Chateau-Thierry (River Marne) to Andresy (River Seine)

  

We found a good mooring in Chateau-Thierry upstream of the main town moorings – out of the possibly contentious zone on a Friday night.  We cycled up to have a look-see if anything had changed since our last visit, and found not only a new floating pontoon with water and electricity, but also MILOU the sister ship of AMAROK which we knew well in the South.  We introduced ourselves to Keith and Marilyn and chatted for a good while before doing our shopping, then looked on line for the nearest SFR phone shop as our dongle is now well out of date.  Yes!  One of the very few in the whole area is in the centre of this very town!

So in the morning we managed to buy a ‘Web Trotter’ and took it back to the boat to install it on our computers.  Managed to cock that up and lock ourselves out of the new dongle altogether, then had to return to the SFR shop to get it unlocked and then re-read the instructions!  Another night on the mooring, but that was OK.

We arrived at Nogent l’Artaud in time for lunch, but as we approached the mooring a little fishing boat snuck onto it.  We hovered and Monsieur called out that he only needed 5 minutes while he unloaded his fishing tackle into his car.  We contemplated moving on to the lock downstream, but as he was dashing about trying to be as quick as possible, we hung around and then ferried across to the mooring.

It seemed an idyllic spot: small town, with some supplies, good strong pontoon, free water and electricity, a few cafes, a restaurant: altogether a nice quiet place.  We had lunch – and then it started!  The male swan of the nearby family of 8 decided he didn’t like our boat on his pontoon. 

He began flapping in for the attack, pecking the portholes and even getting onto the pontoon itself to have a go at that side too! 

So we went for a walk round the village for an hour or more and he was still at it when we got back.  Alex decided enough was enough and when the Sunday picnic-ers had gone, he tried to poke the swan with the barge pole every time it attacked the boat.  Eventually it got the message and headed off a kilometre up river to where the rest of its family were, for the night.

Next morning at 6am however, there it was again pecking the portholes, wrecking the fitted mozzie nets, flapping around loudly, and spoiling any chance for us of staying in bed.  So we got up, had breakfast, threatened it with the barge pole again and set off for our earliest start this year!

We reached Meaux in the early afternoon and saw that the free mooring on the wall was all taken

up with a cruiser and tripboat, so we trundled down to the Port de Plaisance, and amazingly,

there was plenty of room for us on the end pontoon.

The next day, about to set off on an explore and picnic, we met an American couple Don and Patty from barge MARIA who were intrigued by RICCALL.  We chatted for a bit before setting off into a rather gloomy day.

           

We are very interested in this area, because the Marne river is very closely followed by a totally separate canal - the l’Ourcq - all the way from Paris in the west - some 108kms in total.  It was easy to get to the Ourcq towpath and follow it until we found the first lock.  Then we followed the canal along until it was at its closest to the River Marne. 

We had our picnic, sitting on an upturned shopping trolley, as you do, but failed to find real proof of the inclined plane that once linked the Ourcq to the Marne. 

On the way back we looked at a former lock onto the Marne which led to the old route down to Lagny, and stopped for tea and more chat on MARIA, which was moored on the Ducs d’Albe further upriver from us.  We invited Don and Patty for drinks the following evening, never realising that the weather forecast was for torrential rain, so they arrived pretty well soaked!  They have been cruising in France for 14 years throughout the 6 months of summer, much of it in the early years using MARIA as a hotel barge. 

She is a lovely boat with very good lines, and Patty has done a great job decking her out with flowers on her topsides.  (Louise now wants to know why SHE is only allowed 5 small troughs of flowers!!!)

After a couple of days moored at Lagny, and with time to spare before our first visitors arrive, we decided on an explorational detour up the old, now by-passed, section of the river Marne from Chalifert Lock upstream.  The sign at the junction indicates ‘Precy 10 kms’ and we contacted the lock-keeper that we didn’t need to pass through his lock as we were going up to Précy.  He said OK and thanked us for letting him know.

The first 6 kms is used by 44m refuse container barges and the channel is well marked by buoys.  But after the container unloading port the channel isn’t marked at all.  We knew that, and so continued carefully upstream, knowing that Précy was reachable, but were disappointed that there were no moorings at all on this bit of river.  So we turned round and headed back downstream.  After a couple of kms Alex suddenly realised we had drifted off centre a bit, but before he could steer back we went hard aground.

We tried everything subsequently, wriggling RICCALL back and forth, to and fro, ferrying ropes to distant trees on shore, using block and tackle to improve advantage, all to no avail.  Luckily we did have a mobile signal, so we finally called 112 – the emergency services – we waited a while, and in due course VNF appeared.  They said, “You shouldn’t be up this bit of river, so it’s not our problem.” 

We told them about their misleading sign at the junction but to no avail. 

The police appeared and thought about the possible options (none!) but eventually suggested we contact our insurance company as they had no solution to offer to the situation!

More interested in taking their picture with us in the background!!

Haven Knox-Johnson eventually sent us an email detailing three different outfits that might be able to help and also contacted a British surveyor, Barry Morse, who was coincidentally in the area and who might also be able to help. 

Well emails shot back and forth, contractors were organised, and then were pulled out, etc etc and in the meantime we had NO idea how long this might take, a few days, a week, a month or maybe until the autumn floods come, and though power via the genny was no problem, fresh water was a big worry. So, no showers, no washing machine, definitely no dishwasher, became the order of the day and the sun shone down on us mercilessly – 35^o and more for days on end.  Finally, after a whole WEEK, and Alex having to transfer €2500 himself direct to the salvage company (because H.K-J were not able to do it swiftly enough themselves {I mean, I ask you, insurance companies!!}) three men appeared in a small boat with a length of wire hawser, a rope and a turfer.  (A turfer can pull a wire cable through itself bit by bit, by use of a long handle – this one rated at 3,200kg).

Bruno, Rudi and Patrick attached the rope to the tree a little upstream on the opposite bank (the same one we had tried), the steel cable to the rope and the turfer to Riccall.  Finally, with much effort from the guys on the handle, Riccall started to be pulled back slowly into the deep channel.  Then at last we were floating again.  Sighs of relief, thank yous all round, and ‘au revoir’.

A VERY careful cruise back down the rest of the river, eyes glued to the depth meter till we were back in the marked channel, 2kms down river, then two days of water and electricity at Lagny to recover, regroup and relax.  When we arrived there was only one other boat moored, far away at the other end of the long pontoon, and we did three trips to the shops to restock and even ate out at the sea-food restaurant in town (very good it was too).  But the next night, a Friday, the pontoon was packed, two deep in places, including a French powerboat moored on us!  Not a problem of course – nothing is a problem when the boat is back on an even keel, but this time, our new neighbours talked loudly until 1am, until Louise politely explained that our bedroom was adjacent to their open back deck and they took the hint!  However, the nearby fishermen continued their chatting until Alex finally went up to the wheelhouse to make a similar point at 2.30am, but sadly to no avail.

