Pont-à-Mousson (ruinous ruins)

FRIDAY 9 SEPTEMBER

We set off for our next destination as soon as Karen returned from her morning run as rain was forecast from late morning for the rest of the day.  In the end there was just one very short shower and that was later in the afternoon but there was a stiff wind which hadn’t been forecast, making cruising fun.  Since we’ve resumed our travels after our UK break over the summer, we’ve not been aware of any commercial traffic during the night and there’s also been fewer boats during the day.  We’ve been recognising the names of all the passing commercials having seen them before on either the Sarre or Moselle rivers.  The only one we didn't recognise was Maranta that passed our mooring quietly on Thursday evening.  Our boat tracking app showed us it was on its way from Frouard, near Nancy, to Spyck on the German/Dutch border.

172 metre Maranta on Thursday evening

Unlike further downstream, the stretch of the Moselle we are currently cruising is running through a wide plain thus hillsides and vineyards are no longer with us. 

Passing through Corny-sur-Moselle

We saw very little traffic and once again we were the only boat using the one lock of the day but this time, rather than being ready, we had to wait for it to be emptied.  With the strong wind we had to hover diagonally across the river waiting for the lock as there was nowhere for us to tie up to while we waited.  Understandably, the high walls with bollards at the top, are built for commercials but usually a few bollards are set at intervals near the water level for use by waiting pleasure boats but not so at this lock. 

Nowhere to moor on the waiting area which is to the right

I’ve mentioned before that some locks have a boom by the bottom gates to prevent boats coming downstream from damaging the lock gates.  The ones we have seen so far can be raised to allow boats to pass through the gates when they are opened.  This lock had a boom, but we noticed it was solid and immovable, presumably because it was a deeper lock and boats with the highest air draught would still fit underneath when passing through the open gates.

Solid red boom just behind the bottom gates

Just after going through the lock was an entrance to a disused canal where we’d planned to moor for a couple of nights, so we set about reversing in.  After a couple of attempts I had to give up as the wind was too strong for me to keep the boat straight; not a problem that would be encountered on boats with bow thrusters or bow engines.  In the end I gave up and went back out to turn in the lock approach and drove forwards into the disused canal, hoping the wind wouldn’t be an issue when we want to leave in a couple of days as we will have to reverse out to the man channel.

Moored at the start of the old canal in Pagny-sur-Moselle

In the afternoon we went for a scout around the town which, these days, seemed to be based around a company called Mersen who manufacture anticorrosion devices for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.  There were ten trails advertised starting from the centre of the town although the one entitled, “Factories of yesteryear and today” didn’t seem that interesting especially as all the extant buildings belonged to this Mersen company, all the others having been demolished.

The town’s marketing material was most impressive and made the place sound very interesting and well worth a visit.  To be honest though, we were disappointed by the time we’d walked around most of the streets.  In the past the town had been a large wine producer but nothing remains of the industry today other than a few street names such as rue des Vignes and rue du Pressoir.  Plaques also indicated which houses were involved in wine production but didn’t explain in what capacity.

Railings in the centre of town had knitted and crocheted tapestry-like items attached along the lines of those made by locals for pillar boxes in the UK.  This one reminded us that we haven’t seen many butterflies over the last week or so:

Opposite the church stood what an information board explained was the oldest house in town although no date was given.  The only other piece of information was that when the town was last part of Germany the arches were filled in and it was used as a guard house.

Oldest house in Pagny-sur-Moselle complete with a dovecote in the roof

Sad looking mairie

Michelin sign from 1937

On Friday we cruised 10 km up one lock.

SATURDAY 10 SEPTEMBER

We stayed in Pagny-sur-Moselle again on Saturday taking in a couple of waterside walks.  In the morning we followed the Nancy-Metz cycleway/footpath back towards Metz.  From our mooring the path rang alongside the disused canal where we were moored.  It was a most pleasant walk, mainly through woodland and we were surprised that we only saw two cyclists and no other walkers.  In the afternoon we followed the path in the opposite direction; this time it ran alongside the lock cut until it re-joined the Moselle just north of Pont-à-Mousson.  Unlike the morning walk it was nearly all in the open with lovely views to the low hills at the far side of the flood plain.  As with the morning we only saw two people, again they were both cyclists.

Walking along the lock cut towards Pont-à-Mousson

Although the clouds rolled in and out all day, we had hardly any of the forecast rain and were lucky to avoid what little fell on both walks.    With hardly any of the forecasted rain actually falling since we’ve been back it’s meant that our cruising, sightseeing and walking hasn’t been impacted.  On the flip side the rain is desperately needed before any of the closed canals start reopening, otherwise we won’t be doing much travelling for the rest of the year.

SUNDAY 11 SEPTEMBER

Sunday dawned grey but rain wasn’t threatened, and it remained that way during our journey to Pont-à-Mousson where we planned on stopping for a couple of nights.

