Visitors

We left our comfortable mooring in Pont-a-Mousson on Monday morning, July 28. A half day's cruise on the Moselle, and a few kilometers of the Marne au Rhin Est Canal, and we would be in Nancy.

We'd known for several months that Ken and Brenda, the boating friends and Michigan snowbirds we'd met while living aboard C.A.R.I.B. II in St. Petersburg, would be joining us in France on August 1 for several days. Because boating schedules are usually difficult to predict, the best we could tell them early on was that we hoped to pick them up somewhere in Northeast France. As soon as we knew that we could make our way north on the Canal des Vosges, we thought that Strasbourg would be a good site for our rendezvous. Despite the bow thruster problems, we continued to hold out hope for that scenario--until it became obvious that, given all of the variables in our situation, Strasbourg was no longer a reasonable option. And so, while they were still able to change their train reservations without penalty, we let Ken and Brenda know that we would meet them in Nancy. As boaters themselves, they were very understanding about the fact that changing circumstances is all-too-common in boating.

The cruise on the Moselle portion of the cruise on the 28th passed without incident. As we went through the (staffed) lock that separates the Moselle from the Marne au Rhin Est Canal, we were told that there was a problem at the two lift bridges that we would have to pass through to reach our mooring in Nancy. At that time, we were led to expect that the problem would not be resolved quickly and that we would have to find a place between the lock and the first lift bridge to moor overnight . 

An intermediate port had no space for us. A few kilometers further on we staked to the bank and had every intention of spending the night. However, after seeing a cruiser pass us, and because we weren't totally comfortable with the "feel" of the neighborhood that we were in, I biked to the first lift bridge and saw that the cruiser was moored on a nice waiting quay--and there was plenty of room for us to join them. It appeared to be a much better option than where we were, so we pulled up stakes and settled at the bridge. 

Two red lights always spell trouble, but on this breezy day it was nice to have made a "soft
landing" onto a decent quay.

In the meantime, a brief discussion with the cruiser's crew, and a vnf advisory, let us know that the technical problem was with the cameras at the second lift bridge. Cameras are a critical part of the notification and safety systems of the lift bridges, so this was a definite problem for the automated opening process. Ultimately, the vnf didn't make us wait for the cameras to be fixed on the 29th, but decided that they would manually operate the bridges to get the waiting boats where they wanted to be for the evening of the 28th. Somehow, the cruiser had quietly left before us, but nevertheless, we were eventually able to continue to Nancy and were moored by late afternoon.

The commercial quay in Nancy, our first choice for mooring. We were able to tuck into the open
space along the quay. In front of us, a 6-star (I didn't know there was such a thing) hotel boat
that charges over $10,000 p.p., double occupancy, for a 6-day cruise, and behind us, a nightclub. 

The location of the port was within easy walking distance of the city center and, although without electric and water services, there was no charge for the mooring. We were a little concerned about possible noise from the nightclub boat, but it didn't appear to be open that Monday night.

However, the quay was adjacent to a public walkway, and a park bench in our vicinity became a gathering spot that evening for a group that was having a good time drinking and playing music. Poor Lon stayed up very late out of concern that "lights out" on C.A.R.I.B. would invite mischief. At some point before the party broke up around 2 a.m. he heard glass breaking at various locations along the quay, and this is what greeted us in the morning by the salon door on our deck:

Not wanting a repeat performance on subsequent nights, we walked to the Port de Plaisance in the next  basin, and were able to make arrangements for a mooring there for several nights. Worth every euro.

The public could also pass by our boat here, but the marina had a night
security guard to keep problems at bay. Given the space for maneuvering,
we weren't quite sure how our exit was going to work, but that was
an issue for another day.

The next days were spent getting the boat cleaned for our guests and exploring parts of Nancy that we hadn't had time for during our day trip in early July.

The Cathedrale-Primatiale of Nancy, built from 1703 to 1742, 
and, therefore, newer than many of the cathedrals in France. Due
to the political and religious situation, Nancy was not the seat of
a bishop until 1777, when Lorraine joined France. Toul then lost its
bishop and this church in Nancy gained the status of cathedral.

