Mid June - Mid July 2004
How time flies - it’s now the 20th of July, we are on the River Oise at L’Isle Adam and heaps has happened in between.
When last I wrote we were on the Bourgogne (Burgundy) Canal at Montbard and had just had a great time with some French locals who had befriended us. Just two days ago a similar thing happened as a result of us having a broken fuel pipe and having been assisted by an expatriate Canadian mother of two who lives Riverside in Mantes la Jolie but works in Paris. It was a Sunday and she was walking her dog - but I digress. Let me go back to Montbard and bring you up to date.
Montbard was a change over place for our passengers and we had no sooner said goodbye to the Murchison’s and the Willis’s and washed the sheets and towels than we heralded the arrival of Tony and Sandy Denham, great friends of Admiral Ian and Lady Helen Palmer. Getting them started on the tourist trail immediately, we sent them off by taxi to the magnificent Abbaye de Fontenay and then to La Forge de Bussy while we navigated Van Nelle through the numerous locks to arrive at the forge by lunch time.
We had seen their taxi pass us coming back from depositing them at the Forge but when we arrived there was no sign of them and a search by Maureen failed to locate them. This was a first, we have never managed to lose passengers on their first day, indeed we have never managed to lose any at all.
I set out on my bike to see if, since the forge closed for lunch, they had meandered into the nearby town, but cleverly, did a check on the ticket office at the forge first - it was open. I entered and inquired as to whether they had any stray Australians inside the ruined 16th century tourist attraction. Yes they replied - please take them away - its our lunch time ! We quickly located them and dragged them back to the boat for lunch, after which we all headed to the forge again to do it justice. It was one of the first major iron working factories in France and used new technology to beat the virgin iron into sheets. River water turned the mills that raised and lowered giant hammers.
After exhausting ourselves wandering the labyrinth passages and buildings of the forge we returned to Van Nelle to continue our voyage. Next on the overnight stops was Ravieres which we made by 6.45pm to find all conveniences including electricity. Shore power is not necessary, but when travelling short distances at slow speeds in canals the alternator does not fully charge the batteries requiring us to use the generator for longer periods, so it is convenient. There was not a lot to do in Ravieres the next morning so after a walk through we set off again for Tanlay and the first of the Grand Chateaux.
Arriving at Tanlay at 3.00 in the afternoon made it possible for us to do the tour of the Chateau that day. Indeed, as we arrived between tour times, we had the opportunity to taste a range of excellent Chablis in one of the adjacent rooms of the former stables and also to visit the art gallery before heading back to the castle. As we arrived so did the owners, the current lord and lady, very down to earth Parisians these days. They later wandered by the boat in shorts and sandles with a gaggle of young children running them off their feet. They probably had to give away the trophies at the nearby tennis tournament.
The Chateau is very much lived in with newspapers on desks and pictures of the family weddings on grand pianos. It is beautiful but sadly a bit shabby and needs some restoration and renovation work - the sort that ends up costing millions - I can see why they are holding off.
That night, Tony and Sandy wanted to visit a restaurant so we managed to get a booking at the No 2 restaurant in town as the premiere place was full with a group. Dinner was fun but a bit pre-prepared and we wandered back to Van Nelle in the twilight better off for a couple of bottles of Chablis.
From Tanlay to Tonnerre, site of another great Chateau. Bourgogne abounds with chateaux and quite a few are on the side of the canal, making it interesting and easy to tour through this region. Since the canal is also close to the most famous wine areas, gastronomy and excellent tipples are accessible and not overly expensive. Tonnerre also offers free water and electricity and a beautiful Hotel Dieu (ancient hospital), which provides a fascinating insight into the medical practices of the 14th to 19th century. Many Hotels Dieu were still used for medicine up to the 19th century so the buildings have been well preserved and restored, unlike some of the Chateaux and Churches which came in for some damage by revolutionaries and peasants during the late 1700s. We ended the day playing Petanque with our steel ‘boules’ on an adjacent boularama and enjoyed Boeuf Bourguignonne (cooked on board) with some brilliant Burgundian Pinot Noir reds.
