France 2023. Day 7, Verdun and the ghosts of war.

We slept late, then headed up to see the Monument de la Victoire, built in 1926 to honor all of the soldiers who fought at Verdun during WWI.

Next up the hill was the amazing Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Verdun, started in, believe it or not, 457 a.d. A much larger version was begun in 990 a.d. The history just seeps out of this place.

A then we did a walk-around of the Citadel of Verdun. The citadel was built around 1624. From 1890 to 1914, an underground system with a total length of 7 kilometers was built underneath the citadel. This underground system served as headquarters of the French army during the Battle of Verdun. It is absolutely huge. We did not go inside for the tour, but the history is fascinating. Google is your friend on this one.

Skies started to threaten rain again, so we abandoned our plans to try to get up to the Verdun War Memorial and the Douaumont Ossuary outside of town that holds the remains of 130,000 soldiers who died during the battle of Verdun and were not identified. 800,000 perished in the battle of Verdun. It’s impossible to get your head around something like that.

We got back to the boat just as the fat rain drops started falling. Perfect timing for a change.

France 2023. Day 6, Dun-sur-Meuse to Verdun

Today was all about rain and manually operated locks. We left Dun-sur-Meuse right at 9am and the lock wrangler was waiting for us. This was the first of 9 manual locks on the way to Verdun. Each of the lock operators has a series of locks they man. Of course Devany, the engineer, had to help them crank the gates open and closed ;) The lock operators would open a lock for us, then jump in their trucks and meet us at the next lock. I can think of much worse jobs. When it gets busy on the canals in the summer season each lock has its own operator.

We’re seeing more and more evidence of World War I the closer we get to Verdun. Just outside the village of Consenvoye we saw the Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof Consenvoye Cimetiere Militaire Allemand 1914-1918, with 11,000 German soldiers buried there.

After cruising for most of the day in light to moderate rain, we arrived in Verdun just before 5pm. Tomorrow will be WWI history. Everything will depend on the weather. It’s raining hard again.

France 2023, Day 5. Ecluse l'alma to Dun-sur-Meuse

An absolutely gorgeous day on the river Meuse that started off early with a blazing sunrise.

We continue to head towards Verdun, but today we’re cruising through rapidly greening farmland and between forested hillsides. We locked through the villages of Pouilly-sur-Meuse and the fairly big city of Stenay, which we’re going to stop at on our way back downriver in a couple of days.

We’re spending the night docked at Dun-sur-Meuse which is a major historical site when it comes to American involvement in WWI. General John Pershing advanced on the German positions here until they finally retreated.

Just now late in the day we’re sitting on the boat in a nice rain storm, and it’s the first time in years that we’ve heard honest-to-goodness thunder, which we just don’t get very often in Anchorage. Come along for todays ride.

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.