The interior of the cathedral was undergoing extensive renovations.
At left, some of the interior is visible, but the upper right photo
shows just how widespread the scaffolding was. Much of the
artwork was covered to keep off dust, and the best we could do
was read posted information about what was hidden from view.

Examples of Nancy's Art Nouveau riches.

Upper left: Place d-Alliance, the 3rd public square that forms part of Nancy's UNESCO-recognized
architectural triad along with Place Stanislas and Place de la Carriere.
Upper Right: a quiet street in New Town, "new" being a relative term applying to the 16th C.
 expansion of Nancy by Duke Charles III.
Lower Left: street art, literally.
Lower Right: New Town (Ville Neuve) has an expansive and active commercial center.

Upper: the 18th C. replacement to the original parish church of Saint-Sebastien
in the Ville Neuve.
Lower: an expansive covered market across the square from Saint-Sebastien.

Ken and Brenda arrived at the Nancy train station in the late afternoon on August 1. We'd figured out the tram system by then, so we didn't have to walk the entire way from the train station to the port. Celebratory welcome docktails--with cremant, of course!--on the aft deck were followed by dinner at a cute little Italian restaurant not too far away. We 'd considered going to Place Stanislas for the nightly light and music show at 10 p.m., but it was raining intermittently, so we deferred that particular activity and let them call it an early night after their travel day from Paris.

August 2nd was a full day in Nancy for Ken and Brenda to get a flavor of the city. We all walked to the Tourist Office in Place Stanislas, then split up to allow them to discover whatever parts of Nancy interested them the most, while Lon and I walked through Nancy's largest park, Parc de la Pepiniere. We were glad that a menagerie-type zoo no longer existed, and that the only birds and animals currently in the animal exhibition space were of the domestic variety, such as chickens and goats.

We encountered Ken and Brenda giving their feet a rest
at the park's fountain.

While we returned to the boat, Ken and Brenda continued their explorations. They saw enough in the day to be satisfied, so we planned to depart Nancy the next day and start cruising toward Toul. 

But first, Ken and Brenda treated us to a tasty Japanese dinner, then we lingered around Place Stanislas. We had to dodge some persistent raindrops during our wait to see "Morphing Architecture," the sound-and-light show that would use video mapping to transform the facades of the town hall and the four large side pavilions (2 on each side of the square, perpendicular to the town hall). This "intersection of heritage, artificial intelligence, and artistic creation" was accompanied by an original soundtrack. 

Place Stanislas by evening, with a view toward Place de la
Carriere. This was the only side of the square that would not
be "lit up" during the light show, but the soft lighting and wet
pavements had their own charm.

Two variations in the appearance of the town hall, and a glimpse of how the pavilions tied
into the experience.

The "moment of truth" arrived on the morning of August 3. The quay we were moored against was perpendicular to the waterway, we were bow in, and we had to get the bow pointed in the direction we had arrived from. The quay didn't have properly positioned bollards which would have allowed us to use spring lines to pivot around the curved end of the quay, and the positions of the finger docks and their boats didn't give us enough space to do a "free pivot" in the available water. Because the winds were light that morning, Lon decided that we should be able to back off the quay and continue backing up down the waterway until we got past the three finger docks to a more unobstructed part of the port basin. A slow pivot there would get us headed in the correct direction. A working bow thruster would have made it easier, but it was doable.

It would have been a completely non-exciting, non-event (except for Lon's excellent piloting skills, of course) had a small cruiser not decided they needed to leave their slip right after we pulled away from the quay. Apparently, they thought we were headed to Strasbourg because they pulled in behind us as though to follow us, not realizing that we were not heading in the direction they intended, but were going to continue to back up. Some energetic gesticulations on our part--and a few choice words--got them to see the error of their ways and they returned to where they started, thankfully out of our way.

Just outside of the port area was a "barge neighborhood" full of liveaboards.
Potential collision crisis averted, the captain and our guests found their
 smiles as we headed out of Nancy.
 

As we were transiting the lock that separates the canal from the river, this egret had a field
day with all of the small fish that had been trapped on the lock gate as the water dropped.