Sadly the next day was the departure day for the Denham’s and we put them on the 1113 train to Paris to continue their trip through Europe. We meanwhile continued on to St Florentin, home of some very good and very smelly cheeses. Unfortunately we had moored close to a revelling group of French and Germans so the evening was not one of peace and quiet after the hectic schedule of the past week. We slept through it well enough however, in our heavily insulated ship.
Moving on from St Florentin in the afternoon we arrived at Briennon where we were to collect our next guests, Rob and Sue Thomas who duly arrived on time at Migennes by train where we met them in a taxi to bring them to the boat. This trip was a 50th birthday present for Sue who unfortunately had just suffered an operation on ligaments in her knee due to tennis injuries but a trip on Van Nelle was a perfect way to see parts of France without the hassle of having to check in and out of hotels, catch busses, taxis and trains and end up walking miles.
At this time we experienced gales but fortunately were well sheltered both at rest and while moving so were not inconvenienced or delayed. The thing that did delay us however was the crazy new regulation of the VNF (the department of the canals) that has them close the locks to traffic travelling upstream. That meant every lock we came to we had to wait for it to be emptied and opened. Putting one of the crew ashore before the locks was the only way to speed things up a little but it still meant we were one lock short of our planned destination at the end of the day. We were planning to be in Migennes but fortunately found a pleasant canalside spot to moor before going into the town the next day.
Our main target at this stage was to exit the Bourgogne and get onto the Yonne river to go down to Auxerre, start of the legendary Nivernais Canal (which we had done in 1999 with David and Judith Reed and Gary and Dianne Prattle on a hire boat that led to our being here now) ! Auxerre is a beautiful city with a great port from which you can visit Chablis, only 13km to the west. Suffice it to say, we found the best spot in the harbour and arranged a taxi for the next day to take us to and from Chablis. Meanwhile we did some serious exploring of the City with is magnificent churches, museums and old, half timbered houses.
Before we could get into our taxi the next afternoon a hotel boat arrived and demanded we move. They had no rights and I refused. They then put us under enormous pressure from their powerful engine while they tried unsuccessfully to moor their ship right on our stern. Having realised their tactic was not going to move us, they mover further down the quai then when secured, again sent someone to ask us to move. The word ‘please’ was not used, the guy lied about his and our rights, and our taxi was waiting. However, out of courtesy I relented and we pulled Van Nelle about 7 metres as any further and we would have been in the car park. We chained the boat and jumped into the taxi for the quick trip to Chablis.
Wine towns like Chablis, Sancerre, Nuits St George and many others are very similar. In the towns you will find both outlets for specific vineyards and caves (wine shops) where a range are offered. It is good to go to both since at one you can taste a range of house product and at the other you can choose a range of different producers. We split up and while Sue and Rob went to check out labels they knew, I went in search of the local branch of La Poste to deposit some cash and change some Euro 500 notes I had been issued. Just across from La Poste was one of the biggest producers and its sales manager was bored enough to entice me into the bureau to test the product. This consisted of trying half glasses of some 9 different levels and ages of their very fine white wines. He then insisted we tour the production plant, and after a fascinating hour I returned with him to the bureau to choose some bottles for later consumption. The Compagnie Regnard can be trusted to make your palate sing. We have enjoyed every one of the half dozen bottles of theirs plus the same number of other Chablis bought by Rob and Sue.
An interesting sidelight was that when the temperature plummets in winter, they spray their vines with water which freezes, providing the developing grapes an igloo like protection from the cold ! How about that technology.
Maximes that night for dinner and a visit to the cathedral for their 10.30pm Son et Lumiere which was attended by us four and only one other couple. We seemed a bit isolated in such a huge building with a three quarter hour production for just 6 people.
