Verdun (an unexpected lavoir)

FRIDAY 14 APRIL

Friday was ‘fetch the car’ day and it was an early start so we didn’t waste too much of the day.  First, I had to take a train to Nancy where I was expecting to wait just over half an hour for a train to Dombasle-sur-Meurthe where we’d left the car.  Apart from people visiting the boulangeries, Commercy was quiet at that time of day, and it was strange to see the hôtel de ville area devoid of tourists and cars.

Château de Commercy, now the hôtel de ville

Rather than clutching the normal wrap of baguettes as they left the boulangerie some people were carrying clear plastic bags full of madeleines.  It had never occurred to me that madeleines were used by some people in place of bread in the capital of madeleines.

Not surprisingly, as the train was going into Nancy, there were quite a few people on board; a mixture of commuters, students and holidaymakers.  The train pulled in on time and looking at the departure board I suddenly realised that if I ran across the concourse to the far side of the station, I could catch an earlier connection.  I made it just in time and spent the rest of the journey worrying about what I would do if the car wasn’t where we’d left it.  Pulling into the station, my worrying stopped as I could see the car still on the street where we’d left it. 

I had a 75km drive back to the boat and, after a quick coffee break, we drove to a fuel station to fill the jerry cans with diesel and then to a garden centre to buy some plants.  Karen told me that VNF had knocked on the boat whilst I was away as they wanted to know what our plans were because a body had been found in a lock further downstream.  She explained that we’d hoped to get through that particular lock later in the day and they said it wouldn’t be a problem, so she wasn’t really sure why they were asking in the first place. 

Once we’d unloaded the car, we set off for Sampigny and immediately passed the official Commercy town mooring. It consisted of a long pontoon and was full of the same unloved boats that were there when we came through two years ago.  It’s a shame that that sort of situation is allowed to develop and persist as it would make a pleasant mooring, handy for looking around Commercy.  Fortunately, we’ve only seen the same thing in a couple of other places during our travels.

Same old boats hogging the facilities at Commercy

We only went on one river section on the journey and soon after the second lock (no sign of a body or a police presence) we were approaching Sampigny.  It was at this point that we saw a great many swallows that accompanied us for probably 300 metres, we assume they were picking off the insects we were disturbing as we went along.  Although we have seen the odd one or two since we arrived this was the first day we’d seen swallows in numbers this year. We haven’t seen any kingfishers since our return either which is really unusual especially as we’ve been on rivers.  Making this comment again when we were watching the swallows reminded Karen that she did see a kingfisher on her run along the Meuse the previous day but had forgotten to tell me.

There are two mooring spots in the village of Sampigny: a set of bollards and a pontoon.  We didn’t fancy the bollards as they were alongside a wood and hence would be quite gloomy in the evening.  We moored on the pontoon even though it was too short for us and as it was quite windy, we secured the overhang at the front with pins and a long line.

Pontoon mooring at Sampigny

On Friday we cruised 10.5km down two locks as well as taking two trains and driving 75km.

SATURDAY 15 APRIL

We awoke to unexpected rain on Saturday so delayed setting off until the weather brightened up which, according to the updated forecast, it was meant to do.  As we’d not looked around Sampigny when we came through here before, we took a walk around the village instead.  At the entrance to the village a disused railway track ran across the road and the impressive looking building, that we could see from our mooring, turned out to be the old railway station complete with its name plate:

Earlier I’d carried out some research on the web to see if there was a lavoir in Sampigny but there was no mention of one, and a quick look on Street View didn’t yield one either.  Imagine our surprise when Karen caught sight of one while I was still looking at the station:

It was set on a small waterway called ‘mountain stream’, which was a bit strange considering we weren’t near any mountains.  The stream was high therefore the lavoir itself was flooded so, even if it wasn’t locked, we wouldn’t have been able to go inside.  Looking at the number of flower box holders positioned on the bridge and also the railings along the bank opposite the lavoir it must be a pretty location in the summer.  We found it quaint that a sign on the lavoir still indicated it was the ladies’ laundry.

