Revin (cuckoo at last)

SUNDAY 7 MAY

Before we left Fumay we followed, or tried to follow, a nine-kilometre circular walk through the woods in the surrounding hills taking in some old slate quarries on the French-Belgian border to the west of the town.  It was raining slightly when we left, and it didn’t stop while we were out.  Just before we left town for the steep climb up, we passed an artwork depicting the different stages of slate extraction. 

The men are cast in concrete and the background is a mixture of Fumay slate and blue limestone from Givet.  Givet is about 25 km further north and is where we plan on turning around before heading back towards Sedan and then turning off the river onto the canal des Ardennes.

A sign outside one of the restaurants confirmed that places in Fumay including the facilities and services at the port weren’t opening until May 8^th, probably one of the reasons the town felt so quiet.

The directions for the walk were probably the most poorly described we’ve come across, but we think we managed to follow it.  One of the landmarks we had to find and then follow was an old cast iron pipe that used to carry drinking water from the hills down to Fumay.  We did find a few metres exposed in a couple of places so at least we knew we were on the right track.

Even though it rained the whole time we really enjoyed it and heard our first cuckoo of the year which was a month later than we normally hear them in France.  Having been fooled by some Solomon’s seal on the previous day's walk, which at first we thought was lily of the valley, we did come across some of the proper stuff this time:

Lilly of the valley

The one remaining pithead in Fumay

Before the walk started heading back to Fumay, we dropped out of the forest and joined a road for a while and realised we were on the border with Belgium so crossed over and came back again just because we could.

Reaching the outskirts of Fumay we passed a private house that looked like it was once an old customs point, albeit over two kilometres from the current border:

Just around the corner from the converted customs house was a lavoir that looked like it hadn't been entered for years.  If it was cleaned up it would be quite an attractive building:

We wanted to reach Givet on Monday and as at was quite a long way (for us) we decided to do a bit of the journey later on Sunday afternoon.  We set off under grey skies at 4pm for the three-kilometre jaunt to Haybes.  

Goodbye pretty Fumay

We had one lock to descend and when it had set itself for us the green light came on indicating that we could proceed.  As we approached the gates two red lights came on as well.  It was a situation we hadn’t come across before, but we weren’t concerned as we knew we could go in and tie up while we called VNF to come and sort things out.  As we started going through the gates the yellow lights on top of them started flashing indicating that the gates were about to close; another situation we hadn’t come across before.  This got us very anxious as one thing we’ve always worried about is gates closing on us.  As we were already halfway through the entrance there was nothing we could do but carry on with our hearts in our mouths.  We got in OK, the yellow lights stopped flashing and the gates stayed open so Karen got off to see if the next stage of the lock operation would still work by pulling up the blue rod at the side of the lock.  Thankfully all went well so we didn't need to call VNF, and we were soon leaving the lock wondering what it was that had just happened.

Leaving the troublesome lock

Around the corner and under a road bridge we could see Haybes on the right and also the town quay.

Arriving at Haybes

Once again, we were the only boat there and after a quick walk along the river front, we spent the rest of the day indoors, leaving a look around the village until tomorrow.

On Sunday we cruised three kilometres down one lock.

MONDAY 8 MAY

On Monday morning while Karen went for a run, Buddy and I went for a walk around Haybes where we’d moored overnight.

Overnight mooring at Haybes

Haybes was quite a small town but still boasted large examples of a mairie, a church and a war memorial:

Pretty brickwork on an old brasserie being converted to a new one

When Karen returned from her run, she told me about an information board she’d read explaining about several, introduced, invasive species that pose a threat to wetland biodiversity in France.  Included in the list was our (un)beloved Canada goose confirming that France, like the UK, now considers them pests even though France is not overrun with them like the UK is and they are protected in the UK. 

We set off for Givet later in the morning with the clouds slowly rolling in.   

On our way to Givet

At one of the locks stood a display explaining how needle dams work, complete with a practical example of a section of the metal structure with some needles in place.

Lined up along the riverbank at Aubrives were a series of stark white statues by local sculptor Georges-Armand Favaudon who also created the artwork in Fumay showing the stages of slate extraction shown at the top of this blog entry.

Apparently, these represent Celtic women

On the outskirts of Givet we passed a working slate quarry, followed by the Charlemont citadel built in the late 1500s and strengthened by our oft encountered military engineer, Vauban, 100 years later.

Charlemont citadel

Arriving in Givet

Along the left bank was an 800-metre-long quay, and when we moored up we were the only boat there.  

Once again, we’d seen no boats all day and then we became aware of two cruisers mooring up immediately behind us which was a bit strange considering they had 800 metres to choose from.  Half an hour later a Kiwi couple, Rob and Suzy turned up on a beautiful 25-metre, 100-year-old, Luxe Motor Dutch barge.  After a long day we didn’t feel like looking around so just popped to the tourist office and then went and sat outside at a bar with Rob and Suzy for a few drinks.

