Riccall Rambling: July 2023

We had a late start from the summit at Gazonne as we didn’t want to be trailing the incredibly slow hotel barge MEANDERER. The hotel barges do move exceedingly slowly - much more slowly than you could walk!

The most peaceful mooring ever at Etang de Gazonne

We moored up that afternoon in Rogny-les-Sept-Ecluses, on a good quay for which we were charged a fair bit! However, the ancient flight of seven locks was quite something to see. Originally built at 27m long, they were extended to 32m in 1830s and then finally replaced by 6 separate 38m locks at the end of the 19th century. To start with, the whole site was deserted but by the time we got to the top a whole bus-load of tourists had arrived! Fortunately, they were herded under a tree for a lecture by their tour guide during the time that we were there.

Les Sept Ecluses at Rogny

At Dammarie-sur-Loing we came across a barge called PAVOT and Martin and Sally came for apéros with us and a pleasant early evening.

We spent a couple of nights at Chatillon-Coligny on the 45^o angled section of the quay which allowed us to paint the rear of the barge from the adjacent pontoon – a job which had needed doing for some time!

on the angled mooring

We also made time to go into the town, although we had unfortunately missed the brilliant weekly market. This seems to be the issue of the day – wherever we arrive, the market was yesterday!

Although the weather was keeping us on our toes with high temperatures and our shade cloths in full use, one evening at Chatillon we had a storm and a half! . . .

Boy did it rain!

. . . and had to rush outside to save our big parasol from destruction!

Drowned rats!

At Montargis the whole port de plaisance was undergoing renovation and most of the barges had been relocated to the quay beside the Police Station on the downstream end of the town. We managed to moor there also, but were charged for two nights with, we think, a third night free. A quick look around this lovely town ‘The Little Venice of the Gatinais’. The town is based around two little rivers and their waters were originally used to provide defensive moats and water supplies to the town’s mills. Lots of flower-bedecked bridges are the result and the town is quite a sight to behold. Although we think we’d be given a ‘free’ night on our mooring we didn’t take advantage of it as for some reason we felt compelled to move on!

But, we had enough time to catch a train back to Nevers to fetch the car, which we then left in the station car park at Montargis.

We moored on a good quay at Episy and were surprised when a barge called WHISPER appeared from downstream and turned round in front of us. We knew the barge from years ago but hadn’t met the new owners, Sue and Allan from Australia. Sue came for coffee with us the following morning and later that day they moored on us at Moret sur Loing. Very kindly they suggested that we go in first to the mooring where they already had a 4-day booking, and they then moored on us. This seems to be the accepted method in Moret as the mooring is very popular, so rafting is allowed.

Moret is another lovely town – very historic, and we had a nosy around and a drink in one of the many bars in lovely warm sunshine. Perfect!

Then it was onto the Seine and we first moored up at Melun, where the daily mooring change is only €12 including electricity and water. We stayed for a couple of nights and met Lon and Pat from their barge C.A.L.I.B 3, shared apéros each evening and Alex even managed to get an appointment with an English speaking osteopath, who tried to get his dicky leg back into full operation. Wow! (Lastly, a trip to the scummiest Lidl we have ever been to completed a memorable visit.)

We were now heading for Paris, just at the time of the disturbances in the aftermath of the shooting of the young black driver in Paris by the police. Our route would skirt round the eastern side of Paris so we hoped all would be well.

At Evry Lock we met up with Paul and Diane of BEATRICE who we’ve known for years and dinner was served on first one barge and then the other on consecutive nights. Great company and lots of chat, especially as we haven’t seen them for ages, despite being in regular contact on Signal.

BEATRICE leaves after our get-together

However, on the first night, as they were leaving for their own barge after supper, the Chef de l’Ecluse appeared and suggested we would be best advised to move onto the commercial barge moored on the mole in front of the lock, as there was a possibility of disturbance on the quay from the demonstrators.

As we were pointing downstream, we approached said commercial before the other two British barges. The owner of the barge absolutely refused to allow us to moor on his boat, would NOT listen to Louise’s explanation of the reason, just shouted over everything she tried to say

His wife was more amenable but to no avail, so we had to moor on the mole on the other side. This was no problem in actual fact, but it did lead to a very uneasy feeling.

Subsequently, the éclusier must have seen what was happening and came round to speak to the barge owner. Somewhat mollified, he then allowed BEATRICE and the Piper barge, DEEP THOUGHT (whatever that means) to moor on him and they were welcomed with open arms.

Alex was incandescent with fury (almost unheard of for him). He even called the bargee a bastard as he moved off to moor on the other side!

“Oh”, said the bargee later when Alex went round to remonstrate, “I didn’t realise the situation”. “That’s because you bloody well wouldn’t listen, you plonker.”

We left Evry lock and got to the upside of the Ecluse Pont de l’Anglais, still on the Seine, where there was a good quay at the downstream end of some permanently moored resident barges. We moored up and shortly after received a text from Paul on BEATRICE questioning the safety of our mooring, given that disturbances were still ongoing in Paris.

Louise felt concerned enough to remove all the unfastened-down items from the decks and lock them away – just in case. Meanwhile, Alex saw the owners of the nearest liveaboard and went to ask their opinion. They said it was fine to moor there, many boats do for one or two nights, and there’s never any trouble.