As we’ve come to expect with rural French villages it was very quiet, and we only saw a couple of cars on the move as we walked around.   The grand mairie still had a Ukrainian flag flying but it was now rather the worse for wear:

The war memorial also looked a little uncared for:

Church steeple in the background

The village map outside the mairie indicated there was a château built in the 1630s so we went in search of that next.  We were a bit disappointed when we found it as it was in ruins and surrounded by some modern housing.  As proof that not everything on the web is true, we found out later that it was destroyed in WWI and then another site said it was destroyed in WWII, then a third site told us that it was occupied by the US army until 1950.

Château d’Henriette de Lorraine

As it was at the turn of the 20th century

As we often try to do, we made our walk a circular one and left the village at the far side to find a way back to the boat.  Leaving the edge of the village we went through a field full of wood piles and then followed the old railway tracks back to the station.

The sun was out by the time we returned so we got ourselves ready and set off for St-Mihiel.  We were in a canalised section for a while whose banks were more reminiscent of being on a river:

At the first lock, when we were 10km from St-Mihiel, Karen got off to run the rest of the way while Buddy and I took the boat down the river and two more locks.

There was an éclusier at the St-Mihiel lock who asked what our plans were.  He needed to know as the next 17 locks will be operated for us by itinerant éclusiers so I told him we would be leaving at 10.00am on Sunday.  After those 17 locks we will return to using the télécommande until further downstream when the locks become 185-metre river locks and we will be back to using radio communications.  The éclusier told us that there was only one other boat on the next 100km or so and he was going in the same direction as us and was also moored at St-Mihiel.

Moored at St-Mihiel opposite another lavoir

We’d spent some happy hours exploring the town previously and also walked around the surrounding hills where some of the woods still contained trenches from WWI.  This time we took it easy and potted up the plants we’d bought in Commercy then settled down to watch the England ladies thrash Wales in the Six Nations.  As usual the commentary was fascinating as phrases like, ‘big old unit’ and ‘built like a brick outhouse’ are just not used like they are in men’s matches.

On Saturday we cruised 11.5km down three locks.

SUNDAY 16 APRIL

A much cooler day greeted us on Sunday and it was positively chilly at times as we cruised to Ambly-sur-Meuse. 

Leaving St-Mihiel on a chilly Sunday

We’d arranged with our éclusier that we would leave St-Mihiel at 10.00am and he would then meet us at the first lock which would be about 11.00am but when we arrived there was no one there but the lock was set in our favour.  We hovered outside for a while and after five minutes Karen opened one of the top gates so we could wait inside the lock.  We’d completely forgotten that the 17 locks that were going to be seen through are entirely manual in that the gates and paddles are opened and closed manually as on UK canals – a rare sight in France.  As we didn’t have a French windlass, and we’d probably have got into trouble anyway, Karen closed the gate behind me, and we tied up before calling VNF.

Once we got through to the control centre at Verdun it soon transpired why the éclusier wasn’t there to meet us.  They’d thought we were meeting at the lock at 10.00am and filled the lock ready for us but had given up after waiting for an hour.  They (and me) were very apologetic about the misunderstanding, and they said it would be an hour or so before our man arrived so we ended up having an early lunch in the lock.

The éclusier turned up in a VNF van, a far superior means of transport compared with the bicycles and mopeds used by itinerant éclusiers on a couple of stretches of the Bourgogne and the Nivernais canals.  These latter two canals are the only other times we’ve had this service.  Our man was apologetic again and was more than pleased that we only needed one gate opened at each end.

Our man in a van

We said our farewells after the fourth lock in a village called Amby-sur-Meuse and all three of us made sure we agreed on when and where we’d be meeting next!

Moored on the short pontoon at Ambly-sur-Meuse

We tied up just in time to see the French girls thrash the Scots in their Six Nations match.

On Sunday we cruised 18km down four locks.

