Making Adjustments

It felt good to leave Toul for a while on Tuesday, July 15. Although we were anxious for a "bow thruster motor update", we knew that all parties involved would need time to get back into work after the long holiday weekend, and rather than pacing on the boat, we were better off distracting ourselves with a tourist visit elsewhere. After a short 25-minutes by train, we were walking in the small town of Neufchâteau. It is one of the oldest towns in Lorraine and developed along one of the old Roman trade routes. By the 12th century it was considered to be quite a large and prosperous town for the time, with "all the ingredients necessary for a good time", such as musicians, jugglers, and actors. It was also a principal administrative center, and regularly hosted conferences to solve disputes between Lorraine and France. This same political important made it a target for destruction during disputes between Lorraine and, at various times, Burgundy, France, and Prussia. 

Just as there is an association to promote "The Most Beautiful Villages in France," there is an association to promote "The Most Beautiful Detours of France." The towns that take on the latter designation must adhere to certain specifications and are subject to periodic audits to ensure that a detour to a particular town is, indeed, worthwhile for the tourists that choose to visit. Neufchâteau is one of the 100 or so "Les Plus Beaux Detours de France," which gave us hopes for an interesting visit, as the town's historic center has a number of Renaissance era buildings as well as significant religious buildings.

Place Jeanne d'Arc, formerly the town marketplace,
with an 1857 bronze statue of Jeanne. She was born in
the village of Domremy, about 10 km from Neufchâteau.
Jeanne took refuge in Neufchâteau in 1428.

Exterior and interior of St. Nicholas' Church. Its foundations were
laid in the 12th century, and had extensive additions in later
centuries.

The unusual features of St. Nicholas: A stained glass window paying tribute to the soldiers who
gave their lives in WWI; nine late 15th century stone statues from the Cordeliers convent representing
the anointing of Christ; a late 12th century Romanesque crypt--the "lower church"--upon which the upper church rests.

The d'Houdreville Mansion, a late-16th century Renaissance
building which is now the town hall.

A point of pride of the town hall is its Renaissance staircase.
It's open to the public, but you have to get permission at the
town hall in order to access it.

13th century St. Christopher's Church, which was,
unfortunately, not open when we came by. 

The day was ultimately a bit less engaging than we had hoped, partly because some of the historical attractions were not open during the time we spent in town. We wanted to make sure we were able to speak to Jean-Paul about the bow thruster before the end of the day, so we returned to Toul earlier than we might have otherwise, and this kept us from seeing some Neufchâteau sites that were only open in the afternoon. Some of the recommended sites didn't seem to be available at all on the Tuesday we were there. And although it was an attractive town, it was really, really quiet.

It didn't seem as though many tourists were "detouring" to the town
on this day. Rue Saint-Jean, one of the oldest streets in 
Neufchâteau, was nearly deserted and nice lunch options were
difficult to find.

As it turned out, we could have stayed in Neufchâteau a while longer, because there was no new information about bow thruster motors. We spent the remainder of the work week investigating various options, including the possibility of sending our motor for a rebuild to Tinnemans, the Dutch company that had done so much work on C.A.R.I.B. in 2022. Mostly, we just needed to get some direct answers on what was possible so that we could make decisions about the who/how/when of fixing the boat, cruising options, where we could meet our friends arriving on August 1, and where we would keep the boat for the winter.

We ultimately decided to stick with TSNI for fixing the thruster, but the reality was that it wouldn't happen as quickly as we would like. We weren't quite ready to be done with cruising, so we scheduled a departure from Toul for Monday, July 21, with the intention of cruising down the Moselle River (deeper water, bigger locks) as far as the city of Metz. After turning around we would cruise to Nancy to meet up with Ken and Brenda, who would then cruise with us as we return to the TSNI yard at Toul. We'll have to save the Marne au Rhin Est Canal for next year, and we'll be substituting Toul for Saverne as our wintering location.

