Cergy-Pontoise, Conflans-Saint-Honorine, Bougival, Rueil-Malmaison, Asnières-sur-Seine FR 25 July - 2 August 2022 Morning sky over Conflans-Saint-Honorine We had two more days in Pontoise before leaving for the Seine. As my foot was so sore after walking so much on the Sunday, I decided to take it very easy. Howard did some more work and finished painting the sides of the boat and railings, which he was very pleased with. I spent most of my time working on photos and this blog. On Tuesday afternoon we took the bikes and rode down past Cergy to the Passerelle de l'Axe Majeur, which is a bright red walking/biking bridge over the Oise river. It is part of a major work of art which covers 12 stations. It was very impressive and there were quite a few people wandering about for a Tuesday afternoon. In the same area there are lakes where there is a leisure complex which includes a cable waterski course, and various other water activities. We didn't have a lot of time so didn't do a lot of exploring on our way home. On Wednesday morning, after 10 days in Pontoise, we started our cruise to the Seine. Of course we passed by the Cergy Port and the Passerelle de l'Axe Majeur that we had visited on our bikes. There were plenty of interesting ships moored on the the banks of the Oise coming into Conflans-Saint-Honorine. We were hoping to find a mooring amongst all the big commercial boats moored on the Seine in Conflans-Saint-Honorine, which is just around the corner from the Oise. The Oise has a large bend in the river so our trip to Conflans was about 15km (although by car it is only about half that). Our plan was that once we turned onto the Seine we would take the first reasonable mooring we saw, as we knew that many commercials moored on the long quay there. Luckily we saw one very quickly after the first bridge, a long space between 2 commercials. Soon after we arrived, a commercial came and moored alongside the boat in front of us, and used his crane to take his car off. We watched with interest. After lunch Howard did a couple of trips to the supermarket and I did a late afternoon trip to the nearby pedestrian/bike bridge over the Seine for some photos. "Je Sers" (I serve) is a chapel for the boatmen on the river which has been there since the 1930s. The quay at Conflans is a place that many boats go to wait for their next job and has a long history associated with inland shipping. There is a museum there which we hoped to visit, but which will have to wait for another time when my foot isn't too sore. We left in the morning to head to Bougival. It was nice cruise along the river to the Bougival lock. When we reached the Bougival lock, we had trouble hearing the lock keeper on the VHF, as his had a lot of static. However he knew we were there and we thought he'd said that we had to wait for 10 minutes, and sure enough there was a commercial in the lock. The Bougival lock takes you to the right side of an island, but most commercials go to the left side of the island. As we were waiting a commercial did pass us to go to the left of the island. Eventually we got into the lock which was a little unusual as the doors were narrower than the lock itself, so we decided to moor on the straight right hand side wall rather than the left wall that was a little recessed. However to our surprise a 105m long commercial barge came in behind us. They asked us to swap to the other side and move backwards, which we did, only completing the maneuver after the lock keeper had started the lock cycle. We guessed that the commercial planned to pass us in the lock to leave before us, so as soon as we were high enough and it was safe enough for Howard to go on shore, he put a rope on the stern, so we were secure when the large commercial passed by. Sure enough, before the lock doors had even opened the commercial was moving past us, quite an intimidating experience. We moored very soon after the lock, but then Howard walked up past the next bridge to check out a different mooring and we decided that it would be a better spot so we moved. After lunch we decided to go for a ride along the river to Rueil Malmaison which was an alternate mooring place for this stop. We firstly cycled along the cyle path on the island, but after a few different tries it seemed that there was no way through, and the paths that Google Maps knew about were actually private and behind gates and fences. So we crossed the bridge to go on that side. Howard was navigating and took us up a main road. We cycled mostly on the cracked, narrow and bumpy pavement. At one point I got my wheel caught in a crack and only just avoided falling into the busy road. We finally made it to the mooring, only to find that there was a path along the river almost to Bougival. It was a lovely cycle home (thank goodness) and I have sacked Howard as a navigator. By the end of the evening 3 other boats had joined us on the quay, including a very cute boat which looked like it used to be a tug boat. We had heard from friends to that they were going to come and visit us for the weekend, so we decided to move the boat to Rueil Malmaison where there was a better train connection for them. We had spoken to an Australian couple on Karinya at the Rueil mooring