8th - 12th June. From the River Meuse, past the town of Charleville- Mezieres, on to the Canal des Ardennes.

This viewpoint overlooks Joigny sur Meuse, with The Puzzler moored on the left side. We followed a 15km marked walk up from Joigny to this view, then on through the forest, returning to the river Meuse at the next lock. We must be getting fitter!

Moving on to Charleville- Mezieres, we found a picturesque town square there, in this large town.

On leaving the town, the countryside opens out more, and there are so many hay bales in the fields.

We have left the Meuse now, to join the Canal Des Ardennes. The canal locks are much smaller than the river locks were.

The canal des Ardennes is much more like an English canal, and we are in the middle of a heatwave. We are even sailing with the brolly up at the front.

Having spent the night at le Chesne, we spent Saturday first going down a flight of 26 locks. On leaving each lock we can see the next one ahead of us, all ready for The Puzzler.

Once in the lock, a tug on the upright blue pole will shut the gates and activate the lock. The whole flight only took four and a half hours.

Having handed our remote control box back to the lockkeeper at lock 26, there are two more locks before Arrigny. These locks are now activated by twisting the coloured pole, which hangs in midstream.

Arrigny is a delightful mooring, sheltered by the trees. Shannon, our shih-Tzu, has turned over a new leaf today, and comes EVERY time that she is called, instead of playing "Come and catch me!"

Dom de Charlemagne church, also on a signpost as Church of Notre Dame, is a Gothic church which was built in the 15th Century in Arrigny.

1st - 7th June 2015 Enfin La France!

Before leaving Dinant, we went for a walk/climb up behind the town.

This road led us up in front of the cliffs until we were as high as the citadel, where we turned off along a track through the woods, which led us even higher to a small hamlet, lying amid green pastures, above the tree line.

Further exploration led us back into the woods, but we missed the turning down to Dinant, and found ourselves on a path which led to the edge of a cliff! Fortunately, we met two dog walkers, who pointed us in the right direction for an extremely steep, but safe, path back through the woods. The gully on the right, behind this church, marks this path, but it was very well hidden to a casual glance.

The river Meuse continues to climb slowly through fantastic scenery, as we go past some cliffs. We are in the Ardennes here.

Both sides of the river are covered with trees with more cliffs amid the greenery.

We both take our turn at the tiller.

Our last mooring in Belgium was at Hermeton.

Having crossed the border into France, we experienced our first French tunnel. This was our first tunnel for four years, and the first ever for Shannon. She was not too sure about it! Just before this tunnel was Trois Fontaines Lock. The light was green as we approached at 11.30am, and there was plenty of room for us to come in alongside another boat, but the lockkeeper shut the gates in our faces. He then came to tell us that it was his lunchtime, so we could wait until 1pm before he would let us through!

We moored at Haybes with several other boats, our busiest mooring so far this year. There is a walking centre on the edge of town, and we followed a marked walk up through the woods for six kilometres, climbing nearly 200 metres to look down on Fumay. Fumay is the next town on the Meuse, and is built within one meander of the river.

The next day we cruised around Fumay, and could see our lookout point high among the trees. See the red arrow.

We now operate these locks with a handheld device. Usually it works well, but we had to wait half an hour for someone to come and let us all out of this lock, due to a power failure.

Our next stop was at Laifour. When we arrived the mooring was full, but Iede invited us alongside Onrust, and we spent a couple of happy days there, with him and Jeannette. Onrust is nearly twice as long as The Puzzler, and over twice as wide, so the harbour master only charged us the very small boat rate, which was nice!

Laifour is a pleasant, unassuming village.

23rd - 31st May 2015. On up the river Meuse to les Jardins d'Annevoie, Le Chateau de Poilvache, and then the town of Dinant.

Les Jardins d'Annevoie lie above the river at Annevoie, and are delightful. There are 50 water features here, in a series of waterfalls and fountains. These are all fed naturally from the Grand Canal which lies above the gardens. It draws its water from the Fonteny spring, on the other side of the hill in the Rouillon valley.

