We were joined at the La Ferté Port de Plaisance by a 13m x 3m Dutch barge look-alike with an Aussie couple, their daughter and granddaughter, who with some misgivings we said could moor on Riccall for the night as there was no room elsewhere. For some inexplicable reason we took an instant dislike to them (more especially him) and later, when we went for drinks with Ken and Rhonda (Somewhere) discovered that they had felt exactly the same as us. Funny, how sometimes you just know you’re going to hit it off with people, and at other times you just want to hit them!
The Aussies left early the next day, much to our relief, and the following day 'Somewhere’ left too heading downstream for Meaux. Later we headed off ourselves up the Marne.
We had a rather dull day and eventually arrived at Château Thierry – sounds wonderful, but the town is rather dreary, and we could only find a shallow mooring where we had to jam tyres under the turn of the bilge to protect us from the stony bottom and even then we were about 1 metre from the wall.
The next morning two small cruisers moved off the 40m fixed pontoon a short distance ahead, and before we had even cleared away breakfast we made a fast break for the space.
The water and electricity had long since been vandalised but the mooring itself was safe and deep and our decision to move was quickly confirmed by several boats passing during the morning with looks of disgruntlement as we had bagged the only decent moorings in the town!
Best of all – an unlocked wi-fi from the flats opposite allowed us to post blogs etc and catch up with old and new friends.
After two more days and nights of appalling weather we set off again up the Marne for another very pretty if relentless few hours to our next moorings. The only incident of interest was being caught up at a lock by a flash cruiser flying a blue ensign. They did not respond to the radio or signals by us to enter the lock behind us (plenty of room for two) so we went on through alone. About 8 k later, they overtook us and the lady wife gave a cheery wave.
A couple of hours later we passed them moored at a pontoon having their late lunch and possibly stopped for the night. Again we gave friendly waves and ‘wifey’ waved back happily but ‘The Commodore’ studiously kept his back to us without so much as a glance. Sometimes we think only the British can be quite such prigs. The fact that it was flying the blue ensign (only allowed for members of certain clubs and ex RN guys) all ties in with the high-falluting attitude. PAH!! A pox on them all!
We found, courtesy of the DBA moorings guide, another 9½ out of 10 mooring just below Lock 3 – Vandières, total country, no roads, view of acres of hillside vineyards, five picnic tables on the island (should you want them), the chuckle of a small stream entering the river and evening sunshine, giving the hope of morning sunlight through the bedroom portholes!
The promised sunlight through the portholes did indeed materialise, and we had the opportunity to clear, wash and paint the whole rear deck. This we finished by about 3 o’clock, and we then set off on our bicycles for the ‘village on the hill’ which we could see a few kilometres away, complete with huge, intriguing statue dominating all the land around. The statue, Pope Urbain II, erected in 1897 in Châtillons sur Marne, was quite a feature (and the views from it superb) but so was the 11th-14th century church close by which Alex discovered had an unlocked spiral staircase to the upper levels!
Avoiding dead pigeons and pigeon shit on the stairs he ascended to the first level where he was greeted with total darkness. This was a very old church so with some trepidation he crossed the old wooden floor to the next set of wooden steps leading upwards, these suspended 30 ft above the nave. At the top of them a half-closed and stiff-to-open door led into the bell chamber. Still no light and in view of the fact that it looked like nobody had trodden this path in the last millennium, Alex lost his nerve and beat a hasty, if delicate retreat, only pausing to take a photo from half way down the exposed stairs.
We left the Marne river just north of Epernay and entered the canalised section (Canal lateral à la Marne). We were now looking for somewhere to stop and eventually as we came through Lock 14 at Ay, we saw something that looked possible. Louise dashed forward and asked the Danish boat if they could possibly move forward a bit to give us space. Husband was fine and willing, but wife was not – a fat, unhappy, frump. But they did anyway, and we squeezed in thinking that as we had not seen a commercial vessel for three days anyway, we would be OK on these rather imperfect moorings.
The next day, Monday, a commercial sidled past us at 10 o’clock. Our ropes and wires held OK but were not perfect, so as soon as the Dutch boat moved off we moved back into a much better mooring. Some time later we were surprised by another commercial, but this one was going backwards – yes backwards into the lock!! We had ridden three kilometres by bike the previous day to suss the scene ahead of us and we knew that there was nothing – no commercial quay, no turning place, nothing – either ahead of us or behind us where we had come from, so this guy was reversing for at least 6 kms. We have seen this only once – way back last year in Krommenie – where one boat a week came to the linoleum factory and had to reverse out, but that was a much bigger canal and no lock to encounter.
