We decided to stay another day in Commercy. It’s a nice place and the mooring is free with the possibility to purchase a 3 euro token for electricity and water.
The weather turned out to be perfect, sunny and warm with a cooling breeze.
After the extreme heat we had the day before it was a welcome change and a good time to have a closer look around town .
We started at the Château Stanislas, the grand palace of the former duke of Lorraine and godfather to Louis XV.
From the palace gates your view is uninterrupted right down Avenue Stanislas to the forested hills outside of town.
On the way from the Canal to the palace you pass a network of small canals, mills and bridges, where the former tanneries, corn mills, old wash houses and abattoir used to be.
The other big claim to fame of Commercy, competing with the Château, is the “Madeleine” cakes, delicious small sponge cakes. They were apparently named after Madeleine Paumier, a lady-in-waiting at the court of King Stanislas. Being good Aussie tourists we saw it as our duty to visit the Madeleine shop and sample the local delicacy.
Close to the Madeleine shop at the Place Charles de Gaulle we found the beautiful buildings of the old Savings Bank and the “Maison de la Musique”. Once the town hall, the Maison de la Musique is now of course the towns music school. 
We decided we needed a bit of "culturing up" and returned there at night for a Modern Percussion Concert. There were school children from Primary to High school age plus some of the mothers working brooms, vacuum cleaners and buckets, corrugated pipes and petrol drums, xylophones, drums, bongoes and tennis balls in diverse rhythmical pieces. Great fun!