Approaching Pont-à-Mousson under grey skies

There were three places to moor in the town, the first of which was on a quay on the left bank but with rings 40 metres apart it wasn’t suitable for us even though it was empty.  The marina was off the main river in a large inlet, but we didn’t fancy that either, so we carried on to check out the third mooring.  This was on the entrance to another canalised section that was abandoned when the works of 1964 to enlarge the locks on the Moselle were carried out.  It looked lovely and quiet with no boats moored there so we pulled up.  It was just before a lock which we found was still in use but only by workboats needing access to the VNF yard just beyond it.  The sun came out as we moored up and it stayed that way for the rest of the day turning out a lot warmer than we were expecting.

Moored in the old lock cut at Pont-à-Mousson

Unusually for a tourist town on a Sunday the office de tourisme was closed so we set out exploring on our own without any trails to follow.  The town exists on both sides of the river and is joined by a single bridge, although there is now a modern road bridge carrying a bypass some way to the north of the town.  The town bridge was first built in the 12^th century and was replaced many times following floods and unrest, the current one being erected after it was destroyed during WWII.  We decided to look around the town on the left bank or west side of the river leaving the other side until Monday.

A serious fishing competition was in progress as we walked along the quayside.  It was so serious that the quay was closed to non-competitors, and we had to walk on the road running alongside and overlooking it.  It was the first time we’d seen a competition where the competitors were in pairs: it did look a more sociable way of fishing.  Looking across the river we could see the marina with a large campervan section and, on top of the hill behind, the remains of Pont-à-Mousson castle.

Marina entrance on the right

When we reached the bridge, we found a lavoir built against the market halls.  The lavoir was closed to the public and the windows bricked up which was a shame especially as it was only built in 1926.  The market halls had modern glass frontage which, to us, looked OK.

Market halls

Our walk took us past and through many narrow streets and very little modern housing as we made our way to the station at the edge of town.  As we crossed over the railway, we could see blast furnaces in the distance.  We wondered if it was another iron works museum like the one that we visited in Dillingen but found out later that it was one of three sites in France still in operation.  The works are owned by the massive French company Saint-Gobain and still has three blast furnaces in operation making manhole covers and cast pipes.

The iron works of Saint-Gobain

We’d been noticing a lot of signs on the streets and buildings around the town had the letters PAM as a prefix or suffix and it took a while before we suddenly realised PAM was short for Pont-à-Mousson.  This was confirmed later when researching the iron works when we also learnt that the inhabitants of PAM are called Mussipontains.  This explained the sign on the lavoir that we hadn't understood:

The main square was unusual in that it was triangular and fortunately it wasn’t spoilt by being used as a car park and from what we could ascertain it was used for markets and fairs.  The buildings around the outside were of many different ages but all had traditional Renaissance arcaded fronts.  Here are a few pictures from different directions where the arches can be seen as well as the large water fountain erected in memory of the dedication of American ambulance workers in France during WWI.

Hôtel de ville (left) built in 1780s

16th century château d'amour or house of seven deadly sims

The fishing competition had just finished as we made our way back to the boat and we spent a while watching the catches being weighed.

Packing up

Crossing the VNF lock on our way back we could see our mooring

On Sunday we cruised 10 km through no locks.

MONDAY 12 SEPTEMBER

It was due to be a hot day on Monday, so we went exploring in the morning.  Our aim was to cross the town bridge and make our way up to the ruins of the château at the top of the hill.  As the fishing competition was over, we were able to walk along the quay to the bridge rather than the road alongside.

The town bridge

Sign explaining when the bridge was last destroyed and rebuilt

On the far side of the bridge stood the church of St-Martin, first built in the 13^th century, but the current building replaced it being finished at the start of the 15^th century.

Église Saint-Martin

A track ran almost dead straight up to the castle and was consequently very steep.  We were stopping half-way up to take a detour to see the Red Fountain.  From pictures we could find on the web it looked like it may have been a lavoir but when we arrived, we found it was just a good old-fashioned drinking fountain.  We could see why it was called the red fountain as the local iron ore was staining the water red as it emerged from the spring.

La fontaine rouge

There was very little to see of the ruined castle when we arrived, but we had some marvellous 360º views including north to Metz and south to Nancy.  We could also look down on Pont-à-Mousson

North

South

The Moselle running through PAM

The castle was in use until the 1600s during which century it was destroyed and never rebuilt.  It was probably the most ruined ruin we’ve come across with just a couple of stretches of walling partly standing but it was well worth the walk up, particularly for the views.

The remains of the only gateway that remains

We’d imagined the 20 or so dwellings at the top would be a few if not many centuries old so were really surprised to find the majority of the houses were probably built in the last 100 years.  In amongst the housing stood a partially restored Templar’s chapel:

Back at the boat we spent a relaxing afternoon sitting outside watching the local fishermen and the occasional commercial passing by.  One boat in particular made us smile as its name was Happiness and we remembered smiling when it came past us when we were moored in Wasserbillig in Luxembourg waiting for Ian and Helena to visit us.

Tomorrow, we plan to move on a little further upstream.