Days of Am(e)usement

Well, it was nice while it lasted. After Vilosnes-Haraumont we managed to have summer for 3 more days, which gave us 2 beautiful cruising days and a pleasant "stop" day in Sedan. This was followed by yesterday's "back to October" gray skies, cool temperatures, and intermittent rain showers as we cruised to Charleville-Mezieres.

After the near-perfection of our cruise on August 12, we had a few "Friday-the-13th" glitches the following day: a 45-minute wait for the vnf at our first lock of the day; a malfunctioning second lock of the day (whose recalcitrant exit doors--probably due to heavy weed in the lock--kept us trapped for about 20 minutes); and a disappointingly unavailable halte fluvial in the town of Stenay, which put us on an old quai for the night. Minor issues in the scheme of things, and it was followed by a problem-free cruise to Sedan on the 14th.

The recent flooding deposited signs and logs in unhelpful places.

It's not uncommon to see old military bunkers left standing
in random locations.

A resident of Vilosnes put a modern-day covid spin on a few of the
creatures in his rock-garden menagerie.

Our unanticipated, but ultimately pleasant, mooring in Stenay. 

The town of Stenay was, to our eyes, relatively non-descript and quiet. It had been one of France's heavily fortified towns on the Meuse River since the early 1600's, but no longer shows much evidence of those fortifications. In WWI it was the headquarters of the German 5th Army during its attacks on Verdun. But the last American battle in World War I, the Battle of Stenay, provides in microcosm a perfect example of the needless waste of lives in that war.

On November 11, 1918, with the Armistice only hours away, US Army General William Wright, commander of the 89th Infantry Division, ordered his troops to capture Stenay. The attack was ordered, not because Stenay had any particular military value at that point, but because Wright wanted his men to have access to the public bathing facilities and was not certain that his troops would have that access were the Germans allowed to be in Stenay after the Armistice took effect. The Germans were still heavily armed and held the high ground, and the battle was a furious one. It started about 8 a.m. that morning and ended at the start of the Armistice, 11 a.m. During those 3 hours the 89th suffered 365 casualties, 61 killed and 304 wounded. The number of German casualties is unknown. The Americans could simply have waited a few hours and then walked, without shots fired, into the town. Wright was relieved of command the next day, but was never really disciplined for his pointless quest for "a wash and a shave." (Tragically, this was not the only Allied military action that was ordered during the final hours before the Armistice took effect.) 

Next stop: Sedan. Although to an English speaker it sounds like a style of car, Sedan was, in fact, another fortified town along the Meuse. It was an independent principality up until 1642, when it was annexed by France and became part of the defense system of France's northeastern border. The main point of interest for us in the town was its castle, whose construction started in 1424. Once they started building they just kept going. . . and going. . . and going. Because the castle additions and renovations did not involve systematically demolishing the earlier construction work, the end result was a fortified castle that, at over 35,000 meters squared, is the largest in Europe.

Lon is dwarfed by one section of the fortified Castle of Sedan.

Free entry to the castle courtyard.

A viewpoint from within the castle courtyard. The 
building with the small windows is now a luxury hotel.

A stone plaque denoting the birthplace in the castle of
Marshal Turenne, who during his lifetime (1611-1675) was
considered a great military hero in France.

The Palais de Princes (Princes'  Palace) was constructed in 1613 as
a more modern and comfortable home for the royalty of Sedan.

Sedan's role in more recent military history is somewhat dismal. It is known for the First and Second Battles of Sedan. The First Battle of Sedan in 1870 was a decisive defeat of the French Army by the German Army in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. After World War I the French believed that the Germans would never attempt to invade France again through the difficult terrain of the Ardennes, and left relatively weak defenses around Sedan. Apparently the Germans didn't agree with the French assessment, because during the period of May 12-15, 1940, the Germans were able to capture Sedan and its bridges in the Second Battle of Sedan, thereby allowing Germany to pour men and materiel westward across the Meuse into France, and thus facilitating France's rapid defeat.

Sedan is currently part of a French urban renewal program and, although there are run-down areas, we thought that the center of town was pleasant.

A Tale of Two Cities. . . or at least one in transition. The
building to the left, The House of the Big Dog, has been
renovated. The boarded-up windows to the right are a part
of the building that belonged to a 17th century military
academy (later a cloth manufactory).

We have spent the full day today in the town of Charleville-Mezieres. We had not originally planned to do so, but as we approached our last lock of the day yesterday the bow thruster on the boat failed, so a maintenance day was needed.

Charleville-Mezieres resulted from the merger in 1965-66 of six towns and villages along the Meuse, with the name coming from the largest two towns. Mezieres is the oldest of the towns, with a history that goes back more than a millenium. Charleville is considered to be a Renaissance "new city", a town planned and established by nobleman Charles de Gonzague and whose history goes back "only" to the early 1600's. Both cities suffered significant damage during the World Wars, but have rebuilt themselves beautifully, Charleville in particular. We were amazed by the number of shops in the center of town, and the amount of pedestrian traffic on a weekday.

Charleville has an absolutely beautiful town center, the
Place Ducale. It is fitted out for summer with all sorts of 
"beachy" and family-friendly activities. 

A French version of mini-golf was set up in the square, beach
volleyball is visible to the left.

The city hall of Mezieres from the 1920's, built to replace a
structure damaged in the First World War.

The 13th C Burgundy Gate, remains of the Mezieres city
 fortifications of that period.

The Catholic basilica in Mezieres was constructed
over a century, from 1499 to 1615. Its original
stained-glass windows did not survive the wars
of the last 200 years. The church now contains
68 contemporary windows created from 1954-1979
by Rene Durrbach, a friend of Picasso, and is
a unique collection of its kind in Europe.

As we prepare to continue our cruise tomorrow, we do so with good news/bad news. The good news is that while we were here we were able to get a local pharmacy to work some computer magic and convert each of our CDC vaccination cards into an "EU Digital Covid Certificate", which should facilitate our entry into local restaurants and tourist attractions as well as our entry into Belgium and the Netherlands. Also good news is that Lon was able to diagnose the bow thruster problem, but the bad news is that he wasn't able to find the part he needs to fix the problem. So Lon gets to go back to cruising "the old-fashioned way" for a while. He had to do it in 2019, so we know he's capable.