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.
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