France....at Last!

We crossed the French border on Friday, 19 Aug.....and all kinds of good things happened on that day.

First, we had to pick up the Kindle and Michelin guides from the lovely Port de Plaisance d’Anseremme, just south of Dinant. The Capitainerie had agreed that we could have the items delivered at the Port. We motored slowly past the very narrow entrance to the port and it looked as though we might get in. The “Capitain” had suggested that if we wanted to stay overnight we would have to moor on the town pier so we knew the harbour was rather tight. We very slowly entered and motored ever so carefully, as my mentor Peter taught me, towards the main pier. The “Capitain” came out and gesticulated that we were too big and would have to leave whereupon we hollered back that we just wanted to pick up the parcel. We stopped just short of the pier and he stretched across to hand us the parcel and I went slowly astern, turned her around in a tight space and went on our merry way without a care in the world. Rudi mentioned after that that she there and then started to relax and the next lock was a breeze.

Bayard Rock

Amazing how animals adapt!

Anseremme Port where we picked up the Kindle and above inside the marina

We had to enter a French lock where one of the lock keepers at the last moment indicated we should tie up starboard, while I had already lined up and was committed to the open portside. There was another smaller ship in the lock starboard side. I manoeuvred starboard, found she would not be able to easily stop and turn in the space available, decided it was not on and committed to comfortably tie up on the open port side with no histrionics and without endangering ourselves or the other boat in the lock.  Again Rudi said afterwards the morning’s gentle entry into the harbour had set her mind at rest and she was quite relaxed with the entire proceedings.

Black gravel being loaded on huge transport barge

End of the Industrial area

Junk steel ready for recycling

Of course when crossing the border into France we gave each other a little celebratory hug before entering the lovely town of Givet and mooring to the town quay.  Spent 2 days in Givet soaking up the atmosphere.

First sight of plantane trees

From one canal to the next

Celebrations in Givet

People admiring(?) Linquenda

Givet used to have a pipe factory and these were part of a pipe exhibition

The Pipe making industry in Givet in the 19th century had some 2000 models of clay pipes and produced 3 mil until 1920's

Visiting the cathedral

Strange modern windows in cathedral

Playing with his new toy! Men!

A little story from Rudi: There I was relaxing on the deck with a glass of wine and my camera. Taking snaps of various people crossing the bridge and I hear this commotion! The young guy in the yellow suit(bottom) fell off his scooter. Very young! Other youngsters on bikes stops to help him and one immediately calls for an ambulance. Guy on 3rd photo below, runs up the bridge shouting no! no! gets hold of the scooter, scootles down the road on scooter and hides it. Next minute a car comes rushing up the bridge, stops in middle of bridge, guy in yellow jumps into car and there they go at speed of lightning!

Enters policeman, askes where is accident victim? Gonzo! Just like that.

Striped T-shirt was little one's saviour

Ambulance arrives at scene to also find victim gone! Has the Givet mafia been at work? I even took a walk after dinner to see if I could find that black scooter.............gone!

My view onto the bridge. That was an interesting little drama to watch.

Evening view on church

Morning view

Town with citadel above

Next day we left for Fumay, but found a lovely mooring at Haybes with the most welcoming  and friendly people. There was a wedding reception at the town hall next to the port so we had live Spanish music to boot. Next morning I cleaned the air filter, an oil bath air filter, with the task leaving the muckiest black oil all over the place.

Lock

Tunnel looming

First Tunnel

Made it!!

Art along the canal bank. I love the quirkiness of it all!

Canadian geese enjoying a siesta

Truly flying the flag now

We also went through there!!

Arrival at Haybes

Where electricity and water emanates

Went on for two hours!

Czech mate helped with our mooring ropes

Monument to the fallen of various wars

Linqui amidst the huddle

Thought that Jacqui will enjoy this one!

Only after she has had a few glasses of wine! Hello Josie!

Learning the ropes of the road

Sunday afternoon chin wag!

Neighbours having a drink

Contemplating!

Oh, the Kindle. Well I am impressed with what it can do and its lifetime free internet access all over the world essentially to download books within half a minute or so. This it does brilliantly and as a reader it is perfect. One can also access the internet and thus email, however it was not designed for this and of course with Amazon having to pick up the cost of internet access for all its customers one can expect that tasks other than purchasing from Amazon would be at least clunky. Well that is what it is, frustratingly clunky and slow on email and internet and some tasks cannot be done, for example access to one’s bank account.

Before leaving Haybes I went to the Mairie (local municipality) to look for regular Internet access to do some banking. Both my and Rudi’s phones had run out of steam and the Belgian SIM card I bought for internet purposes had also expired. While the Mairie had a computer linked to the internet it was so slow I could not log on to my bank website. Two hours later than normal we left Haybes and took on the 16 kms to Revin for an early stop and some shopping, however, when we arrived in a very strong wind, the port was already full and we set off limply for the next town. Fortunately there was a convenient mooring after the next lock which we immediately took and engaged in the celebratory safe arrival libation.

