13th-14th August - Paris itself

Getting into the Arsenal looked pretty tricky, nowhere to wait, you cross all the downstream lane, and blow me if there isn't a little tuppaware boat just come to enter from downstream (must be a hire boat!), but luckily the great Bateaux Mouche that whizz in, out, up and down, turn around there.  So we've called the Capitaine, Bruno, who always says it's fine, and the green light means "go for it!".  Just as we storm forwards a police boat flies towards us, what?  Oh, I see, they have their little floating police station on my right, so he just ignores my sluggish craft, I don't/can't hit him, and we aim to follow the fibreglass boat into the lock.  Oh but the noise!  What is that?  It seems they've decided August is a good time to pressure blast off all the dirt on the brickwork here, so we are deafened, cannot communicate.  The lock has two floating bollards, one the plastic boat has taken, and the others is too far back for us.  Enough talk, our mooring is lovely, when we get there:

 Then we go inside the boat to let Bollinger out.  Oh dear, he's not there.  Where can he have gone?  Bother, the bow window was open, maybe he jumped out right at the start of the marina, when I had to go into the Capitaine's office to show my documents & find out where we can moor?  Nik runs down that way, I get on my bike and pedal after her.  She finds Bolly by the building, coming out from the bushes, and now here comes a nice black Parisian cat he's made friends with.  So it's true what they say about this city!!
Well the first item you come to, just a boulanger away, is Notre Dame de Paris, on the Ile de la Cite:

One of the best (but in August lots are closed) boulangers is on the first island, where our friend the first mayor of Paris lived.  We walk this way often during the two nights/3 days here.  There is some huge structure inhabiting the square in front of the Cathedral, an exhibition that is closed for now, and a huge staging for a son et lumiere.  The queue to get in his huge - no that's just for the tower.  The rest of the square and adjacent street is the queue for ND proper - impossible!  I say, don't let's bother with that rot, I know a much better place - so we go to see Saint Chapelle, inside the Palais de Justice.  The queue here is very short, despite an exhaustive bag search.  They let me keep my tiny Votorinx knife, but insist on emptying my hip flask out "Is it alcohol?"  "Of course, rather nice"  They said they couldn't drink it - well one said later he'd like to, but not here, not on duty!  Anyway, it was all worth it I think you'll agree:

I know this place from my time in Rueil, but while it looks good here there is much evidence of the years since, like me did you say?  Lots more pix, I told you I love it:

These are both of the lower chapel, more earthly and I feel more red (oh hell) but that can't be!  Upstairs they were restoring the stained glass, so hard to get the best shot, but here's an idea:

with lots of detail in the wall below.  All of this, both levels, were the private chapel of King Louis IX, and was built for him between 1239 and 1248, pretty amazing.  He built it to house some really big holy relics he'd bought on holiday, in order to raise the profile of Paris as a great place to visit.  The star of the show was Christ's Crown of Thorns, tho' later kings had to sell the odd thorn off to pay debts, but the crown is now in the Louvre.  Other stuff was sold/lost, like bits of the cross, etc.  Here's some detail:

We didn't bother with visiting the Concierge (it's a job-lot visit option) as it was so hot & sunny, so we wandered on towards the Louvre, you can see the little building behind the arch and someone who keeps getting into my photo's:

Then, as you do, we went for a walk on the beach.  Did I mention before that the French have had a typically inspired, crazy, wonderful idea of putting beaches in the middle of all towns, villages and hamlets to encourage the recession-hit population to stay at home for holidays?  It works, and Paris is no stranger to it:

You didn't believe me did you?  It goes for about a mile along the embankment.  I think they should do this in London, preferably inside the Stock Exchange.  We need a holiday from them!  Our objective, mostly in jest as it was so far, was that Tower that Eiffel knocked up out of scaffolding poles.  We got there, and it is just a framework waiting for a building, look:

Oh, did I mention that we had to walk up?  No?  The main queue here was also plain silly, but not if you opt to walk up to Level 1, oh and then to Level 2.  No steps available after just those 690 steps, er, how many?
There was a bar on Level 1, but the prices were as high as the tower.  First the bar, then proof we made it:

 

 It's the height, my hair is in take-off mode, I can't keep the ailerons down captain.  I took a picture myself in case this one was a disaster.  Enjoy!

Pretty impressive height, and this level is open to the full rigors of the breeze.  We're smiling thru' the pain!

 

 See, just scaffolding!  They took out a huge amount of steel to lightweight it too! Back to that bar...

 Did you know that Buffalo Bill came here in 1889?  Also Czar Nicolas II, last Czar of Russia (unless you count Putin, or is that Count Putin?).  Wonderful pix of people you only read about are set about on top.
We came down to the Tuilerie Gardens, this is such a wonderful city, we're determined to stay here a long time, when we don't have a bent prop to nurse and have fixed.  So we bought some momentos and found a cheap card shop where the cards actually cost less than the European stamp.  Did you know that a European stamp here is just 80 cents, say 75p, similar to a first class in UK, and in France it's 20 cents!!

Then back to the mooring, from another angle!!

See, what a lovely location we had, and no dog poo to speak of, lovely cafes and restaurants, beautiful gardens all around us, good security.  We were very happy there.  Now to round off a picturesque evening shot of a well known landmark

 See you again Paris, maybe in the Spring (like you said last year Tony?), oh well, we'll see.

12-13th August Rueil Malmaison then into Paris!

