Chateaux and Cities

8th September, 2010 (Sally)

Before we left the Aisne river we took a short cycle ride through the Royal hunting forest of Compiegne to the Armistice Clearing where a replica railway carriage provides a small museum of the signing of the armistice on 11th November, 1918. The newspapers of the day make interesting reading, and also of interest is that Hitler insisted that the French surrender in 1940 was signed in the same carriage. He then had the original carriage shipped to Berlin for exhibition where it was ultimately destroyed in a RAF bombing raid. From there it was only a short distance to the junction of the Oise river and a turn south to start our journey back to Roanne. It was very obvious that we were on a main transport route, a constant flow of huge barges — wheat going north to Belgium and northern France; and gravel, sand and other building products flowing into Paris. All building materials have to travel into Paris by barge and when one considers that some of those barges carry the equivalent of 100 trucks one can appreciate what an advantage that is to the already busy streets of the city.

Compiegne, our first stop, is a delightful town, the main square dominated by a towering Hotel de Ville dripping with decorations. It is also where Joan of Arc was captured and handed over to the English but it is most famous for its royal chateau. The Chateau was the traditional stop for Kings on their way to be crowned at Reims, and today is a wonderful example of the extravagance of French royalty. Of course there are myriad stories that could be told, it was here that Marie Antoinette met her husband for the first time, it was also here that Napoleon III spent a lot of time, but the one that caught my eye was that when Tsar Nicholas II came to visit in 1901 the Palace was refurnished with ninety two railway wagons of furniture including a library of 3,000 books. One would hope that he had time to read at least one of them. The chateau park is open to the public, a delightful place to stroll, with long arcades of trees, statues and colourful herbaceous borders.

Our next stop was the very ordinary town of Creil where we took advantage of its proximity to Chantilly. A picnic lunch, a short motorbike ride, and we were driving into the chateau grounds literally open mouthed with wonder. Chantilly is the horse racing capital of France, and set in the grounds of the park is the race course, the lovely chateau floating in a lake which forms part of the extensive gardens and the most extravagant stables one could ever hope to see. One can visit chateau, musee, stables and gardens but we defy anyone to do it all in one trip. We elected to spend the time in the gardens, a vista of lakes and fountains designed by Le Notre, that made even Louis XIV jealous and then watched a horse riding exhibition in the stables. These were built by the Duke of Conde who had the foresight to know he was going to be reincarnated as a horse and he wanted fitting accommodation. The stables are virtually a castle for horses with indoor riding arenas, fountains, statues and stalls to hold 250 horses and 500 dogs.

We continued on down the Val d'Oise which was renowned as a favourite haunt of the Impressionists. The small village of Auvers is a shrine to Van Gogh who spent the last ten weeks of his life there. In those ten weeks he painted seventy pictures including the famous Eglise d'Auvers; and many of the spots he painted are celebrated with a picture of his work. He is also buried in the town cemetery beside his brother Theo. It was also a good spot to wait for my sister Myra to join us for five days as we cruised upstream under the bridges of Paris and into the familiar Port de l'Arsenal. Five days in Paris, a chance to see a few more of the things we haven't seen: the Panthéon, how many times have we been outside and not gone in; Rodin's Musée with his wonderful collection of statues; L'Opera, a masterpiece of gilt and opulance; Musee d'Armée at Les Invalides; and another trip for Tony and a first for me to the Maritime Musée. Paris was still busy with tourists, too many in the queue for the Eiffel Tower so we climbed the 280 steps of the Arc de Triomphe again and discovered the lift (for Tony S) only on the way down. So much to see in Paris, will we ever think we have seen enough? A chance also to meet up with a very expectant Delphine and Francois. Is it really sixteen years since she was a Rotary exchange student in Australia? And to say goodbye to Myra and welcome aboard Nancy and Tony Stenton for their second visit to us. Monday morning saw the two Tonys leaving port to meet up with a serviceman to give Sable's boiler its annual checkover, while the two ladies went off for a last day in Paris before catching them up by train, then back on the busy Seine upstream to Melun. One day left before the Stentons carried on to Germany, so once again the two ladies took off to explore. A short bus trip and we were in Fontainebleau, another chateau of extravagance and opulance set in gardens open free of charge to the public. They don't show you all 1,900 rooms, thank goodness, but what you do see is well worth the visit.

The one chateau that has long been on my wish list is Vaux-le-Vicomte, a short cycle ride from Melun. It was certainly worth the wait, as it is simply magnificent. Built by Nicolas Fouquet, Louis XIV's Minister of Finance, it is said to be the epitome of French elegance and has been the feature of many films. The picture-perfect gardens, all eighty-three acres of them, are a joy of terraces, lakes and fountains and a two huge beds of sculptured box hedges modelled on a turkish carpet. How many gardeners, we could not even hazard a guess. Ironically the breathtaking beauty of the place caused the downfall of its owner, for after its completion in 1661, Fouquet threw a lavish house warming party for the king and his court, with Indian elephants, Italian fireworks and the first performance of a comedy by Molière. Instead of being impressed the so called Sun King was furious, he hated being upstaged, so a mere three weeks later he had Fouquet arrested and charged with having embezzled public money to build his grand home. While his former finance minister languished in prison, the king stole his talented designers and architects and commisioned the mother of all palaces, Versailles. Even today the brochures on Vaux le Vicomte ask the question, "Guilty or Innocent?" but cynics among us would have to wonder how any mere mortal would have honestly found the werewithal to finance such a grandiose project. After Melun we made one more stop on the Seine at Samois, still within commuting distance to Paris, and obviously so from the price of real estate and the size and expense of the cars. We spent the weekend there and used the time to take a couple of motorbike rides through the Forest of Fontainebleau visiting little villages with such interesting names as Bois le Roi and Barbizon, before finally leaving the Seine and finding ourselves once more back doing what we like best — cruising the small canals and the even smaller locks. First signs of Autumn with tinges of red on the virginia creeper and walnuts looking almost ready to harvest. Still a few weeks of cruising to go but our thoughts, like our boat, are turning towards home.