So, somewhat refreshed and much less tense, we motored on, towards Paris.

Paris mooring opposite the Chinese hotel and restaurant

We spent a night on the low quay where the Marne joins the Seine – one of our favourite moorings – then had an early start to cruise right through the miracle of Paris on the river: great sights, and a marvellous experience, including coming upon a historic re-enactment of a ‘log flotage’ commemorating the days when logs were floated many kilometres down river to Paris to keep the home fires burning. 

  

Suddenly it’s New York!!!

We had taken the river route this time rather than the two canals St Martin and St Denis, so had new sights to look at, including La Defense, the financial and business ‘city’ of Paris.

Couldn't resist yet another picture of the Musée D'Orsay

The lovely mooring at Rueil Malmaison is now reserved for a trip boat at weekends in the summer season until after 6pm, so we motored on and moored at Bougival which was fine, if a bit noisy from the overhead road bridge. 

We are now in early July at the only remaining pontoon at Andresy, where electricity is still amazingly available and water too, after Alex spannered his way into the bourne and turned it on again!  A great spot, but a bit busier now than 6 years ago.  As part of the re-jigging of the town centre, a one-way road system has been introduced right beside the mooring – AND some of the trees have been removed, opening up what was a lovely hideaway mooring some years ago.

So, onwards to Rouen.

Spring Start 2015

Well, we thought we’d give up on all this blogging stuff this year, as we were under the impression that nobody reads our efforts! But we recently re-met two separate boating couples who do read them and would like us to continue. Two actual readers?! How could we resist? But perhaps in a slightly different format than hitherto. We’ll see how it goes.

Today’s youngsters want postings on Facebook, but that’s not our style, so instead we hope to give mostly pictures with fewer words. (“Thank God” I hear you say “A rest from some of the drivel”.)

Passing through shitty Charleroi just south of Seneffe!

So . . . we set off from our winter mooring in Seneffe and despite heavy flow against us on the Meuse we arrived a few days later at the mooring where AURIGNY had chosen to carry out some painting. This was a very low quay which gave us both easy access to the lower parts of the barges to apply a new lick of paint.

The sides were fine to paint of course, but the bow and stern presented a challenge to be overcome!

Kneeling the plank!! for a lick of paint!

The two barges look great with their new coats of paint

While on this mooring we were boarded and investigated thoroughly once again by the gendarmerie and all our documents checked. Insurance? Policy document found to be out of date –we’d just forgotten to print out the recent one for our file!!!!  But everything else was in order.  Thankfully.

Could be autumn with those colours

Also at this point our ancient dishwasher decided it had had enough, and died on us. Peter kindly offered the use of their car and we paid for a new machine from the Belgian equivalent of Curry’s. All good so far. But they would only deliver to a proper address, i.e. not the ‘Quai St Something’ in Dinant! So we gave them the address of the IBIS hotel in Dinant as we knew we could moor just outside! Travelling up to Dinant we took on water in a lock only to discover when we came to use it, that it had made our whole tank taste of rubber (and we had been charged €3 by the lockkeeper – strictly not on, we are sure). So disgusting it had to be used up asap and a refill located. Unusual on a barge to be profligate in the use of water which is such a precious commodity, but we had showers and baths and washed clothes that hardly needed washing etc!!! The dishwasher duly arrived as promised and we were ready to set off again.

Ploughing up the fast-flowing Meuse took a few days longer than anticipated, so suddenly Rob and Amy’s arrival in Reims seemed imminent. At last we had used up the foul water and were able to take on fuel and fresh water in Pont-a-Bar, ready for the 27 locks downstream, and a few days later we were in Reims.

Ready to set off tomorrow for the 27 lock chain

Rob and Amy join us in Reims

But on the way, an overnight in Asfeld acquainted us with a true marvel of a church. Built in the shape of a viola at the whim of a wealthy Baron, we arrived just as the morning service came to a close. We said our “Bonjours” to the 8 lady parishioners who were astonished to see us standing quietly at the very back, respectfully waiting for the service to end.  Then had a quick look round, which revealed the splendour and uniqueness of this marvelous building.

Viola shaped Asfeld church - quite stunning

Rob and Amy duly arrived in Reims and we gave them a short trip up the canal for 2 overnights and then returned to Reims for them to catch their train home. We ourselves had booked a week’s mooring with electricity for our own quick trip back to the UK for the usual dental and medical checks – this time carried out in London, so not so very far to travel. We managed to see two of our 7 grandchildren and their parents, so even if it was a short stay it was lovely to see them.

Near Reims at Sillery we spotted John and Martha’s boat DE GROENE LEEUWE (The Green Lion). An impromptu overnight was needed! After all, it is 3 years since we have seen them, so a lot of chatting was absolutely necessary. This was also a good place to replenish empty gas cylinders at the nearby Intermarché supermarket.

Surprise - John and Martha at Sillery!

Through the Billy Tunnel and down to Condé. We had decided on two nights there as this is one of our favourite moorings, but this time we were inundated with mosquitoes. Little bastards! Alex counted 15 bites on him despite an early retreat indoors and nets over portholes and air vents. He is usually unaffected by mozzies. Louise on the other hand, took slightly more defensive measures and only got 2 bites, though they did need a few days’ of anti-histamine medication as usual, whereas Alex’s 15 didn’t!!!

The weather has been good to us on the whole these past few weeks but here at Condé it reached over 40C! a bit hot even for us.

Cooler weather at the quay of a former silo (silo now demolished) at Epernay provided a more comfortable mooring, and as it is upstream of the official Port de Plaisance and almost at the ‘top’ of the navigable Meuse, we thought a quiet night was in store. But no! At 11pm we heard the sound of a boat engine and a fully-laden restaurant boat sailed upstream, to be followed of course, by the same boat 10 minutes later retracing its route!

So now we are following the Marne down to Paris, though we are taking it very slowly - not good to rush through such a beautiful area.  

Lovely skies follow lovely days

Champagne terraces are all around us and make for lovely scenery, with little white vans dotted amongst the fields as the proprietors and workers tend to the vines.

Lovely view of the vineyards from our mooring

A high spot of this part of the trip however, has to be the beautiful memorial in Dormans to the dead of the battles of the Marne in the 1914-18 war . We had missed this entirely on our trip up the river in 2009. And what a magnificent memorial it is: truly memorable.

The long view

And inside - just so peaceful

That concludes our first blog with the new layout.    It was easier for us to produce, but do let us know if you prefer it!  

