Andresy, Meulan, Mantes-la-Jolie 23 July - 4 October 2022 We had just over a week before we wanted to be settled in Cergy for the winter, so we decided to take a little cruise down the Seine towards the sea. We decided to be conservative in how far we went rather than try to do everything and wear ourselves out. Andresy Fire Spectacular iOur first stop was Andresy which is just after the junction with the Oise, and was a place that had been recommended to us by a number of people. There was a fairly new halte there, with a good pontoon and electricity if we needed it. It was on the other side of an island from the main locks so a bit protected from the wake of passing commercials (especially as the locks here operate 24 hours, meaning you get passing ships in the middle of the night). We arrived on a Friday and in the afternoon went for a ride down to the old lock, now no longer in use. Later, when cruising, we saw the lock and the barrage from the other side. The barrage in particular looked quite unsafe. The next day was a bit rainy so after visiting the weekly market on the quay - which did have a permanent cover, we stayed mostly on the boat, at least until we went out for dinner at the nearby Moroccan restaurant. We left on Sunday morning towards Meulan our next stop. We had good views of Andresy from the water. Of course we saw many of the same things on the way back as well. We passed many lovely homes on the river. Just before our turn off to Meulan we came across 2 different sailing regattas. We stayed 2 days in Meulan. The most interesting and photogenic thing we found in the town was the bridge just in front of our boat. Like Andresy our mooring was behind an island, somewhat protected from the wake of passing boats. On Tuesday we headed off to Mantes La Jolie. The start of our trip continued behind the island where there were a lot of houses, and a couple of ferries to get people on and off. While staying at Mantes-La-Jolie we had three cruise ships moor on the same quay. 2 of them only stayed a short time, but one arrived in the middle of the night and was still there when we left in the morning. The weather was still poor with rain around, so we decided to visit the town on Wednesday when the forecast was better. We liked the town. The Notre Dame church is thought of as the little sister of Notre Dame in Paris as it has a similar look and can been seen from the Seine. It has a magnificent patterned tile roof. On Thursday we headed back to Meulan. We went a little bit downstream first to get a better view of the church. At Meulan we had a little ride around in the afternoon. The next morning, Friday, we had a delayed start due to fog. And we did see a few different things as we went on the other side of some of the islands. We stayed in Andresy for 4 nights in the end. On Saturday we had my friend Louis and his wife Jeanne over for lunch. It was a great afternoon. Howard tried to pay for power through the self service kiosk, but it kept failing. Luckily Regis, from the neighbouring boat, was there to help and we ended up meeting him at the local bistro that evening. There we learned that there was a fire spectacular going on that evening, which we watched. Very impressive for such small town. Then we had dinner with Regis back in the bistro. We had been trying to get diesel to fill our tanks before winter. We thought we would be able to get some in Conflans, but it turned out that they only had red diesel and we need white diesel. So on Sunday Howard sent emails to some places which may be able to deliver diesel to us at Andresy, where there is good access (No access at Cergy). So we delayed our departure for a day in case someone was able to deliver. We did get a couple of phone calls on Monday about it but no-one was able to help us. We decided to leave on Tuesday which was to be a still day, but of course, it started out very foggy and we were unable to leave until midday. And soon we were off the Seine, heading up the Oise up to Cergy, our winter port.
1 Comment
Neil
8/10/2022 03:57:16 am
What a lovely 'little cruise' and wonderful photos as usual. The photo showing the cruise ship Amadante brought back fond memories for us of a couple of weeks cruising and sightseeing on that ship.
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
|