8th August '13, Creil/Nogent-sur-l'Oise

Early morning on the canals can be a nice time, even on large canals it is quiet and still:

You can see the change in temperature overnight by the dew running off the decks.  This was Compiegne still, and we had one task before moving off downstream, visit the best chandlery in France & re-fuel at Ets. (Etablissement) Guerdin.  A charming man helped us, speaking impeccable French, and we bought loads!

The little chap with the car is waiting for us to leave so he can re-fuel too.  We took our time tho'!  He's small fry, look at this, it is four barge units (no motor) in a square formation, being pushed along.  Huge:

So we moored up at a perfectly acceptable spot, no mooring bollards but a tree, and our best stake, at the unremarkable Creil bank, opposite Nogent-sur-l'Oise.  Creil seemed to have suffered from the recession.

Where the swans were nearly ravenous so Nik had to feed them all our bread to escape alive:

This was just us going down the Oise before we leave its relatively calm borders, to join the fairly industrial lower Seine.  Nerves a bit jangly waiting for that!  Anyway, so far, so good.