TICKING OFF THE BUCKET LIST

17TH September, 2017 (Sally)

The last fortnight has been a flurry of sightseeing, quite a change from our usual pace of life and as a result we are now sitting in a quiet port catching up on the housekeeping and preparing for our next visitors on Monday. After a couple of gentle days cruising down the final reach of the Marne, we found a spot just outside Paris where we moored to a wall out of the main stream. It was only a couple of blocks from Chateau Vincennes so a good opportunity to get the bikes off for a ride through the forest. The Chateau was the Royal residence until the whole court was moved to Versailles and the nearly 1,000ha Bois de Vincennes was the royal hunting ground. Now it is a wonderful park for all; sport fields, a race track, lots of pony trails, a park set aside to teach the public about gardening and the expansive Parc Florale where we locked our bikes and paid 5€ for a stroll among Parisian families at play. There are lovely hills for kids to roll down, trees and bushes to hide in and at any time of the year there is a seasonal floral display. Being autumn it was dahlias and we wandered through the National collection of Dahlias, 170 different varieties all in perfect bloom. One was invited to vote for your favourite but how could you they were all superb.

The next day we took Sable on to Paris and the mooring in Port de l’Arsenal. Such a handy spot and although it is expensive by our standards it is still a lot cheaper than an apartment in Central Paris.

As soon as we were settled we walked across the Seine into Le Jardin des Plantes were we visited the Museum of Anatomy and Palaeontology. I had read some time ago about Mary Anning who made her living digging fossils out of the cliffs at Lyme Regis. One of her more famous ones is on display here and I was keen to see it. The display there is wonderful, skeletons of so many creatures, mammoths, dinosaurs, whales as well as all the still existing ones. I was fascinated by a case of mummified animals and birds taken from Egyptian tombs, at least 4,000 years old. The second gallery is all fossils and after much searching we did find the Ickysaurus but I guess fossils are an acquired taste as it was a tad underwhelming compared to a 25 tonne Dinosaur. The museum was surprisingly busy, lots of little boys getting their dinosaur fix before school started. From there it was a wander through the garden, zinnias this time were featured, then to the Left Bank to sit in a café.

The next day we took the metro to La Défense to see if the viewing platform on top of the Grande Arche was open. On our three previous visits the lifts had been closed for repairs. Surprise surprise it was open and we took the lift to the top to enjoy panoramic views of Paris. The attendant did tell us it had been closed for 9 years, so no wonder we had not managed it before. Great 360° views — almost worth the wait. La Défence is the commercial heart of Paris, some stunning new buildings cater for the largest companies and in true French style lots of cafes and plenty of Boules spaces for the office workers to enjoy a game in their lunch break. We must have seen 20 or so games in progress. From there we walked towards the Bois de Boulogne, another wonderful parkland of trees, lakes, sporting fields and children’s play areas. We had recently heard of the new Fondation Louis Vuitton building which we were keen to see and is situated just inside the park. Frank Gehry designed the Bilboa Guggenheim Museum and also the Walt Disney theatre in LA which are both world renowned buildings. This one I believe will equal them. So hard to describe, made of glass, steel and laminated wooden beams it sits or almost floats above a pool of water. From one angle it looks like a ship, huge sails coming out of the water, from the side my thoughts were of an armadillo. We were fascinated and although it had a rather good photographic exhibition there you really need your first visit just to study the building. It must have been a nightmare to construct. If you are in Paris put it top of your list. As we left we noticed some hire bikes outside so took a couple and biked the length of the Bois then a metro home, a satisfying and exhausting day.

We also took a metro to Parc de la Villette with the thought of going to the Science and Industry Museum but as so often happens in Paris one can get waylaid. As we crossed Villette Park we noticed an exhibition in the Grande Halle called “Imagine Van Gogh.” With no idea what to expect we paid our money and took our chance. Once again a wonderful surprise, they had hung huge canvases from the top of the hall, which was the size of an aircraft hangar, and around the walls and dissected and projected onto them many of Van Gogh’s paintings. With very nice classical music playing in the background it was an interesting experience and one could imagine you were in one of his paintings. Very clever and we hope it is shown in other places as it didn’t seem to have the crowd it deserved. After that we lost interest in the science museum, went for lunch and a stroll through another Paris park, Parc de Buttes Chaumont. Years ago it was on old quarry and rubbish dump now a picturesque neighbourhood park with lovely views across Paris. Very popular with bridal couples and we counted four separate groups gathering for photos. We were back to Sable in time to meet friends from the Gold Coast, Roz and Michael, who were spending some time in Paris on their way to Sweden for their son’s wedding. We had dinner with them in a cute restaurant close to port that had been recommended, the Temple of Cherries. (Why does that fruit keep popping up — perhaps because Tony has again had to dismantle the sewage pump to clear a blockage of cherry stones! What sort of person eats cherry stones??) I think if there was a prize for the most customers one could seat in a small room for dinner this place would have to win. We asked for a photo and the waiter wanted to go outside and take it through the window as he couldn’t step back far enough to get us all in.