MONDAY 17 APRIL

What’s happening to the weather?  It’s the second half of April and it felt more like the end of February when we got up on Monday morning.  We’d explored Ambly-sur-Marne before, but I had a sneaky feeling that what I’d thought was a field barn a little distance from the village was worth investigating further.  Sure enough, when I went closer on the morning walk it turned out to be a lavoir but in a very sad state of repair.

Dilapidated lavoir at Ambly-sur-Meuse

It seemed rather large for the number of houses in the village but then more families shared the farm buildings in those days.  There were six cast contraptions along the rear wall, and I just couldn’t fathom what they were – any ideas?  The best suggestion we've heard so far is that they operated like lock gate paddles and lowered or raised boards inside the lavoir to control the height of the water.

It brightened up a bit after lunch, so we had a little cruise down to the lock at Dieue where we’re meeting our éclusier on Tuesday.  There were a few bollards on an old quay on an inset just above the lock, so we moored up there for the day.  It was next to a campervan stop and it all looked rather dismal, but we were only stopping one night so weren’t too bothered.

Mooring at Dieue

There were two town trails advertised on an information board at the mooring and we decided to follow the ‘old town’ trail.  It was a bit of a misnomer for the most part as the first few sites were in an area of modern housing.  Still, we should be pleased that they were being preserved such as this WWI billet which was also used as air raid shelter in WWII.

The diagram on the information board clearly showed the relative thickness of the walls of the structure, it also indicated that there were still four of these shelters in the town, but we couldn’t find any more.

Cross section of billet/air raid shelter

On a little backwater, not on the trail, we found two lavoirs built in the same style and only 50 metres apart:

The trail sent us into the cemetery to see a copy of a statue, ‘the swooning madonna’ by Ligier Richier.  Richier was a famous sculptor and was born in the year 1500 in St-Mihiel where we’d moored on Sunday and we’d seen a few examples of his work during our visit in 2021.

Not sure why she was swooning

Dieue war memorial

One thing the trail had explained was about the traditional style of Lorraine housing where the living area was shared with animals and their feed.  We’re used to spotting this kind of housing in villages, but were surprised how many had been sympathetically converted in a town like Dieue, leaving the exterior detailing.

In the house above, the living area was to the left

Once we started visiting spots where interesting places once stood rather than the real thing, we gave up following the trail and made our way back to the boat for the evening. 

On Monday we cruised six km through no locks.

TUESDAY 18 APRIL

The sun was back on Tuesday and dead on 10am, as arranged, our éclusier arrived.  In fact it was an éclusiere, our first female lockie this year.  She stayed with us for the three-hour journey seeing us down the five locks to Verdun.

Our éclusiere for Tuesday

Seeing the girl using a windlass made me think about these 17 locks in the middle section of the canal de Meuse that are still manually operated.  Knowing that there is no commercial traffic, very few hotel boats and no hire boats it wouldn’t be possible to cost justify converting them to automatic operation.  Not only that, but there seem to be very few pleasure boaters as we have already been told that there is only one other boat moving on this upper 100km section of the canal.  On top of that, the towpath hasn’t been converted to a cycle path as they have on most canals so there are no cyclists or walking tourists being attracted to the area.  It seems incredible that the canal is actually kept open with such little traffic – we consider ourselves most fortunate.

Most of the journey was on the canal with just a stretch of river for a few kilometres once we were nearing Verdun:

Arriving at the outskirts of Verdun we left the river and went through a short tunnel under the city walls:

We then rejoined the river and cruised into Verdun passing some of its wonderful riverside houses:

In the centre itself was a very long pontoon alongside the riverfront bars and restaurants.  Not many people were sitting outside as it was quite windy as we found when turning the boat around to face upstream for mooring.  Not only was it windy but there was quite a strong flow on account of the river being narrower through the town and also because it was still higher than its normal level.  We made it without damaging ourselves or the overwintering boat that was already there. 

Moored in the centre of Verdun

Flagpoles had been erected along the quayside since we were last here and it was pleasing to see the Union Jack was amongst the European flags that were flying.  Since Brexit we’ve probably only seen one other town that still flies the Union Jack.

On Tuesday we cruised 13km down five locks.