We hoped to spend a night at Vernon, but an
unattended ex-hire boat was in the only spot available so we motored on to
Garenne Lock where we expected a quiet night and an even quieter following day
as it was Bastille Day and everything closes (locks included). But of course at 7.30am the commercial
opposite started to needle-gun the paint at his bow!!! This went on all morning. Bloody Hell!!
In the lock with a
110m container ship
The following day we arrived at Poses and spotted a 20m
space on the quay: a delicate entry went OK.
Alex’s brother David and his wife Bun were due to join us for a couple
of nights so this was a good spot to meet.
They arrived early afternoon, so we walked across the footbridge over
the enormous weir and locks to get to La Guingette on the right bank – a live
music bar – for a drink and a laugh, for on Thursdays every week a local band
plays dance songs and anybody, young and old, can pay €13 to get on the dance
floor and strut their stuff, or in many cases, shuffle! But it was packed with all ages, men and
women, all having a jolly good time.
We went on a trip upriver to a pontoon we had noticed about
2 hours away, moored up, looked round the village, had supper, then a guy
appeared saying he was collecting passengers on his little trip boat next day
at 10.30am. We assured him we would
leave by 10am and went to bed. Next
morning at 5.00am we smelled smoke!!!
Everybody, except, strangely Alex, got up for a suss round. Well, (Alex knew) it was just a bonfire on
shore suddenly come to life, so everyone went back to bed. Then at 7.30am a knock on the hull. “You have to move!” A pusher barge needed to moor on this little
pontoon to pick up fireworks for a display on the island opposite that
night. And sure enough not 5m away was
a pusher barge breathing down our necks.
So 5 minutes later we were off (that must be a record for getting
dressed and on station and this time Alex had to get up!). Fortunately we had spotted a dumb barge
moored up on some ducs d’albe (posts) half a kilometre away so we trundled over
to it and moored up for a leisurely breakfast.
There then ensued an unheard-of Saturday morning rush-hour. There were barges pounding up and down river
for about an hour, and then total peace and quiet!
Louise, David, Bun and
Alex at Muilds
Our lovely peaceful
mooring at Muilds
The pusher tug taking
our place on the pontoon!
We got back to Poses in time for lunch in a riverside
restaurant before David and Bun had to leave to continue their short holiday.
Then in the evening we saw Peter and Marie-Michelle on
PHOENICIAN and had a drink and catch up (3 years to bring us all up to date so
we were still there at 9pm!) and the next day we caught the train to Rouen
(20mins cycle ride to the station, 20 minutes train to Rouen – a better bet
than the 5 or 6 hours each way against and with a tidal river we thought!)
Rouen proved to be as spectacular as we had heard, and we
had a lovely touristy day with lunch out in a splendid little brasserie next to
the cathedral. And when we saw how
paltry the moorings were, we felt jolly glad we had come by train!
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| Abbey church and Hotel de Ville |
 |
| Fantastic medieval old town |
 |
| Stunning Eglise St Maclou |
 |
| More old town Just a few snaps to give a flavour of Rouen |
Subsequently PHOENICIAN texted us to tell us their next mooring – at Les Andelys – and would we like to moor alongside them? which we did, then climbed up to the castle for a look round and a great view down onto the river and our two boats side by side.
 |
| Les Andelys Castle . . |
. . . and the view
from it!
We managed to get moored at Vernon on our way back up river and
in due course Phoenician moored on us when they arrived. We were entertained by the cruise ships
playing musical moorings – one in, one out, swapping places etc etc. Great fun and a really nice little town. Monet’s
garden at Giverny came as something of a let-down. Perhaps it was because of the hoards of visitors of all
nationalities, mostly Japanese, so the peace was nipped in the bud!
Just one of the many
cruise ships plying up and down the Seine from Rouen to Paris
Quick stop at Meulan (again) but this time, Alex had broken a filling and needed to see a dentist. The pharmacy alongside the mooring pointed us in the right direction and amazingly, we got an appointment for later that morning - even though the surgery was due to close for three days holiday at the end of the day! Try that in England!
No, not a cruise ship
this time, but a car transporter!!
A few days later when we arrived back at Andresy, where this
blog began, the pontoon had a scruffy cruiser moored on it, firmly plugged into
free power and water. We looked at the
dilapidated quay just upstream and saw one spot which looked as if it might be just
OK. No sooner had we tied up than a guy
on the island opposite started gesticulating at us to move up the quay. We shifted about 10m until our bows were
well into the silt, and asked him if that was better. He came over in his little boat, shook hands and explained that this
was where he and several others kept the little boats they needed to get across
to their island homes, but that one night was OK for us. The cruiser on the pontoon apparently had
taken up residence there: we had just been lucky on our way down river as the
cruiser was away on holiday! and the town Mairie just couldn’t care less about
any of the moorings. Unusually for us we
wrote a strong letter of complaint and disappointment to the Mairie but have
had no response (surprise, surprise).
The best of 50
sculptures on the Isle de Nancy at Andresy during the summer months,
with a free ferry to
take you across
Pontoise mooring was as good as ever and we met and had
drinks and supper with Simon and Diny of HEBBES, a Dutch couple who are self-confessed
Anglophiles – even lived on board their narrowboat in England for 3 years! so of
course we got on well. And while in
Pontoise this time we took the train back to Conflans-Ste-Honorine, which is
the barging town on the Seine, to look at the barging museum and the view onto
the Seine from above, and had lunch in a lovely little tucked-away Italian
restaurant.
Conflans Musée de la
Batellerie
The view from on high
at Conflans – six péniches moored abreast!
A few nights later, we decided to stop at Ecluse Verberie,
which has a very long mooring quay and is such a peaceful country spot. We moored right at the upstream end of the
quay and over the next couple of hours the space between us and the lock slowly
filled with péniche ‘doublers’ – what we call two 39m barges travelling in
tandem. As we were having our
pre-dinner drinks the wasps appeared, then the doubler behind us moved his
front barge beside his pusher barge to use his crane to lift off his jet
ski! The next 2 hours were spent
cavorting with his kids up and down and round and round – noise, waves, noise,
waves!! So another idyllic mooring wrecked! We went below at 8pm to watch the TV news,
leaving 12 dead wasps on the back deck and the commercial doing another change around
to get his car on board this time.
When we came back up on deck to close up at 10.30pm the
commercial had disappeared. Where to? The locks close at 8pm. He was downstream bound and at 8pm still hadn’t
got his car on board. Another mystery. But he hadn’t sunk because we did see him
the next day at our Compiègne mooring on his way upstream, now fully laden and
giving us a cheery wave!!
Ever wondered how the
French get their trees to grow so perfectly vertically?
Here is the devastating result after the hedge trimmer has been through
(8 huge brush cutters on an adjustable arm on a tractor!)
And how about this
amazing bit of topiary at Creil!
How do they do that?!
We are now moored in Compiègne, which we have always
enjoyed. It’s a nice town and even though
we have seen all the local sights, we love just sitting watching the huge péniches
roar up and down the river.
We also found our American friends Don and Patty on MARIA moored
up in Compiègne, so another enjoyable evening meal and chin-wag together.
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