Unexcused Absences France 2014 - Week 12 Recap (he said)

France 2014 – Week 12 Recap (he said)

by Kent 30 Sep 2014

Sunday morning in Toul we awoke to our first real rain in three weeks. That did not dampen (sorry…) our enthusiasm to take the cathedral tower tour as part of the national Jours de Patrimoine (heritage days). Heritage days occur in France every year on the third weekend in September, and it’s really quite an opportunity; museums have reduced or free entry, private château open their doors to the public, and special events and performances abound. While interesting, the tower tour was not quite as good as the one in Reims.

View from the Toul cathedral tower

Later that afternoon we saw a Bach concert at the smaller church in town. The organist/conductor/scholar had a colossal ego (that’s actually understating it) but the music was well performed, even if his premise (something about repeating patterns in Bach’s fugues) was a bit obscure. But hey, it was better than standing out in the rain.

Bach concert at the Collégiale Saint-Gengoult church in Toul

Monday morning we set out with Jori for the first few locks, then turned left on the Moselle River towards Nancy and while they turned right towards the Canal des Vosges to get to their winter parking spot on the Saone River. Now that we’re on the Moselle, the locks have gotten much bigger; they’ve gone from “regular” gauge (38.5 meters long by 5.1 meters wide) to “large” gauge (185 meters by 12 meters). Not quite the enormous locks of the Seine River, but slightly intimidating after the cozy little locks we’ve been in all year.

“Jori” motoring under the Toul city walls

Monday night in Nancy Dad took us to a tasty little restaurant (La Grange) where favorite wife claimed to have the best appetizer in her life (duck ravioli dipped in a hot broth, with foie gras on the side). My meal was very tasty, but didn’t quite warrant that level of superlative.

A big-gauge lock on the Moselle River

Tuesday we all tried to go to the Beaux Arts museum, but much of France is normally closed and Tuesday was no exception in Nancy. We made do with the Musée Historique Lorraine, which had a nice display of Roman and pre-Roman artifacts from the area. That evening we took Dad to the train station for his trip home. We found out after later that his nice, direct flight on Air France the next morning from Paris was canceled due to a pilot’s strike (shocking, I know, for the French to go on strike), and he ended up on a whirlwind tour of the JFK airport terminals before finally getting home to DC about 10 hours after his originally scheduled arrival.

Relics in a local church – see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil

Wednesday we cruised north to Pont-a-Mousson, a town with a bridge (pont) in an area called Mousson. We parked at a large marina that shared space with an even larger camping-car (RV) park. There is a nice hike to the hill above the town where we walked around the ruins of a fortified château (the Château Mousson, naturally).

Place Stanislaus in Nancy

The next day we finally had the chance to do absolutely nothing. We’ve had quite the whirlwind of activities over the past 6 weeks, with schedules, guests, sightseeing, a car trip to Luxembourg, battlefield visits, heritage day events, etc., and after breakfast we looked at each other and said, let’s do nothing. So we did. I read a really engrossing book of historical fiction (“Enigma”, by Robert Harris), and Heather read and napped.

View of Pont-a-Mousson from the Château

That afternoon our friends David and Ondra, onboard Old and Bold, pulled in to port. It wasn’t actually a surprise, as we had been in contact and knew that we’d cross paths soon on the Moselle, but it was nice to spend happy hour catching up with them instead of just waving as we passed on the water. The last time we saw them was at the southern end of the Nivernais Canal early in the 2013 cruising season. They bought their boat at the same time we did, so we have both had a similar learning curve with respect to canal cruising. It’s really fun to compare notes with them, and they were part of our inspiration to cruise on the Meuse River earlier this year.

An ENORMOUS cargo barge that fills the 575 foot x 40 foot lock – yes, that is their car on the aft deck

Friday we continued a few hours north on the Moselle River to a tiny boat harbor north of Corny-sur-Moselle. Heather cooked up the boudin blanc and spätzele we bought at the Nancy market. Saturday morning we set out for Metz, our turn-around spot on the Moselle. From there we’ll head back south, through Nancy, and then east towards our winter mooring spot in Lagarde.

The Presbyterian church “Temple Neuf” in Metz

Now, show of hands – who’s ever heard of Metz? We sure hadn’t, other than seeing it on a map and hearing great reports from other boaters. And all the stories were true – it is a terrific city. The marina is on the edge of a lake, with views to one side of the hills and forests of the Moselle Valley, and views to the other side of the city with its cathedral and numerous church spires. The covered market is in a gorgeous two-story building near the cathedral. Turns out that is not by chance; it used to be the bishop’s palace, until the revolutionaries in 1789 decided that a building so nice should belong to the people.

Former Bishop’s palace, now the Metz covered market

In yet another vote for Metz, the captainerie facilities are some of the best we’ve seen; large, clean, hot showers; a lounge with tables, chairs and free Wi-Fi; a book exchange library; and as incredible as it sounds, free unlimited use of the laundry machines (no token necessary). Needless to say, we washed everything – clothes, linens, even the rugs and outside window covers. If they weren’t so hard to disassemble, we probably would have washed the curtains too. Free laundry is absolutely unprecedented in France. We’ll stay in Metz another several nights, so I’ll talk more about this city in next week’s recap.

The cathedral in Metz

Weather-wise, we couldn’t have asked for a better September so far; starting the first day of the month, the rain stopped, the sun came out, the temperatures rose, and we’ve barely had to use the heater at all. If the forecast is to be believed, we may yet finish off our bottle of sunscreen that we originally figured would be gone by mid July.

Early evening in Metz

On a final note, we spent more this week in mooring fees than in the first four weeks of this year’s cruise combined. Mostly that is because we’ve been on the Moselle River, where mooring spots are few and far between – the marinas know it, and charge accordingly. But in the grand scheme, what we spent this week would barely cover one night at a popular marina in Annapolis or Florida.

France 2014 Week 12 Numbers