Our cruising goal was to stretch our return to Toul into 3 cruising days, so we made our first stop at the town of Pompey, mooring on a fixed jetty that the town had installed on the river. This was just past the junction where the Moselle headed north and was a new-to-us stop. Pompey is an industrial town, mainly steel, which wasn't evident in the main part of the town. It was in Pompey that Bishop Euchaire lost his head in 362 when he was massacred along with approximately 2,000 other Christians. Modern-day Pompey on a cool August Sunday afternoon was a quiet place. We strolled past the adjacent Pompey lock on the river, through the town, and rewarded ourselves with the purchase of some pastries at an open boulangerie.

Left: Saint-Epvre Church, a 19th C. reconstruction on the site of an older church.
Upper right: Sainte-Anne Chapel, dated 1633 and remodeled in the 19th C.
Lower right: a nicely maintained building in Pompey.

Ken was my hero that evening--he cooked! And we all enjoyed
the delicious lemon chicken on the back deck.

Upper: There are two bridges over the Moselle near Pompey, and when
the sun finally came out in the evening, the reflections were lovely.
Lower: the simultaneous crossing of the bridges by a car and a train leaves
the impression that the car is imagining itself as bigger than it really is.

The cruise on August 4 from Pompey to Liverdun was probably the shortest of our season at just over an hour.

Ken is at the controls!

We'd had such good luck with mooring to the dolphins on the river that we had no hesitation about doing so again. 

The passing of these two commercial barges gave us a bit of excitement soon after we moored.
The barge at left was moving rather sedately; the same cannot be said for the barge at right, which was
cruising downstream at over 15 km an hour. This was fast enough that it almost seemed as though it
skidded around the curve prior to its current position. With that kind of speed, it pushed out a great
deal of water, jostling us rather violently at the mooring.

After checking out C.A.R.I.B. and having lunch, we tightened the lines, hoped for the best with any future barge passages, and climbed the hill into old Liverdun so that we could do the walking tour with Ken and Brenda. I'd made a comment in a previous post that I thought that Liverdun was an odd name. I still think that it is, but the name makes sense when you realize that it is derived from the Gallic Liberdunum, meaning "fortress on a rock."

Viewed from the 12th C. Porte Haute (high gate), C.A.R.I.B. III is just visible at the center of the photo.

It wasn't a weekend, so it was quiet in town. Our passage
provided a bit of interest for this cat.

The morning of August 5 was damp, so we decided to delay our departure to Toul until the last of the rain cells had passed. We took advantage of the delay to walk to what was the site of part of the old Marne au Rhin Canal, which used to pass through Liverdun. The canal required the construction of a tunnel, nearly 400 meters long, through a nearby hill. The section of the canal and the accompanying port were completed in 1851, and was closed to navigation when the canalized Moselle opened in the 1970's.

Upper left: the path of the canal, as viewed from the bridge which used to cross the canal.
Upper right: Lon walks toward the tunnel on a path through the grass.
Lower left: Pat in front of the metal gates restricting access to the old tunnel.
Lower right: the interior of the tunnel.

By early afternoon the clouds were clearing out and we were able to undertake the 3-hour cruise to Toul. The cruising day ended with more excitement than we would have liked. We had to share the lock going from the Moselle to the Marne au Rhin Ouest Canal with an 11-meter cruiser. The conditions for doing so were not optimum, although we didn't know it at the time we were asked to do so. Not enough bollards, and bad spacing for the ones that existed, meant that the line keeping us from moving forward in the lock was much too long, and we weren't able to set a spring line to keep us from moving back into the cruiser. Lon could keep the engine going to stabilize the aft motion, but the attending eclusier let water into the lock so fast that our nylon line stretched, our bow bumped up against the front gates of the lock, and then the bow started swinging from side to side. The boat movement was rather frightening until the eclusier finally slowed down the water flow. We were all tremendously relieved to leave the lock and moor in the TSNI yard. An "interesting" end to our cruising this season. Happy Hour couldn't come soon enough.

An evening stroll ended with dinner at Quai 158, the 
restaurant at Port de France.

After dinner we strolled until the light displays in town came on at 9:30 p.m.
The "desk lamps" provided understated elegance in the circular center of
 town, and the lights in the cathedral cloister were as pretty as we remembered.

