La Chausse-sur-Marne

Our plan was to go directly to Vitry-le-Francois but we had arranged for an engineer to come there to look at our boiler and as he wasn’t able to come until Saturday we decided to stop halfway.
We left Chalon at 10.30 and made very good progress with all three of our locks set our way and no ‘traffic’ en route.  By the time we arrived in La Chausse the thermometer had reached 30c and no wind so we set up the sun blinds as soon as possible to give ourselves some shade.
 We had stopped here last year with Martin and Clare and remembered that we dined well in Clos du Mutigny a short walk from the canal, so it was decided that we repeat the operation since it was too hot for Crew to be in the galley!
After some lunch and a siesta we reconvened for aperos on our back deck at 6.30 as usual, then walked to the restaurant for dinner.  The food was pretty good and the service impeccable.  The last time we visited all the street lights went out as we left the restaurant so Crew made sure she had a torch in her bag.  This time however the lights stayed on and the torch wasn’t needed until we reached the mooring!
As the temperature had dropped considerably (thank goodness!) we sat below for our digestifs.  I fear we enjoyed said drinks a little too long and didn’t get to bed until after 1 a.m.

17.5 km. 3 locks. 2 1/2 hours