4-18 October 2022 Cergy FR Our final short cruise took us to Cergy where we had a couple of weeks to get sorted and catch up with friends and family. Moondance in her winter port We only had a few kms from Andresy on the Oise before we arrived at Cergy. We arrived at lunch time on Tuesday, so moored up on the visitors pontoon and had lunch. The capitaine, Antoine, was expecting us and came down to us after lunch. It didn't take long to realise that the mooring that we had contracted for was too narrow for us, but he had another space which would work. Our friends Rosie and Steve were about and they helped the capitaine prepare for our arrival as ropes had to moved etc. After 20 minutes we were ready to go and we headed into the port and we carefully and slowly manoeuvred into the tight space. Then there was a lot of work, putting all the ropes back into place. At our side of the port there are long boats but only small finger pontoons, so the back of each of the boats are tied together and to the harbour wall and the end pontoon. When a commercial boat passes by all the boats move in unison. It was great to catch up with Aussies - Rosie and Steve who we had met in 2017, our first season. Then they recommended Cergy to us, and we had always kept that in mind when thinking about winter ports. So it was great to find that they are still here, and their boat La Rebelle is moored close by. Our first few days were spent getting ready for our final guests for the year, Howard's son Chris, his wife Emma and baby Lily. We had promised to find a porta-cot and a high chair for Lily so I found some on Facebook Marketplace and arranged to pick them up. Luckily Rosie and Steve volunteered to drive me so it was a realatively painless task, although one person didn't answer her phone when we arrived so we had to reschedule for the next day. We did go for a bike ride around the town, including to the nearby mall where there is a big supermarket. On Sunday afternoon Steve gave Howard and I a lift to the bus which we caught to Charles de Gaulle airport where we picked up our hire car. Later that night Howard drove to Orly to pick up Chris, Emma and Lily, who had been in Ireland. Because they live in New Zealand we hadn't seen them since before COVID. In the intervening time, Chris and Emma had gotten married (we attended by YouTube), and they had had a baby. So this was our first in person meeting of Lily. Lily and "Grumps" After a quiet Monday, we decided to do a hop-on hop-off bus tour of Paris. So on Tuesday morning we took the train into Paris and joined the tour. We took our time as we knew that the tour went until 6:30pm. After a leisurely lunch we got on the bus again at about 3:10. After waiting for about 20 minutes we were told that it wasn't going and there were no more buses that day. So that was very disappointing, as we had done only about half of the tour. The buses from the other hop-on hop-off tour company were still operating, so it was very frustrating. Our plan for Wednesday was to go to Disneyland, so we bought the tickets in advance. Unfortunatley, both Howard and I succumbed to stomache flu overnight and couldn't go. Luckily the others were ok (the'd had it the previous week), and so could still go. Howard and I spent Wednesday in bed, apart from him dropping them at the station and picking them up again. Thursday was also a quiet day at home. I spent most of the day in bed - as usual getting the worst dose and taking the most time to recover. And then Friday morning we had to say good-bye to the family, as Howard drove them to the airport. Lily had been amazing whilst with us. Smiling and happy, and never a tear. After Chris, Emma and Lily left, it was time for us to pack up the boat redy for winter. Finally on Tuesday, we said farewell to Rosie and Steve and our neighbour Bertrand, and headed off to the airport. The end of another season on Moodance. Rosie and Steve Moondance ready for another winter
3 Comments
Karen Melchior
28/10/2022 07:41:58 am
Beautiful! Amazing scenery. Baby Lily has a charming smile. So much love!
Reply
Hilary
28/10/2022 08:26:00 am
I feel sad to say goodbye to Moondance for several months, But the baby is adorable and Howard looks super chill!
Reply
Richard Switzky
31/10/2022 12:40:29 pm
Thanks for sharing your amazing journeys. Baby Lily is beautiful. I’m glad you’ve had ( mostly) safe travels.
Reply
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWe are sharing stories about and travels on our barge Moondance. Archives
August 2023
|