9th-11th August, Pontoise

First, something really calming:

We had planned to stay a day or two in Pointoise, where this churgh is, because it is just a lovely walled town.  One of those we'll definitely return and stay longer.  Very arty, a chap called Pissaro, and a whole museum devoted to cubism and so on (not the above one!)
I need to show you a barge we passed on the way down, not a 4-unit one;  they look fine in the distance!

 

 So there!  Here's what our mooring looked like, on a brand new pontoon.  It was Euro 12/night with water and electric, but we needed neither so it was free, and right next to the brand new tourist office!

 In context, from a long walk up into the old castle parapets it looked like this:

Oops!  There goes another commercial...

It is odd how the newer barges, like this one, glide by and create almost no wash or wake and don't bump you against your moorings.  They are usually very pointed and elegant (we're becoming fans), while the older ones are very bull-nosed, and make tremendous wash (and noise).  You may have noticed a progressive metamorphosis of our barge into the floating gardens of babble-on?  Like this:

We walked a lot around Pontoise, it was up and down quite a lot, but at one lovely art museum garden:

The caption reads "You look familiar, didn't I know you?"  Then Nik got lost amongst the lumpy sculptures:

But eventually we had to move onto the Seine, turning left you see and now against the current.  Some lovely houses there, and nice to see hilly bits instead of flat planes:

Some bits are new, and characteristically French in their daring (this bit is still the Oise in fact!)

That's all for now, next bulletin later.  It'll soon be Paris!  Well, the outskirts, and that's when the troubles started, oh dear!