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!!!