Join Barge Nilaya at her mooring right in the heart of the stunning city of Nancy. It's a short walk or tram ride away from Place Stanislas, an architectural gem of a central square created in 1750 and recently fully restored by UNESCO as a breathtaking world heritage monument. Nancy's old town was founded in the 11th century but transformed in the 18th by Stanislas Leczinski, Duke of Lorraine. It is a masterpiece of 18th century town planning. There's lots to see and do in Nancy and you shouldn't miss seeing the Historic Museum of Lorraine while there. Nancy's tourist office can organise private guided tours if you are interested and it's also market day. The opportunities to dine out are vast so its definitely your best course of action tonight. I'll save your welcome dinner for one of the nights when dining out is NOT an option.During the course of this week Barge Nilaya cruises a variety of different scales of waterway. On Sunday we will pass through two swing bridges and industrial suburbs of Nancy before breaking out of the city onto the mighty Moselle River. It's possible that we'll encounter huge 1500 tonne scrap barges which are en route to the steel works at Neuves-Maisons, maybe even sharing one of the vast ecluses (locks) with them. We'll pass through one of these huge locks at Pompey, moments after joining the Moselle. Barge Nilaya cruises up a stretch of the Moselle overlooked by the impressive 12th century hilltop village of Liverdun below which, subject to one of the very limited spaces being available, I hope to moor and give you a chance to look around the village and its fortifications. Lorraine barge cruises.After lunch we cruise up a magnificent, wide, heavily wooded stretch of the River Moselle with our destination today being the City of Toul. After the huge locks encountered on the river, we turn off and enter the 'Canal de la Marne au Rhin' and far more snug, 'Freycinet' sized locks that we'll encounter for the rest of the week. Entering the City, we actually pass under its defensive city walls before mooring in, or just outside the 'Port de France'. In Toul, we have the chance to admire its incredible defensive walls and moats laid out by Vauban in the eighteenth century plus take a look at the intricately detailed facade of the St. Etienne Cathedral built between the 13th and 16th centuries. On Monday morning we'll climb through 12 locks in very quick succession. One thing that becomes clear as we rise is the water! Unless we've had inordinate amounts of rain, the water at the summit is almost transparent and you can see huge fish right under Barge Nilaya. We'll stop for lunch on what we affectionately know as 'picnic island', before cruising through the 500 metre Foug tunnel. Tunnels are always exciting and this is no exception. At times Barge Nilaya's wheelhouse roof will come perilously close to the tunnel ceiling! Tonight, if we can't get on the small pontoon, we'll moor up at a wild location on the towpath near the pretty village of Pagny-sur-Meuse. It's a great place for a barbeque with all the food we stocked up with in Toul. On Tuesday we branch off the 'Marne au Rhin' onto the beautiful, narrow and mostly rural 'Canal de la Meuse' passing through gorgeous tree lined stretches of meandering canal. We cruise close to the town of Commercy which is famed throughout the world as home to the small sponge cakes known as Madeleines to my closely guarded secret location in a truly wonderful spot a short walk from the villages of Koeur-la-Grande and Koeur-la-Petite. Big and little hearts respectively. On Wednesday, while making further progress toward Verdun, we'll stop for a short visit to the small but well kept town of St. Mihiel. Tonight's mooring (unless occupied) is nearly always overgrown but wood supply and weather permitting offers a great place to enjoy an impromptu camp fire under the stars and the chance to put the world to rights until the wee small hours should that take our fancy. On Thursday, we reach our final destination and the City of Verdun. It's a place forever synonymous with the loss of about 1,000,000 lives in just one year during the carnage, tragedy and bloodbath that was the first world war. But today, as European city of peace, it's a cosmopolitan place with riverside bars, restaurants and throughout the summer months, a superb series of concerts right on the main quay. It's possible to visit all the main war monuments and memorials from Verdun, such as the trench of Bayonets, Ossuary at Douaumont, Citadel and villages that were simply never rebuilt after the war. Some 90 years on, it is still unsafe to stray from the well marked paths in the old battle area.
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Chris & Denise's French Odyssey 2011by Canalcaholic229 views
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