Toul, and back to Schweich with Emma & Ash, and the end of our season..

Due to low water levels and the closure of canals, we couldn’t get to Epinal by boat, so picked the girls up by car, returning to Toul.

Toul Cathedral again. We like this place, and saw the light show again with the girls, and not in the rain this time.  The weather just fluctuates between really hot one day, to thunderstorms and rain the next… so the next day, we leave Toul in the rain ( the French fishermen are hardy sorts) and head up towards Metz, back in our favourite spot. !!!!.

Janine & Hayden, two friends of Emma & Ash from NZ joined us for 2 nights on the boat.

As we leave Metz we meet a sight that feels normal.. sail boats.  Then we arrive in Thionville and it was juts too hot not to swim in the river.

The girls decided to get some exercise and cycle for a while and catch us up later,,, but they managed to stop at a cafe for a drink and then got conned into a very nice expensive lunch..After which Emma lost Ash in France, who then cycled around Luxembourg and eventually found Emma again in Germany.!!  !Can't work out how this would have worked with all the old boarder controls.

Quick visit into Trier, Germany, and a beer and ice-cream stop.

Then on the last night, the biggest tragedy of all happened………..Ash’s iphone jumped off the table, bounced down the steps and plopped into the water…… Max tried fishing for it, but it was lost forever.

 

Gone, Gone, Gone, and Ash was very brave about it….

The girls leave us in Trier on their way back to NZ, via Paris & London, ….. its been a lovely week, and this year we have been so lucky to have had both Claire and Emma stay with us.

The weather is definitely cooler now, suddenly it really feels like summer has ended. The weather flicking from being so hot we have to swim in the river one day to having the heaters on the next!!   

So we are again in Schweich, and will spend the next few days cleaning and packing up the boat. Schweich is nothing like coming home to St Jean at the end of the season as we have no play mates here!!!!  Not sure we would say this but we miss St Jean de Losne.

Kiwirose is booked to come out, and we will then put her winter tent on and leave her in the capable hands of the Germans…..they will take the engine out over the winter and sort out a few things.  Probably just in time as recently the engine has been taking more turnovers to start than ever before.

They did a full winterizing on her while we were there.( They were very thorough as the temp drops to  –15 degrees most winters.

The good condition of the belly of Kiwirose,  after 3 years of us banging and bumping things was surprising good, considering we last had her out 3 years ago when we spent a week sanding and anit-fouling her.

 

Goodbye KIWROSE for 2015.