Givrauval (one of the better tours)

SUNDAY 17 APRIL

Having been on the go for eight days, cruising over 100 km and going up 40 locks, we had a day off on Sunday to do some exploring on foot.  First, we had a look around Mussey, the place where we were moored, a fairly large village with just over 900 inhabitants.  As expected, it was deserted, we only saw one person out on the street and two people driving off in their car.  The mairie was a large building compared with the size of the village, even considering the girls and boys schools were part of the structure.

Opulent mairie with Ukrainian flag taking the central position

In 1889 a 13-year-old pupil at the school made the drawing below showing that the schools had separate playgrounds in those days:

We climbed to the top of the hill overlooking the village to see St-Nicholas church which was built in the 12^th and 13^th centuries in a very squat style.

On the way back down the hill we passed a memorial to villagers who died in the WWI Battle of the Marne.  The cross behind is one of the many crosses (both waymarking and religious) still found in France and dates from the early 1800s:

Back in the village we followed an inviting street called rue de la Fontaine but there was no sign of a spring or water fountain; however, we did come across a memorial to three men raised in the village.  In the second world war these men had been members of the Parachutistes Français Libres and had travelled to the UK to be trained by the SAS where they became members of Free France and were dropped behind enemy lines to work with the resistance.  The memorial was erected 20 years or so ago when the men were awarded the legion of honour.

The square had been aptly renamed too:

We then continued out walk up to the next village on a hill the other side of Mussey which meant crossing the canal, the railway line and the river Ornain.  We had hoped to find a circular walk but with those three obstacles and being in the countryside there was only one set of bridges so only one way out of Mussey to reach Bussy-la-Côte.  As we left Mussey we passed the old fire station:

It was only a couple of kilometres up to Bussy-la-Côte a village much smaller than Mussey with a population of fewer than 250.  We thought the Ornain would be a great place to swim in the summer and almost looked inviting when we crossed over it.

Crossing the Ornain

Bussy had great views over the valley, but its church was a disappointing structure as it had only been built in 1905.  The previous church had had to be demolished as it had become unsafe following lack of use and consequent dilapidation.  The current church is without a bell as they ran out of funds to finish the bell tower.

The church of Saint-André in Bussy-la-Côte

A war memorial stood near the church commemorating 12 villagers who have died fighting for France since WWI:

We repeated Saturday afternoon’s exhausting routine by sitting outside for the rest of the day.

MONDAY 18 APRIL

So much for hoping the frost we woke up to one morning last week was the last; it was really quite frosty on Sunday morning, but it soon burnt off when the sun came up.  We were going to Fains-les-Sources which wasn’t far, but we left soon after breakfast as, although we’d stayed there on the way down last year, we hadn’t looked around the town.  An éclusier drove past as we were leaving the final lock and other than exchanging the usual waves we thought no more of it.

The mooring at Fains-les-Sources is just below a lift bridge and as we approached, we saw the éclusier going into his control hut by the bridge and we guessed he was about to raise it for us.  I waved madly to indicate we were mooring up and didn’t need the bridge raised but we were too far away for him to notice me on the back deck.  By the time we arrived at the mooring the bridge was fully raised and the light on green.  Once he realised what we were doing he closed it up again and came down to see us.  I apologised but he was quite happy and asked when we wanted to go through, and we agreed on 10.00am on Tuesday.

Moored at Fains-les-Sources

The other boat was the same one that was there when we came down last November and judging by the state of the lines and decks hadn’t even been visited in that time.  Free water and electricity were available so we took advantage by doing the washing and also washing yet more Saharan sand of the boat.

After lunch we went for a wander around the town and found one of those town maps with a ‘Vous êtes ici’ arrow on it.  The first thing we look for on these is the legend to see if any lavoirs are marked and in this case there was.  Try as we might, we couldn’t find the equivalent symbol on the map.  We did eventually find it but it was on an inset map of the next village which was nearly five kilometres away and we didn’t really fancy walking that far.

The misleading symbol

There was only one square in the town, so we walked there first.  Even though it was a car park it was quite pretty with the church overlooking it on one side and the mairie on the other.

We then followed one of the streams upstream out of the town, presuming we may find one of the springs or sources of the town’s name.  It was quaint with houses on the banks, each with a small bridge over the stream reminding us of some of the Cotswold villages.  When we reached the edge of the town and no spring we turned around and followed it the other way.  As it exited the other side of the town it ran through some allotments where we found the vestiges of a lavoir.

Unmarked lavoir, well the washing stones

On the way back to the boat we rechecked the town map but the lavoir definitely wasn’t marked.  As is becoming the custom we sat outside reading and enjoying the rest of the afternoon sunshine.  The only difference being that we were in a town so we were often engaged in conversation by locals on their bank holiday afternoon stroll.

On Monday we cruised four km up three locks.

TUESDAY 19 APRIL

As agreed with the éclusier the previous day, he was getting the bridge and the lock above it ready for us dead on 10.00am.  We were going to Bar-le-Duc for the day and mooring in the centre but ended up mooring on the edge of town outside the VNF control centre.  On the way we stopped at an out-of-town canal-side brico that also had a fuel station.  I had to make three trips with the trolley and jerry cans and before setting off again we thought we’d pop into the brico to get some summer plants and a few bags of compost.  We made the usual mistake of turning up five minutes before the lunchtime closure, so we’ll have to leave that delight until another day – when will we learn?

With plenty of butterflies out and about it was good to see our first scarce swallowtail of the year at one of the locks.  It really made us feel that summer was on the way.   