Now we’ve reached the Belgian border we’re at the end of our journey north and will start heading south back towards Sedan where we’ll turn off onto the canal des Ardennes, another new canal for us.  We have a schedule to keep to as Joanna is coming out to stay with us for a few days in a month’s time and we’ve arranged to meet her halfway along the canal.  We’ll be going upstream all the way to Sedan so headway will be a lot slower as the flow is still quite strong, but it does mean we’ve had to guess at our speed for planning purposes.  Hopefully we won’t be too far off track.

On Monday we cruised 20.5km down five locks and through one tunnel.

TUESDAY 9 MAY

It was due to rain all day on Tuesday, so I was glad it was car move day rather than a cruising day.  I left Givet at 9am to catch a train to Charleville-Mézières where I changed for a train bound for Sedan.  I didn’t bring the car all the way up to Givet but took it near to the start of the canal des Ardennes which we’ll hopefully be passing in a couple of weeks. It did mean I had to then catch another couple of trains, not getting home until mid-afternoon.  The rail track ran along the Meuse valley for the most part, so I had good views of the river and caught sight of all three of our fellow overnight moorers at different points meaning we were on our own again for the rest of Tuesday.

One of the advantages of being on trains is that the onboard announcements provide an insight into how the towns and villages we've been through are pronounced!  Of course there are probably some mispronunciations as there are occasionally on UK trains but at least the great majority will be correct.  It's funny how using the French pronunciation of a town when having a conversation in English sounds pretentious.  I imagine that's why Brits tend to use English pronunciations when speaking with each other.  Also there's no confusion as to which town is being talked about; using the French pronunciation often draws a blank look anyway.  

It was still raining later in the afternoon but as we needed to get Buddy out we put on our wet weather gear and went for a walk.  Looking across the river from where we were moored we could see a tower on a small hill so we made that our first objective.  We found out that the tower was a look out post first erected in the 11^th century although the current structure is a few hundred years younger.

The Gregory tower

Looking across the river we had a good view of the town, the citadel above it and part of the quay where we were moored:

Leaving a look around the old town until Wednesday we just had a quick peek as it was right by the boat.  As with other towns and villages we've explored in this area, many of the buildings were made of blue Givet limestone and bricks which we find an attractive mix.  The other predominant building material being slate.

Mairie with French & Belgian flags

The boat started getting damp and steaming up from our wet gear soon after we got back so we lit the stove for a while.  It seems amazing the thought of lighting a fire in May especially as it wasn’t cold, but it really was a damp day.

WEDNESDAY 10 MAY

After a quick scout around Givet we set off at midday for Vireux-Wallerand.  It was going to be the first test of our estimated speed for travelling upstream on the Meuse upon which Karen’s based our conservative schedule for the next month.  It was also going to be our first test of ascending the river locks on the Meuse.  We expected them to be quite difficult as the bollards are set a long way back from the lock edge, some are quite deep and places to put crew ashore if needed are not always provided.

The first two locks were either side of a tunnel at Ham-sur-Meuse, both of which were manned as they control traffic through the locks and the one-way tunnel in between.  Looking at the map showing the river meandering around the town of Chooz it can be seen how much shorter the tunnel and two locks at the top of the loop make the journey:

The first was manned by an éclusier and we could see he was standing on the lockside with a long boathook poised to take Karen’s line from the front so she didn't have to worry about how she was going to reach a bollard.  The second had an éclusiere and she did the same thing.  We knew further locks wouldn’t be manned so we didn’t really learn anything from the first two.  Neither did we learn anything from the third and final lock on the journey as it was less than two metres deep making it simple for Karen to hook her line over a bollard.

As we’d approached the first lock of the day, a fast German cruiser caught us up and shared the first couple of locks with us.  As they were a lot faster than us, they sped ahead after the second and were practically through the third by the time we neared it.  While on speed, we found we were travelling at just under six kph which was quite a bit faster than we’d anticipated.  This gave Karen an opportunity to replan once we’d moored up for the day in Vireux-Wallerand.

Overnight mooring in Vireux-Wallerand

 On Wednesday we cruised 10.5km up three locks and through one tunnel.

THURSDAY 11 MAY

The cruising plan that Karen has put together includes overnight stops that we didn’t stay at on our way down to Givet.  Vireux-Wallerand where we’d stayed on Wednesday night was one of these, so we spent the morning exploring.  Vireux-Wallerand is on the east side of the river and on the other side is Vireux-Molhain which sits under a hill with the remains of a Roman fortified settlement at its top.  The two towns are named after the river Virion which joins the Meuse through Vireux-Molhain.

When we reached the top of the hill the welcoming information board in the car park explained the background to the Roman fort and included an overview of the points of interest around the site.  