It was a good introduction to Toul, and we expanded on that the next morning by walking to the Cathedral and climbing the stairs to the south tower.

Brenda and Ken enjoyed the view from the top.

On the descent, Lon lurked below and made the 325 stairs look more daunting than
they actually were.

After perusing the interior of the cathedral, and getting a daylight view of the cloisters, it was time to wander back to the boat so that our friends could get ready for leaving us the next day. They treated us to yet another dinner that evening and we said goodbye to them the next morning as they boarded a train to Strasbourg to continue their European vacation. The boat felt empty after they'd left.

Back to reality, however. Jean-Paul and the rest of the boatyard staff were on vacation the first week in August, so Lon started working on the end-of-season paint touch-ups, and I continued with a window caulking project that I'd started a few weeks ago. Another "Bach Festival" organ concert in the cathedral yesterday got us away from the boat for a few hours.

Although we're done cruising for the season, we have some busy weeks ahead. I'm already in "just enough, just in time" grocery mode because of all of the out-of-Toul travel that we'll be doing. Next Monday we will rent a car for a one-week Netherlands-Luxembourg trip, and after 9 days back in Toul we will leave for a 2-week African safari in Kenya. We'll wrap things up on the boat during a final 10 days in Toul before we leave on the 27th for 2 days in Paris and our flight to the U.S. on September 30. 

We will use our time in Toul to finish our painting and caulking projects, but a severe heat wave this week is going to make that challenging. As for the bow thruster? Well, Jean-Paul tells us that he was unable to rebuild it but may have located a replacement in the Netherlands. We're hoping that's the case, so that we can have that repair done before we are gone for the season. Never a dull moment.

Lemonade

Our inability to end our cruising day on July 23 in Metz resulted in a 4.5-hour cruising day turning into a 6.5-hour cruising day. It's OK to have that length of day once in a while, but it can be rather tiring.  Having started our cruising a few minutes past 8 a.m., it was almost 3 p.m. before we were finally tied up on a quay just upstream of the Ars-sur-Moselle lock. The disappointment of "no Metz" didn't last long, as we quickly decided that we could spend a few days in our next stop, our return to Pont-a-Mousson, and spend one of those days doing a day trip to Metz via train. Easy-peasy, lemonade from lemons.

Our mooring just upstream of the Ars-sur-Moselle lock.

Furthermore, it turned out that our mooring spot for the evening was within easy walking distance of the small town of Jouy-les-Arches. Jouy has a pretty significant "claim to fame" in that it contains 16 arches of what was once a 1.2-kilometer aerial section of a 22-kilometer-long Gallo-Roman aqueduct created to bring water from Gorze to Metz. Construction began in the 2nd century A.D. on an underground conduit in Gorze. After 12.7 kilometers it emerged from the ground in Ars-sur-Moselle and crossed the Moselle to Jouy-les-Arches, where it went back underground for a further 8 kilometers and ended in Metz. The aqueduct was apparently already largely gone by the Middle Ages.

The aqueduct passing through Jouy-aux-Arches. A substantial
amount of restoration has been done on the aqueduct in the past
two decades, sometimes using ancient Roman methods.

Left: taking a stroll close to history--quite a bit of the original construction was left exposed on  

the "far end" of the aqueduct; Upper right: the collecting basin for the aqueduct in

 Jouy-aux-Arches; Lower right: an end-on view of the aqueduct arches in Jouy-aux-Arches.

What remains of the aqueduct on the Ars-sur-Moselle side of
the river can be seen from the river (we cruised by it twice) 
and this view from the bridge adjacent to our overnight mooring.

Despite damage from heavy fighting in the area in WWII--as well as other historical battles over the centuries--Jouy-aux-Arches has managed to preserve more than just the Gallo-Roman aqueduct. 

A 13th century fortified house, originally part of one of two
fortified farms that provided refuge to the area's inhabitants
at times when the town came under attack. 

