L'Avenir - Cruising Europe's Inland Waterways

We haven't had much luck at Sedan in the past - or the present in fact. This time some unfortunate boater had sideswiped the pontoons at the moorings and now they are unusable. There is a convenient enough wall on the opposite side of the river but the adjoining large carpark was full of caravans large and small and very large trucks. No problem - we secured ourselves to a convenient boulder, hammered in a couple of pins and got down to the business of  lunch. Then we took a closer look. This seemed to be a serious encampment. Floodlights, generators, awnings - a frites (chips) van. And, hoses snaking their way from the caravans over the wall and down to the river - only not quite... We decided to move. Out of the frying pan, so to speak. So, we didn't get to see if the citadel roof had been repaired since our last visit but I expect it has. We moved on to a pontoon a few km outside the city. Looked lovely. Quiet farmland, dusty track leading to a village about a km awa...

Verdun’s story has been told by many and much more eloquently than I could ever attempt. If you don’t know it then you should find out. If you have the chance to visit then you should. Unlike most fields of battle the ‘Red Zone’ above the city has not been ploughed up and returned to smooth farmland. Almost one hundred years has passed and although the ground has now been reclaimed by forest and grass, it still clearly shows the utter devastation caused by the millions of wartime shells. The zone includes a number of 'villages detruit' - destroyed villages. They have never been rebuilt except that each now has a church. There are no inhabitants but each village has a mayor. 85% of the city of Verdun was also destroyed but it was meticulously restored over a ten year period after the war. From the top of the Ossiary at Douamont, Verdun. The remains of over 130 000 unidentified soldiers lie here. We spent 5 days in Verdun as there was much to see and reflect u...