The next morning we were off to Joigny, and now that we were on rivers, Van Nelle could stretch her legs. From 6-8kmh on the canals to 12 - 13kmh on the rivers. It makes a big differences in the distances you can cover, and the number of locks are significantly reduced - but increased in their size. This also gives us the chance to clear the engine of accumulated carbon build up. Joigny was about 60km from Auxerre but we arrived at 3.30 in the afternoon to enable us to tour the town and discover there was to be a big bonfire that night with a Country and Western band and dancing on the riverside park. We all attended and watched but were not enticed onto the dance floor, which was crowded with line dancers looking every bit American.
Sens, another cathedral town with a huge Hotel Dieu was our next stop and we found the town jetty available to us with electricity and water supplied free. Perfect. Also at Sens were two sets of friends we had met and enjoyed time with earlier - Jeff and Salina from New Zealand and Joe and Lisa (a couple of Americans) on their little Luxemotor. We did the Hotel Dieu, the Museum, the town and the cathedral with its magnificent stained glass ,and retired to magret (duck) barbecued with orange sauce and some more Chablis that night.
Magret is not like duck in Australia. The ducks are farmed so they are bigger and more meaty. They are fed well so they are fatter as well, and with just 7 minutes each side on the barbecue at high temperature, the breasts come out crisp and succulent and the huge quantities of fat drains off. Cut into thin strips and laced with orange sauce (replete with cognac and well reduced), accompanied with pommes de terre pure and haricots verte, perfection. Wash it all down with Puligny Montrachet, Sancerre or Chablis, even a Vosne Romany or a Nuits St George and heaven is on the back deck !
Off the next day to St Mammes and we were now on the Riviere Seine and pointed in the direction of Paris. St Mammes is a small town with a big jetty and a few restaurants but while we were there the best one was closed so we ate on board and made off the next morning for the last stop before Paris - Corbeil Essonnes. Now this place is definitely not a tourist attraction. We have stayed overnight there twice at a loading dock right on the doorstep of the village - well its not really a village since it is actually now a suburb of outer Paris. However, Rob and Sue went exploring, found a wonderful little restaurant and later that evening headed up the fragile ladder to the dock top (we being about 2 metres under its top), and stumbled back near midnight having been invited by the patron to drink vast quantities of his favourite moonshine ‘Eau de Vie’. They were happy to sleep in the next morning until we neared Paris.
Entering Paris by boat is a wonderful experience. It is slow enough to take in all the magnificent buildings that surround the river’s edge and has just that extra little bit of frisson that comes with sharing the waterway with huge commercial barges, fast ferries, Bateau Mouches carrying hundreds of tourists and a few assorted private boats.
We toured the city and ended back at the place we have stayed before (illegally but untroubled by the authorities) so that we were close to Rob and Sue’s hotel for their departure the next day and also the fantastic night life of the river. On the side of the park to which we attach, are a number of amphitheatres which are used at night by large groups of people studying the Tango, the Passe Double (?), circus skills and classical French theatre. This makes for a great place to wander down to with a bottle and some glasses and so to watch the action and the lights of the city.
The next day, July 1, we helped Rob and Sue to their tiny hotel and took up arms against the plaguing computer problems that had been driving us crazy for a couple of weeks. In the end I bought a new phone, having spent countless hours on the other one with France Telecom technical people trying to get data to flow. The new phone fixed the problem and we now were able to send and receive email. I also took the Sony video camera to the repair place and left it - with 45 euros to be inspected and hopefully fixed.
At this time we also bade welcome to Gill Ragus. Gilly worked with me at Lexmark and eventually ran the office in Perth before being transferred to Sydney and given the job of liaison with Dell, the big PC manufacturer which brands and sells Lexmark printers. Gill is also an elite athlete - a heptathlete (?) and had been in Germany to try to qualify for the Australian Olympic Team. Sadly she missed by a few hundred points (out of some thousands) but had recorded her best scores and PB’s in a few of the events.
We decided we would stay in Paris to await the arrival of our next guests, Sandy and Lynne Buchan who were due on Sunday the 4th and meanwhile caught up with Alex and Sandra Anderson, also visiting Paris from Perth, who we took on a two hour river cruise, ending with a barbecue on board at the Grenelle, Port de Plaisance.