The other reason we wanted to stop just here was that we had misunderstood from Derek and Erica (Star of Destiny) that we could get diesel here. Not so easy, as a phone call to them told us that this was not in fact the right place!
However, not to be dissuaded, we went to Ay town Mairie where Louise did a sterling job with the Mairiesse (!) who rang several suppliers before successfully persuading one to deliver 500 litres of gazoile blanc to us at the lock the next day. But, would it actually happen?
Yes, it did!
By the time we left Ay we realised that about three barges a day were reversing past us empty, then returning full the following day, and in due course we came across two of them offloading dredgings three locks and 10 kms from our mooring at Ay! That’s some reverse – we can’t even manage 50 yards without ending up in the ‘ditch’ but we don’t have a bow thruster (or hand operated bow rudder as one of them had).
We also met one of them reversing towards us as we made our way up the canal and this posed an interesting question. Which side do you pass? In effect you are overtaking another vessel so you should pass on his port side but …
All this talk of reversing really set us up for the next day. We had arrived at the junction where we could turn left for Reims or carry straight on for Châlons-en-Champagne and we had decided to go to Châlons first, but the best mooring was 75 metres towards Reims, just before the first lock. Alex spent a worried night wondering how he was going to reverse Riccall past all the other Tupperware boats without crushing one of them but as it turned out they had all gone by 10 am except a narrowboat (La Camellia) belonging to such a nice Dutch couple (he a spry 81 year old and she a very fit fiftyish).
Our first attempt found us right back on our mooring point but after that we got it about right and managed to get away.
However, more was to come when we got to Châlons. Paul (from ‘Eleanor’) had promised to keep a listening watch on Ch 10 but by the time we were close enough to raise him for directions we had taken a wrong turning, almost through a narrow bridge off the main channel where we thought the moorings were. ‘No’ said Paul, ‘Not there, but above the lock’.
We backed out of the bridge apologising profusely to the amazed fisherman who had had to move all his rods for us, and then realised the operating device for the lock (a rod suspended over the canal which you twist) was another 100 metres back up the canal we had just come down!
More reversing!! We must have looked a bit like a pinball in slow motion as we bounced from one side of the canal to the other as we reversed up to the hanging rod.
However, this feat accomplished, we passed through the lock and moored up in Châlons where we shall no doubt continue our socialising, shopping and sightseeing.
Tuesday 23 June 2009
Wednesday 10 June 2009
Charenton to La Ferte sous Jouarre (River Marne)
We have been without internet access for so long that our blogs have been piling up! So Paris was posted yesterday and this one today.
We went up into Charenton town from our mooring at the junction of the Seine and Marne on the outskirts of Paris, to look for an SFR shop which we knew was there because we had picked up an unlocked wi-fi from the Chinese restaurant over the river and used it to good effect!
Here we got yet another story about why we could not get onto Neuf wi-fi. In fact, the first guy we spoke to in the shop either had a speech problem or a hearing problem. We said quite clearly, ‘Parley-vous Anglais’ and he just looked at us. Honestly, not a word. We tried again, then again more slowly and he did not say a single word, just looked at us as though we had just landed from Mars. So Alex said, ‘Come on Louise, we’ll just leave’, at which point the senior man in the shop intervened and said, ‘Wait, I speak a leetle English’. But, needless to say, he was no real help anyway. He did give us a helpline telephone number to call, but this turned out to be no help at all either!
So we set off up the Marne, and as we came to the first lock were told that two commercials were in the lock coming out towards us. As the first one exited, Alex spotted a flashing white light where his ‘blue flag’ should have been. He assumed this was an equivalent, and headed off to the left as the commercial headed off to his left. Fine! The small cruiser behind us either didn’t notice or misunderstood, but at first he just stopped dead, right in the path of the commercial, then eventually skidaddled right over to his right to the far side of the river (miles away from the lock entrance). Well, I suppose, ‘If in doubt, get the hell out’ is as good an answer as any!
The rest of the trip up to Vaires passed without incident. We moored up on a good quay just behind a commercial who was in the process of painting his peniche. We sussed the town, found the shops and spend a pleasant couple of nights. On one day, we cycled down the river where there were a number of live-aboards moored up before the weir. At the weir itself was a pleasant town and a chocolate factory (now Nestlés) and we had a very pleasant lunch in the rear garden of a bistro in the town square.
The next day, Friday, there seemed to be a lot of commercials mooring up around us, then spaces became scarce and the next thing we knew a peniche twice our size was nuzzling up against us. The capitaine came forward and said there was a festival over the weekend and more barges would need to moor and that we should go somewhere else.
