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| The Marne masquerading as The Thames |
Our Guide Fluvial for the
Marne (the French Nicholson’s) had advised that we should give three hours’
notice of arrival at the first lock taking us from the Seine to the Marne. As it’s an automatic lock and operated by a
full-time eclusier we didn’t see why we had to and decided just to arrive at
the lock and radio ahead as we approached.
The guide said VHF 20 was the channel we should use, so as we drew
closer I called the lock. Silence. We weren’t worried though as the little
cruiser that had overtaken us at great speed leaving us rolling in its wake was
waiting – they must have been waiting a while – shame….. There was no response on the radio so with
the lock light turning green having brought another boat down, we headed in
with the little cruiser and roped on. It
was another awkward lock with climbing bollards rather than rising, so we would
have to manually move the front rope up as we rose from one bollard to the
next. As we were in gear and pushing
against the front rope to keep into the side, this meant going into neutral for
a moment to loosen the rope to get it off one bollard and onto the next, then
quickly getting back in gear before the wash of the lock pushes us too
much. Thankfully the lock was gentle and
we rose up easily with no trauma. At the
second lock, which wasn’t much further on, we realised why we’d had radio silence. The book said VHF 20, but the signs at the
lock said VHF 22…….. between locks for
ship to ship coms was VHF 69. Having
successfully navigated up two locks without using the radio, we decided that we
probably didn’t really need to as they would see us coming, but it’s useful to
know if you have to wait for another boat coming down and stuff. There was still a bit of commercial traffic
on this section of the Marne, but as we came out of the second lock, we found
ourselves magically transported to Henley on Thames – or at least, that’s what
it looked and felt like!
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| Leaving the second lock on the Marne and all is quiet.... |
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| Sharing the river |
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| Rowers and paddle boarders galore! |
We continued on through
another couple of locks and a tunnel, without using the radio except to listen, and moored
up for the evening at Neuilly sur Marne where, with it being Sunday, the French
were out in full force along the riverside and there seemed to be a great
hullaballoo going on through the trees.
After mooring up, we went for a quick explore and found that Neuilly Plage
was on, on the other side of the island we were moored on, and it was
heaving. Like in Paris, a ‘beach’ had
been set up with sand, deckchairs, petanque, ice cream, inflatable swimming
pool and the French were loving it. We
headed off for a quieter stroll through the park on the island. There were a couple of groups of men
remaining when we returned and they stayed late into the night drinking and
talking, and whilst I (the light sleeper) nodded off easily, Mike ‘sleeps like
a log through anything’ Queenan was kept awake by their chat.
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| Nice little mooring at Neuilly sur Marne |
The next day we pushed off
late morning with our target being Lagny sur Marne, where we would spend a
couple of nights as we had some time to kill.
We arrived at lunchtime and squeezed into a space on the pontoon and
after some lunch and trying to stay cool on the boat, headed out into the late
afternoon sun, which was still hot, and had a look around the town and did some
shopping at the local Monoprix. I was
really keen to go for a run but it was really, really hot and muggy, so we
lazed around some more, had some dinner and then got the Ninebot out to play
for a while. As we packed it away, just
after 9pm, I decided it was cool enough to go for a 20 minute trot, so headed
off up the riverbank.
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| Nice mooring at Lagny sur Marne |
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| Always happy to see a Super Furry! |
The next day we had a lie in,
late breakfast and then caught up on chores.
There’s always something to be done on the boat and the shower pump had
been playing up a bit so I decided to give it a thorough clean out – it was
disgusting! Mike was keen to touch up some
of the paintwork, but it was too hot so he decided he's have to leave it til later in
the day. We went for a walk over the
other side of the river to Thorigny sur Marne to see if the Fanprix supermarket
there would have some of our missing items but we were out of luck. It appears we’re in a section of France where
they don’t drink Syrop de Pamplemousse Rose……
In the evening we went for a stroll along the river to look at some of
the posh houses which prompted a discussion on what we are looking for in a
house in France. We have started the
search in earnest as it’s been mooted that anyone who lives in France before
Brexit in March 2019, will likely have certain rights reserved for health care
and pension for example, so I have been scouring the Gironde for a suitable
property and we have some lined up to view hopefully later this month.