I'm coming to the beginning of another stressy part of our adventure;  well, the vibration in the boat had become worse and worse so I did an odd thing, went into the engine room while we were chugging along at reasonable pace, a bit dangerous for anyone wearing a long scarf or tie, and then opened up a hatch to look at the prop shaft where it goes into the tube leading to the water;  there's a rubber flange there which stops the water getting in, and it was, but the drive shaft was wobbling badly and it looked very dodgy.  We slowed down, a lot, and it reduced.

So anyway, we manage all the bits where you drive on the wrong side, then back, and took the right hand leg that leads to our preferred mooring at Rueil Malmaison (where by chance I'd spend many a month with my exchange family).  There was a lovely pontoon there, so we moored:

Okay, so this pic was taken after we'd put up the parasol and I'd walked up onto the bridge.  Which was covered in flowers, like this:

And here's another fiew of the boat:

By the way, mooring was free for 24 hours (no services) - where would you find that in suburban London?
So anyway, the water on the Seine turned out to be the clearest we'd seen since, well, since St. Laurent.
Then these coypu arrived (very tame), some six, and I have lots of pix, but here's one pic for now:

I then thought, holding your breath are you?, let's have a proper look at the propellor from the weed hatch.  Well, it wasn't as clear as I'd hoped, but it was clear enough to see what I'd feared:

Now to you it may look fine, but the two nearest blades shouldn't have that decorative bend in the end.  It's a sign of damage, check out the further one.  Of course I'm pretty motivated (read, angry) so I with my pond gloves (up to the armpit) I "go in" with my best and biggest mole wrench.  Of course I can bend it back a bit just for now...  Oh, bother, didn't have any idea it was that rigid, not a chance.  Time for some art, no not me!  It's Renoir, some geezer who ate and (mostly) drank around here, behind me I believe.

Calmer now?  So the bend prop means we know we can't go fast, even tho' we're going against the stream on the infamous Seine for several days yet!  Also we need it mended, asap.  Lots & lots of 'phone calls.  Another bit of painting by numbers for you:

I seem to like this one.  Boats you know.  Well, we must press on, and next day, the 12th, we can stay in the centre of Paris and someone there may be able to help?  We'd hoped to eat at the restaurant (it was full when we arrived) but seems they don't do dinners today, and the art gallery was shut too!  Ho hum, next time.  So next morning we set off, very gingerly, at any speed that makes headway but doesn't cause too much noise or wobble!  We see one of these - is is a boat? - it's a pusher for those 4-boat arrays!

Then, as happens, certain things pop up you recognise but cannot name:

Then a few you can name, but seem to be the wrong size or just too close:

Or just a bit large (it got larger!):

And here's another one:

 If it looks narrow to you, how do think we felt!  Is this really two way??  We hoped not, in fact, it's not, but we'd expected a bit more, you know, wiggle room!  Next stop, we said to ourselves, The Arsenal, the big, expensive, reputedly crowded and doggy doodah covered marina in the 'heart' of Paris, but that's the next post.  Hold your breath!

 

 



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!

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.

5th-8th August, Compiegne

This was always going to be a few days stay, as we'd heard what a lovely place it was, quite true.  We had a nice mooring right in the centre of town, and quite free (of any services too!)

We were overlooked by a large block of rather expensive flats, each with their own balcony, and there we made friends with a remarkable person who was the first Mayor of the Centre of Paris, the 4th Arrondissemennt (that's the islands in the centre that include the one with Notre Dame on).  He came to tea:

He has so many remarkable tales to tell, far beyond the scope of this blog.  The Maquis (the French Resistance), meeting Charles de Gaulle, and many others.  A lovely chap, and he lived in one of the amazing appartments overlooking us.  I could have listened to him all day, and such wonderful French!
Compiegne is a beautiful place, here are some tasters:

 

What on earth is that monster doing?

Quaint carvings, probably restoration but still amazing.  This little guy doesn't think he should be there at all!
There's an Imperial Palace too (in the background), very impressive but as usual utterly useless.  Amazing car and carriage museum, but mostly unviewable due to a dangerous ceiling and much restoration in progress.  The grounds are nice tho':

They have churches with amazing relics, one had dozens of bones etc. of ancient saints, as thus:

If you look hard you can see skulls and bones of old saints.  I understood they'd been that way a while, so a mausoleum seems a cool idea.  We had to move on however, but will be back.

4th August, Pont l'Eveque/Noyon

I'm being structured now.  This is about the end of the journey down to the first big junction, where we start seeing larger commercials.  The first pictue shows a narrowboat, they're crazy these Brits!

We moored at a a nice spot just above this junction, with a number of commercials, but in the morning:

We had heard there was only one restaurant here worth mention, in fact, it was the only restaurant, so we booked a table for that night, and had a lovely meal.  Here I am ignoring the view

and here's the view:

I asked the patron if it was always this busy (they really squeezed people in) and booked up, and he said yes, it's the only waterside restaurant around.  True, but odd, and odd answer.  It looked like this from the water:

We also had time to cycle quite a way to a nearby town called Noyon (nutty) which had a really old, I think 12th Century cathedral.  Sadly I forgot the camera, we hadn't expected to go so far! But that shouldn't stop me!  It looked like this:

and this is the plan, impressive isn't it.  It was lovely in the flesh, but I don't have any of that!  Next time...

So that was 4th August, I said I was being structured.  Next will be 5th to 8th August.  Where will that be?