The beauty of a long cruising day is that it is often followed by a shorter than usual day, and such was the case for us. On July 24th it took us less than 3 hours to get to the quay at Pont-a-Mousson--and this time, we were on a part of the quay that allowed us to plug into electricity from an outlet on the adjacent building. With no reservations awaiting us anywhere, we were free to stay as long as we wanted in Pont-a-Mousson. There were things to see in the town that we weren't able to get to in our initial visit, and of course, we needed a day to visit Metz.

We took advantage of the beautiful weather during the afternoon of the day we arrived to get on the bicycles and pay a visit to the castle ruins on the top of the Mousson hill. Google Maps was up to its usual tricks of leading us through paths that we had no business being on with bikes, and the paved roads were pretty steep at the upper portion of the hill (which had us pushing our bikes in one section), but we managed to survive. We parked in the village of Mousson and walked up the final stretch.

The castle was the residence of the Counts of Mousson from the 11th until the 13th century. It was a commanding spot from which to monitor the trade routes that passed through Pont-a-Mousson and the tolls that were collected there. As was true for many of the fortified castles in Lorraine, the 17th century conflict with French royal power was devastating to the Mousson castle. As he had done elsewhere, Cardinal Richelieu ordered the inhabitants of Mousson to demolish the castle that had protected them. Adding insult to injury, the remnants of the castle and the adjacent village were nearly obliterated by American artillery bombing of German positions in 1944.

The Chapel of the Templars was built at the same level as the village of Mousson, a bit lower than
the castle. The Templars came to Mousson in the 12th century. Abandoned in the 17th century, the chapel became part of a farm. It was significantly damaged by the bombs of 1944 and is currently
 the focus of an ongoing restoration project.

Lon uses a woodsy trail and steps leading from the
Templar's chapel to get to the main castle grounds.

A few sections of standing wall constitute most of what is left of the castle.

The castle chapel is listed separately as a Historic Monument. It was
built by the Countess Sophie during the 11th century, but could not
withstand the bombs of 1944. An old communal cemetery is next
to it. The statue of Joan of Arc once sat atop the chapel, no doubt
headless from the bombings (and not due to Joan's desire to join the ranks
of saints who are known for having lost their heads to martyrdom).

We are fans of the authenticity of the ruins that remain. There
are some repairs, of course, to shore things up, but no
wholesale replacement of what formerly existed.

The view of Pont-a-Mousson from the castle. At the far upper right, C.A.R.I.B. III can be
seen at its mooring in front of a large, light-colored building.

The "Chapel of Lights" was built on the site after WWII.
It's a glass and metal structure that contains a sculpture
of Christ on the Cross.

There are other vestiges of "old" Mousson that have somehow managed to survive the
centuries. At left, the Porte d'Urtal, the last remaining gate of the Mousson ramparts. At right,
a section of the ramparts provides a backdrop for the parking area between two homes in
the village of Mousson.
 

A nice dinner out at a busy local restaurant allowed us to recover from our afternoon exertions and helped us to be ready to face the exertions of a walk around the city of Metz on Friday, July 25. Although it would have been nice to have been moored within walking distance of the old town of Metz, a 20-minute train trip from Pont-a-Mousson was not a bad alternative.

Metz has been a town since at least Roman times, as it occupied a strategic position at the heart of major European routes. In the Middle Ages, it was one of 3 cities, along with the cities of Toul and Verdun, that comprised the Episcopal seats known as the "Three Bishoprics." Metz is currently the capitol of Lorraine, within the Grand-Est region of France. As a city with a population of nearly a half million people, it was obvious to us that one day of exploration was going to be barely enough to scratch the surface of what Metz had to offer. We were able to get to many of the places on the Metz tourist map, but not all, and regret that we had to miss out on, for example, a visit to the collections of the Musee de la Cour d'Or. But what we did manage to squeeze in was very nice, and our overall sense of the city was that (marina aside 😁) it was a pretty special place.

Saint-Etienne Cathedral (13th-16th C) has one of the highest naves
for a gothic cathedral in Europe. 

The cathedral is famed for its exceptional amount of stained-glass (surface area of 6500 meters sq),
 with windows ranging from the 13th to the 20th centuries. At left, windows of the 16th century. At right, contemporary artist Marc Chagall's depiction of the Creation.