Well, we knew he was trying it on, because the parking sign had no restrictions on it, but being good old pussy-cat-English we agreed to move forward to a different place. Actually we moved 200 years upstream to a loading wharf which had belonged to the power station and was no longer used, as it had been rebuilt to run on gas (or probably nuclear fuel) instead of coal, so no unloading required now.
This had a clear secondary plus in that we were now upwind of the refuse collection barges which, fully laden and odorous, had moored in front of our previous position!
After we left Vaires we had only been cruising for about three quarters of an hour when we spotted ‘Star of Destiny’ moored up on a nice pontoon in Lagny. So we had to stop and catch up with Derek and Erica whom we had not seen since they were our next-door neighbours in Ghent. Subsequently two other UK boats moored up, Paul and Diane (Eleanor) and Barbara and Tony and we were all busy having drinks and tea etc with each other for the next three nights!
We then moved on to Meaux where the pontoon provides free water and electricity. The first night there was no room at the Halte Nautique so Riccall and Eleanor stopped on a good wall near the bridge, and who should appear just as the kettle boiled for tea but Julian from Santanna! He told us that he and several other boats were leaving the Halte Nautique the following day and there would be plenty or room for both of us then.
The next day we tried a repeat of our mooring in the l’Arsenal – i.e. a reverse park into finger moorings. Everything went well until at the last minute the wind got up and took the front end way out of line. A quick power-out to prevent sideswiping one of the other moored boats and a change of attack was called for – this time forward into a different slot, and allow the wind to blow us ‘on’. All went well as a couple of Dutch guys came to help take the ropes, but as Louise threw the rear rope, the opening rail (which had not been properly secured) gave way and there was a loud splash. Alex's first thought was, ‘Sounds like she’s thrown the rope into the water’. Then, ‘Too loud a splash, what’s going on?’ and dashing out of the wheelhouse saw Louise in the water being helped out by the two Dutch guys!”
Her main concern was ‘save my shoe’ which was floating at the edge of Riccall. No problem. Then it was into the shower and a quick wash of all clothes before we got on with the rest of the day.
This involved the inevitable trip to the Bricomarché (just shutting for 2 hour lunch), Aldi (shut for 2 hour lunch) and return via SFR shop – you’ve guessed it, shut for 2-hour lunch. After our own lunch, back to SFR shop and another take on why we couldn’t get onto Neuf wi-fi, but this one seemed initially more hopeful. However, they had used nearly an hour of our precious 3 hours-worth of Clé internet time, because they insisted on plugging it in and accessing the internet through it, before they came up with the latest reasoning – the critical code we require is on our ‘facture’ – our bill/invoice - which has been sent to our French address, to which of course we have no access!
A few nights and a few drinks with Paul and Diane later, we left Meaux and headed off to what were supposed to be 130 metres of moorings at Mary-sur-Marne. Oh no they aren’t, so we motored on and on passing Barbara and Tony last seen in Meaux, who asked us if there was any room back at Meaux and so we could tell them yes, plenty of space now that we’ve moved out. We also passed an 1882 Dutch tjalk ‘Aleida’ which looked magnificent - also flying an English ensign. At last we arrived at La Ferté-sous-Jouarre where to start with we moored on some moorings which turned out to be for a hire boat company, while we sussed the scene on our bicycles. We came across the New Zealand couple on ‘Somewhere’ whom we had briefly seen at Cambrai. We had said then that no doubt we would see them again very soon – and that was six weeks ago! They were moored in the official Port de Plaisance and there was room for one more boat, so we hightailed it back to Riccall and motored up to the free pontoon. So that’s where we are now. Alex just can’t believe that it is cold and raining today and has been chilly, if sunny, for several days now. ‘THIS IS FRANCE AND IT’S JUNE’ he keeps saying sadly.
We went up into Charenton town from our mooring at the junction of the Seine and Marne on the outskirts of Paris, to look for an SFR shop which we knew was there because we had picked up an unlocked wi-fi from the Chinese restaurant over the river and used it to good effect!
Here we got yet another story about why we could not get onto Neuf wi-fi. In fact, the first guy we spoke to in the shop either had a speech problem or a hearing problem. We said quite clearly, ‘Parley-vous Anglais’ and he just looked at us. Honestly, not a word. We tried again, then again more slowly and he did not say a single word, just looked at us as though we had just landed from Mars. So Alex said, ‘Come on Louise, we’ll just leave’, at which point the senior man in the shop intervened and said, ‘Wait, I speak a leetle English’. But, needless to say, he was no real help anyway. He did give us a helpline telephone number to call, but this turned out to be no help at all either!
