Karen’s Travel Blog

Just as in 2019 we turned around leaving France and retraced our steps northward towards the Netherlands. Jo enjoyed our company and the river for 5 days leaving us at Fumay to train it south to Provence . As usual there were still many discoveries to be made.

Our next stop on leaving Charleville Meziere was back to Montherme . This stop allowed Jo and me to ride along the La Semoy river that flows into the Meuse just south of the town.

This river could be navigated up until the mid 1800’s with the towns along the river also served by a train line. But all this has gone now and the region is dedicated to camping, walking rafting and of course bike riding

We were now travelling down the river, which made the locks much easier to handle and with Jo on board we had a photographer to record the more challenging parts of the journey.

As I mentioned previously Jo departed our company at Fumay while we continued down the river to pick up our next guests at Maastricht. Our trip took us from France through Belgium and into the Netherlands. Sounds like a breeze, just around the corner! Well it only took us 8 days through 21 locks and covered approximately 200kms! The same trip in a car or train would only take a few hours but then you would miss the highlights along the river. So what did we discover?

Vieux Wallerland

Dispute its German sounding name this is a small town on the Meuse in France and a climb up the imposing hill overlooking the town takes you to the remains of an early Roman and medieval settlement.

Huy

The towns along the Meuse were all established as trading ports most dating back to Roman times. And of course if you have a trading port with a commanding position on the river, you need fortifications to defend your asset. At Huy a huge citadel dominates the city skyline, unfortunately closed when we arrived. Tying up at the town wall we did manage to take in a few sights.

Liege

We stopped in liege in 2019, and we’re unimpressed, but a few years later we fell in love with this city. My walk of discovery took me up to the top of the hill and the ruins of the fort. And how did I get there? A lot of stairs!

From the stairs I wandered around the site of the ruins of the fort then down the hill through the ancient streets of the district of Voliere

From Liege it was on to Maastricht to pick up our next lot of visitors, Geoff and Viv Knight.

Ooh forgot to mention the other visitors……