Wednesday was just a short
hop to the town of Meaux, where we have been before via the Canal de l’Ourcq
and it was a pleasant cruise with a couple of locks and a tunnel. The commercial traffic was few and far
between now but we did pass one barge getting filled with grain.
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| Another well-lit, wide, straight French tunnel |
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| A long straight cutting to Meaux |
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| Grain barge getting filled up |
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| This motorway bridge looked really familiar - we had passed under it on the Ourcq, as it spans the whole valley. |
We had contacted the Port de
Plaisance at Meaux a while back to book a space for a week as we were heading back
to the UK for the Deer Shed Festival, but it’s a strange arrangement there. The port is managed by the Tourist Office and
whilst they were happy to say yes that’s fine to come for the week, they were
unable to actually reserve a space for us, so we were relieved to pull in and
see there was plenty of space. Our
relief was shortlived however as we tried to hook up and found the electricity
points weren’t working on our pontoon.
Another pontoon had the power and water point all wrapped up and not
working so boats from there had hooked onto the one working power point meaning
there was no space for our plug, but our two cables joined together wouldn’t
have reached anyway…… We headed up to
the tourist office to ask them about it and the very nice but slightly ditsy
girls didn’t remember us, were very sorry that the power wasn’t working but it
had been reported to ‘Services’ a few days back but they had no idea when it
would be fixed. We really needed to hook
up while we were away in case the weather was bad and our solar didn’t have
enough juice for the batteries, so we were relieved (again!) when one of the
girls advised that one of the boats on pontoon 4 (which had working power and
water) was leaving in the morning and we could take their spot. We asked when we should pay and they said
someone would come round and collect the fees, or we could come to the office
and pay at the end of our stay – they didn’t seem that bothered about it to be
honest, but the next day we did have a little slip on the boat saying how much
we should pay, 4 euros 50, but only if you use electric or water, which we didn’t
the first day, so it was free. That
sorted we picked up a few bits and pieces at the supermarket, then headed to
the station to see if we could catch a taxi to the cheese museum, that the
lovely lock keeper at Varreddes had told us about. There were no taxis so we took the
opportunity to check the bus to Charles de Gaulle airport for the next day and
headed back to the boat. There were
buses to the cheese museum but it was too late by now, so it would have to
wait.
The next day, Thursday 20th,
we had a lovely lunch at L’Authentique restaurant for a second time then caught
the bus to Charles de Gaulle airport, which was a revelation in that it’s an
hourly service, takes 40 minutes direct and cost 2 euros!! Bargain.
So, any boaters collecting friends and family from Charles de Gaulle
airport – Meaux is a great place to do it from!
A smooth flight and car
collect from Edinburgh Airport and we were eating curry at my mum’s by 8pm,
also meeting her guest, Tania, from Belarus.
Tania is chaperon to six Belarusan children who were brought to Dalgety
Bay for a month via the charity Chernobyl Children Lifeline. My mum and dad got involved in this charity
after dad retired in 1996, with dad taking the role of chairman for a few years
for the local branch of the charity. The
charity was started after the Chernobyl disaster and would bring children to
the UK to stay with families here for a month and they would get eye tests,
dental checks, new shoes and clothes. A
month in our clean air eating uncontaminated food could extend their lifespan
by four or five years. The children were
tiny little scraps, it was quite heartbreaking, but the work done by the
charity was amazing and you could see the improvement in the kids in the few
short weeks. Mum’s role has always been ‘The
Shop’, for which she collects and sorts new and good quality second hand
clothes, jewellery, shoes and the children’s first stop when they arrive is to
go ‘shopping’ down at the church hall.
Mum also hosts the leader for two weeks of the month, so hence Tania was
with her. Sadly they are the last
chapter of the charity in Fife and I believe the Edinburgh one is now closed as
well, and it looks like the Fife chapter will not last much longer. The problem is getting families to host the
children for two weeks or a month. It’s
a huge commitment and quite hard work and sadly not many people are
volunteering. Mum’s lot only had 6
children this year as that was all the families they could get to take children
– they used to get 12-14.