So we set off up the Marne, and as we came to the first lock were told that two commercials were in the lock coming out towards us. As the first one exited, Alex spotted a flashing white light where his ‘blue flag’ should have been. He assumed this was an equivalent, and headed off to the left as the commercial headed off to his left. Fine! The small cruiser behind us either didn’t notice or misunderstood, but at first he just stopped dead, right in the path of the commercial, then eventually skidaddled right over to his right to the far side of the river (miles away from the lock entrance). Well, I suppose, ‘If in doubt, get the hell out’ is as good an answer as any!
The rest of the trip up to Vaires passed without incident. We moored up on a good quay just behind a commercial who was in the process of painting his peniche. We sussed the town, found the shops and spend a pleasant couple of nights. On one day, we cycled down the river where there were a number of live-aboards moored up before the weir. At the weir itself was a pleasant town and a chocolate factory (now Nestlés) and we had a very pleasant lunch in the rear garden of a bistro in the town square.
The next day, Friday, there seemed to be a lot of commercials mooring up around us, then spaces became scarce and the next thing we knew a peniche twice our size was nuzzling up against us. The capitaine came forward and said there was a festival over the weekend and more barges would need to moor and that we should go somewhere else.
Well, we knew he was trying it on, because the parking sign had no restrictions on it, but being good old pussy-cat-English we agreed to move forward to a different place. Actually we moved 200 years upstream to a loading wharf which had belonged to the power station and was no longer used, as it had been rebuilt to run on gas (or probably nuclear fuel) instead of coal, so no unloading required now.
This had a clear secondary plus in that we were now upwind of the refuse collection barges which, fully laden and odorous, had moored in front of our previous position!
After we left Vaires we had only been cruising for about three quarters of an hour when we spotted ‘Star of Destiny’ moored up on a nice pontoon in Lagny. So we had to stop and catch up with Derek and Erica whom we had not seen since they were our next-door neighbours in Ghent. Subsequently two other UK boats moored up, Paul and Diane (Eleanor) and Barbara and Tony and we were all busy having drinks and tea etc with each other for the next three nights!
We then moved on to Meaux where the pontoon provides free water and electricity. The first night there was no room at the Halte Nautique so Riccall and Eleanor stopped on a good wall near the bridge, and who should appear just as the kettle boiled for tea but Julian from Santanna! He told us that he and several other boats were leaving the Halte Nautique the following day and there would be plenty or room for both of us then.
The next day we tried a repeat of our mooring in the l’Arsenal – i.e. a reverse park into finger moorings. Everything went well until at the last minute the wind got up and took the front end way out of line. A quick power-out to prevent sideswiping one of the other moored boats and a change of attack was called for – this time forward into a different slot, and allow the wind to blow us ‘on’. All went well as a couple of Dutch guys came to help take the ropes, but as Louise threw the rear rope, the opening rail (which had not been properly secured) gave way and there was a loud splash. Alex's first thought was, ‘Sounds like she’s thrown the rope into the water’. Then, ‘Too loud a splash, what’s going on?’ and dashing out of the wheelhouse saw Louise in the water being helped out by the two Dutch guys!”
Her main concern was ‘save my shoe’ which was floating at the edge of Riccall. No problem. Then it was into the shower and a quick wash of all clothes before we got on with the rest of the day.
This involved the inevitable trip to the Bricomarché (just shutting for 2 hour lunch), Aldi (shut for 2 hour lunch) and return via SFR shop – you’ve guessed it, shut for 2-hour lunch. After our own lunch, back to SFR shop and another take on why we couldn’t get onto Neuf wi-fi, but this one seemed initially more hopeful. However, they had used nearly an hour of our precious 3 hours-worth of Clé internet time, because they insisted on plugging it in and accessing the internet through it, before they came up with the latest reasoning – the critical code we require is on our ‘facture’ – our bill/invoice - which has been sent to our French address, to which of course we have no access!
A few nights and a few drinks with Paul and Diane later, we left Meaux and headed off to what were supposed to be 130 metres of moorings at Mary-sur-Marne. Oh no they aren’t, so we motored on and on passing Barbara and Tony last seen in Meaux, who asked us if there was any room back at Meaux and so we could tell them yes, plenty of space now that we’ve moved out. We also passed an 1882 Dutch tjalk ‘Aleida’ which looked magnificent - also flying an English ensign. At last we arrived at La Ferté-sous-Jouarre where to start with we moored on some moorings which turned out to be for a hire boat company, while we sussed the scene on our bicycles. We came across the New Zealand couple on ‘Somewhere’ whom we had briefly seen at Cambrai. We had said then that no doubt we would see them again very soon – and that was six weeks ago! They were moored in the official Port de Plaisance and there was room for one more boat, so we hightailed it back to Riccall and motored up to the free pontoon. So that’s where we are now. Alex just can’t believe that it is cold and raining today and has been chilly, if sunny, for several days now. ‘THIS IS FRANCE AND IT’S JUNE’ he keeps saying sadly.