Gilly, having accompanied us to the Musee Jacquemart Andre, the Picasso Museum and the Arc de Triumph, left on Sunday morning for her train trip back to Germany to be replaced by Sandy and Lynne shortly afterward, assisted by my picking them up at the Gare (station) and taxiing them back to the port.
We spent the next day in port and wandering the metro system and the shops, preparing for our departure down the Seine and out of Paris via the Canal St Dennis which starts at the Arsenal marina and goes through an underground tunnel to the bassin de Vincelle and then, at street level on to the Seine and Ruille Malmaison where we had an overnight stop. There is a museum on Napoleon here but it was closed on Tuesdays, the day we were there. We visited the Musee Charenton the next morning and headed off to Conflans St Honorine, centre of commercial barging in France and the location of a very good museum on the subject. We found our usual place on the main town jetty and settled in for a couple of days.
Sandy arranged for a taxi / bus trip for their easy delivery to Aeroport Charles de Gaulle on the Thursday morning and so after they departed we moved the boat up to Diesel Marine’s workshop for repairs to a leaking fuel filter. The fuel pipe leading to the final filter also caused us some trouble on the way to Conflans but fortunately we were right in a town near a quai so were able to stop immediately while I repaired the problem. This repair lasted all the way to and from Rouen until a day away from Conflans on our return.
After these maintenance jobs we headed out for Rouen, our base to explore the WWII landing and battlefields, but with several stops planned on the way.
First stop was Mantes la Jolie which was having a Chinese Festival. We saw the parade and visited the museum which displayed Chinese costumes and artefacts. We moved on to Vernon where we stayed at the place where huge hotel boats arrive and leave at odd hours of the day and night (causing us to hurriedly move to raft up alongside the local restaurant barge). This town is 3km from Claude Monet’s house and gardens, famous and crammed with visitors 12 hours a day.
We moved on to the last lock before the fully tidal stretch of the Seine that goes all the way past Rouen to Le Havre. Staying the night there allowed us to move down to Rouen the next day on the ebb tide and by early afternoon, be safely tied up at the commercial quai for the next three days.
Rouen is big, and had endured constant bombing during the war as it was an industrial centre for the occupying Germans and also a railhead. Despite the destruction, many of the ancient timber houses remained, were repaired and now given a new lease of life as restaurants, shops and homes. The cathedral was rebuilt and Rouen re-invented as a dual ancient and modern city. Having been to the main attractions we found a lovely little Auberge (restaurant) and had a neat meal in the upstairs room of a 500 year old house.
The next day was Bastille Day and we were moored just 300 metres from the main bridge across the river on which the fireworks (Feu de Artifice) were laid for that evening. All day however, kids wandered the town with huge bags of crackers, still legal in France, vaguely trying to blow their fingers off and sending dogs and citizens into a frenzy. This kept up until the fireworks at 11.00pm and recommenced after they finished at 11.30 until about 1.00am
The next day we hired a car and drove to Caen to visit the Peace Museum. Principally this tells the story of the war, the cold war, and then concepts of peace. It is vast, not unlike a part of the Smithsonian in Washington, it is modern and multi lingual and took us 3 hours to get around at a trot. We then headed out of town to Arromanches on the coast where the Brits and Yanks built a huge temporary harbour (Mulberry) out of old ships, concrete caissons and steel floating docks, all anchored and riding up and down on the tides through the use of ‘spuds’ or long steel feet. This is truly amazing since much of the structure which was meant to last 6 months is still there - albeit now in bits with the piers gone and most of the steel bits disintegrated.
This harbour was in the British sector with the American beaches to the west and the Canadian beach next door. The town is a tiny fishing village now pretty much living off the huge numbers of tourists, many of whom were here in action or had parents who were. There were many specialist tour groups representing the units that fought here as this is the 60th anniversary of D Day and, we assume, those chaps will not be back for the 70th anniversary.