The next morning we were leaving Paris so Tony suggested to Roz and Michael that we could take them for a cruise through Paris under all the bridges as far as the Eiffel Tower and back. What a good way to spend Fathers’ Day. After a pleasant lunch we dropped them off and continued up the Seine, found a late mooring and next morning were alerted by all the commercial barges emerging from locks, getting their loads of gravel and sand into Paris. Such huge quantities get moved by theses barges and such a sensible way to do it. Imagine it all on trucks trying to navigate those busy and narrow streets. Only a couple of days on the Seine then we turned into the much quieter Canal de Loing, and a stop at Moret, renowned as the favourite spot for Sisley, copies of several of his paintings are positioned where he actually painted them. The bridge into town with its mill and gate houses never fails to attract a photo or two. At Montargis, we were joined by our granddaughter Kristy and her friend Aliesha on their way back from Portugal where they had been celebrating Kristy’s 30th birthday. As Montargis is close to the Loire Valley we took a hire car and did a very long day down the valley to visit Villandry gardens, which has long been on my Bucket List, and also Amboise Chateau. Villandry did not disappoint, 10 acres of Renaissance gardens laid out in geometric designs with 52kms of clipped box edges containing both flower and vegetable displays. The nine vegetable gardens are planted to make full use of the different colours, blue of leeks, green of kale, purple of basil and red and silver beets. There are 10 full-time gardeners, two complete displays a year and they use 115,000 bedding plants. Villandry was originally built by the Finance Minister for Francois 1. This is the second chateau we have seen built by a Finance Minister. Hopefully he had a better accounting system than the FM at Vaux le Vicomte, as he ended up in prison when Louis X1V saw what he had built there, with his money. We saw Villandry at a quiet time but a busload arrived as we were leaving so imagine it could be very crowded at the height of the season. Just enough time to do one more chateau, a stroll through Amboise perched high above the town and with great views over the Loire was a good choice. Leonardo da Vinci was buried there.

Next day after a short cruise, with Kristy running back for the car, we took the girls to Guédelon, where a 13th century style chateau is being built using only the original methods and tools. It was started in 1997 by a Frenchman who had restored a similar chateau then realised all the original craftsmen were being lost so bought an abandoned quarry and started to recreate from scratch what he had just restored. He started with 35 workmen and a couple of horses with the brief that everything must come from the same land. The workers wear traditional robes (except for boots and safety goggles) make their own gantries, tools, wagons, rope, baskets, lime etc and fell trees and quarry stone with only the white limestone around the windows being brought in from elsewhere. We first saw this nine years ago when it was barely out of the ground, now it is a thriving worksite, with the great hall finished, kitchen and bread oven operating and two towers at full height. A bustling tourist attraction, on a week day the carpark, camper van and bus parks were all full, well and truly paying for itself.

Before we returned the car we had one more trip to Briare to walk over the Pont Canal and then to Gien a city on the Loire that was badly bombed in 1940 and has been rebuilt in traditional style but using red brick instead of the original stone. Back to Sable after that and a farewell dinner before the car was returned and our guests were off to Paris. We have now continued to Briare where we are awaiting Deb and Mark’s arrival. They travel tomorrow from London; it would be nice if the weather improves for them but I suspect that the cold and wet has set in and the next sunshine we see will be when we arrive back home in four weeks.  

FURTHER DOWN RIVER

August 27th 2017 (Tony)