It was a flying visit to my
mum’s and on Friday we packed the camping gear and set of for the Deer Shed
Festival in Yorkshire.
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| Relaxing with a wine before the evening's entertainment |
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| A typically British-Summertime-Sky |
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| Yes! The reason we're here - The Fannies!! Saw them at their first festival of this tour and now at the last. |
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| Mike moshed-down to Arab Strap but they were too loud for me..... |
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| ...so I went off an had some chocolate orange brownie and ice cream instead :) |
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| What had been grass turned to mud - with friends Stewart and Debbie |
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| Sunday Headliners: The Divine Comedy, and they were divine. |
I don’t think we’re cut out for
camping. The ten minute wait in a queue to
go for a wee in the morning after I got up was unbearable, never mind the mud,
cold and rain……… The music was fab
though, really excellent line-up.
A night of drunkenness with
Dave and Melissa at Pocklington where we were joined by Mike’s first love Fran,
and his long-suffering wife Sally, followed and then on Monday it was back in the car and
up to Fife, via Whitby where we called in on Mike’s Uncle Ron. It was miserable, cold and wet when we set
off but as we headed further north and into Scotland, the skies were blue and
the temperature had soared from 12 to 20 degrees!! Bizarre!
On Tuesday whilst I packed
the dry camping stuff away, Mike went for his eye test and then it was back to
the airport and homeward bound.
Unusually, we both bleeped at
security and had to be x-rayed, but even more unusually Mike’s bag was pulled
aside. As frequent travellers we know
the rules and are always well prepared, so wondered what it was. “You’ve got
two roll-on deodorants in there,” the chap said. “No I haven’t. I’ve never used a roll-on in my life,” replied
Mike. The roll-on deodorants proved to
be the two tubs of Smoked Paprika we were bringing back as we can’t find it in
France. So, you have to ask, how good is
their equipment that shows up two tubs of powder as roll-on deodorants???? As the chap was looking for the offending
items he pulled out a little plastic box and asked what it was, “It’s a
mini-socket set,” one that we’d bought in the UK as it was £60 cheaper to do so
than buy it France. “Ah. You can’t take that through, it’s on the
banned list.” Mike disagreed and
explained that we’d taken small tools through before, the last time when we
went through Leeds, we had a spanner in the bag! They took Mike to a computer and showed him
the list which mentioned, tools, which may be considered a risk…….. Mike pointed out he’d be more able to knock
someone out with his laptop than the tiny sockets, but they weren’t having
it. He’d need to check his bag in if he
wanted to take it. This was at 12.40pm
and our flight was 1.25pm, but the chap called the desk, they said they’d take
the bag and they both headed off.
At 1.25pm a pale face
appeared through the bus door just before it closed and pulled off to the waiting
plane – Mike had made it, just, but the socket set hadn’t. By the time he’d got back to check-in,
navigated the broken self-service machines, found someone to speak to, they
told him baggage check was shut. He was
fast-tracked back through security, decided to dump the three inch handle from
the socket set, but was pulled aside and told he couldn’t take the little
metal, ¼ inch (and smaller!) circular sockets on the plane. So he dumped them out on their desk, kept the
plastic case and then had to run to the gate which, typically, was the furthest
away it could be – and all because of one person’s interpretation of what tools
are a risk…. We weren’t happy.
Back at Meaux, it was warm
and dry, although it had been raining which meant the plants were happy, and
although it was Tuesday, we decided we needed a glass of wine.
The next morning we were up
sharp and got the bus to the cheese museum.
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| Cheeeeeeeeese Gromit!!! Brie de Meaux AOC |
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| After tasting, you gotta buy! |
We then went to pay our
mooring fees, decided to stay another night and enjoyed a new drama on the BBC
iPlayer after dinner.
This morning we set off under
heavy skies on a lockless cruise along the tranquil river, and after only getting
half on a pontoon at Poincy have settled on an unusual wall mooring a bit
further on under a ruined bridge at the little town of Germingny-l’Eveque. It’s nice to be back on board and underway
again.
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| Lovely little treehouse - think we might need something bigger though..... |
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| Moored under the ruined bridge at Germigny l'Eveque |
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