Gardening

Ubiquitous fishing terrace

Automatic lock receiver

Ropes!

Another shorter tunnel

This one at least had lights

Look at that, proudly flying the flag! Amandla!

Wild flowers are absolutely gorgeous

Mooring for the night right at the lock

Moored at lock after Revin was full

The oily process was repeated that evening when I decided to replace the engine oil and filter at 100 hours as per the service manual. This task, successfully completed in much more time than I anticipated, left its mark on my soul and hands despite all efforts to keep it a quick and clean job!

We arrived in Charlesville-Mezieres after travelling through the Ardenne forest area on the Meuse canal. It is quite lovely and remote. We intend leaving today with the next major stop in Verdun, were we hope to meet up with Paul and Lisa who left Zaandam two months ahead of us. So our slow pace of around 5 km/h will still have been quicker than their "Meander", the name of their barge.

I swear it was much bigger!!

Truly Ardenne vista

Gardening

Trying for a bigger one this time

We arrived in Charleville-Mezieres and were fortunate to immediately find a mooring  on a jetty which turned out to be a no-charge jetty because the captain/operator of the commercial cruise boat that normally moored there was in jail, so it was now "libre" until he was liberated. It was the first time I had, inadvertently, attempted to moor with the current flow and it proved quite instructive in practice and eventually required some assistance with the ropes ashore from another barge captain, whose boat incidentally was in the headstrong path of my obstinate 20t barge, to get her onto the quay. One learns every day. Fortunately this was without any damaging consequences and will remind me to keep a good lookout for any current before deciding on the direction to approach a mooring.

Directional logic

Oh oh! Autumn starting, we still have a long way to go

Beautiful art on the water

Cyclists everywhere on the towpath

Another lock

Picturesque and well kept lock 

Recent flood levels

Huge Catfish

We wanted to use shore power the next day and, for this, had to turn our boat around and moor on the opposite side at the marina pontoon. The initially gentle attempt to turn our boat around in a trailing wind and with the current proved practically impossible and resulted in more drastic fore and aft manoeuvring at full power for short bursts and provided much excitement for the other bargees already moored up and a gaggle of rowers coming back to their clubhouse just downstream of us and having to find a way around us. We ended up having to simply lay her up against a the convenient wall downstream at the rowing club to allow the current to bring her around and then set off again upstream.

Charles somebody who founded Charleville- Meziere, doing a Jan van Riebeeck look alike pose

trying to open French bank account is for the birds

Faux filet and local sausage

Some British folk, who we later heard had had great difficulties trying the same manoeuvre the previous day, also ending up in the bushes downstream for a while, were very complimentary about the seemingly proficient manner in which we were able, eventually, to turn her around in the narrow space and then gently moor on the pontoon close to them. Little did they know how large a role luck played in the process but we simply accepted their compliments and invited them for drinks later the afternoon. Having written about this incident I am now thinking this is the sort of stuff which keeps boaties occupied and entertained, but I do wonder whether it has any real interest outside of this rather unique and really quite wonderful world in which we have chosen to participate for a few years. Let us know please.

After our departure from Charleville- Mezieres on Friday 26^th, we had quite a few interesting experiences. However, firstly I think it is necessary to mention that Rudi has overcome her stress completely and is now operating as an experienced and skilled crew (wo)man. On a number of occasions I have watched her threw the mooring lines quite a distance to encircle a bollard in a lock or mooring first time and I was most impressed! Also, we have not, since we had Peter Coupland on board, had one problem in a sluice (lock), this thanks to two things, Peter saying sluices are no problem and Peter saying take things very slowly! Thanks again for the very astute advice and guidance of our mentor.

Consequently and with the experience brought by repetition and time both Rudi and I have now relaxed somewhat about handling “Linqui” on the canals, locks or moorings. I am very pleased about that as it was not pleasant for either Rudi or I to constantly sense some undefined doom ahead. We had actually made a pact two weeks ago that we would completely reconsider this project at the end of August if we were not able to shake this sense of foreboding and tension, but magically we have now been able to relax and look forward to the next challenge to our skills. Rudi handles the ropes like a pro and without the earlier stress she felt and I am merely excited by a new morning's prospect of travel.