Heading out of the Champagne region induces pangs of sadness. There is a difficult to define exquisiteness to the beauty of masses of grape vines washing over the hillsides. However we have replenished our stock on board so a sip of bubbly, anytime, will quickly restore happiness. We moored again, as we usually do, at Charly and headed off on our motorbikes up the southern flank of the valley to Chezy sur Marne where a photo-stop was mandatory to picture the old communal wash-house beside a pretty little stream teeming with fish and where statues of a frog, in the stream, and a cow, on the bank, eye each other off in a game of who is going to blink first. Then it was across the Marne and up Mont Bonneil for a nostalgic re-visit to the picnic spot with a plane table overlooking the valley and the old abbey (still occupied) on the left bank. About seven of our tribe paused here for a picnic in 2010 before storming the champagne house of Brocante-Thierry and given a guided tour of the plant by the owner’s son — a delightful young man who had experienced several vintages in South Australia learning not only wine making skills but Australian slang. Being August, we think the family was on holiday along with the rest of France as the place looked very closed. We left Charly next morning intending to stop at Nanteuil under the very last (or first if you prefer) clos of Pinot Meunier in Champagne. The tiny village of Nanteuil etched itself into history when, in 1914, Maréchal Joffre commandeered all the taxis in Paris to transport troops to reinforce the army facing an imminent German onslaught across the river a few kilometres upstream. Over the course of a weekend hundreds of little Renault taxis, each bearing five soldiers, rushed up the Marne dropping their passengers at Nanteuil before returning to Paris for more. Five thousand troops were transported. The ploy was successful for the French were victorious in the first Battle of the Marne although it was a short-lived defence of the region. For the next four years the front was never far away. We found the floating pontoon at Nanteuil in a sad state of repair. It was virtually brand new when we moored there three years ago but it looks like someone has pilfered half the decking boards. With no sign of rot or decay in the remaining boards it is baffling to come up with any other explanation. However the pontoon did come in handy and we did stop there, briefly, to effect repairs. In ten years we have never had a problem with Sable’s black water pump-out system. It has always worked perfectly… until that day. After exhausting all the obvious options to remove the blockage, with no success, there was nothing for it except to remove the sullage pump and dismantle it. A disgusting job to say the least. And the source of all the trouble? Four cherry stones… small enough to pass through a macerator (I’m astonished it wasn’t damaged) but too big for the pump’s ventricles. We are waiting for the DNA results to come back but when the culprit is confirmed we will be mailing a DIY enema kit to the person concerned. Meanwhile, consumption of cherries on Sable is banned. In future anyone suspected of swallowing a cherry stone will be obliged to take a long walk into the woods.

We continued to la Ferté where there is a nice quay and all facilities. We’ve had lots of thunderstorms this summer but next morning we were awakened at 5:30am not just by the thunder but a deluge of hail about the size of cherry stones hammering on our steel boat. We can only hope that the grapes in Champagne, a mere 12km away, escaped damage. The hail semi-shredded our begonias which will probably survive but virtually finished off the petunias. Overnight stops on a couple of pontoons in remote places provided opportunities to explore small towns away from the river. It’s always interesting to venture out into the countryside. In August it is difficult to decide whether the villages are in serious economic decline or is it just simply half the folk are away on holiday? We’d like to believe it is the latter but many businesses appear to be permanently closed. And finding a boulangerie or restaurant open is well-nigh impossible. Downstream the geology changes noticeably too; the land has lost its chalkiness and escarpments have the rusty hue of cherry stones. We have had a very pleasant journey down the Marne, 400km from its source above the tunnel at Langres to its confluence with the Seine in Paris, taking time to explore the valley along the way. In Meaux we cycled down a path beside the Canal de L’Ourcq which practically encircles the town. Originally constructed to supply fresh water to Paris it is remarkably clear. Boats are not permitted to use it. And at Lagny we set out to walk down the embankment — very new and smartly landscaped — cross the river at the next bridge and return up the opposite side. After about 4km we found the bridge was for a motorway so had to retrace our steps. We did however stumble across an industrial zone beside the river with four or five gi-normous recycling plants, all with multi-million euro, ultra-modern architectural edifices housing offices and waste management systems — Suez, Veolia, Sietmus; all the big names were there plus others we’ve not heard of, containers on trucks and barges going to and fro constantly. We assume most of the rubbish from Paris ends up here to be converted into something more refined. Nice work. There was certainly no dust or smell and to all the world they looked as if they could be food processing factories. I wonder what they do with cherry stones…

The port at Lagny was full of boats, four of them from Roanne plus Brunel now part-owned by Phillip and Sue with whom we swapped Sable for their narrow boat in 2013. It led to a reunion of boatees with Gorete and Nikki hosting a party for eight on their barge, Puddleduck. Gorete, with minimum fuss cooked up a delicious paella. Everyone had second helpings and there was still lots left over. Who needs a wood-fired pizza oven when you can cook paella? Lagny is a lovely place to rest up and we moored there for a week. You’re only supposed to stay 48hrs so we moved across the river one night and returned next morning. Other boats have been here well over a week. This morning we have followed a small but nonetheless moving parade through Lagny to commemorate the liberation of the town in August, 1944. Capturing the bridge before the Germans destroyed it was integral to the success of the liberation although it cost many lives.