Tuesday 9 June 2009
Paris
As it turned out, the trip into Paris and the whole moorings scene worked out far better than we expected.
Robert and Kerry went into Paris from Pontoise on their first full day with us and we headed back down the l’Oise to Conflans and up the Seine marvelling at the number of moored barges, sometimes 5 deep!
We found an excellent stop for lunch then went a bit beyond our first possible over-nighting point, above the lock at Bougival, knowing that if we had to we could return to the not-perfect moorings there. We found a small space at the end of a pontoon taken up with several jelly moulds (cabin cruisers) at Rueil Malmaison, where we made a perfect mooring (luckily, as it had to be within 2 ft of the cruiser behind whose captain and crew watched with distinctly worried faces).
We were within 5 minutes walk of the Metro so easy for Rob and Kerry to get back to us after their first day in Paris and opposite the restaurant Maison Fournaise where Renoir painted his ‘Breakfast of the Rowers’ (or was it his ‘Dancers in Candlelight’?).
The next day was decision time. Do we go up the St Denis despite its bad reputation, or do we carry on up the Seine looking for a possible overnight mooring before we hit the city limits, wherein no mooring whatsoever is allowed?
A phone call to La Villette Port de Plaisance told us there was no room there and we would have to go onto the Canal de l’Orque and look for something there.
Alex finally decided on the St Denis option – a good call as it turned out. The locks up the St Denis were fine, no other boats to be seen but all ready for us as we arrived. Then at the final lock a slight delay, but there was the green light and we entered a short tunnel and emerged into a chasm, no other word for it - just 5m wide, 38m long and 10m, yes 10m high.
Fortunately there were floating bollards within a slot in the side of the lock wall (they rise with your boat) so we were not expected to hurl a rope up to an invisible bollard above.
Ten minutes later we could see where we were and actually it all felt a bit more civilised as well. Alex was all for turning left into the Canal de l’Ourque and looking for a mooring but Louise said as it was only 3pm perhaps we could at least look in La Villette first and then, if necessary, we would still have time to trawl the l’Ourque. So we did just that and saw a cruiser and a small billy bouncer moored to the left of a ‘No Parking’ sign which pointed to the right. So we trundled across and moored half in and half outside the no parking area. The guys in the cruiser helped with our ropes and said you could moor there for one night. The official Port de Plaisance was on the opposite side of the basin, so when the billy bouncer moved off a short time later we adjusted our own position so we were no longer in the ‘No Parking’ area and decided to sit it out, while waiting for the return of Rob and Kerry.
The whole place was heaving with people, some having picnics, some playing boules, jogging, drinking, walking dogs, chatting. But the atmosphere was benign and continued to be so until about 3 o’clock in the morning when things finally began to quieten down to our relief, but not before Louise and Robert had had to get up at 2.30 to gesticulate to one couple to desist from sitting on our deck! (which they did immediately with no argument).
So we spent the night in La Villette after all, for free. As we left the next day, the first lock keeper looked slightly surprised when we answered that we had spent the night there. (We weren’t sure whether this was because you aren’t supposed to, or because nobody in their right mind puts up with the party chaos on a Saturday night!)
The St Martin canal is as picturesque as you could hope for and such a contrast to the St Denis that you can hardly believe that they are only a kilometre from each other.
In due course we navigated the 1k tunnel under the Place de la Bastille (which was just amazing) and emerged into the Port de Plaisance de l’Arsenal where we hoped we had arranged a mooring for our second night. A quick word with the Capitaine and yes, we could moor there for a mere €45 and yes, no problem to go through the lock onto the Seine for a couple of sightseeing hours and back into our mooring slot, which was a very difficult 4.9m wide for our 4.7m beam (and entered stern first, in this case, to make the exit easier).
And that is what we did, thereby fulfilling our promise to each other when we last visited Paris with Michael and Sylvia some 6 years ago, that the next time we would be on our own boat!!
So we cruised past Notre Dame, the Hotel de Ville, the Palais de Justice, Pont Neuf, le Louvre, le Musée d’Orsay, etc etc and saw them all from Riccall. Then, about turn at the Pont de Grenelle and back through it all again avoiding the bateaux mouches (‘flying’ boats). Oh, and did we see some phallic symbol Eiffelling its way into the sky? – no, we didn’t notice that!