So, mollified, we settled down for the night but the seed of doubt had been sown so neither of us slept well but there was no incident of any kind either.

We set off in the morning following a Belgian cruiser who was racing down the Seine at 18kph, clearly in something of a hurry. We informed the écluse Pont à l’Anglais that we were on our way but when we arrived the gates were closing. We had to contact the lockkeeper urgently to reopen the lock gates he was busy closing as he had thought that the Belgian cruiser was the only entrant to the lock: he couldn’t see us on his CCTV for all the trees concealing our approach, despite our having advised him on the radio.

Off went the Belgian cruiser at top speed. We followed, doing around half his speed only to find him waiting at the next lock for it to open to let him in. And we followed, sedately! Needless to say we barely got any acknowledgement from him whatsoever but it really was a lovely case of the tortoise and the hare!

Finally we got onto the Marne and found a good mooring at Neuilly Ecluse next to the campervan site. Of course, the little port of Neuilly, just below the lock on the river, was absolutely packed, mostly with cruisers: not much room for the likes of RICCALL.

And then we got to lovely Lagny – a port we have stayed in quite often. The cost of mooring is nil but a €6 charge is made for taking water and electricity.: very reasonable and operated by the Tourist Office. We booked two days and went to the station ticket office to get tickets to Montargis to collect the car and move it on.

The woman in the station ticket office claimed she could only sell us a ticket to Paris Est and we would have to buy the onward tickets when we got to Paris! We couldn’t believe it and nor would the lady in the tourist office when we told her. Still, we managed to book said tickets on line and print them out. We are still flummoxed by this turn of events. Can it be true? Has it something to do with the Ile de Paris transport system being operated differently?

We gave ourselves plenty of time and had a nice lunch at Paris Bercy, the station from which we had to catch the train to Montargis. As it turned out, nobody inspected our tickets on the whole journey.

We had an easy car journey back to Lagny and booked another night to give us time to drop the car at a convenient railway station, with free parking, further up the Marne. But our second night in Lagny was not peaceful: a party seemed to be taking place over the river and it went on until after 2 am. Bad enough, but the third night was even worse, with drumming and yelling and shouting until after 4 am! Bloody Hell! Why don’t these guys just go to bed!

When we got to Meaux we moored on the commercial quay beside the lock and hoped for a quiet night of recovery. This was not to be: some sort of rave started about 10pm and continued until 6am. Not only that, but it was red hot and we really wanted the portholes open but that was impossible and even with them closed we hardly got a wink of sleep.

We learned that our good friends Richard and Julia of ETTIE were moored at the next lock, Ecluse Meldeuses, another of our favourite moorings.

So when we got there we had a short rest in the afternoon and then we had drinks and a lovely dinner with them that evening. But we had had so little sleep the previous three nights that Alex made a complete hash of mooring when we arrived, much to Richard’s and Louise’s amazement (well, sleep deprivation is his excuse!).

The next day we went our separate ways but Alex was concerned to see that his ‘Smart Gauge’ battery monitor was showing that the batteries were very low! Wot, not again?! But yes. Over the next couple of days they were getting lower and lower overnight from being fully charged by the alternator during the day. This meant that our plan to do do touristy things at each stop had to be curtailed.

A definitive test on one of the batteries, chosen at random, showed it was down to 10% of of its supposed capacity. So they had had it! This meant that for the next several days, until we got to our mooring at Condé (electricity included) we would have to find moorings with leccy, or switch everything off, including the fridge/freezer, at night.

As it turned out we were really lucky. The pontoon at Chateau-Thierry was empty and we managed to make the leccy machine work, so stayed for three nights to include the dreaded 14th July, when the whole of France shuts down (including the locks). Another party night of course, though the fireworks were worth seeing.

Who on earth designed this carbuncle?

Well into champagne country now, we put in at Dormans, having driven the car up to the camp site/moorings two days before and pleaded with Bernard the manager to reserve a place for us on the fixed quay. And he did! (a bottle of crémant for him.)

Then it was Damery – the pontoon empty and with electricity available when we arrived! But at Mareuil-sur-Marne the only space for a barge like us was on the quay in front of a permanent péniche. We might have managed to put together enough cable to reach the bourne on the pontoon (130m) but instead, Alex talked to the owner of the péniche, Eddy, who agreed to let us piggy-back off his supply. How very kind! We gave him a couple of bottles of wine for his generosity when we left the next day.

And then finally, we were safe at our booked mooring in Condé if a little sooner than we had planned. Roxeanne has sold us two full months of mooring here as it would be more expensive to buy the one and a half months we really need, as the extra 15 days charge would be by the day which is more than twice the monthly charge. This gives us flexibility too of course.

So now it’s back to the UK for August and to buy batteries and possibly a new element for the dishwasher which has also failed! Alex has possibly decided to switch to Lithium batteries this time, so that will be an extra load of reprogramming and worry to grapple with when we get back: added to which the engine still sounds like a bag of hammers some of the time and at others as sweet as a nut. God knows what is going on there!! Oh the joys of boating!