Saturday 16th May
We travelled upstream 18km and 3 locks to Stenay today. Mostly on the river and fortunately the stream is much less than when we came downstream at the start of the week. The last lock was on double red and we had to wait over an hour for the lock keeper to arrive. There was nowhere to moor but the cut was quite sheltered so we turned off the engine and D. used a long pole to keep us off the bank. At Stenay we again moored at the high quay opposite the weir.

Sunday 17th May 
We are moored up in Dun-sur- Meuse (12km and 3 locks) by 11am.  After the next lock it is back to manually operated locks so we booked our departure for 9 o’clock with the VNF office in Verdun. Five more boats arrived during the afternoon also travelling upstream. When they ring the VNF they are all told to leave at nine! Well we think we are first in the queue and the little Aussie boat that arrived after us is second but certain nationalities don’t understand queuing and always expect to be first out in the morning. We warn the Aussies to be ready to nip in behind us in the morning or they will be travelling last.

A full pontoon at Dun-sur-Meuse

Monday 18th May
We and the Aussies were first at the lock this morning. The nice German couple, who had decided to delay their departure until 11am, gave us a cheery wave. The other three crews looked a bit put out; we are not usually so competitive. Tonight we are moored at Vacherauville on a pontoon that is part of a new garden and cycle path from Verdun.

The Aussie boat follows us through a guard lock

New country mooring just before Verdun

Tuesday 19th May
Strimmer man tidying up the new garden woke us at 6am.  We appreciate that they are taking care of the new garden but why 6am? We timed our arrival in Verdun very nicely, a large cruiser had just left leaving enough space for us on the otherwise full pontoon. There are 2 other Piper barges here, Siyabonga and Amarok.

Three piper barges in Verdun

Wednesday 20th May
We join Peter and Barbara from Siyabonga, hire a car for the day, and tour the battlefields around Verdun. The battle of Verdun took place in 1916 and resulted in the death of almost 1 million French and German soldiers with very little gain in territory by either side. There are excellent audio tours of Fort de Douaumont and Fort de Vaux. The Ossuaire de Douaumont contains the remains of 130,000 unidentified French and German soldiers.

Fort de Douaumont

Ossuaire de Douaumont

Tranchee des Baïonnettes.
137 french soldiers were buried alive with only the tip of their rifles showing

Fort de vaux

Former village of Fleury changed hands 16 times during the fighting

Friday 22nd May
Yesterday we stocked up with food, wine and water. In the evening Stuart from the little Aussie boat came for a drink, his wife and daughter had gone to Paris for a couple of days. They were round the world yachtsmen and the French waterways are a new experience for them. The lock at Verdun is by the VNF office and the keeper there opened the lock for us before nine but he was expecting a second boat. When no one had arrived by five past he let us through and we travelled on our own up to Lacroix-sur-Meuse where we stay for a few days.

Lacroix-sur-Meuse

Sunday 24th May
The weather has been very good over the weekend (back in Tshirt and shorts) we have used the opportunity to paint some rust spots on the deck and catch up with the washing. This morning there was a great shoal of large fish close to the boat. Some of them were a metre in length and there were more than a hundred fish circling around for a couple of hours. They disappeared when the first fisherman arrived. Tomorrow an engineer is coming to service the boiler and we will leave on Tuesday.

Over 100 large fish circle the boat!

Thursday 7^th May

We finally left Verdun this morning. The river was flowing fast with floodwater and we had to turn around while being swept downstream past moored boats. We were soon back on the canal where the pace is much slower. We travelled 25 km and moored an a side stream at Consenvoye. We were in time for lunch at l’Auberge Lorraine, our first three coarse €13 lunch this year, excellent. In the evening a small camper van parked near us, as well as two adults it was home to 4 dogs and a cat!

Consenvoye

Friday 8^th May

The next section of the Meuse still has manual locks, we had arranged with the lock keeper to leave at nine and he arrived promptly at 8.50am. We had to back out of the side stream, watched by 2 adults 4 dogs and a cat. We had an easy journey to Dun-sur-Meuse and are back on river moorings. The flow is still very high so we turned around to moor facing upstream without any of the messing about there had been at Verdun. This mooring is next to a popular campervan park and by the evening 16 have arrived.

