Thionville - back in France

P1010655P1010662P1010648

The summerly weather continues! It has been blue skies and 25 - 27 degrees for the last 3 days.

We are back in France and loving it and straight back into the baguettes!

Just out off Luxembourg, we started looking for a nice place to stop. We passed the small marina at Koenigsmacher but it didn’t seem very inviting. So we headed to Thionville which has pontoons right on the promenade below the old town centre. (The port de plaisance upstream is further from the centre with a highway up above). Just be careful as the draft is shallow south of the pontoons.

The pontoons can hold about 6-8 boats depending on size,mooring is free for 48 hours, but there are no services. We were the only boat there except of a small jet boat which was bouncing 2 squealing people in rubber donuts across the river. They pulled up for a break and offered to give us a go, but after seeing one of them lift up in the air at high speed and flip upside down, we weren’t too keen. It’s so much more fun watching the neck breaking manoeuvres while sipping on our G&Ts!

P1010660

At sunset we walked along the lantern lid river promenade. A beautiful landscaped rose garden, “Parc Napoléon”, lies between the promenade and streets of late 19th century villas.

While walking we were hit by a few missiles from above. Rows of chestnut trees were dropping their fruit. It reminded me of my childhood and the chestnut figures we used to create.

Sitting on the deck till late, we saw the big long barges glide silently past like phantoms of the night.

P1010657

We stayed another day, explored the old town and visited the “Tour aux Puces” or “Flea Tower”. The name originated from a mix-up between the german word for fleeing and for flea. In earlier times it served  as arsenal and later as a military prison. Nowadays it stores archeological finds of this area from the stone age to Gallo-roman times and the Middle Ages - very interesting!

In the afternoon, another boat cast on and we had a nice evening sitting on deck of the Freshwater till dark, getting lots of useful tips from the experienced German skipper.

© Austin Robinson 2019