Getting Crowded

Time to get cruising again after nearly 10 days tied up.  Once you've lugged a few shopping bags, you learn to take advantage when you're near supplies.  Here we are after a visit to Monsieur Leclerc's establishment 300m away.  Fortunately his trolleys don't lock when you leave the car park.  It's getting rather hot so we stock up on refreshing soft drinks (and just one or two beers for special occasions).

My, doesn't that roof look good?

We need to book a time for the locks out of Verdun so we visit the office.  We want to avoid the 9am rush and suggest 9.30.  Non Monsieur, neuf heures s'il vous plait.  So, we arrive at 8.30 along with half the population of Holland.  At about 9.30 we get through the lock.  C'est la vie Francais.







It's an important day.  Son-in-law Chris is dropping off Marille the Poodle for a fortnight's boating while they head to the Riviera. We've given him our target mooring.  At lunchtime we turn up the chance of a rather nice free mooring because we want to go on.  We're still travelling with a Dutch escort by the way! 

Mid afternoon we get there, and it's full.  Completely full with little boats that we can't breast onto.  No matter, press on to St Mihiel.  By the time we get there, there's a forlorn poodle on the dockside with her suitcase.  But no mooring.  We sweet talk yet another Dutchman and, ever so carefully come alongside.  The poodle and her belonging are passed aboard and we head back out of town for a 'wild mooring'  Very nice and dog friendly but no road access.  Funny, the first time in 3 months that we've failed to moor at our target and the first time that we've needed to.  Murphy, take your law away!

But it ends up being a very peaceful and pleasant night with a stunning sunset.  We get to stay in all the best places.

Next morning, we cruise on in fabulous weather.  We're back on automatic locks with our TV remote control.  We're on our own too which is nice.  We want a short day and head for the small village Samigny.  Another really nice dog friendly mooring in a village with nothing much.  A trip to the bakers reveals that there's some sort of summer fete going on which is nice.  We decide to head out later for a pizza and don't think too much about the hammering going on just along from the boat. 

When we head out at 6.30, we find them setting up a fireworks display.  A stroppy young woman tells us we can't pass.  Checking that the fireworks aren't until 11pm, I say 'nuts' we're going for a pizza and will be back in 30 minutes.  So, she 'escorts' us the 50m through their wiring.  When we return 30 minutes later (having failed in our pizza mission), they all ignore us as we walk through.  A couple of omelettes later and we start dog proofing the boat ready for 11pm.  Blinds up, doors closed and loud music on the hifi (Cora likes Peter Gabriel).  At 11pm the blitzkrieg starts (you'd think they'd had enough) and it's all a bit noisy.  Part way through I fret about bits falling on my new roof but this doesn't seem to happen.  Cora gets a bit hysterical so we cut to Led Zeppelin.  Fortunately, the village can only afford 15 minutes worth but that was plenty. 
Suddenly, it's all over.

The next day is delightfully peaceful.  We cruise through lovely soft countryside filled with ripening crops and through Commercy, and then tie up again to escape the hot afternoon. 

Cora wants cooling so we fill her personal pool, on the after deck.  It's our last night on the Meuse which we've enjoyed very much and we spend time planning what comes next.  The weather is hot and dry, and we were warned to be off the Meuse by the end of June in case of water shortage.  Looks like we've got it right.