The Meuse canal in France stretches from Givet close to the border with Belgium to Troussey where it joins with the Marne-Rhine canal. The locks on this canal are mostly automatic but operate between 9 am and 6 pm only, so we have to plan our daily route accordingly. We spent the first night in France in Givet, the mooring spot offered a nice view on the city. There we met another sailing yacht on its way to the Mediterranean owned by Insa and Gerd, a German couple who kindly offered us a few beers in their spacious cockpit. The next day we covered about 50 km and stopped in Laifour, a tiny village that has a train station and that’s about it (we did manage to get a baguette). We then stopped in Charleville-Mézières, there we met Insa and Gerd again and started the River Sailing Club (which turned out to be more about drinking than sailing). The city was our last stop before parting with them and leaving the French Ardennes. We hope to meet Insa and Gerd again in the Mediterranean. Further stop-overs were Mouzon (after passing Sedan), Dun-sur-Meuse, Verdun and Sampigny. In this part of the trip we had to clean our weed strainer daily: water stopped flowing to the engine at the most inconvenient times such as when entering a lock. We became quite good at removing and cleaning the strainer in just a couple of minutes.
Some numbers:
- Distance covered: 272 km
- Number of locks: 59
- Number of drawbridges: 2 (luckily they were open)
- Number of tunnels: 2
Dear travellers Sarah & Thijs,
Please activate your tracker. So we can track on the sides you indicated in your mail to us.
Nice photos and story.
Safe voyage.
See you December when we are busy again.
Maarten en Marco.
Nice that you’re following us! When the mast is up again (so when we’re in the Med) we can place the antenna for the AIS (as it goes on top of the mast) and you can track us. Cheers 🙂