Winter Update from Seneffe

We are moored for the winter here at Seneffe, as we were last winter, except this time we are on the fixed quay on the other side of the port which means we don’t have to shuffle about to get water and we also get a bit more sunshine (as if!).  The weather is the usual winter mix of wind, rain, cold, snow then occasionally bright sun for a few hours, sometimes all in the same day!

Our last posting left us just north of Reims back in September.  From there we headed north as far as Berry au Bac on the Canal de l’Aisne à la Marne, which was familiar to us from a previous voyage, or so we thought.  We remembered that the last time we had done this stretch, back in 2009, we had spotted an abandoned lock-side cottage which we thought at the time was just idyllic.  This time round we could find no trace of said cottage but no ruins either!  The tricks memory plays!

At Berry au Bac we turned left onto the L’Aisne Lateral towards Soissons, whereas in 2009 we had turned right towards the Canal des Ardennes –so new waterways ahead.

Our first overnight stop was at the junction with the Canal de l’Oise à l’Aisne, where we found free water and electricity on a substantial quay: and on a short foray to suss out the other canal were treated to an impromptu viewing of the hydro-electric station by the young man who was in the office there.  We had wandered into the building and seen him deep in a phone conversation through the open door of the office, so we quietly waited behind the door looking at the explanatory information posted on the wall.  A few minutes later he came round the door and saw us, and was so startled that he visibly jumped!  We all had a good laugh which broke the ice, and then, despite the working museum not being ‘open’ for visitors he offered to show us round.  Result!  And very interesting.

The mooring further west at Soissons at first appeared to be nigh on impossible but closer inspection revealed several hidden rings: difficult bollards did exist and we were able to moor up reasonably well.  It’s a shame that the moorings are so poor because the town itself was well worth a thorough visit, particularly the remains of the cathedral.  Though most of the site was in ruins the two high towers of the main entrance remain standing.  We dropped into the free museum which had several lengthy descriptions (in English) of life when the cathedral was in its heyday and what subsequently happened to it.

We also popped into an art exhibition (again free) which had an interesting display of heavy stainless steel balls on strings and springs.  In one exhibit, a large ball was swinging back and forth towards a huge concave mirror, so that it first appeared the correct way up, then upside down as it swung away (or was it the other way round?!).  In another exhibit a 6″ ball was trapped between the coils of a suspended spring about half way up.  The weight of the ball was causing the whole spring to rotate on its suspension, but the ball wasn’t getting lower in the coils: it looked like perpetual motion!  The picture doesn’t do it justice and the movie clip we shot was completely out of focus! Impossible to describe properly!  You’ll just have to take my word for it: it was intriguing.

At Vic sur Aisne we asked if the fuel depot just 100m from the mooring could give us white diesel (this was on a Saturday morning). ‘Yes, of course, I come in one hour’.  And sure enough precisely one hour later a fuel camion arrived and we shipped 540 litres of white diesel @ €1.34 per litre.  Later that day though, a VNF lock keeper came by and advised us to move a few kilometres downstream to Attichy to moor overnight, as a boat had been released from this mooring a couple of weeks ago by the local lads.  So with some regret we did that, but the mooring at Attichy was very poor indeed for us, and there seemed to be more lads there than at Vic, but all was well overnight. This was helped by a local fisherman who spotted the lads heading for the pontoon on which we were moored.  He gave them a Gallic mouthful and told them to leave us well alone and in peace, which they did.  Thank you Sir!

On our way to the Canal du Nord, we decided to stop for lunch on a 60m mooring which was listed in our DB mooring guide.  But as we rounded the bend where it was said to be, we saw that the whole length of it was festooned with about 10 fishing rods being operated by just two fishermen.  On this occasion there was a reversal of roles, with Alex all for giving up and moving on but Louise was of sterner stuff (this time).  An indication was made to the pêcheurs that we were coming in, so eventually they marched around moving their rods upstream to give us a space at the downstream end while Alex turned Riccall to come into the mooring against the current.  Unfortunately, what we had failed to note in the mooring guide description, was that the downstream end was very shallow indeed.  We hit bottom at least 2m from the edge, so had no chance of mooring and had to abort!  “Désolé, désolé, mes pêcheurs!  You can take up the whole quay again now.  We’ll go somewhere else for lunch, anywhere else, away from your black looks!”

By the next day we were back onto familiar territory on the Canal du Nord, finding moorings at all our favourite places.  We managed to stop this time at Péronne and visit the First World War Museum which was well worth the effort.

We had an uneventful trip through the Royaulcourt Tunnel and after a few days were at the penultimate lock in France just north of Valenciennes before crossing the border into Belgium.  The lock seemed to be taking an inordinately long time to pen through the boats ahead of us, but eventually the gates opened and we entered together with two other commercials.  A few moments later we understood the reason for the delay as we were boarded by a member of the French gendarmerie.  We then went through a third degree interrogation, though it was handled politely: ship’s papers, fire extinguishers, ICC insurance documents etc and then a surprise question ‘Where is your list of requirements for navigating on the French waterways?’  What list?  We admitted we knew of no such thing and certainly didn’t have it, but would acquire one as soon as we could and we’d get our fire extinguishers up to date.  Then, feeling the rage emanating from the two commercials which were also being held up, he left.  But by that time the lock keeper had also got fed up and started to lower the lock, so as we were busy saying au revoir to the gendarme, we very nearly got roped up!  All in all, not a very good display on our part.

A couple of days later, we headed into one of our favourite moorings at the end of the Pommeroeul -Condé link Canal (closed because the VNF will not dredge the French end of the canal).  On our previous three visits we’ve had this huge mooring quay to ourselves, but this time two other British barges were there plus a small wreck of an abandoned cruiser.  Still, plenty of room for us, so we moored up and introduced ourselves all round.

Diana and Chris on ESME and Dave and Carol on LA TULIPE were very busy carrying out routine maintenance on both their barges but made time for drinks and good chat with us and we with them before we set off after lunch the next day.

After a night n the sand quay in Mons Grand Large we had another solitary trip on the spectacular Strepy-Thieu Lift on our way back to our winter moorings at Seneffe Yachting.

Now we are in the middle of our usual dashes back and forth between Seneffe and Newton Aycliffe taking in family and friends as we travel in each direction.  On one of those trips we came back in Alex’s sister Julia’s big van, because in it we had a replacement fridge-freezer, sofa, washing machine and large roll of vinyl flooring for us plus 4 PV panels for Peter and Nicci of AURIGNY.  Getting all these into Riccall and installed was quite a business, but helped enormously by Peter and Nicci.  It had all been carefully measured up beforehand, but it was still tight, in one case very tight, and entailed some dismantling of the kitchen skylight window frame!  But all went well in the end.