We had off-and-on rain showers on the 21st, but it was nice to be moving again. Our stop for the day was Liverdun, a previous cycling outing for us. We didn't feel the need to climb the hill to the upper town again, so we satisfied ourselves with purchasing some of the local "Madelaines of Liverdun" and just relaxed.

Much of the view from the river is trees and hills.

There are no quays for barges to moor at in Liverdun, but the dolphins
work well, especially as these have a walkway to shore. Our boat is 
lower than commercial size barges, so it requires care not to slip
 when transitioning from walkway to boat.

On the 22nd we passed the junction that later in our cruise would take us to Nancy, and headed north on the Moselle. The day was rather breezy, but because the locks are so large, they don't give us the same potential for problems with entry and exit as the small locks on canals.

We are still in a waterway that has commercial barge traffic.

Commercial traffic gets priority over pleasure craft, but as long
as we let them into locks first, the locks are well able to 
handle us and a 110-meter-long barge.

Four hours and three locks got us to our next destination, Pont-à-Mousson, a town of approximately 15,000. We were able to find space on a long concrete quay very near to the center of town. We did our usual "thing", going to the Tourist Office to get a guide for walking to the local sites of interest. Our visit was somewhat abbreviated, as we only intended to stay for one night on our way to Metz, but we knew we'd be stopping again on our return from Metz and could take care of any "unfinished business" then.

The "Mousson" referenced in the name is a nearby hill on which a castle existed from at least the 10th century, and the "pont" (bridge) refers to the river crossing at which the lower town developed. Our first impression of the town was very positive. It had been very badly damaged in WWII, but had been apparently rebuilt with a great deal of care. It was a busy place and it was nice to see so many people--and shops and cafes and restaurants--in the center of town.

One perspective of Place Duroc, the only triangular arcaded square in Europe. Its sides are
lined with arcaded buildings of the 16th - 19th centuries.

Perspective number 2 of Place Duroc.

A close-up of one of the Renaissance arcades.

Saint Laurent Church (16th C). One of its treasures is the statue of Christ carrying his 
cross, attributed to the sculptor Ligier Richier.

We had a great view from our mooring spot of the Abbey of the 
Premontres.

We could also see Saint-Martin's Church on the
opposite bank of the river. The bridge is relatively
new, having been constructed post-WWII after the
Germans blew up the old bridge as they were
retreating from the American 3rd Army in 1944.

The local craft beer brewery had a cute logo and an irresistible
 "tasting package" with 8 different beers and a souvenir glass. 

We might have stayed longer in Pont-a-Mousson except that we had a Wednesday reservation at the Port de Plaisance in Metz. Jean-Paul had offered to telephone the port captain in Metz to set it up and had done so before we left Toul. At any rate, the cruise to Metz on Wednesday, July 23, was pleasant. Being without a bow thruster continued to be a non-event: it's a convenient tool to be sure, but on this particular waterway and with the bigger locks it hasn't been an issue. What we were a little concerned about was whether what we requested for mooring space would be provided. We'd seen reports in the DBA Waterway Guide that the port was not very welcoming of barges, and that they much preferred smaller cruiser-type craft. What we really needed--and what we had asked Jean-Paul to request for us--was a mooring along the T-head of one of their floating pontoons. Anything else would require us to back into a slip perpendicular to the pontoon, an extremely difficult maneuver and one that, with our high stern and dinghy, would leave us unable to get off the boat. We left Toul with the impression that a stern-in mooring would not be expected of us and that we would be given acceptable space in Metz.

Should we have sent out own e-mail just to verify the arrangements? Probably, because when we got to the port in Metz after a 4-hour cruising day, the only available slips were of the "back in perpendicular to the pontoon and hope you don't hit neighboring boats" kind. My calls to the port telephone in an effort to get guidance went unanswered, so Lon pivoted C.A.R.I.B. and we headed out of the port,  cruising back the way we had come on the Moselle. There were no other mooring options in Metz, so we went 10 km and through the lock at Ars-sur-Moselle and then tied up on a quay for the evening. Were we a little frustrated? Yes, but it turned out that it was possible to make "lemonade from the lemons."