Guide n° 17 - La Meuse

Canal des Ardennes, Canal de la Meuse, La Meuse

In this new guide, we follow the Meuse valley from the village of Troussey in France to Namur in Belgium. Between Troussey and Sedan you will navigate on the Meuse Canal, partly artificial and partly canalised river. From Sedan, you are on the river Meuse itself made navigable thanks to a series of locked weirs. In France, the locks, 38 m long, are operated by means of an electronic control unit. Once you have crossed the border at Givet, they are of European dimensions and a lock-keeper is always present.

In the French section, you will go past some Freycinet barges but most of the traffic is made up of leisure craft coming from Holland. In Belgium there is some commercial traffic which becomes more intense downstream from Namur.

The Meuse is famous for the quality of its river ports. There are not many of them but they are well equipped and the mooring fees are reasonable.

The Ardennes Canal between Asfeld and Pont-à-Bar is included in the guide. The Meuse canal being present over its whole length, we have taken part of this canal out of the guide n° 4 Alsace/Lorraine.