the day before and we expected that they would leave around 10am, so we left then too, and sure enough we crossed on our way up the river. A cruiser with an Australian Flag - Apple Jack - arrived in the afternoon and Howard went to help them moor. Just then a french couple came to the boat and the guy asked me, in French, if they could visit the boat. I thought I had misunderstood, but no, he wanted to visit. I said no. We wanted to change and get ready for our friends, who we expected to arrive in about 20 minutes, and I also wanted to meet and greet the new arrivals. But especially I thought it was odd to ask for a visit to someone's home out of the blue. He said it would only be for 5 minutes. I still said no. It was probably completely innocent, but just it seemed odd to me. Our friends, Ian and Lisette arrived soon after and we had a nice time catching up. In the evening we invited the couple from Apple Jack, David and Melanie, to come by for drinks. A lovely social evening. Melanie, David, Ian and Lisette Another couple of odd things happened in the night. Firstly at about 4:15 am a couple were having a loud conversation on the quay just outside the boat, waking all 4 of us up. I thought they would maybe just go away, but it went on for ages. In the end I had to speak to them - saying we were sleeping. They apologised and left, but it was again very odd. And then, just after I finally got back to sleep I thought I heard someone on the back deck above our head. At first I thought it was one of our guests, but I went up to check. It was a random person walking around our back deck. I knocked on the window and he very quicky left with another person who was on the quay. I don't know if he was just "visiting" or looking for something to take. Very odd at about 5am. So I won't be keen to stay at this mooring again. Saturday morning we set off for Port Van Gogh which is the last mooring that will take a boat our size before central Paris. We passed a ship yard and were followed for a while by a boat with 2 other boats strapped to his side. We had wanted to stay at Port Van Gogh to have a rest before going into central Paris so we had a booking for 4 days. At the mooring we were directed to our mooring which is alongside a couple of other boats. We knew when we made the booking that we would be alongside another boat, but the section of the harbour that we were put in was a little run down and dilapidated. It looked like most boats were permanent and ranged from quite nice ones, to ones needing work. The section of the harbour that we were in is also not connected to the main and well presented harbour - we have to leave the harbour and walk about 500m to the gate to the lovely main harbour of the port to visit the capitaine's office. The mooring is expensive, but we didn't mind as the location was what mattered. But the acting harbour master was keen to explain why it was a good price, listing all the benefits that we could have (but as far as we could see they were only available in the main harbour), and comparing it to the central Paris mooring where of course you are so close to all the Paris attractions. Apart from the visit to the Capitaine's office, we had a quiet afternoon with Ian going for a walk and the rest of us having a nap. Ian returned with pastries for afternoon tea and we had a pleasant evening together. It was quite warm and my foot was still sore, so we decided that we would try to go out for Sunday lunch to the restaurant which was in the main harbour of the port. Unfortunately it was unable to take a booking for 4 people, so we decided to book a different riverside restaurant a few kms away. I checked my Uber app and there were plenty of cars around so we thought we'd just catch an Uber there. However when we wanted the Uber the next day, no-one was willing to take our fare. Luckily the harbour entrance was on a main road and we were able to flag down a taxi. We had a delightful meal at the Polpo Brasserie which had a view of the river and, although indoors, had all the large windows open to give us a nice breeze. After returning to the boat we had a rest, a read and a game of cards, before a snack supper. On Monday morning Ian and Lisette had to return to their boat which is out of the water at Moret-sur-Loing. I had a very quiet day, and Howard finished the painting on the boat, just in time to go to Paris.
On Tuesday we had a few jobs to do before our trip to Paris, so it was a busier day. But we should be all ready for my birthday cruise into Paris tomorrow.
4 Comments
Cheryl
2/8/2022 09:58:20 pm
What adventures you continue to enjoy... but you both look extremely well (perhaps excluding your foot!)
Reply
Johanna Hersey
2/8/2022 11:16:39 pm
Ok. C'est bien tout ça, mais avouez le: l'hiver à Melbourne vous manque!
Reply
Richard
2/8/2022 11:17:02 pm
Amazing stories and sights! Hope you have a grand birthday. So weird about your various “visitors.” Sorry your foot continues to trouble you. I hope it eventually resolves itself.
Reply
Pam Kershaw
2/8/2022 11:22:53 pm
A very colourful update Deb! Love the photos. So sorry your foot still troubles you. And I hope you have a very happy birthday.
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
|