We have settled into a relaxed routine and have particularly enjoyed the French towns in which we have stayed overnight. Some of the moorings are well organised and run as marinas by the town or private operators, they all have fresh water and shore power connections so one can top up tanks and batteries overnight. Other moorings are free, simply jetties or canal banks with bollards on which to moor to and with no services and often on the "wrong” side of the canal for easy access to the town. One takes your pick. After advice from various sources we had decided to call in at Pont-a-Bar which is the only port with diesel close to the whole stretch of the Meuse we are now travelling. One has to turn off the Meuse through two sluices and into the Ardenne canal. As we entered the sluice into Pont-a-Bar and got into the canal in town crowded with expensive plastic boats on both sides after the sluice I realised that a) I would have to be very careful mooring at the diesel pump and that b) we had a problem, namely a 20,3m barge, which is wider than the Ardenne canal we were now in, so how do we turn back to get back to the Meuse?

Stuck across the canal

On the way back from finding assistance

OK, (a) I was able to put to good use the prop walk and reversing practice we had with Peter while waiting for sluices to open in the early part of our cruise. We went astern (what non-boaties would call reversed into the very tight diesel mooring without a scratch to ourselves or any other boat and with no stress by doing it very SLOWLY.

I was tempted (b) to reverse back into the sluice and out of it where there was a good turning spot, but with the exorbitant value of the plastic boats lining the sides of the canal discretion got the better part of valour and we decided we would have to simply go up the Ardenne canal until we found a spot to turn around. An hour later just before the next lock we found a slight widening and a mooring in the canal which was really out in the rural France with farmland and peace around us and we decided to stop there for the night, scout around the lock and decide how to attempt a turn the next day. In the process of going astern into the mooring her bow glided slowly out across the canal and we both concluded that she might just make the turn in the canal where we were and we SLOWLY, very SLOWLY let her drift around with the option of kicking her back at any time with rudder. However, just as I concluded she would not go round she ground into both banks and we blocked the canal!. Rudi and I tried everything possible to pull her bow and also the stern off, but to no avail. I even used the anchor winch and a rope tied to a pole on the canal bank to try and winch her off, the pole started to bend! Rudi was waiting for me to fall into the water pulling on the line to free the boat  and was of course really looking forward to this merriment.

After a while we had assembled a fisherman, two secret lovers who were cuddled up in a car at the lock and another passer-by to assist with the pulling off to no avail and had just concluded that we needed to call the authorities or a local farmer with a tractor when a boat came along and with the help of a line attached to the stern easily pulled us off and we could proceed after they had gone through the lock. Doesn’t matter where you are when something goes wrong there is always an audience.

There was a reasonable area after the lock for us to turn around in. Having survived this excitement we found ourselves now turned around and facing in the right direction, but between two locks which we then realised work in tandem and thus the one we wished to proceed back through would not work until the second lock had been rotated. Obviously they do not expect many boats to be turning around between the locks. The end result was having to call the Waterway authorities who sent the lovely young lady who had helped us at the previous Pont-a-Bar locks to reset the lock mechanism and let us pass out back to Pont-a-Bar. We motored to a lovely quiet spot on the canal just short of town and moored up four and a half hours after filling up there earlier. We were greeted by birds singing, cows mooing, a hunter with a shotgun stalking in a field after whatever game he was after and as night fell to top it off the local owl hooted right close by claiming his territory. What a wonderful ending to an exciting day. We had experiences today which tested our skill and patience, but more than anything, we did what was necessary, did it slowly and did not panic. I sat down for the “safe arrival drink” with whisky and Rudi a wine. Bliss indeed!

Meet 2 year old Bella who travels with her devoted family

Moored in marina at Sedan

We discover daily what difference flowers make to a property

A very special little comfortable fishing spot

Met him at marina and he immediately made himself at home on our deck. From Sweden, no name, no money and a character. e ended up with five liters of lamp oil and he with four beers!!

Bella the pet pig

Swede's boat and I won't say another word

Quad bike travelers

I love the wall art

We then cruised to Sedan, a rather uninteresting large town where we stayed overnight and then to Mouzon. Of interest was a German couple who had a pet pig on their boat and a bizarre Swede in the smallest of sailboats who deposited himself on our deck with a can of lamp oil which he was willing to hand  over for a beer or two and some company. We had a beer or two with him, went to meet the pig Bella and then escaped on the excuse that we had to make a few Skype calls, which we did before having dinner. Company is all well and good, but in one’s own time and we needed some quiet time.

On the trip to Mouzon there was an edge to the wind which reminded me of the winter ahead. I certainly hope we will have some better weather before it gets really cold. We still have a good month’s travelling before we reach our winter mooring Pont de Vaux in Burgundy. I had read that the Benedictine Abbey had a magnificent organ so we thought we would stop there and attend the evening service. Upon arrival I found the overnight stay at the marina was the most expensive yet, Euros 24 and I was tempted to continue. However, we decided to stay and were pleasantly surprised on our afternoon walk around the town to see there was a free organ recital that evening.  Brilliant!

Why cna't we find down pipes like this anymore?

Attie getting some fishing tips

The lovely organist Cindy Castello

Organ built in 1723