29-31st August Nemours to Cepoy (to pass the closures in time!)

You may notice a small figure in blue to the right of the steps?  Nik is there for scale, and to prove we were there.  This is the Chateau of Nemours, quite small actually, I think it's a library or somesuch, and just off a street from the town.  The other side is the canal.  As usual, the Tourist Office is in the nicest building:

Also, as we've found increasingly in France, they don't spare any effort or expense (plants are so dear over here!) in floral arrangements, either with automatic watering systems or men with buckets or more.

Our mooring too was very good and quiet:

but we can't hang around as we're told the canal defintely shuts on Sunday 2nd September by 6pm latest, and it's already 31st August so we're cutting it a bit fine!  Just in case they pack up a tad early...
So we leave at 10 am, after breakfast, the obligatory lunch stop at Souppes and arrive Cepoy 5pm.

Well of course we celebrate, this is a major achievement, after all the problems thrown at us!!  We find out there's a fete and fireworks tonight, and some of the displays arrive:

That's just where I was standing when I took that last picture!  There were more, but this is our favourite, like the one in that great film Duel.  We also celebrated at the local restaurant de l'ecluse (lock) which I recommend for price, taste  and appearance, look!

Anybody hungry?  Think we'll have to visit next time we have a car!  The fireworks don't look much on the camera, but it was as good a display as our village puts on, and that costs dear, this was all free!  The obligatory band was about as French as can be:

You had to be there, well, maybe best not...  Tell you what we've been so surprised about, the French are sooo patient, amazingly so, everywhere, so unlike UK.  I think that's what makes them healthier, less stress. Courteous on the roads, and everyone says hello, they also queue (I don't remember that before) and good civic amenities, don't get me started on that comparison with UK...

27-29th August - the road 'home' to Archangel

Well you know the idea of 'home' is very confusing! So we'd bought an exploding tent, some self-inflating bed rolls and it was becoming dark as we neared the boatyard, so when we saw a campsite we stopped.  The tent exploded nicely and we put it up in the drizzle and prepared it for the night, then walked off to find the nearest place of refreshment.  It was Buffalo Grill, and that's what I had!

It has a label in case you get confused, and there are horns on it!  It was actually very good, and we were very hungry which helped.  These new beds were an improvement on the foam apologies we'd used on Francis's floor!  Still, we were glad when it was morning and we could be off to see that Archangel was still there and in one piece where we'd 'abandoned' her.  She was, but we had a long morning wondering when the prop would go back on.  In the end it was mid afternoon.  This time we were lifted in a new way - what?  Put my bow into that? 

Well, we did, and he fitted it!  I watched the process from the 'safe' position above and thru' the weed hatch.  It was pretty impressive, and taught me how to do it but equally that it would really be hard to do from underwater or thru' the hatch as we'd been contemplating.  The new prop looked nice in place: 

This left Thursday free to explore as the car was arranged for return on Friday by 10, so we visited Fontainebleau Chateau - outside again as it was so warm and sunny.  The parks are lovely: 

As are the flowers, and it was free entry to all visitors (provided you could find free parking like we did!):

Now all this is by way of preparing you for something rather nasty.  Well as Douglas Adams was wont to say, the end result is only a little loss in confidence to our dear Bolly, but it could have been much, much worse.  To be brief, we collected him from the Cattery, La Gatellerie, and because they wanted cash we didn't see him out of his basket until we reached the boat (about 15 minutes drive);  it was clear he was serioulsy unwell, staggering, disorientated, and when he found water that he was very dehydrated.  He drank for nearly 3 hours virtually continuously;  we took him immediately to the same vet who'd seen him the morning of his incarceration.  She was utterly horrified!  Here he is on 30th, after emergeny rehydration and at last being able to eat a bit:

This emaciated feline is nothing like the boulder of a bruiser were used to, in fact about half his normal weight.  The vet estimated he'd been dehydrated for at least 5-6 days.  We very much doubted we'd make it out of there with a live cat.  You can imagine how we felt following so on the heels of losing Burdock.  Here's how he looked before (and does again now):

He has certainly regained his mass and seemingly his health, but only after several vet's visits and medications against a sneezy cold he picked up there too.  Knowing me you will expect there will be repurcussions for La Gatellerie cattery, kennel and equestrian centre.  Well, I've done my bit, my dossier is with the local government and licensing department now.  The cattery denied all responsibility, said it was his fault if he didn't eat or drink, and that it must be stress due to absence from us - as if !!  Well, as the French say, "Tout est bien qui finit bien!".  Well, there you go.