And this year for the first time ever, we spent Christmas on Riccall, and were joined for the festivities by Paul and Diane of ELEANOR (soon to be replaced by their new-build barge BEATRICE – well, in 18 months when she has been built!). They had kindly brought the turkey from the UK, as you can only buy small turkeys in Belgium, and also other goodies including delicious home made Xmas cake, port and fizz. Thanks very much to them for that and for their good company

So that pretty much sums up the final stages of the cruising year and brings us up to date.

Our stats for the 2014 season are:

1678 kilometres

310 locks

12 moveable bridges

1 vertical lift

6 tunnels and

1550 litres of diesel (white)

The Burgundy and North to Reims

It has been quite a few weeks since our last blog and what a few weeks it has been!  We did at one point contemplate not carrying on with blogging but having re-read some of our earlier stuff and the memories they kindled, we decided that we just had no option but to keep on writing.

So, we left Tonnerre after waiting a few days for the weather to improve (the very first bridge was going to be a ROFF – Alex had been up and measured it).  Our first attempt at mooring at Tanlay was rather hampered by a land and aquatic fun day for the village youngsters.  The best moorings were full of kids in canoes but we managed to squeeze in on the opposite side in the shallows – only 2ft from the quay.  The chateau at Tanlay was pretty impressive with some amazing trompe d’oeils.  Our very next mooring in the middle of nowhere left us so far from the shore even our 8ft gangplank wouldn’t reach, but we had no passing boats thankfully and enjoyed a spectacular thunderstorm overnight.

Another ROFF to start the next day but around lunchtime the day looked a bit overcast so we put the roof back on.  Lucky we did, because as we travelled up through the next few locks together with a hire boat full of lads, the rain began to fall in earnest and suddenly blew into a minor hurricane.  We all got absolutely soaked, as in ‘up’ locks we have to be on deck holding and adjusting our ropes, and while we all had a good laugh about it, the fat Madame Eclusiere couldn’t crack a smile.  She was of course soaked too but . . . miserable cow!

On exiting the lock and before the next suspect bridge Alex spotted a lone bollard.  We moored up for the night and there was even plenty of depth – a rarity on this canal.  That evening as the sun came out again we walked up to the local village.  But in the morning, the approaching hotel boat had one hell of a job getting past us and lining up for the lock: not that he seemed over concerned: all part of the job I suppose.

In due course we got to a mooring at Pouillenay, where the notice board offered us two delightful and historic villages and towns to visit, Flavigny at 5kms or Semur at 10kms.  Flavigny won for obvious reasons, but we didn’t realise that 3 of the 5kms was steeply uphill, and the rest steeply downhill.  The village itself was just great, totally unspoilt and complete with its protective surrounding wall intact.  We sat in a café in a square having drinks and pouring over our map for a better way back – longer but flatter – definitely better!

We also noticed that there was a bus to the town of Semur which also passed through our next proposed mooring at Marigny.  So the next day we moored up for the night and asked our kindly lockkeeper if the bus was still running to Semur.  (We had given him a jar of Riccall chutney for his efforts that day in working the locks.)  And he said (all in French of course) “Be ready at 12pm and I will give you a lift”!.  So he did just that in his lunch break, and collected us again just after 5pm – so kind.  We had a nice day in Semur but got soaked again when we ran into another rainstorm.  This time though we were trapped on the Petit Train, with no hope of keeping dry.

Our next mooring at Port Royal has to rate as another one of the best.  The moorings were adjacent to a beautiful Chambre d’Hote village house which operated them (water and electricity included) in what had once been a thriving village with charcuterie and boulangerie, now sadly all closed, but mine host happy to provide baguettes and croissants in the morning.  The restaurant across the road run by Basil Faulty’s French cousin did excellent Charolais steak and chips, with massacred French beans as the side veg! - surprisingly common in France.

A few days later we were finally at Pouilly with the 3km restricted-dimension tunnel to negotiate ahead of us.  Alex spent the day installing lengths of split plastic pipe over the handrails at the front to protect them from the tunnel walls (a good use of time as it turned out) and fixing some old 4 foot long 8” x 2” baulks of wood which we had once used as glissoires years ago, through the bollards front and back.  He used luggage ratchet straps to fix the wood at an angle between the bollards so that each protruded about 50cms each side to keep us near the middle of the tunnel.  As it turned out it all worked well, but the handrails only cleared the roof of the tunnel by about 6” each side so it was slow but steady as you go.

At Vandenesse we had to leave the lovely moorings after just one night as the town was about to hold a firework party, so we moved on a couple of kms and moored between locks on a post and a makeshift G clamp on the armaco just behind the barge IBAIA.  We met the new owners Richard and Lynda and we all walked up to Chateauneuf in the warm sunshine.

Our descent of the Bourgogne Canal from the tunnel went without many incidents, most of the bridges being JUST high enough, and with the number of hotel barges on this side, the depth was absolutely fine.

We did come across one unexpectedly low bridge between two locks near Epoisses, which were being worked for us by an eclusier and had to do an emergency stop.  The lockkeeper came scooting back on this VESPA and we explained we just had to take 5 minutes getting the roof off.  “Pas de problem” he said, and watched as we did it giving us a thumbs up when the job was done.  The fisherman beside this said bridge never raised his eyes!  (Of course, he’d seen it all before!  Yeah!  Typical!)

Finally we got down to St Jean de Losne and a long wait in the basin waiting for the lock out onto the Saone.  The town quay moorings were predictably full, but the ‘secret’ hidden ring on the sloping wall of the launch ramp which Jill and Robert of DANUM had told us about, was free so we hooked on there.

We had now completed the Canal de Bourgogne, one of the jewels in the crown of the French canal system, and we would be travelling north again by the Canal du Marne à Saone, now called the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne (we prefer the old name).  There is much to commend the Bourgogne with isolated stretches and few boats but the manual locks, operated by roving eclusiers make it difficult to make unplanned stops, as the VNF like to know what your movements are at all times, and you don’t know what you might like to do or see if you haven’t done that particular canal before!

At Auxonne we stopped for lunch on the town quay and Alex fashioned an ingenious (Louise says) system to get water from the push and hold tap close by.

Then at the next lock just before our turn on to the Marne à Saone, the rain started again.  We took pity on a middle-aged couple of cyclists, who were sheltering under the bridge over the lock, and invited them on board for a warming cuppa and shelter.  They gratefully accepted and we took them with us through the next couple of locks to our mooring at Maxilly.  We managed quite a good chat with our limited French and they were delighted to have spent a short time on a barge for the first time in their lives.

The next day the first thing we met was a fully laden peniche.  Crikey!  We thought they had pretty well stopped using this canal!  But it was one of very few we met up with on the canal.