It was lovely to have Rob and Kerry along with us while we traversed Paris and we only hope that they enjoyed the experience as much as we did. Boating has its own restrictions of course – on water (long showers are not always possible) on hair dryers (electricity is sometimes at a premium) on sleep (sometimes a bit hard to come by if moored in a ‘lively place’) and on moorings themselves of course.
However, when Rob and Kerry had left the following day to catch Eurostar back to London, Louise was determined to go up the Eiiffel Tower yet again, so we set off for a ‘quick’ 4-hour round trip to the top and back - but not on Riccall this time: it just wouldn’t fit in the lift! In the long queue we had plenty of time to notice the sign saying that the top étage was temporarily closed. This was very disappointing, but as we continued to queue the illuminated sign showed that it had been re-opened, and a ripple of delight passed through the waiting hordes. The most amazing thing about this visit was that looking down from the highest level we saw about 10 young men dangling from ropes and harnesses PAINTING the Eiffel Tower with 2” brushes !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We left the Arsenal at about 4 o’clock and just as we entered the Marne about an hour later, we saw Julian of Santanna again, on a neat mooring at the junction, so we stopped to say hello and … another jolly dinner followed – provided entirely by Julian this time, but eaten on Riccall’s back deck – parasol up and all of us relaxing after the heat of the day.
Lots of photos for this one folks!!!
Robert and Kerry went into Paris from Pontoise on their first full day with us and we headed back down the l’Oise to Conflans and up the Seine marvelling at the number of moored barges, sometimes 5 deep!
We found an excellent stop for lunch then went a bit beyond our first possible over-nighting point, above the lock at Bougival, knowing that if we had to we could return to the not-perfect moorings there. We found a small space at the end of a pontoon taken up with several jelly moulds (cabin cruisers) at Rueil Malmaison, where we made a perfect mooring (luckily, as it had to be within 2 ft of the cruiser behind whose captain and crew watched with distinctly worried faces).
We were within 5 minutes walk of the Metro so easy for Rob and Kerry to get back to us after their first day in Paris and opposite the restaurant Maison Fournaise where Renoir painted his ‘Breakfast of the Rowers’ (or was it his ‘Dancers in Candlelight’?).
The next day was decision time. Do we go up the St Denis despite its bad reputation, or do we carry on up the Seine looking for a possible overnight mooring before we hit the city limits, wherein no mooring whatsoever is allowed?
A phone call to La Villette Port de Plaisance told us there was no room there and we would have to go onto the Canal de l’Orque and look for something there.
Alex finally decided on the St Denis option – a good call as it turned out. The locks up the St Denis were fine, no other boats to be seen but all ready for us as we arrived. Then at the final lock a slight delay, but there was the green light and we entered a short tunnel and emerged into a chasm, no other word for it - just 5m wide, 38m long and 10m, yes 10m high.
Fortunately there were floating bollards within a slot in the side of the lock wall (they rise with your boat) so we were not expected to hurl a rope up to an invisible bollard above.
Ten minutes later we could see where we were and actually it all felt a bit more civilised as well. Alex was all for turning left into the Canal de l’Ourque and looking for a mooring but Louise said as it was only 3pm perhaps we could at least look in La Villette first and then, if necessary, we would still have time to trawl the l’Ourque. So we did just that and saw a cruiser and a small billy bouncer moored to the left of a ‘No Parking’ sign which pointed to the right. So we trundled across and moored half in and half outside the no parking area. The guys in the cruiser helped with our ropes and said you could moor there for one night. The official Port de Plaisance was on the opposite side of the basin, so when the billy bouncer moved off a short time later we adjusted our own position so we were no longer in the ‘No Parking’ area and decided to sit it out, while waiting for the return of Rob and Kerry.
The whole place was heaving with people, some having picnics, some playing boules, jogging, drinking, walking dogs, chatting. But the atmosphere was benign and continued to be so until about 3 o’clock in the morning when things finally began to quieten down to our relief, but not before Louise and Robert had had to get up at 2.30 to gesticulate to one couple to desist from sitting on our deck! (which they did immediately with no argument).
So we spent the night in La Villette after all, for free. As we left the next day, the first lock keeper looked slightly surprised when we answered that we had spent the night there. (We weren’t sure whether this was because you aren’t supposed to, or because nobody in their right mind puts up with the party chaos on a Saturday night!)
The St Martin canal is as picturesque as you could hope for and such a contrast to the St Denis that you can hardly believe that they are only a kilometre from each other.
