Paris 2011

Our trip from Meaux to Paris was great. We took it slowly and stayed at Lagney sur Marne and Nogent sur Marne then into Paris.

This church had so many stained glass windows that it gave a real pink look as you walked in.

We were getting tired of putting our bimini up and down so we worked out a solution. It takes Russel about 3 mins. Below is a picture of Arcturus with her bimini half down ready for the tunnel.

We let the bimini down a little encase we don't keep in the centre of the tunnel. We have already damaged it once and don't want to do it again.

Going through the commercial section of the Seine

We turned off the River Marne and into the River Seine and through an ecluse and into the Paris Plaisance – The Port de L’Arsenal – our home for a week.

Our home for a week in the Arsenal

We decided that we would use our bikes in Paris. It couldn’t be worse than Berlin, so we planed a trip which turned out to be a very hot humid day but gosh it was fun. I really enjoyed it. It was only about 12 km but we took in all the touristy spots we could find.

The following photos will tell the story.

Rus outside the Lourve

Penny in front of the  Avenue Des Champs Elysees

 Penny riding up the  Avenue Des Champs Elysees

                                               Avenue Des Champs Elysees

 

                                                         Russel with the Eiffel Tower in the background

                              Penny in front of the Eiffel Tower

This was the best thing we did in Paris!!!

Next day we spent the day on the buses travelling around Paris. We visited Montparnesse which is a very tall tower and for 11.50 euro you go to the 56 floor and get a fabulous view of Pairs. Below is one of the pictures I took.

                                           Paris from Montparnasse 56 floor



Next day it was dinner at Montmartre and a visited to Sacre Coeur.

Montmartre at night

It rained just before this photo

Barb and jean Loup arrived in Paris and joined us on Arcturus for a few days. We are travelling down the Seine to Auxerre.

Before we left Paris we decided to sail around the Seine with all the tourist boats.

Jean Loup chatting to the French ecluse operator.

Barb on the front of Arcturus

Notre Dame from the Seine

we went under all these bridges

It rained again the day we left Paris

Yes the Tower

So goodbye to Paris!!! We enjoyed our time there



France 2011 - Champagne District

We left Reims and headed to Epernay. We are well and truly in the Champagne district of France. The canals are lined with trees and the hillsides covered in grape vines.

 It is all very picturesque but is being spoilt once again by the rain and the frustration of not much being opened. We arrived at a few towns along the way in the hope of finding a baguette. The shops are closed. The French have their holidays in the peak season and just close the doors. Apparently the grape picking season will happen at the end of the month so people are having their holidays. They just put a notice on the shop – Closed until August 20^th. One town we stopped at all the shops had closed for holidays. I suppose it’s OK for the locals as they have cars to go to another village. So take note - if you want to really enjoy this section do not come in August!!!

The locks along this route have been operated by twisting a rope that hangs over the canal. The picture below shows this.

or by a remote that we are given at the begining of a set of ecluse. We point in the direction of the ecluse and push the correct button - up or down.

others have a man that operates the ecluse. It is much faster if you can operate them yourselves. The ecluses in this area are quiet and more relaxing than the ones we first experienced.

I had my birthday in Epernay. We visited another champagne house in the morning then explored the town in the afternoon. We visited the Moet Chandon house and brought a bottle of Moet for 30 euro.

Finally a beautiful sunny day. Russel and I went for a ride out of town high in the hills to see the vines.

The following photo shows Russel talking to a local. Language doesn’t stop him.

Our Boat in Epernay










We are following the river Marne. This river is quite fast flowing and so is clean. I would have a swim if the weather was better.

We stayed in a few of the towns on the way down towards Paris. They are Dormans, Chateau Thierry, La Ferte Sous Jourre, Poincy and Meaux.

                                    Plenty of birdlife- if you look hard you will see a bird

     
                                     Plenty of fisherman. The fish they catch are quite big

                                   Lots of Bridges!!!

View of Dormans

           View of Chateau Thierry

This is an incredible Shriine that was built after the first world war in Dormans

In Chateau Thierry we visited yet another champagne company. This time is was Champagne Pannier founded in 1899 by Louis Eugene pannier in Dizy. His decendants aquired Chateau Thierry cellers in 1937.

The cellers were dug some 800 years ago in order to excavate the stones to build the castle of Chateau- Thierry. The 2.5 km of deep galleries are excellant for the storing and anging of panniers cuvees. The picture below shows some of these wines in storage.