We’re constantly amazed at the number of times we walk up steep hills only to find a car park at or near the top.  Anyway, each point of interest had a well put together information board and we had an interesting walk around the whole site, part of which was on top of the walls which is where we saw this bread oven which was still in use in the medieval times:

Some of the sites were the remains of towers or villas and generally all looked the same to us:

Being on the top of hill we had some amazing views all around including up the Meuse valley:

The Meuse can just be seen to the left

On the way back down, a viewpoint looked out over the two towns:

Vireux-Molhain on the near side and Vireux-Wallerand on the far

We had the whole hill to ourselves but on the way down we met a party of a couple of dozen teenage school children on their way up.  There didn’t appear to be a teacher in sight but about 50 metres further on we passed a man following them up and I assumed he was a teacher and said the same to Karen.  To my surprise she said, “or the village pervert”.  Clearly, we’ve been watching too many scandi noir drama series lately!

Back at the bottom we had a quick look around both towns and of course each had a mairie, a church and a war memorial but I won’t include pictures of them all:

Vireux-Molhain war memorial

Vireux-Molhain mairie

Vireux-Wallerand mairie

There were plenty of buildings exhibiting the brick and blue limestone style that we’ve become accustomed to such as these small houses that had recently been cleaned up and repointed…

… and Château Vireux-Wallerand with its date of 1714 picked out on the roof.

After lunch we cruised to Haybes and neither of the two locks we went up were an issue as they were both just under 2.5m deep.  I know we’d stopped at Haybes on the way down and our plan was to stay at new places, but it was a very peaceful mooring, so we didn’t mind going back again for a night.

Haybes on Thursday evening

On Thursday we cruised 10km up two locks. 

FRIDAY 12 MAY

It was raining on Friday morning, but as it had eased off by midday we left Haybes hoping to get to Revin in the dry.  We hadn’t looked around Revin properly when we were there a week or so ago so planned on staying for the weekend this time.  The first couple of locks weren’t too deep and we were able to go up them without Karen having to get off which was just as well, looking at the so-called lock landings on the very short lock approaches:

Not really a lock landing

The third lock, or rather the lead up to it, was problematical.  There was no lock cut, so the lock was alongside the barrage which meant the approach had to be planned taking into account the flow from the water crashing over the weir.  Normally that’s okay as it can be seen where the strongest flows are and the direction they’re travelling. The river had narrowed at this point, so the flow was a lot stronger, and it was a battle keeping the boat away from the side while holding it against the flow at the same time.  To make it worse the lock was set at a sharp angle so it would be impossible to hug the bank and drive straight in.  Fortunately, we managed it and were able to breathe sighs of relief as we went in.

As we went through Fumay we passed the lovely boat owned by Rob and Suzy, the Kiwi couple whom we had a few beers with in Givet.

Esme

We’ve been watching the river levels at various measuring stations along the Meuse using a website that covers the stations across the whole of France.  Although we haven’t had heavy rain there has been a lot for this time of year, so we feel we need to keep an eye on things.  We desperately want to avoid being caught on a river in flood as we were in July 2021 on the Petite Saône when VNF put us in a lock for several nights for safety.

The flow was noticeably different in each section between the barrages, so much so that in a couple we were making headway at between five to six kph and others below three which makes quite a difference.

At the approach to Revin was a 4.5-metre-deep lock which we knew would be too high for Karen to reach up and get a line over a bollard.  We’d sussed the situation out on our way down and noted that there were three commercial dolphins (cylindrical piers for commercials to pull up against).  The plan was for Karen to get off at one of them with a boathook, climb the ladder and cross the walkway to the shore and make her way to the lockside.  That wasn’t as easy as it sounded because, once again the flow from the weir wanted to send us sideways into the dolphins. We decided it was too dangerous for Karen to take a boathook while trying to get off onto a ladder from a boat that couldn't be kept stationary, so I passed her pole up when I reached the next dolphin.

Once in the lock I had to walk through to the front to pass the line up to Karen using the extra-long boathook while she leant over with hers to take the line from me.  It was just as well she’d taken one as otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to reach the line.  Once up the lock it was only 1.5km to the port in Revin and we were soon safely moored up.

On Friday we cruised 15km up four locks and through one tunnel.

SATURDAY 13 MAY

A lovely sunny and warm Saturday helped us have an easy day once Karen had finished the food shopping and I’d made a trip to the fuel station followed by a visit to a brico for yet another hose connector.

Sunny morning at Revin

After the shopping trips we had a good walk around Revin before settling in back at the port to relax for the rest of the day.  The only downer on our day was the news that after 11 years Southampton have been relegated.  That’s both our clubs relegated this season as our second club, Reading, were demoted from the Championship a week or so ago.  At least we avoid another season where the two clubs have to play each other.

Our plan for Sunday is to take a walk followed by a cruise to Laifour, another place we didn’t visit on the way down.

Revin war memorial