France 2023, Day 4. Take me to the river. Pont à Bar to l'Alma.

We left Pont à Bar at 9am as soon as the lock opened. 2 quick locks and we turned onto the river Meuse to begin our journey to Verdun. We stopped in Sedan for a quick trip to the grocery store, the past Mouzon to the lock at l’Alma, where we tied up along the bank for the night.

Today was all about history. We are following a good part of the Maginot Line that was built after WWI by the French along the France/Germany border. It very quickly proved to be a costly boondoggle that the Germans simply went around at the start of WWII. The remains of bunkers are all along the river as we head generally south.

France 2023, Day 3

We slept late while docked in Le Chesne, then walked up to the boulangerie so we could have their incredible croissants for breakfast with coffee. We made our way back towards Pont à Bar. It’s very early in the season, and they put new controls in the locks—which unfortunately are not working correctly on three of the locks. We’ve become friends with Fred, the maintenance man from the Canal Authority who has driven out for two days to the locks that aren’t working so he can manually open and close them for us. A lot of wildlife today.

Back to Pont à Bar for the evening after spending several hours working on a leaking water pump on the engine. Everything is fixed and tomorrow we head out onto the Meuse River and towards Verdun.

France, Day 2 - La Cassine to Le Chesne

We woke up to a beautiful sunrise on the canal, had our coffee, and then took a walk along the canal bike path. The locks don’t operate until 9am, so we wanted to go explore the ruins of La Cassine Castle which was built in 1571 by Louis Gonzaga, Duke of Nevers, and his wife Henriette of Cleves. It was visited by Henry IV of France, Louis XIV and Cardinal Mazarin before it was damaged by fire in 1697. It was restored, then burned again in 1927 and was left in ruins. Unfortunately, they’re working on the grounds so we couldn’t get close.

After the lock not working yesterday, our personal lock maintenance guy (not really) came to the lock just to make sure it was working. Then he was going to go down to the next lock just in case. We finally headed towards Le Chesne, where we were going to stay the night.

The canal was beautiful and there were a lot of herons about. We docked at the free town quai in Le Chesne and immediately headed into town to get a bite to eat, explore and then take a bike ride along the canal down to see the Staircase of 26 locks in less than 9 kilometers. We’re glad we’re not doing that portion of the canal which takes approx. 5 hours. We’re heading back to Pont à Bar and joining the river Meuse to head towards Verdun.

So as usual, way too many pictures. Click on them for full-screen and captions.

France 2023 Canal boat rental vacation. Day 1

After far too many years, we are back in France doing another canal boat rental trip. It’s one of our favorite vacations ever, so after the pandemic delays and all that mess, it’s very nice to be back.

This time we are in Northeastern France, near the Belgium border in the Ardennes. We picked up our boat in Pont à Bar in the early afternoon and decided to take a very easy first day down the Canal des Ardennes. It’s early season and we were the only boat on the canal today, which was great. Come along for the ride. Click on each picture for full-screen and captions that will tell the story.

Easter Sunday visitors.

It’s been a busy morning. The Easter porcupine and moose came by for another visit. Yep, it’s still snowing!