On Monday we decided to spend the day in Montmartre. We caught the tube over there and first paid our respects to the magnificent church of the Sacre Coeur.
It was filled with tourists and touts so we soon left and wandered around the old artist area which still had the original charm of the days of Picasso, Monet and van Gogh. There were still artists plying their pictures from the Place du Tertre.
We bought a print of a Renoir called ‘Les jeunes filles au piano’ of which original we had seen and admired in the Orangerie a few days earlier. Then we stumbled across an old windmill that happened to have a restaurant attached and had a wonderful lunch al fresco.
The next morning we were up with the larks as we had a long day. We were leaving Paris Arsenal (at least that is what he hoped …) and going via the secret canals of Paris down to the Seine well downstream of Paris. We first entered a long tunnel which goes under the Place de la Bastille for some 3km before emerging into leafy streets in suburban Paris not far from Montmartre. There were lots of locks but it all went very smoothly as progressed along the Canal St Martin and turned into the Canal St Denis and eventually onto the Seine where we turned upsteam and started to look for a mooring for the night. Alas there were none so we maid the decision to return up the river to the Port of Paris Arsenal where we had been for the past 10 nights. But we were passing through the heart of Paris. Past the Statue of Liberty, The Eiffel tower and the great palaces that adorn the banks of the Seine.
We had first class seats on the busy river as we worked our way upstream avoiding the laden barges, the bateaux mouches (trip boats) and looking out for all the navigation signs as some reaches are one way.
The next morning we again started early heading up the Seine now and out of Paris. The river was very busy with commercial traffic and the locks were always slow as the big barges take along time manoeuvring into and out of the narrow locks. There are many pretty houses along the banks of the River – holiday homes of the rich and famous.
We stopped in Melun for the night after a long long day. There were very few suitable mooring spots on the River until Melun. Continuing up the Seine next day we made good progress in the first lock and but when we arrived at the next (and final lock of the day) we were told that the lock keepers were on strike and we could go no further. It was a General Strike as French Workers were protesting about the raising in 2016 of the pension retirement age to 62 from 60. Some people just don’t know when they are well off! As were stuck at the lock for the day, we took the bikes off the boat and biked into St Mammes and checked out the fuel bunker where we hoped to get fuel the next day and also biked over to a very pretty village at the start of the Canal du Loing called Moret sur Loing. It is a fortified town on the banks of the River Loing where the painter Sisley lived for many years.
By now the weather was superb. It was also very hot and out in the sun probably well over 40C. Unfortunately we were in the sun most of the time as we headed down the Canal du Loing the next day on our way South. It is a very rural canal with old ancient towns like Nemours and Montargis along the way. It also has many locks and the sun was hot.
The Canal du Loing finishes at Montargis and seamlessly morphs into the Canal du Briare whose job it is to link the valleys of the Seine and the Loire.
There is not much traffic but it still slow going and we average no more than 30km a day and even that is tough at times. Fortunately we are stopped at Chatillon-Coligny tonight and they have free wifi and also free mooring, free electricity and free water. And to boot, it is an ancient walled town with great restaurants, where we are headed tonight in search of a cold beer or two.
The electricity comes in handy as it allows us to leave the fan on all night in the bedroom, something not possible on just battery power.
This week we continue our slow way south and cross the River Loire on a superb aqueduct built by none other than Mr Eiffel. The weather is forecast to continue hot and sunny all week but I wouldn’t mind betting that we get a thunderstorm as well one afternoon.