Moving on to Anhee, the Chateau de Poilvache can be seen on top of the cliffs on the other side of the river. It was built in the first quarter of the 13th century, but was besieged and destroyed in 1430 by the army of the Prince-Bishop of Liege. Only the ruins of this clifftop town are left.

We were moored near to a railway bridge which was handy for crossing the river. There was a walkway for pedestrians but, as the last train was pulling 36 freight wagons, we were glad to have a clear crossing! A track through the woods led us up to the castle, and the view from the top made the climb worthwhile.

The Citadel at Dinant is in much better repair, as it towers over the town. The church below it is the Collegial Notre Dame.

This is certainly an impressive church.

There are not so many barges on this stretch of the Meuse, but we saw one going under the main bridge with his wheelhouse right down. There was still very little headroom, so he put on full power at the last minute, to push the stern deeper into the water, and got through safely, with an inch or so to spare.

Adolph Sax was born here in Dinant and colourful saxophones adorn the town bridge.

Andy relaxes with him outside his house.

23rd - 27th May. From Huy, up the river Meuse to Namur, then on to Profondeville.

We found free wifi in Huy town square.

While waiting below Ecluse (lock) d'Andenne – Seilles, Shannon is concerned about access to the land!

We found a space among the barges for The Puzzler to moor. In this respect Belgium is easier than Holland, where the barges are kept separate from the Sport, or pleasure boats.

On up the Meuse, which is now lined with picturesque wooded cliffs. This river was used for transportation of goods as early as Roman times.

The city of Namur lies at the confluence of the rivers Meuse and Sambre. The 17th century citadel guards this junction.

The turtle is more modern than the rest of the citadel, but gives the impression of being on guard here.

The view from the top of the citadel looks down on the River Meuse, where it is joined by the Sambre. This confluence is just beyond the car park.

The snail is the symbol of Namur, so Shannon is checking these ones out.

This fine building started by being a meat market, but has had many other uses since then. It is now a town museum.

Going on up the Meuse the cliffs alongside the river are spectacular. Look at the top of the left peak.

There are three climbers near to the top. It is a perfect place for rock climbing.

This was the most impressive house along this stretch of the Meuse, with copper beech trees to both sides of it.

The evening light at Profondeville was lovely.

19th - 22nd May. From Maastricht, into Belgium on the Albert canal, and then on the River Meuse to Huy.

Maastricht is a lovely city. St Servaas Cathedral and Basilica overlook the Rijthof, the main square which is surrounded by cafes.

The old town walls are hidden among the back streets of the town.

Above Lanaye lock we will join the Albert Canal to go south into Belgium. However, the lock is currently “kaput”. We arrived there at 1.30 pm, and were in the company of many barges, by the time that the first locking went at 7.30pm. We were told that we were to go in the second locking, but as each cycle, up and down, took about an hour, we decided to wait until the morning. Here four smaller (a relative term) barges are exiting the lock, so that four more can go in.

We retreated behind the wall, tying up behind a work barge there. We could hear barges going up and down Lanaye all night.

A new lock is being built here, which will take four large barges. This lock can only take one, plus small boats like us. We are tied on to the barge so had an extremely gentle ride up the lock, which has a rise of over 13 metres. This was our deepest lock so far.

We passed through Liege, which is a big city, but we did not stop there.

At the next lock we had to wait on a dolphin, which is built for big boats too.

Is it a house or a castle up there? No doubt we will see more of these.

Mooring is allowed at the small town of Engis, opposite the huge gravel works. A large sign tells us that mooring is forbidden, except with fenders. All of our tyres came out again, so that we were legal! Tyre fenders are not allowed in locks in Belgium, in case they come loose, and then sink to create a problem.

The barge, Tesco3, was loading on the opposite bank. Here the skipper is measuring carefully to check the weight of his load. There are three of these marker scales on the side of each barge.

On coming into the town of Huy, we found a wall mooring, beside some steps. The red arrow points to The Puzzler, to give an idea of the size of the river Meuse here.

In Huy can be found the Collegiate Church of Notre Dame. On top of the cliff is the fortress of Huy, which was built in the year 1818, but was notoriously used as a prison by the Germans during both World Wars.