Status Quo

It's been a frustrating few weeks, to say the least. We've submitted at least 14 or 15 requests for boat insurance and have either been outright rejected or presented with conditions that range from difficult to nearly impossible to meet. We're still waiting on a few responses and will inquire with additional companies, but our way forward is not at all clear at the moment. 

In the meantime, our heating system problem has been fixed--a very good thing, as mornings are rather cool in this part of the world, and especially during the past few days it's been rather lovely to have fully functioning heat. The electrical system issue has been mostly dealt with. We ended up having to order some very expensive batteries but are not convinced that the batteries are the complete solution to the issues. Lon is delving into the mysteries of electricity to satisfy himself that all is truly as well as yard owner Jean Paul would have us believe.

The timeliness of insurer responses and boat maintenance is not helped by the fact that May is "holiday month" in France, with the resultant increases in days that businesses are closed. Friday May 1, Labor Day, is the most significant of the holidays. We took advantage of the beautiful weather that day to distract ourselves from boat problems by cycling just outside of Toul to the Choloy War Cemetery. 

The Choloy War Cemetery was originally created after WWI to bring together in one place French war dead recovered from communal and church cemeteries and other isolated sites in northeastern France. Post-WWII, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission used the cemetery as the burial site for nearly 500 soldiers of the British Commonwealth, mostly airmen, who had been interred at scattered sites in NE France. It also contains sections for Canadian service personnel (and some family members) who died during the Cold War years in the 1950's and 1960's during their deployment to Europe as part of Canada's commitment to NATO.

The French WWI section of the cemetery.

The British Commonwealth section. It contains one WWI soldier; the rest are WWII casualties.

The white crosses are the Canadian service member graves. Those interred here died primarily in
accidents during their deployment. A green fence separates this section from the WWI French
graves beyond.

The community cemetery in Toul, explored during a walk on a different day, had some interesting areas amidst the many "regular" graves of the Toul citizenry. One section contained German soldiers who died during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. A French flag in another area denoted the French military portion of the communal cemetery.

Top: the crosses to the left of the flag and statue comprise the graves of WWI soldiers. 
Bottom left: a mass grave of people who died during the mass deportations from France in WWII.
Bottom right: a memorial and graves of members of the FFI (French Forces of the Interior,
basically, members of the French Resistance during the latter stages of WWII).

We were also lucky enough during the past week to have the opportunity for some socializing. Lon's youngest sister Sarah, in Europe for business-related appointments in London and Germany, worked in a 5-day visit to us (May 5-10) amidst her busy schedule. We had originally hoped to be cruising with her, but the lack of full boat insurance prevented that. However, we still had a lovely visit with her. We mostly stayed around Toul but did manage to take advantage of glorious weather on the Ascension Day holiday of Friday, May 8, for an outing via train to Pont-a-Mousson and Nancy.

Sarah loves staircases and had been fascinated by the photos of the staircases in the Abbey in
Pont-a-Mousson that made it into our blog last year. So off we went to give her the opportunity
to see the staircases for herself and photograph them to her heart's content. At left, Lon and I
pose on the first landing of the Atlantes staircase. At right, Sarah works her photographic magic
on the Large Staircase.

Emulating a tree in the Courtyard of Honor at the Abbey.

Left: Lon and Sarah in Place Stanislas, Nancy. Upper Right: By the "Nancy" sign near
the train station. Lower Right: Enjoying lunch al fresco in Place Stanislas.

A few days before Sarah joined us on CARIB, John and Martha, a lovely Scottish couple who own the 18-meter barge moored in front of us in Toul, arrived to spend 10 days on their boat. We'd met them very briefly last fall, but this time around we had the opportunity to get to know them better via docktails and dinners with them and Australian boater friends of theirs. 

Sarah and I chat with John before we head out on a walk.

 When all else fails to raise a smile, we just have to pay attention to "baby season."

One of the larger swan families we've ever seen. Closer to the boat, we have pair of swans with
four little ones. In the evenings the babies hop aboard a parent's back. Cutest thing ever!