L'Avenir - cruising Europe's inland waterways

Chagall windows in Reims Cathedral. Absolutely stunning as were all the windows. My little camera only hints at their beauty I'm afraid. Don't blink (Dr Who fans will understand). One of the many angels at the cathedral. Unfortunately the famous Angel of Reims was hidden behind scaffolding in an area undergoing restoration. Rose Window Reims Cathedral Reims Cathedral

Next day's front page Sedan Chateau entrance Jousting Tournament in central courtyard Along the Ramparts  Storm Approaching A bad picture I know but it was as it was happening and through a window Central courtyard after the storm. Fortunately all the tournament horses had left but the falconner was injured attempting to rescue his birds -and from the outside. We were at the second window to the left of the turret. This Chateau a little out of Sedan is already a ruin - but it's worse now -and the evening of the following day. The calm after the storm.

I was going to go back and correct all the typos in my last post but have decided instead to leave them to remind me of the difficulties of typing on a French keyboard. As with many things, the French seem to be determined to have their own version. I can see that you need to have keys for accents but what's wrong with the qwerty layout? Why swap Q and A - there's a question. Why have the added complication of having to press shift every time you want to put a full stops? Don't they like full stops? And as for finding the key for @..... after trying every combination of keys I could think of I had to give up and ask the owner of the internet shop.

Typing this in an internet cafe so no pictures at the moment which is a pity as I have a few dramatic ones to post. We were looking forward to Bastille Day in France as there are great celebrations. We aimed to be in Sedan but unfortunately all the fireworks and generql yahooing goes on on the previous evening and we were in a tiny village called Pont a Bar then. They didn't have fireworks but they did have a private party in a big house near the canal which went on until 4 am... Now much as I like Shakira I prefer my sleep at that hour. So we arrived in Sedan about midday the next day which was just too lqte to see the big march of the pompiers etc ( firefighters). Quite why they march I have yet to find out. However we were to have plenty to do with said pompiers later in the day. Being the national holiday the town was closed up and pretty well deserted so we decided to visit the chateau/ castle/fort which is the largest in Europe. It is absolutely enormous. Usually these fort...

Pill Box from WW2 Antique carousel in main sqaure of Charleville Mezieres We’ve been in France for a week now and if you’re following our progress you’ll see we haven’t come very far. There’s no hurry though which is just as well as we’ve spent rather a lot of time hanging around at locks waiting for them to be fixed. Most of them are automatic. You get to within range and point a remote ‘thingy’ and the lock gets ready for you – you hope. Once inside you secure your lines (sounds easy doesn’t it?)  and then push upwards on a blue pole and the lock begins to fill (or empty). Alongside the blue pole there’s a red one which you pull if there’s an emergency. That stops the whole procedure and then you have to wait for the cavalry to come in the form of a man in a little white van. As yet we haven’t had to touch the red but we’ve seen lots of men in little white vans. Things seem to go wrong with regularity. Not to worry, there are less scenic places to w...

The fortified town of Huy in Belgium Profondeville - Belgium Thought for the day - pavement in Profondeville Namur - Belgium Namur River Meuse Welcome to France - with a downpour '-and stood the clock at ten to three' Givet, France The Ham Tunnel. Looks short but it's actually over 500 metres long. We weren't altogether sure we would fit but we did - just. Relaxing in Fumay, France Fumay an argument over a game of boules - Fumay Our Mooring at Fumay

Well we're here at long last! We've been following the River Meuse through Belgium and now into France and it's been absolutely beautiful scenery wise. High limestone cliffs and thick forests. Quite a change from Holland. Not the only change though. There's the language - here no-one speaks english and for boaties there's the all important question of locks. Now we are not novices as far as locks go. We've been all over England, Holland and a bit of Belgium but if we've learnt one thing, it's you know nothing, and there is some lock designer out there who's come up with something to confuse you. On entering France we were given a little yellow box and a leaflet on how to work the 'automatic locks.' The lock keeper presented it to me with a sad expression and said, in French,' it sometimes does not work'. Understatement. Sometimes being the redundant word. But, there's always the little white van with the helpful lock keeper wh...