That night we moored in front of an Australian couple on a cruiser, who had seemingly moored right in the middle of the long quay, leaving us just enough room to get in in front of them.  The guy took a rope for us, as the moorings were rings and that is helpful, and we motored forward on that to get the stern into shore and our other rope on, whereupon Mrs came out very flustered and said in no uncertain words, that we were too close to her boat.  Fine!  We’ll move back a bit to give you 2 metres clear instead of one – not a problem, if that’s what you want.  No need to get your knickers in a twist!

She was just as twitchy the next morning when we left, convinced that we would scratch her precious cruiser.  Needless to say, we didn’t fraternise with them, but thought it unusual behaviour for Ozzies, who are usually so friendly.

We now had more of a target for meeting Mary and Martin who were due to visit us for a few days’ cruising.  There was definitely a station at Joinville, where two trains a day still stop on the line that runs down this canal. We had plenty of time to get there for their arrival, but in the meantime we found ISKRA at the Chaumont mooring, together with a South African boat called SEA HAWK.  We had kept in touch with John and Hilary since we met them 4 years ago on the Canal du Centre and had even visited them at home near Nottingham, so it was great to catch up.  And we also got to know Alan, Liz, Richard and Lorraine of SEA HAWK and had drinks with them.

We spent the next few days leapfrogging with these two boats till Friday when we got to Joinville at lunchtime.  We knew in advance from them that there was room for us on the quay so that was a relief.

Louise had been longing to have her hair cut and on Friday afternoon went into town and had the job done.  Liz and Lorraine coincidentally had also gone into town for the same purpose though to a different hairdresser.  Seeing Louise’s new short hair, Alex decided he had better try on Saturday morning for a ‘coupe normal’ too.  Having ridden all round the town twice looking for the best deal (!) he suddenly saw a little coiffure on the corner which looked his kind of place.

‘C’est combien pour un coupe normal?’ €11.  Great, and she could do it now.  Best haircut he’s ever had so when he got back to the boat and told John about it, John set off hotfoot for the same place.  A great deal for Chaumont – 12 boaters and 5 of them had spent money on hairdressing in the town!!

Mary and Martin duly arrived late on Saturday night and the next day we set off for the mooring at Bayard which only had room for one boat. Unfortunately SEA HAWK had beaten us to it so we motored on to Chamouilly.  The next day was a short one into St Dizier, though this did require a quick ROFF at the railway bridge (not unexpected) and a treat for Mary and Martin who had never seen the procedure before.

St Dizier is not a bad place despite the rather dilapidated moorings, and we had a nice amble round and lunch courtesy of Mary and Martin (another thank you to them) in one of the pleasant squares.  It is the birthplace of Hector Guimard who designed those famous cast iron entrance porticos for all the Metro stations in Paris in the 20s, and also many balconies, gates and other functional or decorative ironware in St Dizier and elsewhere.  Much of this was evident, not unnaturally, in the town and we waited till 9.30 the following morning to have a look at the town museum where some of his work and other artefacts are held.

Apart from ISKRA and SEA HAWK, we saw only a handful of other boats on the canal, so we were not surprised to see them at Orconte when we arrived.  What did surprise us though was that by 7pm that evening another FOUR boats had joined us on the quay and a hotel barge which had wanted to moor up had to decide to motor on a couple of kms up the canal for his mooring spot.  Weird!  Amongst those four boats was another we knew of old - AILSA - with Mike and Sally aboard.

Finally we got to Vitry-le-Francois and managed to moor behind a VNF workboat above the lock into the town.  This was an excellent spot as it was close to the station for Mary and Martin to catch their return train next morning and peaceful being away from the town centre, the only downside was the loss of the sun behind a huge silo in the evening.

Vitry marks the end of the Canal de Marne à Saone and we had loved it.  In some ways it is better than the Bourgogne partly because all the locks are automated and therefore don’t need roving lockkeepers watching your every move, and also because the canalside vistas of countryside seem wider and more spectacular.

From here we are on the Canal Lateral a la Marne - a more industrialised waterway – but attractive nonetheless.

We gave Chalons en Champagne a miss, as since the last time we were there, the moorings have been updated with a new capitainerie, finger pontoons, water, electricity, and of course costs, and much less quay space suitable for barges.  SEA HAWK and ISKRA had managed to squeeze in but there was no room for us, so we carried on to one of our favourite moorings at Condé.

At Condé we were joined by Hubert on his barge DEWAALST whom we had first met at Auxerre and later at Clamecy, and he came for drinks with us.  We saw him again a couple of days later when he pulled in to our mooring north of Reims just before we set off for a morning shopping trip.  His new inverter had stopped working: so Alex had a look and managed to get it going again, and also suss what had caused the problem.  One very happy Hubert went on his way, and we went off and did our Lidl and Leclerc shopping.

We are now about to join the Canal Lateral à L’Aisne to Compiègne, another new canal for us, and then head north for our winter moorings back in Seneffe.

The Nivernais, the Yonne and the Bourgogne

Clamecy is a lovely little town and was once one of the assembly points for the gathering of wood to be floated down the river Yonne to Paris which had run out of local wood for building and burning.  There is a picture of Clamecy taken in the late 1800s, showing the river chock-full of logs so that you could have walked from one side of the other without getting your feet wet!

The logs were assembled and tied together into log ‘barges’, then steered down the river by one or two men using the natural flow as their motive power.  The photo attached may help to explain.

We travelled to the outskirts of the town on our bikes to the usual Lidl and Leclerc to stock up and on our return found Phil and Terrie of barge MR PIP waiting to say hello.

They were travelling in their campervan in the area when they received our last blog and realised we were just ‘round the corner’ from them.  So we had a good catch up with them before they had to rush off to see to their two new kittens, which they’d left in the van.

When we looked round the cathedral in Clamecy Alex found one of the doors to the tower had not been locked. (He always tries every possible door just in case and usually no luck, but this time - result!)   So he climbed to the very top and out onto the square roof which had a parapet all round.  It was blowing a gale up there and as he shouldn’t have been there anyway he had to keep his head well down as he squatted around admiring the views and snapping them from between the balustrades.

Our trip back to Auxerre was now on a known canal/river so we knew, or thought we did, where most of the shallow bits were and where it was a ROFF situation.  Despite this previous knowledge though, we managed to go aground twice – once giving a boat plenty of room to enter a lock and once moving over to allow another boat to overtake.

On the way we encountered four ‘adventure boats’ on several occasions, which had been moored at Clamecy, and were now moving slowly along the Nivernais on an outward-bound-type trip with a million teenagers aboard!  Not a job for the faint-hearted!