The height of the nave and the stained glass everywhere cannot help but draw the eye upward.
At right, the Graoully, who, according to legend, lived in the arena of the Roman amphitheater
in Metz until vanquished by Saint Clement of Metz.

Flowers and florists are a big part of the culture.

Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonains is one of the oldest churches in France. Construction began in the
4th century A.D., at which time it belonged to one of several public bath complexes in 
Gallo-Roman Metz. It became the chapel of a Benedictine monastery in the 7th century. It
is currently an exhibition hall, but its interior shows evidence of the multiple changes in its
form during the centuries: Roman walls, Romanesque arcades, and Gothic vaults.

This photo taken during a lunch of pasta, salad, and
beer includes a view of various antiquities: the Maison
 Rabelais (12th-16th C.) and me (mid-20th C.)

The architecture in this part of Metz made us feel as though we were in
Paris. In the upper photo, at far left, is the train station of Metz, voted
in 2017 as the most beautiful train station in France.

Top: The Cloister of the Recollets (13th C.), a former convent which now
houses the European Institute of Ecology.
Below: A viewpoint on the Moselle River.

The Renaissance arcades of Place Saint-Louis (13th-15th C).

Metz also had a Templar's Chapel. The octagonal, 13th-century chapel is the only one of
its kind in Lorraine and is the last vestige of the Knights Templar in Metz.

It was lovely to see a busy center city and lots of shopping options.

We were exhausted by our whirlwind walking tour in Metz. It really was too much to attempt in one day, so perhaps a day trip from Toul in August or September needs to be considered.

We were in no particular hurry to leave Pont-a-Mousson, and our cruise to Nancy was only going to require about a half day, so we decided to stay put for the weekend in PAM. This allowed us some time to stroll through neighborhoods we'd not visited during our trip downriver, prepare one much-overdue blog posting, and just relax.

We walked across the bridge on Saturday, hoping that Saint Martin's Church would be open. The Tourist
Office no longer had a key to the place, so we were unable to investigate whatever treasures the 
13th-15th C building contained. The building at left used to house the University of Pont-a-Mousson,
a Jesuit university that was well-regarded throughout Europe. It was founded in 1572 and operated
 until the Jesuits were expelled from France in 1768 and the university was transferred to Nancy.

Saturday nights in summer are music nights in Pont-a-Mousson. On July 26th, karaoke was the order of the day--complete with a pretty amazing band and high production bells and whistles. The talent was local, and with a couple of exceptions, was not particularly good. But it was fun to find ourselves in the midst of a family-friendly event.

These two guys (at center) were one of the good acts. The
 back-up band was consistently good.

We did our final "must see" in Pont-a-Mousson on Sunday morning, July 27, with a visit to the Abbaye des Prémontrés. Construction began in 1705 on this former abbey of the Norbertines monastic order. Like many other religious institutions in Pont-a-Mousson at the time, it owed its existence to the famous Jesuit university. Unlike those other religious communities, however, the abbey buildings survived the 1768 abolishment of the Jesuit University. Survival did not mean survival as a religious institution: it functioned as a small diocesan secondary school in the 19th century, and as a hospital from 1912 to 1944. It was heavily damaged in 1944, but thanks to a massive renovation effort, it was restored and became a cultural center in 1964. It now also houses a 3-star hotel.

Top: the exterior of the abbey church and some of the adjacent building
as seen on the non-Moselle side of the complex.
Bottom: the enclosed arcades of the cloister were displaying
paintings about the restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral Paris.

Left: the interior of the church is empty of furnishings, as it no longer serves a religious purpose.
Right: a view out to the cloister garden.

The abbey is famous for the beauty of three of its staircases.
At left, the Large Staircase; top right, the Atlantes Staircase; 
bottom right, the Little Round Staircase, the only staircase which
was not destroyed in 1944.

Evidence of the damage of the 1944 bombs.

A panoramic view over one of the abbey's gardens, the Courtyard of Honor. 

As the photo above indicates, the weather was a bit "iffy" on Sunday, so the intermittent rain made it good for staying indoors for the rest of the day. And on Monday morning, July 28, it was time to pull our lines and make our way to Nancy.