We stayed put at Mouzon on Thursday as Karen was working. We did a tour around the town on our way down the river, before having to turn around, which I thought I'd covered on an earlier blog entry. Re-reading the entry, I noticed that I hadn’t mentioned that Mouzon was home to the Sommer family who were famous for a variety of reasons. François started manufacturing felt in the town; Raymond was a successful early racing driver nicknamed the ‘boar of Ardennes’, and Roger was an aviation pioneer. Roger’s company manufactured biplanes in the town and there is still a private airfield in use on the site.
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| François Sommer's 19th century felt factory now in a sorry state |
The mooring at Mouzon wasn’t really to our liking as it was in a town, so Buddy and I took a good long walk up the river during the morning to see if there was anywhere out in the country to moor. As is often the case, when searching for mooring spots, the best-looking places are out of reach on the other side of the river so it’s impossible to tell if the water is deep enough to get the boat in. The bank on the side we were walking along was lined with overhanging trees which would make it impossible to get the boat close to the side. There were the odd clear stretches but for some bizarre reason they were far too shallow even for a narrowboat. We gave up after a few miles and retraced our steps. As it turned out, the spot we were moored in was in full sun all day so it had its plus points.
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| Thursday evening at Mouzon |
We left Mouzon early on Friday morning with the aim of reaching Stenay by the early afternoon. The morning mist cleared quickly, and we cruised on the river all day.
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| Sun coming up on the river Meuse |
As it was a lovely warm day, there were plenty of butterflies on the wing along the banks and also attracted to the flowers on the boat. They were mainly the hibernators (red admirals, peacocks, small tortoiseshells and commas) but also a few unidentified whites and a small copper.
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| The trees are now in their autumnal colours |
I’ve explained before that we rarely use the lock ladders over here. We’re rather glad we don’t have to as many of them on the Meuse locks don’t have grab rails along the lines of those used when climbing out of swimming pools or, indeed, most locks. I’m sure it would be a strange and rather scary feeling getting to the top with nothing to grab hold of.
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| No grab rails at the top of this Meuse lock ladder |
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| Far safer with grab rails |
We had lunch on the go and I dropped Karen and Buddy off a few kilometres before reaching Stenay so they could walk the last bit and stretch their legs. We arrived in Stenay at about three o’clock and stayed around the boat for the rest of the afternoon and evening.
On Friday we cruised 16 miles up three locks.
It was raining when we got up on Saturday mooring and we opted to
have a cooked breakfast before deciding whether or not to move on from our
overnight stop at Stenay.
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| Rain at Stenay on Saturday morning |
Even though it looked like rain all day we still decided to have a cruise and make our way to Dun-sur-Meuse which would be a new place for us whereas we’d already spent a few nights at Stenay on the way down. We were happy going in the rain as the forecast for Sunday was good, meaning we’d have the chance to explore the area in the dry. The town mooring was on an 80-metre pontoon at €12 a night but that did include water and electricity. We were in luck and didn't have to pay as the captainerie had shut up shop earlier in the day and wasn’t opening again until the start of the new season on 1st April. The water and electricity had been left on so we hooked up which would be ideal as Karen has to work for a few days during the week. Ironically, within ten minutes of mooring it stopped raining and held off for most of the afternoon too.
On Saturday we cruised eight miles up three locks.
Sunday was dry and after a slow morning taking it easy we set off for a walk up the hill overlooking Dun-sur-Meuse which looked like there was nothing on it other than a church.
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| Church on the hill from the street leading from the mooring |
We hadn’t done any research before we set off so just
expected to find that the church was the only building at the top. It was a good steep climb up an old cart
track, and we were taken by surprise when we neared the top and saw the remains
of ramparts. Going through a gateway in
the walls we were further surprised to find a small village inside.
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| Ramparts, tower and a reconstructed siege engine |
According to an information board, the hill was first fortified just
over 1,000 years ago and much of the current remnants date from the time of a
major rebuild in the 15th century.
The village inside is relatively modern as it was almost destroyed in 1918
when the occupying German troops were removed.
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| Another replica siege engine |
There was a path below the ramparts, so after looking around the village we did a circuit of the hill before dropping back down via a different cart track. The views from the top were extensive and we had a great view of the Meuse below. It was a shame that it wasn’t a bright sunny day, but you’ll get the general idea.
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| We’re moored on the far edge of Dun-sur-Meuse to the right |
As Monday was November 1st it wasn’t surprising when the electricity went off during the morning as the port was now officially closed until next April. It meant we were back to normal boat life without being spoilt by being able to use the immersion heater and the electric kettle for hot water. To be honest, having the stove lit is a far cosier feeling than using an electric fan heater anyway. For some reason the water was still on so at least we’d be able to fill up before we left.
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| Monday morning moored at Dun-sur-Meuse |
One of the less pleasant monthly chores is cleaning the shower outlet but at least it’s a simple task so I got onto it during the morning. A screw holds the trap cover to the trap itself and I stupidly mislaid the screw and couldn’t find it when I went to put it back together. I’d been doing the cleaning in the kitchen sink and all I could assume was that it had gone down the plughole and straight outside into the river as there is no u-bend on the sink outlet. I went into the engine bay to find my neatly sorted and compartmentalised box of screws for a replacement and found that it contained nothing but different types of nails. I’d taken the screws back to the UK on our recent trip to do a couple of jobs and had obviously picked up the wrong box by mistake when we returned to France!
I found a screw elsewhere, but I was reminded of one of the many stupid things I did in the days before the advent of electronic wizardry when car engines could be worked on my amateurs like me. Back in the ‘70s I had to replace the head gasket on my Mk I Ford Escort. I’d put some petrol in the rocker box cover so I could clean the head bolts and a few other oily bits and pieces. After sloshing them around I upended the cover to empty the liquid down a storm drain, realising too late that the bolts were going down too. A neighbour gave me a lift to a Ford garage to get replacements and you can probably imagine my embarrassment when the storeman asked me why I needed so many head bolts.
We stayed put on Tuesday as it rained pretty much all morning and the afternoon was quite grey and not particularly nice either. It was even worse on Wednesday as it rained the best part of the afternoon as well as the morning. The forecast for Thursday was good so I rang VNF on Wednesday morning to let them know we would be leaving Dun-sur-Meuse at 11am. The call was necessary as we will be starting on the section where the locks have to be operated manually by an éclusier.
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