Andresy, Conflans, Chatou, La Villette, Paris Port de l'Arsenal FR 26 September to 1 October 2023 We left Cergy for our final few days of cruising to arrive in Port Arsenal on 1st October. We have done this route before but there is always something new to see, including 2 museums that we hadn't gotten to before. New Parisiens stopping for a drink at a local bar on the Place De Bastille Leaving Cergy we headed to Andresy which is on the Seine just around the corner from the Oise. It was a nice day for cruising. We had a quiet afternoon, although we did head down to the old disused lock for a bike ride. We stayed an extra day in Andresy so that we could visit the Musée de la Batellerie (Inland Waterways Museum). But first Howard had a fish and I had a sleep in. We planned to go a little early to Conflans and have lunch there, but the restaurant Howard had chosen was full (on a Wednesday !!!), so we ended up going to a pleasant Italian restaurant on the waterfront instead. After lunch Howard made a quick trip back to the boat as we had both forgotten to get the chain for the bikes. Then onto the museum which was on the top of a hill and had lovely views over the Seine. The museum had some very interesting displays, but we felt that because they tried to tell the story of the whole of France, it was a bit disjointed. Behind the museum was a lovely park, which we cycled around. The next morning we set off for Chatou which is the island opposite Rueil-Malmaison where we have stopped before. We were keen to visit the Musée Fournaise, which explains the history of Chatou and Renoir's love of the island and his paintings there. It had been closed when we had tried to visit before. The museum was quite interesting with a short audio guide tour of the area around the museum, and a virtual reality look around the area and how it had changed over the years. But the heart of the museum was a show tour about Renoir, described by the museum as "The Fournaise museum offers an encounter with the artist through a show tour punctuated with digital animations and videos, in the middle of the atmosphere recreated by the decorations of the museum rooms." It was quite good and interesting. In the evening we were surprised by a pusher which was pushing 3 barges along the river. It must have been the maximum length that could get through the lock, and seemed that it was difficult to manoeuvre around the various bends in the river and around all the moored boats too. We decided to leave the next morning, Friday, rather than stay another day as we had originaly planned. We wanted to watch the AFL grand final back in Australia on Saturday which started at 6:30am, and we didn't fancy cruising 6 hours after that early morning start. The first part of the journey was an easy cruise along the Seine with no locks. It took us about 2 and half hours to get to the turn off for the Canal Saint Denis We had a bit of a wait for the first lock on the Canal Saint-Denis, and had to wait for another boat at the second lock, but after that the locks were mostly ready for us when we arrived. The final lock (the 7th) had nearly a 10m rise, with no floating bollards, so we had to step up on the hooks in the wall. However when we got to the top there was no bollard or hook, so we had to tie to the fence for the final rise. However that worked fine and we got through and, after a lift bridge, got into the Bassin de la Villette, where we finally moored inside a row of yellow buoys. La Villette was very busy as, after a grey start, it had become a lovely day and people were out enjoying the weather. We had a quiet afternoon after the 6 hour journey and watched the New Zealand vs Italy Rugby in the evening. The next morning we got up to watch the Grand Final, and then went back to bed to catch up on sleep. I had a quiet day, and didn't even leave the boat. Another lovely day meant that there were plenty of people about again, some of whom though it was OK to stand on or lean on the boat. But nothing malicious. So on Sunday 1st October we set off for our cruise into the Port de l'Arsenal where we were mooring for the winter. We had quite an audience in some locks. The route went along the Canal Saint-Martin right through the 10th and 11th Arrondissments. There are 8 locks in pairs ie 4 double locks, where the exit doors of one lock is the entrance for the next lock. The final lock leads to the tunnel which is almost 2 kms long. We arrived at our mooring before 11am, and moored alongside our neighbour boat, Evidence. We met our neighbour Charles, who, luckily, speaks good english. He is a permanent resident in the Marina, lives alone, works locally in HR, and seemed helpful and friendly. We are now settling into our new mooring and life in Paris. This ends out blogs of our cruise for 2023, but we will still blog intermittently during the winter as there will plenty of interesting things to photograph and report on.
3 Comments
Mark Poustie
3/10/2023 10:34:36 pm
Thanks for all the interesting blogs about your journeys Deb and we wish you and Howard a very happy winter in Paris
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Johanna Hersey
3/10/2023 11:38:04 pm
J'arrive!
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Andrea Th
4/10/2023 10:56:33 am
Very exciting to have arrived in Paris. Should be wonderful to winter there. Look forward to your occasional updates.
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