In due course we navigated the 1k tunnel under the Place de la Bastille (which was just amazing) and emerged into the Port de Plaisance de l’Arsenal where we hoped we had arranged a mooring for our second night. A quick word with the Capitaine and yes, we could moor there for a mere €45 and yes, no problem to go through the lock onto the Seine for a couple of sightseeing hours and back into our mooring slot, which was a very difficult 4.9m wide for our 4.7m beam (and entered stern first, in this case, to make the exit easier).
And that is what we did, thereby fulfilling our promise to each other when we last visited Paris with Michael and Sylvia some 6 years ago, that the next time we would be on our own boat!!
So we cruised past Notre Dame, the Hotel de Ville, the Palais de Justice, Pont Neuf, le Louvre, le Musée d’Orsay, etc etc and saw them all from Riccall. Then, about turn at the Pont de Grenelle and back through it all again avoiding the bateaux mouches (‘flying’ boats). Oh, and did we see some phallic symbol Eiffelling its way into the sky? – no, we didn’t notice that!
It was lovely to have Rob and Kerry along with us while we traversed Paris and we only hope that they enjoyed the experience as much as we did. Boating has its own restrictions of course – on water (long showers are not always possible) on hair dryers (electricity is sometimes at a premium) on sleep (sometimes a bit hard to come by if moored in a ‘lively place’) and on moorings themselves of course.
However, when Rob and Kerry had left the following day to catch Eurostar back to London, Louise was determined to go up the Eiiffel Tower yet again, so we set off for a ‘quick’ 4-hour round trip to the top and back - but not on Riccall this time: it just wouldn’t fit in the lift! In the long queue we had plenty of time to notice the sign saying that the top étage was temporarily closed. This was very disappointing, but as we continued to queue the illuminated sign showed that it had been re-opened, and a ripple of delight passed through the waiting hordes. The most amazing thing about this visit was that looking down from the highest level we saw about 10 young men dangling from ropes and harnesses PAINTING the Eiffel Tower with 2” brushes !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We left the Arsenal at about 4 o’clock and just as we entered the Marne about an hour later, we saw Julian of Santanna again, on a neat mooring at the junction, so we stopped to say hello and … another jolly dinner followed – provided entirely by Julian this time, but eaten on Riccall’s back deck – parasol up and all of us relaxing after the heat of the day.
Lots of photos for this one folks!!!
Wednesday 3 June 2009
Mantes-la-Jolie/Limay to Pontoise
Back at Mantes-la-Jolie/Limay we had gone straight up to just below the ‘water’ pontoon. But after a couple of days we realised that the outfall just in front of the boat, i.e. upstream of us, was in fact a raw sewage outfall and all down the side of the boat was the product of the same. URGGGHHH …! We moved forward onto the rather flimsy pontoon as we just had to get away from that load of s . . t!
The next day we set off again going up river. The 6 or 7 km per hour difference between going downstream and going upstream was very noticeable. We just seemed to get nowhere fast, but looking at all the amazing houses along the banks put in the time!
Eventually we arrived back at the moorings at Meulan and within half an hour a guy came down the steps to the side of the boat asking for some tissues for his nose!
We couldn’t believe it! There must be a conspiracy here or they are just puling our legs. Maybe word had got round that we were a good source of tissues. Anyway you have to humour these guys so a further handful was handed out and gratefully received.
The next morning the VNF were out in force clearing the blockage of small broken boats, trees, bushes, driftwood etc which was blocking two of the arches of the old bridge in front of us. ‘Great’, said Alex, ‘Now we can go through the arch and up this side of the island on our way back upstream’. Louise was not convinced. PC Navigo said the arch was 6m wide and 4 high but it didn’t look it. Alex eventually decided acquiescence was the better part of valour and agreed to go the short way back to the gap between the islands and take the main route.
Unfortunately, as we made the about turn, the rudder caught on something and then the joint which Alex had painstakingly made a few weeks ago failed. Damn and blast! When he inspected his welding he discovered that it left a lot to be desired and started to try and rebuild it then and there. However, the shore power supply available here was not up to the job so the ‘old’ joint was reassembled and fitted and we set off again.
At Poissy we saw Santanna (again) but Julian was away (we think this was his family day at Disneyland poor chap) so we left him a note and travelled on. At the Andresy lock we had open gates and a green light but asked anyway if it was OK to enter. We received a long reply of unintelligible French, the only word of which we recognised being ‘commerce’ so we entered anyway and sure enough a few minutes later a huge barge entered behind us. Given the maxim that ‘plaisances’ should always give way to barges we felt perhaps we shouldn’t have gone in ahead, but never mind, there was plenty of room for us both, though we were tucked up at the front over the fast-incoming water, giving us a bumpy ride up.