Always something to keep you alert

Mass campervans

Mooring at Dun-sur-Meuse

Saturday 9^th May

Today we walked up to the 14^th century church in the fortified village perched on the hill above Dun sur Meuse. There is a figure of eight walk around the old ramparts with fine views of the Meuse valley.

Valley of the Meuse at Dun-sur-Meuse

Sunday 10^th May

A two hour cruise down stream to Stenay this morning. We moored upstream of the town opposite a weir as the main marina here is off the river and the entrance is a bit narrow for us. We walked around town in the afternoon and admired the 18^th century buildings. We always take money for ice cream on our walks and today, for the first time in France, we found ice cream for sale and a shady spot by the marina to sit and enjoy it.

More obstacles to keep you awake

Fortified church

Mooring at Stenay 

Ice cream by the marina

Monday11th May

We have stayed at Stenay and went in search of a railway station that is marked in our 2007 “Atlas Routier” with a tourist train symbol. We found the spot but the railway line looks as if it has been out of action since 2008. It was a hot afternoon and we took a walk through the water meadows. In the evening there was a sudden rise in the water level and it fell again after 10 minutes. Presumably the VNF were adjusting the weirs; the river is still flowing fast. 

Walk along the water meadows

Tuesday 12^th May

Between Commercy and Sedan the river Meuse flows in and out of the canal so sometimes we are on river and sometimes on canal. The river is still in flood so we were surprised at how low the water level was in the canal section after Stenay. We have stop at Alma, a very pleasant country mooring on an island next to a picnic area. There is a good quay and D use the opportunity to service the bicycles.

Mooring at Alma picnic area

Wednesday 13^th May

This morning we were woken up by a cuckoo; cannot remember the last time we heard a cuckoo in England. We have arrived at Mouzon, which is the furthest north we will go; L is keen to start heading south. The entrance to the town mooring is at an angle to the river, a large cruiser was moored there and we could not turn into it while heading down stream. We continued on downstream and through the next lock before the channel was wide enough for us to turn around. As we approached the moorings again the cruiser moved out leaving plenty of space for us. This is another popular stop for campervans.

Mouzon

Thursday 14^th May

Mouzon is a historic town with fortifications dating back to 12c and a 13c abbey. We had thought we would be able to go by bus to Sedan for the day but buses seem to have gone the same way as the trains so we stayed put and D set to cleaning the outside of the barge. Over winter green slime accumulates in all the nooks and crannies on deck. He received much encouragement from campervan owners and fisherman. We did not see any fish caught but on the opposite bank one fisherman and his teenage daughter did catch a chicken (a live one!) did they have it for tea we wondered. We went to do some shopping but found everything closed, we had forgotten Ascension Day is a public holiday in France. In the evening it rained heavily and the hatch in our cabin started to leak. The green slime D had cleaned off must have been keeping it watertight, unfortunately it could only be fixed from the outside, but “a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do”, even if it is raining.

Mouzon

Friday 15^th May

Just before eight o’clock this morning a man, dressed in combat gear and carrying a large painting walked along the opposite bank. He left the picture by a rubbish bin and D took a look at it through binoculars, it was a reclining nude (?ex wife). We decided to leave all the campervans and go back upstream to spend the afternoon at Alma. So after a quick trip to the supermarket we are on our way before 10.am. It is 8km to Alma with a lock before the mooring. The lock worked fine but then one gate did not fully open because a large pole was caught behind it. D was able to move the pole but not the gate. We fished the pole out of the canal so it could not cause any more problems. It was a solid piece of shaped timber and thinking it might come in useful one day we stowed it on deck. Then as L was dialling the VNF a lockkeeper drove up and reset the lock. We presumed it was just chance that the lockkeeper arrived but were very glad he did and were soon moored up.

D. clearing the lock gate

Clear but still not opening

Wood now onboard

So this is what the wood is used for

Wild life at Alma

Sitting in the wheelhouse having lunch we heard voices, quite loud and clear but there was none to be seen (spooky). We left the wheelhouse to look overboard and saw 2 men in a canoe paddling down stream quite close to us. After the canoeists went through the lock the lights changed to double red, which means the lock is out of action. After lunch we walked up the island to look at the weir and realised our pole is one of the pins used in barrages. It could not have got into the lock cut from this weir so it must have come down from Stenay. We then walked back to the lock and found the lower gates open. Possibly the canoe was not large enough to trigger the photocell that signals the gates to close. We wondered how man locks they had canoed through and if they where all stuck open.

