Countdown

It's now September, so that means we are less than one month away from returning to the U.S. The weather since our return to Toul from Luxembourg has contained hints of the autumn season that is just around the corner. Temperatures have mostly been cooler, aside from an occasional hot day, and we had several days where very welcome rains made an appearance. As a result, the water level in the "moat" that surrounds Toul is noticeably higher. The vnf must be feeling comfortable with the water levels on the Moselle River and the stretch of Marne au Rhin Ouest canal from Port de France in Toul to the Moselle, because the locks on the Moselle that have been closed are now open again, and locks 26, 27 and 27-bis on the Marne au Rhin Ouest will reopen--for a few weeks at least--on September 7 at 9:00 a.m. Some of the English-speaking boaters that we have come to know in the last few weeks will be taking advantage of the changes in the waterway restrictions to "escape" Toul for cruises of varying length. We will not be among them.

As part of the journey toward transferring C.A.R.I.B. to new owners, we had extended an invitation to the buyers to pay another visit to us for a day or two so that we could familiarize them with the boat's features in more depth. When we purchased C.A.R.I.B. III back in 2018 we never had such an opportunity, and there were several times over the years when we were left to figure things out on our own. A re-visit during the first few days of September had been tentatively agreed upon during their initial visit in early August. For us that meant mostly staying around Toul between the end of the Luxembourg trip on August 21 and early September so that we could finish some small tasks on the boat and continue our move-out preparations. It was a relaxed effort, as the boat tasks were pretty much small scale, courtesy repairs like paint touch-ups. Most of the boat contents will be staying, aside from a few personal belongings that will either be taken back to Florida or tossed, so move-out prep has also been rather low key. This has allowed us the time to socialize on occasion with English-speaking boaters at the port in Toul as well as at the TSNI shipyard.

During the weekend of August 22-23 there was a water jousting competition held at Port de
France in Toul. We watched a little of the proceedings on the 23rd, but it was a bit less exciting
than the advance publicity led us to believe it would be. The most dangerous thing for the jousters
 would be falling into the water, as the water in the Port de France is not especially clean.

We also had plenty of time to get away from the boat for a day and take the train to the city of Metz on Wednesday, August 26. We'd had a sightseeing day in Metz last year but weren't able to see everything that I wanted to, so it was nice to finally work in that long-desired second visit. An early start from Toul allowed us to accomplish the items on my "wish list."

The first thing we did after arrival was to walk to the city's pleasure port to say hello to fellow boaters Amy and Rob, with whom we'd spent some time at TSNI earlier in the summer. They have a 23-meter barge and were fortunate enough to obtain a winter mooring at the port. The 26th was their last day before leaving their boat Vivante, so they were quite busy, but we did manage to have a lovely--if abbreviated--visit.

The walk from the port along a side branch of the Moselle was very attractive. The church
at upper left, New Temple, was built in the early 1900's during the German annexation of
Alsace-Lorraine to serve the German Protestant community.

We next visited the city museum, the Musee de la Cour d'Or. Founded in 1839, it incorporates several much older structures. I was most interested in the Roman and medieval histories of Metz, but the museum also contains an architectural museum and a collection of fine arts. We arrived about an hour-and-a-half before the museum would close for lunch and were warned that there was no way we could see everything in the museum in that amount of time. That might be true, but as my capacity for enjoying museums usually lasts only about an hour on average, we would be judicious--and quick--in choosing where to spend our time. We had other things we wanted to do in Metz, so returning after lunch and making it an all-day museum visit was not an option.

The entrance to the museum is through former Petits-Carmes Chapel, built in 1675 and 
much renovated to its current state. 

The museum has a huge collection of Gallo-Roman artifacts, many from Metz and the surrounding areas, but from other parts of France as well. It was, frankly, overwhelming. 

One of the most fascinating aspects of the museum was the way that the structures of a large
Roman public bath of the late 1st or early 2nd century were incorporated into the museum. The
baths were discovered during museum expansion excavations in1932-35.

  

There were many, many Roman tombstones among the displayed objects.

Not everything was related to the Roman "World of the Dead."

