2015 European waterway cruise – Charleville-Mezieres

Place Ducal – Charleville-Mezieres

Charleville-Mezieres is probably the largest town in the Ardennes region, and we thought it a good idea to take a day out from boating and stay there 2 nights.

The first night was a Saturday and late that night a club came to life with loud music till the early hours of Sunday morning.

Place Ducal – Charleville-Mezieres

Other than that, it was restful, as certainly nothing much else was going on on Sunday.

We did find the tourist office where we obtained the self guided tour and did our usual walk of the town.

Statue of founder of Charleville

The town is actually the 2 towns of Charleville and Mezieres, now joined together.

Charleville was apparently built by a rich nobleman who wanted his own town, and one can see that in the way the streets and buildings are laid out in straight lines, rather than the usual narrow and windy roads.

It also has a very lagre town square – the Place Ducal – lined with restaurants and bars.

Puppet Museum

All the buildings on the square are made froma lovely golden coloured stone.

One of Charleville’s claim to fame is the home of French puppetry, and is home to the puppet museuam.

Tricky garage!

Even though the streets are wide, we saw someone struggling to get their car out through the tables of the street cafes.

Regular readers might have gathered that Karen and I are almost 100% vegan. In Netherlands, and to a larger degree in Belgium, we were able to find all our basic or staple food requirements.

Not so in France.

Town quay at Charleville

Fortunately we had stocked up quite well, as, even in such a large town we struggled to find meat substitutes, plant milks and even oats. We did manage to get soy milk at the Carrefour supermarket. On the good side, lots of lovely fresh veggies were available.

Supper on the back deck.

Sunday evening was a relaxing supper on the back deck, with of course some local French wine!

Next – carrying on up the Canal de la Meuse.