Today we realized that it has been a week since our last post and this isn’t because there’s been nothing to report – quite the opposite, we are having a lovely time. But with no free Wi-Fi we are using the “stick” for email only and not spending much time on the computer. Since the last post we have had a quiet rural night in secluded mooring, spent 3 days in Verdun, and two days in this nice little town of St. Mihiel. And you can’t spend any time here without being educated on the WWI as this is where is all happened.
Verdun was a nice city of 21,000 people with moorings (free) right in 
the middle of town and some very nice buildings. We had the best meal so far in a little restaurant near the quay, thank you again Trip Advisor.
The next day we bought tickets for the “hop on hop off” bus tour to the battlegrounds. My impressions of the WWI battlegrounds were of pitched battles on flat fields, but the land around Verdun is hilly, wooded and very pretty. The first stop was an excellent museum that lead you through the war and the particular battle of Verdun that lasted 300 days and took ½ million lives. We had 50 minutes before the next bus so we followed the signs to the village of Fleury which was the most moving of all the monuments. Imagine one of the prettiest forested landscapes you have seen, with the light sifting through the trees on a gentle slope and lush ground cover with occaisional flowers. Then you notice that the ground is not really smooth but is many hillocks and hollows and in some of the hollows there is the odd brick or concrete rubble. In amongst the forest along side of the path are small concrete posts with a plaque on top - Boulanger, Farm, Boucherie and, near a small monument, Hotel de Ville, other than that there is nothing there. The forest is all that remains of the village that was unfortunate to be in a key strategic position and changed hands about 16 times during the battle, by the end of which it was completely destroyed. There are 12 others like it in the area. The land was so devastated after the war with so much explosive buried (over 60 million shells fired) that it was all turned over to the forestry department. Now it is a tranquil beautiful landscape covering reminders of unspeakable horrors.
The day continued with more formal and dramatic monuments.
The next stretch of the river is still uses manual locks so we had to call the day before and tell them when we were leaving so there were people on hand. I think I told them the right thing as it worked OK.
We got our own personal lock keeper who travelled with us through several locks and then passed us off to the next guy. Our last keeper gave Terry a pink rose and a “madeleine” cake. As we did 10 locks between Verdun and St. Mihiel this was helpful. Our first lock keeper was very helpful and even delivered us apples from his tree after Terry admired them, not knowing they were his.
St. Mihiel was the one town on the Meuse held by the Germans throughout most of the war until liberated by US and French troops.
Today the weather was perfect and there were lots of activities in town including the Petanque championship, and a concert by the music school in the local church.
In a couple of days we will leave the valley of the Meuse for that of the Moselle. We first encountered the river as the Maas at Heusden in Holland back in June. Since returning we have been on it,and it’s canals, continuously climbing over 600 feet. It is a lovely river and we have learned about it’s historical importance from before the Roman times. It will be like saying goodbye to an old friend.
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