This delightful guide is pouring su a sample.

This picture shows all the different sized bottles of wine you can get.

yes we brought another bottle. This time we paid 28 euro.

This ends our trip in the Champagne aera. Our next port of call is Paris!!!!

France 2011

July 27^th

It seems along time ago that I sat down to write my blogg. We have passed through many towns that were highly industrial and not that exciting.

Our first place in France was a place called Lille. It is here that we picked up our German friends, Dietmar and Margrit.

                                                            Town square of Lille

                                        Dietmar and Russel in Lille

We had a great mooring in Lille but no electricity so after three days things were getting a bit grim. We even had to turn off the drinks frig.  It is also a lot harder to communicate as the French have little English. We have been spoilt by the Dutch and the Germans.

 

We have very little information of where to stop overnight and if we do find somewhere it has few facilities.  We had been sailing for about7 hours and decided enough was enough so we pulled into this little area where some Belgium people made room for us.

Russel then had to turn the engine off. We hadn’t been able to switch it off all day, so we pulled the floor up and Russel went down to try and turn the engine off manually. He ended up with a part coming away in his hand. Oh horror from me.!!!

He decided to get help form the Belgium, who claimed it had happened to him 2 weeks ago. He managed to turn the engine off. Next day Russel repaired the part that had come loose and we are now in action again.

                                          This is the spot where we stopped overnight -Estrun

At about 7pm we received a text from the Gilberts “Where are you?

We turned the Tom Tom on to see where we were and after telling them the Gilberts turned up and parked on the road.

                             These guys passed by the next morning

The next place we stayed at was Cambrai – here we had power and water and were fairly close to the town – riding bikes to the town showed we were definitely out of the Netherlands – we had hills to go up.

 That night I refused to cook so Dietmar and Margrit took us out for dinner and we all had mussels. Even though they were from Zeeland they were not as big as the previous ones.

We have now started the locking scene and it is quite strenuous. We hit a lock about every 1-2 klm today and now we are sitting outside the Riqueval Tunnel. Tomorrow morning we will go through. The tunnel is 5.65 klm long and you are towed through by an electric boat which pulls itself along a very large chain. . You are not allowed to have your engines going. You are tied to the next boat by a 30 meter rope that is crossed at the front. They take all our details and then send the charge to your home address.

Once again we received a text from the Gilberts for our location and after a while we could see them walking up the long walk way for a visit. This time they couldn’t get their van near us, so after a cup of tea they headed back to their van. 

 

If you look close enough you can see Gilberts walking towards us

 

                                                   Gilberts arrive

At about 9am the barge arrived to pull us through the tunnel.

 

                                 We are about to enter the Tunnel

The Carr’s are being towed from our boat. They are about to enter the tunnel.

Well we managed to get through that tunnel and the next one. We have had to pull our binini down a couple of times. I expect this will happen a lot in France as the Bridges don’t lift and are sometimes quite low.

We made it to Saint Quentin in the rain and we are here for a few days. Dietmar and Margrit left this morning and so did the Gilberts and the Carr’s so we are here on our own doing washing, cleaning and boat maintenance. I am also nursing a really bad cold and I need the rest. We leave tomorrow.

Aug 5^th.

 The Gilberts finally found the cheap phone. “Lebara” it enables you to ring a home phone in Perth for 1c /minute. We still haven’t found internet so will be visiting MacDonald’s today if the rain stops. We have had the odd sunny day since leaving St Quentin. I even put my bathers on once. The weather really has been appalling this year.

 We continued to travel down the St Quentin canal and stopped at Chauney, Pargny-Flain, Berry on Bac and then arrived in Reims after many locks and one tunnel. Below are a few photos of our travels.

Our tie up in Chauny at side of canal

                                   One of many many locks

Near Pargy Flain was this water playground in the canal water supply pound

Entry to a 2.5km tunnel

                               

                                  Following the Carr's

Reims is the beginning of the Champagne country so yesterday we did a tour of the Mumm company which ended with a great glass of champagne. We went underground through their maze of tunnels (25 km in total- we didn't walk that far) where they store  millions of bottles of champagne. Did you know that some 80% of Frances champagne production is consumed within France.

                                  

                                 Outside Mumm Champagne house

The previous night we went to a light show on the cathedral. It was extremely well done. For those that will visit Reims it’s a must. They hold it on most Friday and Saturday nights at about 10.00pm.