Friday 17^th April

We are back on Tesserae. We drove from West Kirby to Hull on Wednesday and took the overnight ferry to Zeebrugge. We unloaded the car yesterday and de-winterised the boat this morning already to stay onboard tonight.

Monday 20^th April

Yesterday we went by car along the Meuse valley to Verdun. Most of the moorings we visited were empty and we spotted only one occupied boat. Today D. changed the oil and fuel filters. A half-day job that took all day because of an air leak in the fuel line after changing the filters! D. was a bit stiff and creaky after a day in the engine room so we will stay in Toul until

Thursday so he can have a rest day, after all he is an OAP now.

Wednesday 22^nd April

Spent yesterday and today stocking up on provisions, water and diesel. L. has started gardening and the germaniums have been planted. The plants seem to have survived the winter, even the strawberries. We are ready to leave our winter mooring tomorrow. The weather has been hot a sunny since we arrived and we hope it stays like this as we head along the Meuse.

New lights for the back deck

L. doing the garden

Saturday 25^th April

We left Toul on Thursday morning and travelled 15.5 km along the Marne au Rhin canal up to Pagny-sur-Meuse. It was a refresher course in barging as there was a lift bridge, 14 locks and a tunnel to navigate. All the locks were working and ready for us so it was a good start to cruising 2015.  Yesterday we moved on to Commercy and locks that had been problematic last summer worked perfectly. We moored close to an Aldi and D. could not resist rummaging in the discount bins. He came away with sunscreens for the deck; that will be the end of the good weather!

As predicted it was raining first thing this morning. It eased off before we left Commercy only to return shortly before we arrived at Saint Mihiel town mooring. No other boats here, last year we could not get on this mooring as it was full with boats double berthed.

Raising the flags

St Mihiel

Monday 27^th April

It has been raining continuously since last night and we did not feel inclined to move on. A small hotel barge came in last night and talking to the skipper before he left this morning we found out the next series of locks are manual and we need to phone the VNF by 3pm the day before to arrange a lock keeper. L very pleased to be reading a book instead of barging in the rain.

Tuesday 28^th April

A sunny day today but not as warm as a week ago. Our lock keeper was waiting for us at the first lock and we travelled 18.5km to Ambly sur Meuse. We passed a dredging team with 2 commercial barges and a floating crane. They had to manoeuvre to let us pass. In the evening the dredging boats passed our mooring so we will have to negotiate them again tomorrow.

Ambly sur Meuse

Dredging team

Wednesday 29^th April

Today we left early as the fog was clearing. Again a lock keeper was waiting for us at the first lock and we had an easy passage to Verdun, a brief hold up to get past the dredging team. The mooring at Verdun is on the river Meuse and the correct procedure on a river is to moor facing upstream (we are heading downstream). As it was a gentle stream D decided to moor without turning round. Well the stream was not so gentle and despite having help form some friends already moored here we missed the mooring and had to turn upstream any way. Our friends had left Toul 4 days before us but had stayed at Verdun to recover from an inspection by the Metz river police. The police seemed unhappy about a number of things including the size of their SSR number and fined them over 100 euros. We hope they do not return to inspect us. Another British barge arrived and we had a jolly evening on Tesserae.

Foggy morning at Ambly

New canal banks!

Tuesday 5^th May

We are still at Verdun! Friday we could not move because it was a national holiday so no locks working and it rained all day (more book reading). It cleared up on Saturday, we walked around the sights of Verdun and booked a lockkeeper for Tuesday as we needed to do some shopping on Monday. On Sunday the rain returned and on Monday there were flood warnings on the upper Meuse also a forecast of winds up to 75km/hr on Tuesday and Wednesday. We rearranged our departure for Thursday and just as well. The river flow through Verdun has tripled and we have had to put on some extra heavy lines to keep us secure in the high winds; not good weather for barging. At least the sun is shinning and D is happy fishing logs out of the water.

Mooring at Verdun

D. removing logs from the Meuse