From Givet south to Charleville-Mézières, the Meuse flows through a valley in the Ardennes, a hilly, heavily forested region. It winds and meanders its way through some beautiful scenery, with steep hills, thick forests and rocky cliffs popular with climbers. On 22 August we left Givet, travelling 24kms and 6 locks upstream, and stopped for a couple of days at Fumay, a small town on a knobby peninsula formed by the sinuous curves of the river. Before we could enjoy much scenery, however, we had to cope with our first tunnel, at Ham-sur-Meuse – a mere baby at 565 metres long, but daunting nevertheless.

The quayside port at Fumay was quite pleasant, with a semi-permanent fast food van very popular with locals. It was also handy to a small but very fine wine ‘cave’.

Although I obtained some excellent supplies at the cave, I had not consumed any when I suffered my first on-board accident, barely two weeks into our cruise. In making some adjustments to the engine, I had left the hatch in the wheelhouse floor open and, on reaching across to flick a switch I completely forgot about the hole and fell straight down it, injuring my knee and hip, although as far as I could tell without any breaks. I thanked the stars and promised to be more careful in future.

The next day I struggled up the hill to the village pharmacy and bought a firm elastic bandage to support my injury. We also visited a lovely boulangerie whose ovens were virtually on the street. The French really do live in close harmony with le pain…. as I was, in a different sense!

On 24 August we left Fumay to continue up the Meuse, intending to stop at a renowned beauty spot, the village of Monthermé. For 6 hours, 31kms and 7 locks, we enjoyed some wonderful scenery, with droolworthy riverside properties and thickly forested river bends.

We had read much about the beauty of Monthermé and were looking forward to stopping there for a couple of days. About a kilometre, and a bend, before we arrived, however, we noticed a stench and a brown, foamy excrescence on the river, which we quickly identified as of human origin and which could only have come from upstream… that is, the next village, or Monthermé. As we rounded the bend, still marvelling at the natural beauty of the river, we discovered the source of the problem. There were a large number of boats moored at the port in Monthermé and, in addition, a newly created camping-car park had attracted at least a score of shiny white campervans in close formation, all with their noses almost bumping up against the quay. We decided immediately to continue on another 4 kilometres to the upstream village of Bogny-sur-Meuse.

The thing is, France does not have many pump-out points for boats, in fact almost none, even though many boats cruising through France (especially those from countries with stricter regimes, like Britain, Germany and the Netherlands) have fitted blackwater holding tanks. Obviously a real problem can occur when several boats, having collected a load in their tanks, decide all together to empty those tanks in the same place. Yuk!

In the event, Bogny, although undistingished, was pleasant enough, with a good pontoon mooring and very few neighbours. We passed a comfortable evening there before heading south towards the regional capital of Charleville-Mézières.