We went on to the Cap d’Hoc where the Germans had a battery of well dug in 175mm naval guns. The area is now an American memorial and is preserved as it was left, sans guns, but with the bomb craters and the ruined gun pits open to visitors. It is reported that when the American Rangers scaled the cliffs in front of the guns, they found many of them operational but silent as most of the crews had been killed or sent mad by the enormous, unending patterns of bombs laid on then for 3 days and nights. Some resistance was offered by reserve German troops who were brought in when the shelling and bombing stopped, and some 90 Americans died here, but the guns were not used against the exposed invading allied forces.
By this time it was past 6.00pm and we drove back to Rouen to return the car the next morning and ship out on our return journey, first stopping at Vernon for a visit to the Monet house and garden and some good times with Sherry and Dennis, an American couple. We then departed for Conflans - or so we thought.
On one of my regular engine room checks (conducted every hour and a half) I discovered the leak had returned to the fuel pipe from the final fuel filter to the injectors. OK I thought, tightening it fixed it last time - I’ll just give it a bit more grunt. As I applied the strain the pipe cracked and fuel began to spray in vast quantities onto and around the engine. Catastrophe !
We had a huge commercial behind us and were travelling at 13kmh, near flat out, in order to stay ahead of him but were within a half kilometre of the quai we had used at Mantes la Jolie on our way down river (how do these good bits of luck always appear when things get out of whack ?). I dashed up to the wheelhouse where Maureen was unconcernedly steering and backed the throttle right off to reduce the fuel leak, at the same time veering the boat hard to the right side of the channel (as we were in a section where we were required to be proceeding on the left). This gave the commercial room to pass, and us time to sort out our arrival strategy. Maureen was all for stopping immediately but the better quai was only minutes ahead. We made it and tied up, closing down the engine and turning off the fuel supply.
About half an hour later I had cleared up the mess and pumped 20 litres of oily fuel from the pans under the engine (which keeps fuel and oil from the bilges) into a plastic drum kept for small quantities of leakage - it was now full. I had disengaged the pipe and discovered a hairline crack on the wrong side of the collar that seals the line inside the connecting nuts. All I needed now was a mechanic or plumber with copper pipe cutting gear and a new collar. It was Sunday and French lunch time. I guessed we would be here for a day or two.
I came out of the engine room to find Maureen chatting with a Canadian woman and her Scotty dog, was introduced and able to ask if she happened to know any mechanics. Of course she did, one lived immediately behind her. Off we went to deliver a message to le Monsieur via his brother in law and lo and behold, about an hour later he arrived, took a look and advised me it was time to call in his mate, the plumber who would come at about 5.00pm.
At 5.10pm Jean Jacques arrived, cut the pipe, realised he would need a new collar, went away for half an hour and returned with a packet of them, fixed and fitted the pipe the collar and the nut and we then bled and started the engine. It ran and no fuel leaked. Yes they both replied, an aperitif would be in order. We were soon sitting over some beer and rum (as they were from St Martinique) and they were asked how much for the parts and labour. Rien ! (Nothing). I insisted, they resisted. They then finished their one drink and left. And these are the people supposed to be arrogant, distant and hard to get on with !!!! Heather, our Canadian rescuer arrived at 7.00pm with an artist friend and his wife, were given a conducted tour of the boat and we all settled in to a couple of hours of aperitif after which Heather stayed for dinner and Champagne.
The next morning we departed for Conflans - checked the work with the experts at the Baudouin engine workshop (Diesel Marine) and then left for Pontoise - now on the Oise River.
We arrived and took our bikes off the boat to explore this supposedly delightful town but found little of interest and a whole lot of young Moroccan gang kids. We did not like the feel of the place and so moved on at 6.00 pm for Le Isle d’Adam, where I sit writing this.
This place is a delight with a pretty little island and very neat houses and shops, indispersed with huge numbers of great restaurants and boutiques. The next morning we went to the markets and that night to a riverside restaurant. Heaven on a stick - Oh yes, I also found two Caves and was able to acquire a dozen assorted white wines of very good calibre at very good prices and with adequate bottle age. This does not in any way make up for the consumption by the more than 10 guests we have had in just over a month - but it will get us through the week - Just ! - Maybe.