20-26th August - in UK again!

This travel back & forth to UK could become a bit of a chore you know, especially as we keep boating further away from Calais!  Still, this was hardly an optional trip, here is the cause laid out clearly:

You can see the big bend catching the light very artistically!  This was our morning before going off to drop it into the very excellent Steel Developments in London, who turned it around in 3 days, Tues lunchtime to Friday lunchtime!  Amazing, and such a nice job.  So then Wednesday you'd think we'd had enough driving, but no, I thought "Why not just pop up to Lincoln to visit Francis?".  Obvious why really, but we went!

And what a lovely place Lincoln is, we decided to wander around a bit, and fell into the pub behind us!

The view just got better, so as we were wandering around after our meal it looked even better:

We returned to Francis's appartment where he serenated us with his guitar - what a wonderful thing it is not to have internet, TV, videogaming or other electronic entertainment:

Next morning Nik & I had the morning free in Lincoln, so first a lovely English breakfast!

I just wanted to show you an unusual property we found;  I just hope he postmen there have a sense of humour and don't just tear the letters in half:

The weather was super so instead of going inside the cathedral, we visited instead the nearby Bishop's Palace, which must have been quite something in its day:

The reason we were hanging around in Lincoln was that, surprise surprise, the new propellor we'd ordered (but didn't really expect to arrive in time) had come in, along with a new bearing and some blacking, so we had ahead of us a long, but very beautiful trip across the Penines to Biddulph to collect these items.  All successful, but it was a late return to Marius's, so we went out with Tad to a pub Marius had recently discovered, not telling you where tho'!

The Friday was the trip to London to pick up the mended prop, then the weekend was largely shopping and recovering enough strength for the journey back.  But before that we had the Bank Holiday Monday (that's why we didn't travel back until Tuesday) and Uffiington Fete, a great bit of Old England.  Want a brass band?

Sorry, Silver Band.  They were very good, from my old stomping ground too tho' I didn't know any of them.  We decided to take off, quite literally:

From which helicoper the fete could be seen in perspective:

That's it just there, the load of white tents etc.  We had a super time, meeting up with Bern's sister and family, and the weather was again uncommon good for a British Bank Holiday.  Next day off to Eurotunnel, with the quite large car packed with props and stuff!

17th - 19th August, Moret-sur-Loing & removing the propellor

I think I mentioned In Seine last time (sorry) well we went on a longish cycle ride and guess what, the French lead in this department, viz.:

Our ride took us to the lovely town, just behind or really joined on to St. Mammes, of Moret-sur-Loing:

Where we were moored, opposite St. Mammes, we had a few canine visitors, here is a regular:

Much friendlier than we'd been led to believe, but look at that grooming!! Not for us
So we had now to prepare ourselves, well the boat really, for what could be a very bumpy experience (e.g. if the slink or crane slipped !!?), and then leave the boat alone from Monday 19th until Wednesday 28th;  inside it just looked a mess of furniture and wire flower hangers, so first was to remove the garden centre, tidy it and place it on the stern deck.  It was quite a sight:

Then the day came, the one we'd been dreading, timed to a millisecond, well, give or take an hour as it turned out.  The plans us mice had made were soon awry.  This may sound boring, but it has a point.  Left mooring at 7.30am, facing down Seine, call lock keeper as a big commercial has just left the huge lock, can we come in?  No, another commercial is coming so he's going to prepare it for him!  But, but, we could just go in to save time, but you don't say that to these tower people, not if you want cooperation later!  So instead of being at the boatyard by 8am, we're not there untiil 8.30, and it takes a whole hour to back Archangel into just the right spot on his ramp for his slidy-up&downy thing to pick us up and drag us up enough for him to get at our propellor.  It was a strange feeling on a slope like that!