Moored outside the VNF office

Beside the mooring was one of the towing locos which are usually just standing alongside locks or in ports with maybe an information board.  This one was set up as a more complete display showing how it was attached to the overhead electric cable and also how it was rigged up to the péniches it towed.

The downside of not mooring in the centre was that we had a three km walk to do the weekly shop.  Most of the walk was along the river Ornain which passes right through the middle of the town and we had to pass five bridges before reaching the supermarket. 

The Ornain from three of the bridges

When we visited in November we pulled in at the port and found it rather gloomy and we left within half an hour without even looking around.  We have to admit that we were totally wrong and thought it was a pleasant looking town so have altered our view from last year.  After a late lunch we walked to the tourist office and found a self-guided tour.  It looked to be one of the longest we have come across so decided to leave it until the following day and went for a drink in a square overlooking the river instead.

Here are some of the sights that we saw when we walked to the supermarket shop.  They’re being included as while studying the tour at the bar we realised they weren’t even on it!  The first two were at opposite ends of place Exelmans.  The taller building was originally a bank according to the inscription on the front, but we couldn’t find out what the other was.

According to a plaque in the square and assuming my French understanding was correct, place Exelmans was originally the place de l’Abattoir but was renamed in 1874.  This was when the statue of locally born field marshal Exelmans was erected. 

Remy-Joseph-Isadore Exelmans

We also noticed that the large and relatively modern (19^th century) St-Jean church wasn’t mentioned on the tour even though the trail ran straight past it.

Église St-Jean

On Tuesday we cruised for three km up three locks and through one lift bridge.

WEDNESDAY 20 APRIL

We set out for the tour of Bar-le-Duc at 8.45 am, early for us, but not as early as the eight o’clock start we had planned.  It turned out to be one of the best self-guided tours we have been on which was a welcome surprise as our flying visit in the rain of last November had rather tarnished our view of the place.  The only criticism, which is really just an observation, was that all the information boards, and there were approaching 40 of them, were in French with none of the usual English, German etc. translations.  It’s not that we expect to have English versions it just seemed odd for a town keen on attracting tourists. 

The old town, or the Renaissance Quarter as it is now known, was up on the hill overlooking the rest of the town and contained some magnificent buildings.  It was also ringed with four sets of fortifications, parts of them still in evidence.  To be honest, the buildings in what was called new town at the bottom of the hill and flanking both sides of the river all looked to be a couple of centuries old.  The recent stuff was discretely built out of town with the main retail outlets and office buildings.

What looked to be the most modern building of the tour turned out to have been built in 1880 and in its time was used as a hospital in WWI and a prison in WWII.  It now houses the Meuse préfecture (county hall of the Meuse département):

Here are some of the grand houses in the Renaissance Quarter:

The church in the picture above housed one of the items I was very keen to see.  This was a statue sculpted in the middle of the 16^th century by Ligier-Richier.  The statue was of René of Châlons who died in battle, but his wife wanted him to be remembered in his death and thus the statue shows him after a few years of putrefaction.  Unfortunately, it was only on display on Friday afternoons.

The first castle to be built at the top of the hill was erected in the 10^th century.  Today’s château was built in the same strategic position overlooking the Ornain valley but mostly dates from 700 years later.

The Bar-le-Duc château has housed many a duke of the Bar area

Walking back down to ‘new town’ through the fortifications

Another view of the walls with a 14^th century clock tower

There were many interesting things to see back down at river level but I'll only include a few of them.  A chapel on Notre-Dame bridge which is the only surviving building on the bridge that also used to be lined with houses:

We’ve come across inventors of the bicycle before, and Bar-le-Duc lays claim to the be the birthplace of two of them: Pierre and Ernest Michaux.  Looking into the history a little closer it seems it all depends on the definition of bicycle.  Earlier inventors were those that introduced what was known as the velocipede, before true bicycles were developed, i.e. velocipedes with pedals.

The Michaux monument

There were many other interesting sites, but I’ll just include one more, the Café des Oiseaux which was opened by a famous taxidermist of his time.  The café housed a large collection of stuffed animals and was apparently known as the most extraordinary café in Europe.

Café des Oiseaux

We had a long day’s cruising ahead of when we returned to the boat so set off straight away.  After going up the last lock into town we passed the port that was shared with campervans, and where we stopped for 30 minutes when we came through last year.  It didn’t look quite so bad in the sunshine but to be honest we both felt we wouldn’t want to stay there.  We did pull in to dispose of our rubbish and recycling and while there an éclusier came by in his van asking if we were stopping or carrying on.  I told him where we were heading for, and he went ahead to get the lift bridges set for us as we left town.

Double lift bridge in Bar-le-Duc

We only had an issue with one of the 19 locks we went up and that was when the bottom gates of the antepenultimate one wouldn’t close completely.  Karen went up and tried her jumping trick, but it didn’t work so called up VNF.  An éclusiere and éclusier turned up and saw us through and then remained with us for the final two locks in case there were further issues.

The day’s journey was very rural, passing just a few villages.  This one is Tronville-en-Barrois where we planned on stopping for lunch but couldn’t find the published mooring.

Tronville-en-Barrois

After seven hours cruising, we arrived at Givrauval and moored at a handy pontoon on the offside.  It was a lovely quiet spot and feeling quite exhausted we left any exploring of the village until the next day.

Pleasant mooring at Givrauval

On Wednesday we cruised 20 kilometres up 19 locks through three swing bridges.