Notre Dame de Paris- straight ahead!
We had a fast non-stop trip through Paris. It began slowly because we had to time our passage through the Port a l'anglais lock so that we would reach the Traffic Lights near Notre Dame at the right time. However, once we were in the lock, the lock-keeper got us to move way forward to the lock gates. Then we were joined by a further four large commercial barges. There were several thousand tonnes of them and only 36 tonnes of us. But, everyone was very calm and polite and finally the lock mechanism got going. At one time, there was only 20cm between the boat behind and our stern!
Going downstream, you can only cross that part of the Seine (near Notre Dame) for 15 minutes each hour. All went well- no blankets in the propeller and no boarding by the Paris water police to tell us to go faster!
Overnight stop- Ile des Impressionistes
We reached our stopping place 57Km down stream and had a pleasant time at the Ile des Impressionistes where Renoir and many others did a lot of painting. We visited the good museum Fournaise and learned more about early days on the Seine. Then on Saturday, we pushed off for our first short day for a while- to Andresy, which is at the confluence of the Seine and Oise River. Andresy is 263Km from our starting point at Migennes, so we have gone 10% of our projected total distance this year in under one week!
Here, we expected to pick up a couple of replacement bowthruster batteries, but things went wrong, so we are staying here several extra days. We hope we will have the batteries tomorrow and head off up the Oise River towards the N.E. of France and Belgium.
Museum Fournaise
Here at Andresy, they have just opened the Annual sculpture exhibition (which we attended last year). All the sculptures are different (there are 60) and most of them are only visitable on the Ile de Nancy. There is a free ferry provided five days a week. We enjoyed the stroll around the island and found the sculptures generally excellent. A couple of the exhibits were attended by the artists, who explained what they were about. However, there was also an excellent free book with detailed descriptions.
Unfortunately, the National barging Museum at Conflans is still being refurbished so again we will miss it. We had looked forward to a visit this year.
Conflans- Barging Capital of France
We have ordered a new electric water tank (we still have the working diesel-fired heating system) and hope to pick it up by the end of the week.
Anja was 111 yesterday. Happy Birthday Anja.
Best Regards,
Dave and Penny
The headless women
Sculpture from tree branches & elephant from recycled materials