Paris

25th June, 2010 (Tony)

It is impossible to tire of a city like Paris. There is just so much to do and see, especially when you have family on board to entertain. We arrived in the Port de l'Arsenal ten days ago and were delighted to be directed to raft-up alongside Imagine and to at last meet Tony and Cindy and their two children. They are on an eighteen month cruise through France, having chartered Imagine owned by Caroline who lives in Surfers Paradise and whom we met last year while we were home on the Gold Coast. Talk about an extraordinary series of coincidences... anyway it was a pleasure to meet them and we had numerous cheerful conversations with them over the course of a week.

Miles and Louis (13) were our first visitors to arrive and we quickly hired an extra bike and set off for a long ride up to La Villette to check out the port and also the Science Museum. What a fascinating place. One could easily spend several days and still not manage to absorb all of its various sections. Tired, but hungry, we headed back into the city at night to relive the dining experience we enjoyed so much, many years ago, at "Pied au Cochon" restaurant. Next morning Gray and Suellen and Elsie (11) and Joey (8 yesterday) arrived. A walk across the river to the Jardins des Plantes was succeeded by a stroll to the Pantheon and around the Latin Quarter. As luck would have it the church of St Etienne which Sally and Suellen were keen to see was shut for lunch, so Gray and I found ourselves ensconsed in an English pub to watch the final twenty minutes of the Wallabies v England rugby test. We ultimately wished we hadn't bothered; and the pommy fans were barely more impressed than we were.

Enough walking. Three more bikes were immediately hired. My credit card seemed to be the only one that was acceptable — how did my two sons contrive that mystery? So for the princely sum of 5€ per week for each bike I find myself responsible for four Velim cycles. What a great system and how easy it is to pedal all around Paris. And of course one can just abandon, change or pick up another bike anywhere around the city; which we did; frequently; while the three we own had to be chained up and reclaimed after every site visit.

There was a bitterly cold wind blowing the day we went up the Eiffel Tower but the view over Paris is spectacular. We would have lingered longer at the top but the wind and temperature determined otherwise so we adjourned to the park below to enjoy a picnic lunch before setting off to admire the Tuileries Gardens and its splendid statues and arcades of trees. One day the adults decided that too much biking and walking might be tiring for the kids. As Joey was riding pillion and Louis and Elsie didn't seem at all tired I suspect some adults may have been looking for an excuse to relieve their creaking joints. We all bundled into the Métro and boarded successive trains, as only Sally and I and Elsie were nimble enough to catch the one at the platform. We all regathered at la Défense and studied the Grande Arche before retiring to a vast shopping centre for a session of retail therapy followed by lunch. In the afternoon we clambered up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe and admired more spectacular views of Paris before strolling down the Champs Elyssée. The girls deviated to investigate the classy string of exclusive shops along Rue St Honoré, whilst the boys chose to take a bike and head back to the boat for a beer and to watch some World Cup soccer. As always, June 21st is celebrated throughout France with a music festival. Sally and I stayed in to look after the grandkids while their parents experienced a night out at a recommended restaurant and later, revelling with the crowds enjoying bands banging it out on most street corners until the wee small hours.

No visit to the "City of Love" by boat would be complete without a cruise down the Seine "under the bridges of Paris with me". To be different we decided to do a grand circle of the city by entering the tunnel at the north-eastern end of Port de l'Arsenal and going up the Canal de St Martin to la Villette and then turning into the Canal St Denis which takes one back down, past Stade France and back to the Seine. For boats going downstream this route saves about 25km of the huge sweeping bends the Seine follows out of town. For us however it meant a four hour journey to get back to the Eiffel Tower and the recognised bridges of mid-city Paris. But everyone enjoyed the day out and the late-evening vistas were stunning. It was 8:30pm when we gotSable back to her berth. Weary and hungry, the eight of us staggered into a welcoming restaurant at 10pm for a hearty meal.

The final day in Paris necessitated a visit to a museum. Gray, Suellen, Joey and I elected to bike to the Maritime Museum, at Trocadéro near the Eiffel Tower. Everyone else went to the Louvre. I learned about the existence of the Maritime Museum from Tony on Imagine. I have to say it was one of the most pleasurable museum visits ever made and I can't wait to take certain others there. The collection of model ships spanning four centuries is astounding. Perfectly to scale and exquisitely detailed most of the models were made before the actual ship in order to gauge the lines and sometimes merely to show to the king. The museum also includes hundreds of paintings, including many of famous sea battles and French ports that deserve a place in the Louvre. But best of all, it seemed as though there were only a dozen visitors in the whole place whereas the Louvre is every day packed with thousands of viewers, despite its enormous size, and queues to see anything are the norm.

We've now departed Paris and are slowly wending our way up the Marne towards Champagne. Each day for the past week has been sunny and hot and most evenings we have barbequed on the top deck waiting for the sun to set at around ten o'clock. Miles and Louis have left to visit Nicole in Germany but will return with her to join us in Epernay to see the Tour de France.