We took the Vermenton branch this time and moored up for the night in Accolay. It wasn’t quite wide enough to turn Riccall round so on leaving we continued through the second and last lock, turned in the Vermenton basin and retraced our steps back to the Nivernais and one of our favourite moorings so far, at Bailly.  This time we spent the afternoon walking right up to the top of the vineyards for a magnificent view of the Yonne valley.  Our friends Jean and Mike were due to drop in again on their way north so this was the perfect spot, as they now knew where we’d be, having stayed there with us on their way south.  We had another lovely evening with them and they agreed if they could leave some of their luggage for us to bring back to the UK shortly, there was room in the car for Alex to be given a lift to Seneffe to collect our own car.  It would only add about half an hour to their journey to Zeebrugge for their ferry, and thanks very much Mike and Jean for that.  Alex got back with our car late in the evening.

We spent the next night on the shallow moorings upstream of Auxerre as we knew the following day was going to be tricky and Alex cycled the 10kms back to Bailly to collect the car and parked it in Auxerre.

Next day we lowered the roof before setting off, so the Paul Bert bridge in Auxerre town (limited height and depth noted in our canal book and on the bridge itself!) was actually no problem, and when it came to the turn and reverse into our arranged mooring place, communication was much easier with the roof off and the whole manoeuvre went without a hitch (amazingly as Riccall is usually virtually uncontrollable in reverse).

So now we had a safe place with electricity to leave Riccall for a couple of weeks, and someone to keep an eye on the boat – perfect!  Again thanks are due to David, our friend on his barge CARMEN, for acting as intermediary to get us the temporary mooring and checking on Riccall in our absence.

We drove back to the UK, spending a lovely evening and night with Peter and Nicci on AURIGNY in Deinze in Belgium, then two nights with Julia in Bedford, one night with Michael and Sylvia in Harrogate, where we could admire all the preparations for Le Grand Depart of the Tour de France and finally home to Newton Aycliffe.  Unusually for us we spent all of the Saturday watching alternately the women’s tennis final and Le Grand Depart from Harrogate on television, and Sunday watching more Tour de France and the men’s tennis final!

Our main reason though for this return, the christening of Louise’s first beautiful little granddaughter, Sophie, was not for several days, so we had the usual dashing about collecting together everything we needed to bring back to France with us and fitting in a visit to brother and sister-in-law David and Bun in Wedmore, and Emily and Ric in Bristol.

The christening itself was just perfect, and we spent a further great night with friends from way back, Max and Judith in Kent, before catching a morning ferry and the 6 hour drive back to Auxerre.

We decided to spend a few more days on the mooring in Auxerre as it was just so lovely. We were due to be joined by friends Sylvia and Michael in a few days time in Migennes, a few kilometres downstream on the Yonne and just onto the start of the Canal du Bourgogne – but not such a nice mooring.

When we finally got to Migennes we still had a day before our visitors arrived so we sussed the station, train times, did a bit of shopping and were amused to see a pair of elderly scavengers who dropped by every hour or so to see if anything had been left by hirers in the rubbish bins! 

Alex was also suffering a slight hangover because when we had arrived the night before we had been joined for post-dinner drinks by four multi-national hirers John, Viv, Grant and Itati who were about to leave their boat the following morning.  We all finally got to bed about 1am but in the morning they very kindly gave us all their leftovers, including a full crate of beer and two bulging carrier bags of goodies!  Many thanks to them and bad luck the scavengers! 

The night Michael and Sylvia arrived in Migennes, the local bar had become the centre for an all-night party!  M and S were tired enough after their day-long journey to us to sleep through it all but we had a fitful night until 5.30am when the last of the partygoers eventually stopped chatting and drove off.  The goods trains, which ran all night on the opposite side of the port, didn’t help either!

We set off for St Florentin with Michael and Sylvia, stopping for the usual enforced lunch on the way (the locks here shut 12 to 1pm).  At Maladerie we got to our first ROFF.  This gave M and S a treat, as it was the first time they had ever seen the roof being lowered into the well deck.

After a thankfully peaceful night we all went by train to see Auxerre, as we knew M and S would love it as much as we had.  Had a great day, a super lunch and spent another quiet night back in St Flo.

The following day we came to our second ROFF at Germiny – the lockkeeper just had to wait for us while we completed the manoeuvre.  But she was quite happy to do so, and we got a thumbs-up from her and two passing lady walkers when all was completed.  We finally moored up at Flogny where we had free water, and ate an excellent barbecue cooked by Michael on our new barbecue.  (We have rarely bothered with barbecues in the past because the old-fashioned charcoal-burning type is such a trial, so we had finally used the opportunity of M and S’s visit to treat ourselves to a new gas type, which was a great success.)

Another good quiet night at Flogny and on to Tonnerre, where we had an evening and morning to view the town with its amazing ancient wash-house and interesting cathedral on the hill.  We also learnt that Tonnerre had been subjected to a serious mis-directed bombing by the American Air Force in May 1944 in the lead up to D-day.  Can’t think quite what their proper target might have been so far south! but it left the town in ruins. Sad, sad pictures of the time were on display in the cathedral.

M and S left us after a great few days together: the weather had been perfect – flawless blue skies and just not TOO hot!  Just a bit of a pity we hadn’t been able to show them either a French chateau or a typical French market – each town we visited had had its market on another day, and the main chateaux are further up the canal and higher into the hills!  Another time we hope? . . .

On the Nivernais

Finally the weather has warmed up!  In fact it’s so hot now we can hardly bear it – 38C the other day and 34C for four days in a row!  Typical!  From one extreme to the other in a matter of 2 or 3 days.   We Northerners need time to acclimatise!

We left Sens while it was still cool and took our time (5 days) getting to Auxerre, staying at various places on the way including Villeneuve which was nice enough and Joigny, an interesting little town set on a hillside, with some very old and interesting timbered buildings.  The moorings however, were unfortunately rather poor and we did gently make our views known to the Tourist Information Office staff.

At Auxerre we saw David Almond’s boat CARMEN, and went for a catch up and news of the possibility of a mooring there while we return to the UK for Sophie’s christening.  We had last seen David on the Canal du Midi two years ago when we were both waiting to get through a lock, with a dozen other hired plaisances (bumper boats!).   He had good news for us: yes, a mooring was available at reasonable cost just behind his own boat.  Great relief, as a safe spot for Riccall with electricity is pretty hard to find.

We had moored on the town quay at Auxerre which shows signs of a recent, very comprehensive upgrade, but sadly the water and electricity bournes have not yet been connected.  However, it was a lovely town and an excellent place for our boating friends Keith and Louise of SALTIRE to spend the night with us on their way south to their boat at Moissac.  They arrived around 2pm so we had a wander around the beautiful, ancient town of Auxerre with its little winding streets and alleyways on steep inclines surrounded by timber framed houses everywhere, and we even managed to squeeze in an excellent stop for liquid refreshment! These towns are quite amazing: there must be at least three spectacular churches in Auxerre as well as the Cathedral, and we duly went and saw the rest the following day.  After a further night we felt we must move on and decided our next mooring would be at the Caves de Bailly.

