Cultural encounters

A near drama as we entered the first lock on leaving Charleville – we failed to notice a Dutchman slipping in behind us, and had already activated the system before he was fully in. However, disaster – the gates shutting on his stern – was averted. After that, he decided to navigate in front of us. Not surprising, I suppose.

There was quite a lot of traffic on the river – lots of Dutch, German and Belgian boats heading south. Not many going north like us.

There were lots of wild flowers on the river bank, and shows like this at some of the locks – better than plastic sheep!

The river was placid enough – hardly perceptible current, but these signs were a reminder of how wild it can be, showing the various peak flood levels. Quite scary.

The Meuse cuts dramatically through the Ardennes forest  national park and much of it feels like a canyon, with the walls very nearly vertical, but just permitting trees to get a hold.

It is tamed with weirs every few kilometres, and then we divert into a short canal cut leading to a lock.

There are no castles to be seen on the Meuse - at least not so far, which will be a relief to some readers. There were some classy riverside residences though:

Our second drama of the day came when we moored up for lunch on a convenient quayside. First we ignored a bossy German lady who wanted us to turn around and point upstream. In view of the negligible current, we had no intention of doing that. So, being Brit, we moored up at the other end of the quay, only for a Dutchman to arrive, and when, all smiles, I offered to take a line from his wife, I was treated to a foul-mouthed tirade about mooring in the wrong place. Since there was room for about five other boats, this seemed somewhat exaggerated. However, the German came running along to join in, and the whole thing became so unpleasant that we cast off and sailed away. We found a place for lunch a little further on, a kind of Table du Roy:

Plenty to look at along the river, including this monstrosity – after Le Corbusier, I suppose. But a long way after:

Eventually we moored up for the night here at Fumay, ready to get online and find out the latest Greek dramas.