Makes you realise that being launched bow first must be pretty exciting!  The removal took only about 20 minutes, with the aid of oxy-acetylene to heat up the prop to loosen it!  Then we were towed (plus bow thruster to point us upstream) to the right above, mooring alongside a great, rusting hulk "5 minutes!" yells Thalamus (the boatyard owner) - we wait, not knowing what for.  I go up onto the rusy hulk;  "Oh Deary Dear!" It's a long jump from here to shore, and a very long way down.  At 10:45am we have squeezed in for a vet to give Bolly some extra jabs, just in case of problems at the cattery, it is now nearly 10am.  It's a long cycle ride from where we were moored!!  The plan had been to take a taxi to collect the hire car, come back to collect Bolly, go to vet, etc.  All out of window, too late to even go by taxi to vet.  Brain into gear, then into In Seine mode, Nik has a Baldrick of an idea.  She'll take Bolly across the Seine (it's very, very wide here!) in the canoe!  Then walk with him the, by now, about 3 km, uphill, to the vet.  Then they'll put her down!!  Mad, I'll say.  What?  Well of course she did it!  Here's the proof:  This picture was taken with Nik's 10x zoom Lumix and then blown up to show the cat, in the cat carrier, sat on the rounded top of the canoe, while Nik tries to canoe "around him" as he wobbles the boat!

He's in that light brown thing with the black gauze see-thru panels.  I was in a state of high panic by now.  Oh Nik was wearing an automatic, seagoing lifejacket, but you just never know...  Then she had a long way to paddle upstream to reach the 1&Only ladder to climb out onto the side - it was even higher there!

This is how Nik looked in my other camera, at max zoom, some time before reaching the ladder.  In my bino's I could see her attempting the climb (it was the spiders she couldn't stand!), several standing, wobbling, sitting tries.  She had to wedge the paddles behind the steel shutters, tie up the canoe, hold the rope attached to Bolly's basket, climb the ladder, lift him off the boat, and make it to land.  Wow!  I was so relieved when she made it.  Then the long walk, and he is heavy.  Still, burns off a few Calories (Ow!).

Meanwhile Thalamus had craned a huge steel bridge across, I dashed over, called my taxi firms, none could help, he found one for me (which I'd dismissed, Casanova Taxis, I mean!) who came in a beautiful black, tinted windows Merc' in double quick time (his name is Casanova!, nice chap, looks like Mafia) and whizzed me to vets and in by 11am.  Nik is with vet, and all is well.  Casanova is puzzled tho', this is an odd trip, we leave with Bolly, where now?, back to the water, is that it? No, leave your wife here to paddle back?  Not the cat?  Oh back to the boatyard?  Is that it?  Okay, I'll wait here.  So we load up, and off to Fontainebleau to hire the car.  Don't let them see we're putting a cat in the car!  All is well, and we're off!  We drop Bollinger at the cattery, a lovely big farm with horse stabling and kennels, cats live in the house, nice chap greets us and Bolly is relaxed, so off to make the Eurotunnel booking.  Hurrah! 

We weren't to know what problems may come,  see next episode.

14th to 16th August, Paris up the Seine to St. Mammes

After a very much too short 2-night stay in Paris, we had to gently nurse Archangel up the Upper Seine, which has some interesting boats:

not to mention:

We had left at 12:30pm to just reach some sort of mooring for the night, and there are many marked on the Fluviale waterways guide;  sadly none meant for the general public, apart from one or maybe two that you certainly wouldn't want to stay at.  So it was only after 7 hours of continuous motoring that we found a mooring at a disused lockside, which the guide is unusually effusive (and accurate) about, "good mooring".  True there was only just space for one boat just about our size!  The owners of the next boat were very helpful and came out to guide and advise - the space had only just been vacated it seems!  We were lucky, and here it is:

We had meant to stay one night, but our neighbours kindly took us to a local market to PK122.5 St Fargem/Ponthierry, which was great, and they took our pic in the square

Then we all went to the market and bought far too much, but the quality was very good.  Our new friends showed us the best way is to ask each seller "what is your best tomato for salads?" or " which fruit is ready to eat, or best?" etc., they love to show off their special knowledge of their products, and in fact they know what to sell you.

The market: 

Then we suggested having lunch in the local restaurant which they'd spoken highly of, but they were full to bursting despite their obvious distress at disappointing a local and well known client.  It seems it was Ascension Day, hence they were so busy and booked.  So between the two boats the ladies concocted an excellent lunch, which we enjoyed on our stern deck (easily as good as the restaurant terrace!) so when 5 o'clock came, it seemed we weren't going on today!  It's a hard life.  So what next, oh yes, a swim in the Seine.  What, In Seine?  I think so (I didn't go in of course).

Mind you, talking of insane, by now I'd begun to think of the inside lining of these great locks as a form of modernist art, have a look: 

No?  Well, I hope you won't think our sanity too much impaired when you see the next picture then?  Bollinger had begun to think he was a third human, so Nik decided to test him out for table manners: 

Oddly enough, he failed.  Well, the food kept falling off, and he doesn't have opposed thumbs.  Still, worth a try!

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.