Charleville Mezieres to Haybes

May 31, 2024

Canada Geese take over the Meuse River

What a wonderful stay we have had at Appartement12 in Charleville-Mézières. We had a lovely host, stellar accommodation, great breakfast, a space for our tandem and location..location! We are staying in the heart of this historic city. When we go out the door, we are on a wide pedestrian street in the historic centre. One could stay here a week and never lack for something to do or see.
Our host is a pro…she knows how to provide what you need before you ask, and you instantly feel at home. Somehow we communicated….she spoke very quickly in French and we would respond in English hoping we were on the same wavelength. Occasionally her puzzled look would reduce us to laughter and all was good…I think!

Our room is on the top floor of this historic old building…the windows in our bedroom/bathroom are new additions…positioned on a slant due to the roofline and have a mechanism that allows you to open them wide providing great views across the inner city skyline.

From our bathroom we get a good view of the Cathedral and super accoustics of the clock chiming every 15 minutes. Our host warned us that some have complained about the clock, but we found the sounds quite musical and pleasant.

A very good French breakfast is included…

Excellent baguettes, bread and sweets from the local bakery.

A native and beloved native of Charleville Mezieres is the poet Arthur Rimbaud. He was born here in 1854 and is known for his surreal themes and influence on modern literature and arts. An interesting life…known to be a free spirit and libertine, he produced the bulk of his writing before the age of 20 and then travelled the 3 continents as a merchant and explorer. His writing had an impact on writers such as Samuel Beckett and Paul Verlaine. Throughout the city, you can see how proud they are of Rimbaud with his likeness frequently shown and a Museum devoted to his life and work.

Appartement12 has two rooms for rent and this well stocked kitchen is shared.

Charleville Mezieres has a strong cultural core with many events ongoing . One of these annual events is the La Marionnette Festival. Charleville is renowned in the world for its marionettes. We had a few marionettes in our suite…one is featured in the photo above and Pinocchio was hanging above the staircase to our bedroom.

Charleville is renowned worldwide for puppetry and the poet Rimbaud. There are museums devoted to both. Rimbaud’s relatively brief time as a writer and his death at the young age of 35 had a huge impact on many, including counter culture figures like Kerouac, William Burroughs and Bob Dylan.

Our lovely host…merci beaucoup pour votre hospitality.

We were so relieved that we could store our bike on the ground level of the building with easy access at the street level. Our accommodation is two floors up. At one point our host was having trouble understanding me and she bent over the railing, called down to her neighbour (who speaks English) one floor down and before I knew it, his head appeared and he cheerfully called the translation up to me. The joys of travelling!

Our kitchen was the second floor up above the door and our bedroom was one floor above that with slanted windows, giving us an open view to the sky and surroundings..

This prominent statue of Charles de Conzacue is in the centre of town on the pedestrian walkway. The city of Charleville was built by Conzacue, an Italian aristocrat and his plan was to counter the growing influence of Protestantism in the nearby city of Sedan by populating this new town with Catholics.

We liked this feature on Conzacue’s fountain.

We are enjoying the graceful architecture in France…tall oversized front doors and windows framed with stonework, metalwork forming balconies, brick fronts, etc.

The Town Hall in the main city square which is considered one of the largest and most attractive in France, with Italian design (Conzacue’s influence)

As is often seen in city squares, an elaborate Carousel.

One of the many pedestrian areas branching off the City Square.

One of the choices of a ride on the Carousel.

Museum of Arthur Rimbaud. We would have liked to visited this, but we have a long ride today and it is shaping up to be another rainy day.

Love the dedication to keeping cyclists on track with good signage and painting the areas on the road.

We are heading in the direction of Givet, the last city in France on the Meuse River heading north. We will be there in two days. It is hard to believe we will soon be in Belgium.

Canada Geese and their young families are everywhere along the ride today. It is raining throughout the day and very cold. Looking forward to reaching our destination Haybes, but still a way to go. Mama is warning us to stay at a distance. We recognize the signs when she speaks to us with her mouth open and her tongue visible.

There are many locks along our route today. This family who look after the lock have really decorated the area.

Wow, the signs with dates on them are showing the flood levels of the Meuse River at this location. This makes us recall our situation earlier on this trip on the Moselle when we woke up to flooded bikeways and the local roads. The Meuse and the Moselle are both at very high levels this spring. The daily rain is not helping.

Mary Ellen rescued the smaller creature who had fallen apart.

Loved this feature at the Lock keepers’s home…cascading cacti

The goslings are beautiful…loved the family’s reflection in the puddle.

Enjoyed the footwork of the gosling on the right.

It is interesting to follow the course of these winding rivers. What takes us a day of riding is but a short distance if the route was straight.

Lunch by the Meuse River and the geese are hoping for handouts. We like the shelter under the trees from the rain.

Barry dropped some granola and these birds must have a secret language that we can’t hear, because they suddenly came in droves.

All is calm, the birds have wandered off.

The river is so high that the banks have disappeared.

The water is rising and we can see barriers erected to the right along the shore similar to what we saw earlier on the flooded Moselle.

Time for lunch, so we crossed the river to find a bakery or shop.

Mary Ellen went for a walk to find the public bathroom. It wasn’t there, but this cat caught her eye. The cat did not look to impressed to see ME and was very motivated to get away from her.

It crossed directly by her, but the cat had a plan…

…and up she jumped with her eyes focussed on the opening in the stone fence. She was successful and popped through the hole and to safety on the other side. The atheleticism of cats is amazing.

What a beautiful bridge to come upon in the middle of nowhere.

Our reprieve from rain has ended….it is coming again. Today we have given up on taking off our rain gear as we seem to need it most of the time.

Debris being collected by the bridge moorings in this rushing river.

Canoeists must portage at each lock and carry their canoe and belongings, sometimes quite a distance.

Now, this is something completely new for us on this trip…a 224 metre tunnel through the canal.The tunnel was constructed in 1870

This was a very interesting experience. You could see on the rock walls where it had been carved out by hand in places. It was also a pretty wet experience as large water droplets came down from the ceiling.

It is nice to see passenger trains in this area. We have not seen many since Germany.

This famous attraction is popular but we decided it’s not for us. You shoot through the air on a cable for 1.2 km at a speed of over 100 km per hour for 30 euros.. We’ll stick to our slower mode of travel…a bicycle.

The forests and cliffs of the Ardennes are quite beautiful.

Canada Geese have definitely taken over in this area.

These villages along the river have a long history, centuries old and are very picturesque.

Such a pretty view at Fumay and we are happy that the sun is out.

What a beauty…and so excited. We are staying the night at the village of Haybes that is just around the corner.

Today's ride: 57 km (35 miles)
Total: 985 km (612 miles)

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