Top: a few centuries after the Romans, the Merovingians left their
share of burial sites.
Bottom: the ground floor of the Chevremont Granary. This 15th-century
building that served as a municipal storage house for grain until 1870 is
part of the museum. The level displays medieval and religious sculptures.

Some of the most important displays in the medieval section of the museum involve painted
ceilings. At left are 13th C. painted ceilings taken from two adjacent rooms in a medieval 
house. They are called the Bestiary Ceilings because many of the figures represent fantastical
figures found in medieval bestiaries, illustrated books that mixed real animals with legendary
creatures. Ring-counting of the wood used in the ceilings very specifically assigned the age of 
the beams to trees felled in 1190; the wood of the planks is from trees cut in 1218-1219.
At right is the 14th C. Heraldic Ceiling from a different medieval house, a grand ceremonial
ceiling that displays 36 distinct coats of arms.

By this point, time was getting short and we'd about reached our limit for absorbing what the museum had to offer. We left to find some lunch before tackling the afternoon's activities. Fortunately, we didn't have to walk too far to find what we needed.

Left: our view of the Cathedral of Saint Stephen during lunch. 
Right: we viewed this poster as an advance warning to us to stay out of Metz on September 28.
 The pope will be stopping there as part of a several days trip to France. It will, no doubt, be a madhouse.

Our first destination after lunch involved a quick stop in the cathedral, just to get another look at the stained-glass windows for which Saint Stephens is known.

Upper left: contemporary Old and New Testament stories done in 1957 by Jacques Villon.
Lower left: one of my favorites, a Marc Chagall window.
Right: traditional stained glass is also well-represented.

Another place we didn't have time to see when we were in Metz last year was the Porte des Allemands, the German Gate. It is the last of the fortified medieval gates that used to control entry into Metz that remains. In the early 16th century, there were multiple gates and towers along the ramparts of Metz, most of which were dismantled in the mid-19th century and when Metz was under German control in the early 20th century. A major renovation project of Porte des Allemands in 2013-2014 gave public access to two Renaissance-era rooms and a terrace on the east side.

Streets on our way to the German Gate. Providing shade with a cover of plastic streamers
seems to be a "thing" in cities this year. No shopping for us.

The photos are from the passage between the two sets of gates that comprise
the Porte des Allemands. The arcaded gallery dates to around 1480.
Top: The crenellated towers were constructed starting in the mid-1400's.
Bottom: construction on the first towers began in 1230.

Various exterior perspectives of the gates. The body of water over
which the gate and its associated bridges extend is the Seille River.

This small defensive structure attached to the outer wall of the fortifications is called a 
caponier. It was built in 1527, under the direction of Philippe Dex, who was governor of the
fortification at the time, and so it is named Caponniere Dex. The bas-relief circled in blue
is thought to represent Dex, pants down and mooning any potential attackers.

That completed the list of "things to do" in Metz, so we headed for the train station and were on our way to Toul by mid-afternoon. 

On our way to the train station we walked by the Centre Pompidou Metz, the city's museum
of modern and contemporary art. As neither of us are big fans of most contemporary art, we
didn't feel too bad that we omitted a stop here on our itinerary for the day.

C.A.R.I.B.'s next owners spent last Thursday and Friday, September 3 and 4, with us on C.A.R.I.B. It was a busy couple of days, but going over some of the boat features seemed to be helpful to them. We also had a joint phone call with the boat broker to discuss topics such as changing registration and insurance.

Diane and David taking a break with us on the back
 deck of the boat.

The only step remaining before the boat ownership transfers is the last payment, which must be completed on or before September 25. So, we wait and continue our preparations for our departure. We don't need to stay on C.A.R.I.B. III until the ownership change unless we want to, and we're rather tired of being in a shipyard, so we've decided to be ready to leave on September 16. We will rent an apartment in the city of Nancy for our last two weeks in France. Between now and our return to Florida we'll also be working in short trips to Paris and Basel to visit with vacationing family and friends.

We had an absolutely stunning sunset last week. Perhaps that's
another sign of autumn.