As soon as the top gate opened we shot out and over to the side to let the commercial past, then picked our way down the old lock arm to find enough depth of water to moor somewhere along the 300m of good quay which is available and labelled as the ‘Halte de Plaisance d’Andresy’.
We felt they would get a lot more business into the town if they just spent 2 days dredging the quayside and repainting the signs. And of course so would the local economy, although it didn’t look in need of further investment. It was a very up-market area, so maybe that’s the problem – they don’t want us boaters.
Eventually we attached ourselves to another rather flimsy floating pontoon. But as there was no passing traffic whatsoever, and the depth was OK and free electricity and water were available, we felt we had found our perfect spot for the night. (Almost perfect that is – no wifi!)
Just a couple of nights at Andresy and then we set off again for Pontoise. We still had a couple of days in hand before Rob and Kerry were due to arrive, despite our concerns at Vernon that we had barely enough time to get to our rendezvous, and we arrived easily after a couple of hours cruising.
Later that same day, after our trip to the l’Eclerc hypermarket (awful) Waterdog had appeared and was moored immediately in front of us. Long chat, glasses of wine and beer, exchange of stories – the usual boating imperatives! The following day, who should appear but Julian, so we all had a sociable evening on Riccall, eating and making merry until the ‘kids’ arrived later that night.
So, the next instalment will reveal just how on earth we coped with moorings approaching Paris –and in the city itself.
The next day we set off again going up river. The 6 or 7 km per hour difference between going downstream and going upstream was very noticeable. We just seemed to get nowhere fast, but looking at all the amazing houses along the banks put in the time!
Eventually we arrived back at the moorings at Meulan and within half an hour a guy came down the steps to the side of the boat asking for some tissues for his nose!
We couldn’t believe it! There must be a conspiracy here or they are just puling our legs. Maybe word had got round that we were a good source of tissues. Anyway you have to humour these guys so a further handful was handed out and gratefully received.
The next morning the VNF were out in force clearing the blockage of small broken boats, trees, bushes, driftwood etc which was blocking two of the arches of the old bridge in front of us. ‘Great’, said Alex, ‘Now we can go through the arch and up this side of the island on our way back upstream’. Louise was not convinced. PC Navigo said the arch was 6m wide and 4 high but it didn’t look it. Alex eventually decided acquiescence was the better part of valour and agreed to go the short way back to the gap between the islands and take the main route.
Unfortunately, as we made the about turn, the rudder caught on something and then the joint which Alex had painstakingly made a few weeks ago failed. Damn and blast! When he inspected his welding he discovered that it left a lot to be desired and started to try and rebuild it then and there. However, the shore power supply available here was not up to the job so the ‘old’ joint was reassembled and fitted and we set off again.
At Poissy we saw Santanna (again) but Julian was away (we think this was his family day at Disneyland poor chap) so we left him a note and travelled on. At the Andresy lock we had open gates and a green light but asked anyway if it was OK to enter. We received a long reply of unintelligible French, the only word of which we recognised being ‘commerce’ so we entered anyway and sure enough a few minutes later a huge barge entered behind us. Given the maxim that ‘plaisances’ should always give way to barges we felt perhaps we shouldn’t have gone in ahead, but never mind, there was plenty of room for us both, though we were tucked up at the front over the fast-incoming water, giving us a bumpy ride up.
As soon as the top gate opened we shot out and over to the side to let the commercial past, then picked our way down the old lock arm to find enough depth of water to moor somewhere along the 300m of good quay which is available and labelled as the ‘Halte de Plaisance d’Andresy’.
We felt they would get a lot more business into the town if they just spent 2 days dredging the quayside and repainting the signs. And of course so would the local economy, although it didn’t look in need of further investment. It was a very up-market area, so maybe that’s the problem – they don’t want us boaters.
Eventually we attached ourselves to another rather flimsy floating pontoon. But as there was no passing traffic whatsoever, and the depth was OK and free electricity and water were available, we felt we had found our perfect spot for the night. (Almost perfect that is – no wifi!)
Just a couple of nights at Andresy and then we set off again for Pontoise. We still had a couple of days in hand before Rob and Kerry were due to arrive, despite our concerns at Vernon that we had barely enough time to get to our rendezvous, and we arrived easily after a couple of hours cruising.
Later that same day, after our trip to the l’Eclerc hypermarket (awful) Waterdog had appeared and was moored immediately in front of us. Long chat, glasses of wine and beer, exchange of stories – the usual boating imperatives! The following day, who should appear but Julian, so we all had a sociable evening on Riccall, eating and making merry until the ‘kids’ arrived later that night.
So, the next instalment will reveal just how on earth we coped with moorings approaching Paris –and in the city itself.
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