Here we are back in Charleville-Mezieres in early August outside the Rimbauld museum. Arthur Rimbauld was a local poet/writer celebrated as the region's modern claim to fame. Our friends had to go home to the UK and I had to go back to work for 2 weeks so Lorna & the boat stayed in Charleville-Mezieres for 3 more weeks.

We took Waterdog to Bogny-sur-Meuse for Pete & Tracy's last cruise day and walked the Quatre Fils de Bogny which were the 4 rocky peaks above the river. Tilly did really well and conquered all 4 peaks with us despite the rocky paths and scree. In the picture above you can see the River Meuse running through the valley below us.

So our 3rd period of cruising started in late August and ended at our home mooring in September. We went from scorching summer to cool rain very suddenly with the start of September but the sunshine returned after a week to give a nice early October. By early September it seemed that most of the cruising boats had gone home and we saw very little boat traffic compared to July and August. As we were returning back down the River Meuse we decided to only stop at places that we hadn't been to before on our journey up the river. We stopped at a short quay in a beautiful stretch of river at Laifour where there was only one small boat moored. Within an hour there were 5 boats tied up, all enjoying the lovely warm evening air. A pretty tjalk tied up outside us and they put their bow davit to really good use. They had a rag doll cat which was happy to stay in and on the boat all the time and can be seen in the right hand picture sitting on the mast weight.