We are now on the Nivernais canal proper and here the locks close for lunch from 12pm - 1pm. This is fine for us as we like to stop for lunch ourselves, though sometimes it can be somewhat difficult if there are no moorings at the next closed lock!  On one occasion we came off a river section and entered a very short sloping sided entrance to the lock.  The lockkeeper wasn’t there, the lock was full, and it was lunchtime.  There were no mooring possibilities of any kind, and the sloping side meant we couldn’t get off to take a line to anything ashore.  We ended up sticking the boat hook across the wide gap into the ground and tying up to that!

As it happened, on the way to Bailly, again the last lock before the mooring was closed for lunch when we got there and this time we had to use a totally inadequate quay about 4 metres long (admittedly with two good bollards) but loads of rocks just below the water surface.  We managed to hang on while we had lunch and Alex leapt off Riccall to scout ahead and see if there was room on our planned mooring.  Yes!  Just 3 boats and plenty of room for us.  When we finally got there two of the boats had already gone and the third left half an hour later, so we had the place to ourselves: a really excellent mooring with water and leccy by jeton.

A short walk up the hill were the Caves de Bailly- a cooperative wine organisation which had taken over the underground excavations formed during stone quarrying work many, many decades ago.  Really stone mines rather than coal mines.  The underground caverns run to about 4 hectares and maintain an ideal temperature for the production and storage of the millions of bottles of wine made there.

One of the most amazing things about this underground facility was the sheer size of some of the areas without support.  The roof wasn’t domed or supported by pillars, but completely flat 12 feet above our heads, spanning an area sometimes more than 30 x 60 metres.  When you think of the weight of the hill above, some 200m in height, you wonder how it could possibly be self-supporting

We took the €5 guided tour and were lucky enough to be joined by only one other couple (British) and so the guide was able to speak only English to us all – and excellent English she had too.  It was a fascinating tour, well worth the money and at the end we got a glass of two types of Cremant to taste and to keep the glasses afterwards!  Needless to say we did buy a couple of bottles at the typically slightly inflated cave prices but it was all worth it.  We also bought the jetons for the electricity and water at €1 each – for 12 hours electricity or half an hour of water.  The mooring itself was free!

Our friends Mike and Jean from our UK narrowboating days had arranged to spend a night with us on their drive to Spain and this was a perfect spot for them to find us: quiet road right beside the mooring and even a safe car park.

We had a great evening with them, then the following day, after they had set off we were joined on the mooring by a small British barge called Unique (well they all are pretty well unique, aren’t they? – almost as bad as us calling our narrowboat ‘The Boat’!!)  We had pleasant apéros with Tony and Heidi and the next day we were on our way again.

One other notable thing about the Canal du Nivernais (apart from its lack of depth) is the height of the bridges.  Our Breil Guide tells us that they all have 3.4m clearance, expect a few which it marks up as specially low.  In fact most of them are more than 3.6m high (our wheelhouse height) but the ones marked as low are usually the wrong ones!!!  So, for a lot of the time, we are cruising ROFF and marking up each bridge in our book as we come to it, as to whether we needed to be ROFF or RON.  So far there have only been three that were definite ROFFs so as it’s so hot we have done the last couple of days with the roof on and going very slowly when approaching the bridges.  And no problems as yet.

Our last mooring was at a pleasant little village called Chatel-Censoir, in an ex-hire-boat basin.  The hire company, Le Boat, had closed down but the water and electricity were still on and all free so that was nice and we stayed a couple of days.  The basin was a bit tight for our boat but we knew there would be no trouble turning when the overnighting hire boats had left in the morning. However, one particularly large one was still there at 10.00 on the day we wanted to leave, so Alex asked the English hirers when they might be leaving.  They said they were just going up to the village for shopping and they would be away by 11 o’clock.  Fine!  We were in no hurry.  So at 11am they got back on board, released the ropes, THEN started the engine.  We could see immediately that they had a problem as they started to drift away from their pontoon in the light breeze, without any power, in our direction.  The captain then tried again and got forward thrust but no steering and no reverse.  By this time they were heading straight for us!  However we managed to deflect them and took a rope so they could moor up behind us.  Perfect!  Now we could get out of the basin and they could ring Le Boat to try and sort their all-electronically-controlled boat!

We moored up for that night, nestling on the mud a metre away from the edge of a little off-line divit in the canal.  And then we set off for our last stop before the water depth runs out(!)  Clamecy would have to be the end of the line for us, as we have heard dire tales of empty pounds a short way upstream.  So then it will be time to turn round and do it all again in the other direction!

However getting to Clamecy presented its own problems. First, a lock was turned against us where the river crosses the canal and we had to back off into the flood lock to avoid being swept to the weir.  The next flood lock was at a very sharp angle and Alex suddenly decided he was going too fast and did an emergency stop! Which of course disturbed all the water and made getting through all the harder!  Then we went the wrong side of an island in the river (Louise mis-read the map!) and then to cap it all, we took the wide, high, middle arch of the bridge into Clamecy and immediately went hard aground.  This time it was not our fault, as neither the bridge nor our canal guidebook showed the correct arch to use.  Normally, at this stage, we settle down and have lunch, and it WAS nearly 12 o’clock, but the lock keeper eventually saw our plight, and explained which arch we should have used, and said he would lower the sluice on the weir ahead to raise the water level and sweep us back through the bridge arch.  This duly happened with remarkably little turmoil (either for the boat or the captain and crew!)  So then it was through the right arch, into the lock and up into the mooring basin.

On the Way Again

Well here we were back in Pontoise after almost exactly 5 years and the place was much improved.  The public quay had been completely renewed and there is now a long floating pontoon up river of the restaurant boat with water and electricity for €14 per night, any length.  On the opposite bank they’ve refurbished the banks and installed another long floating pontoon, around 100 metres or so, offering no facilities but free to stay.

The town itself also showed signs of investment with the cathedral half cleaned, the squares newly paved and fresh flowers planted in borders and planters all over town.

Our journey there from Seneffe was largely without incident and much of it covered old ground.  We moored at many places we had moored at before which always brings a sense of familiarity and ease.  But one, to our amazement, was completely taken up with commercials and that was at Mortagne du Nord, just over the Belgian border into France.  We struggled our way through the silt to the small plaisance quay on the opposite bank: a bit of shimmying back and forth got us close enough to the quay to get the mooring lines on.  The next day, however, getting away from this mooring and back into the main channel was a bit of a challenge.  We were ploughing a furrow in the mud and just had to let Riccall choose the best route for our escape!  No sharp turns advisable here!

From Peronne southward we were onto new territory on the Canal du Nord until we rejoined the Oise (which was the route we had taken 5 years ago from the Canal St Quentin).

We spent a few nights at Compiègne and this time actually did a tour of the Palais – unfortunately we were a little underwhelmed considering the write-up in the tourist literature though the photos make a good show.  The Fête des Muguets (lily of the valley) occurred on a very wet May Day, and we watched the typical French parade squelching past for hours!

Then a couple of nights in Creil from where we cycled the impossible roads to Chantilly, to view the splendid gardens of the Chateau.  We felt the cost of visiting the house itself was not justified, and this time our Lonely Planet said as much.  Maybe we should have discovered for ourselves, but it was such a lovely day that we decided to stay al fresco.  In retrospect however, although the gardens were not included in the tour of the chateau itself, it would have allowed ample views of the best bits of the gardens anyway, so that would, perhaps, have been the better option.  Despite the fact that it was a lovely day, the 10km bike ride to get there had been so fraught with the presence of 40 ton lorries and fast cars on the roads that we decided to take the train back to our moorings.  As usual we were assured by the ticket office that there was no problem taking our bikes on the €1.70 per person train ride back to Creil.  It was no easy task lugging our heavy Dutch Gazelles onto the train, but there is no doubt it was better than facing the juggernauts and racing cars on the road.

The day before our planned departure for Paris we had a bit of excitement as a huge commercial moored up in front of us.  So far so good, but while the family went off shopping, the barge managed to slip its rear mooring line – Madame had merely attached the rope with a large hook to the armaco of the quayside, very low down.  We were sitting quietly in the wheelhouse, sudoku-ing and crossword-ing when Louise looked up and spotted the back end of the barge gently floating out into the river.  We shot to the barge and Louise shouted to anybody who might still be on board but to no avail.  So Alex ran all the way down the quay to the front end (still attached) and then back down the full length of the boat - 80m+, threw their rope to Louise who secured it round a bollard.  Then we bowsered the boat back in and made it properly secure.

An hour later Madame and the children returned and Alex explained to a mystified Madame what had happened.  She then phoned hubby (who had apparently been on board the whole time!) and gave Alex a rather curt ‘Merci’.  Perhaps she was embarrassed.  Oh well, you can’t win them all!

As well as local government spending on Pontoise, a couple of building firms are about to build several blocks of modern flats along the banks of the river.  The temporary sales office for one of these was right next to our mooring.  After two days Alex could stand it no longer.  Here was a good, strong, but locked wifi signal – so he braved the tall chic lady salesperson who ‘manned’ (‘womaned’) the office each day and asked ever-so-politely, if she could give us the code.  ‘Mais oui’ she said.  Fantastic!  Definitely worth the little prezzie of a pack of choc nibbles we had ready for her, but we had to leave them in a plastic carrier bag on her office door with a note as she didn’t open up before it was time for us to leave for Paris.

The trip to our next mooring at Rueil Malmaison took far longer than we remembered and when we got there at 5.30pm, thank goodness it was empty, unlike 5 years ago when it was packed with cruisers.  But then we noticed the sign, erected since our last visit, which said, ‘NO MOORING BETWEEN 9am AND 6pm!’  What a swizz!  Well, with just half an hour to go, we reckoned it was OK and if we slept in in the morning – bad luck!

We arrived at the first lock on the St Denis Canal at 11.45 am but for some reason the radio wasn’t transmitting our request to the lockkeeper to go up the flight, or at least we were getting no response from him, so Alex tried the hand-held radio to which the response was – about a 20 minute wait.  4 hours later we started the flight!  Every time we thought this is it, another commercial appeared.  Finally after two and a half hours and seven locks, we managed to moor up in the ‘circulating basin’ as they call it at the top of the flight.  We were unable to get to La Villette as the temporary passerelle (pedestrian) bridge they have installed while the automatic lift bridge is repaired, had stopped operating for the day.

The next day we went as far up the Canal de l’Ourcq as a barge of our size can, about 11kms, just to have a look at it and the bankside improvement works.  Then we returned to pass the temporary passarelle into the port of La Villette, where we now discovered that it only opened at pre-determined times of day (mainly to let the trip boats through actually).  So we moored up and had lunch while we waited.  Finally we got into La Villette, which now has a total of 250 metres of mooring spread over three different areas, allocated to plaisance boats over 15m where you are allowed to moor for up to 7 days.

Our last trip to La Villette (2009) had cost us around €17 for the use of the 7 up and 4 down locks and nothing for the overnight mooring, so we sort-of-assumed it wouldn’t be too far off that, allowing for inflation and so stayed for 4 nights.  We did a bit of sightseeing, as you do, met up with Stewart and Lesley of ENDELLION who were moored in the Arsenal Port for a coffee and a catch up, then the next day went to pay the bill at the Paris office (rather than let it be sent to our home address, where we aren’t!!)

Well!!!  Inflation or what?!  €52 for a Paris vignette (lasts a year but we are unlikely to be back this year) and the first night free to moor, then €14.75 per night thereafter, so nigh on €100.  Bit of a shock to the system, but actually I suppose, an average of €25 per night for central Paris is not too bad!

The trip down the St Martin Canal was a bit slow, what with waiting for the trip boats and not getting started as early as we had hoped (paying the bill had taken ages) but we got to our hoped-for little mooring at the junction with the Marne in time for lunch.  Then it was onto entirely new ground, or should I say ‘water’ as we travelled up the Seine.

We managed to find pretty good moorings at the locks for a couple of nights, then in Melun, a very good long quay with water and leccy at one end.  We decided to make full use of the facilities and were charged €12 the next morning.  However, the capitaine said the downstream end of the quay was free to moor (no facilities) so, as the éclusiers were on strike yet again, we moved there for the next night.  Melun itself was a nice town: 13^th century church, numerous other monuments of antiquity, a very helpful Tourist Information Office and a working prison!

A few days on, and we are now in Sens, which has good mooring, free water and leccy and very few big commercials blasting past.  Peter (Mastenbrook) lives here on what appears to be a variety of vessels so he came for lunch with us when we arrived and we had a good catch up chat.  Peter seems to know everything about the barging world and is a positive mine of interesting information so we had lots to talk about.  The last time we saw him was when we were in dry dock a year ago.  Regular readers may remember that we kept being floated, even when we still had holes in the bottom of the boat, so we were rather pre-occupied when Peter dropped by, expecting an inundation any minute.  It was a shame we couldn’t do justice to his visit on that occasion, but have made up for it in his home town we hope.

We have decided to stay here in Sens for the weekend.  It’s a really fine town and Alex needs to service the engine anyway.  We are in no hurry to move along but we could do with some better weather.  When it’s sunny, it’s lovely and warm, but then we keep getting these torrential showers!  . . .