We have booked to stay in Port de L’Arsenal in Paris from 30th for four nights. But being so close to Paris we couldn’t resist taking the opportunity to jump on a train and visit Versailles. We haven’t seen inside the palace before. We went there once, years ago, but it must have been a Monday or whatever as we could only tour the gardens; certainly worthwhile. With all day to get there our carefully mapped plans were thrown into chaos by an unforeseen closure of a section of RER line. We arrived about midday and joined an hour-long queue to enter the chateau. Twenty-five thousand people pour through the gates every day. The place was crowded, the atmosphere oppressive, and the sheer opulence on display was mind-blowing. Little wonder the peasants and common folk got upset and started a revolution. The Hall of Mirrors was stunning as are the gardens but I was pleased to get back out into fresh air and away from the place. To anyone thinking of going I would suggest visit the gardens first and defer touring the palace until after 3pm by which time the crowd has thinned out. Next stop: Paris.

SPARKLING CHAMPAGNE

9th August, 2017 (Sally)

We have now been in Champagne for a month. If you have a month to spare it would be hard to find a better place to be. Robert and Leanne left us in Sillery, a small village just 12kms south of Reims. It has just a few attractions, a very good port, a reasonable supermarket, one of the best boulangeries and of course close proximity to some of the Grand Cru Champagne villages. We had a very relaxed week there before cruising to Reims, a city which has now become very familiar to us. The cathedral, attracts 1,500,000 visitors a year. It has been undergoing extensive repair ever since we have been in France, now 10 years, and every visit we are interested to see the progress. Last time we were here the front above the main door was scaffolded inside and out, this was to repair the rose window and also replace the sculptures above. All that is finished now and the scenes of David and Goliath are there above the window in pristine condition. As always one is fascinated by the workmanship and the sheer mechanics of the restoration. How do they replace all the spokes of the rose window while it is still in place, and how did a 6 tonne statue of Goliath get into place so high above the ground?

One cannot visit Reims without a Champagne experience, this time it was Pommery. What an interesting history there. The original Madame Pommery was widowed in 1860 and like Madame Clicquot took over the business and made some very far-sighted decisions. She purchased from the city 120 chalk caves, huge underground pyramids voids where chalk was mined in Roman times for their buildings. These are now all connected by more modern tunnels and with a constant temperature of 11 degrees they are ideal for storing and aging of champagne. At the same time she commissioned a local artist, working by candle light to inscribe four huge panels into the chalk walls. These areas today are used not only for storing their wine but are a gallery for local artists to display some interesting very large modern art pieces. Not sure if Modern Art is our thing but still interesting to see these huge spaces put to a different use.

From Reims it was back to Sillery where we met with our next visitor, Jenny, one of our Rotary friends. We had fun tasting and buying as we cruised gently down the Marne towards Epernay.

It is such a picturesque river, coloured a soft green from the chalk deposits with vines coming all the way to the banks and the villages so pretty with their overflowing geranium flower boxes. Very familiar country to us now and nice that some of the growers do recognise us, mind you not that many folk arrive for a tasting on motor bikes so I suppose that makes us memorable. We found Epernay bustling with locals and tourists, the Moet showrooms have reopened after a makeover so we made sure Jenny did that tour while we managed a walk up and down Avenue de Champagne before meeting her back at the Tourist office where, you guessed it, they had more champagne tasting. The local growers are rostered on, two at a time, to provide tastings of free champagne to anyone who wanders into the office. A lovely welcome indeed. Next day after one last farewell lunch and a last bottle of champagne Jenny left for her long trip home and we prepared to carry on cruising.

Damery, a few kilometres downstream is another familiar stopping spot and we used our few days there to get the motorbikes off and do some rides up into the hills. A brief stop at Hautvillers, the home of Dom Perignon and would you believe we sat in the local café and enjoyed a glass of Perrier, both saying that perhaps we had had too much of a good thing!! Another ride took us over the river, past Madame Clicquot’s fairytale Chateau and then to the village of Chatillon where the huge statue of Pope Urban 11, their native son, dominates the valley. A great spot for a picnic as you have almost 360° views over the Marne valley.

We are now at Chateau Thierry, a very historic spot during WW1 as it was here that the German advance was stopped in 1918 and also the Battle of Belleau Wood took place only a few kilometres away. Young US Marines, inexperienced in combat but sharpshooters all, bravely defied orders to retreat and scrambled through waist-high wheat fields picking off the enemy machine gun posts in the woods above them. Thousands of lives were lost but in the end the accuracy of their rifle fire overwhelmed the superior weaponry of the Germans who were forced to retreat from the closest they ever got to Paris. We took a ride to the American War Cemetery, nearly 3,000 graves all kept in immaculate condition and then walked the battlefield at Belleau Wood. Hard to believe such pretty countryside saw such bloodshed.

Yesterday afternoon while Tony was away on his bike I had a huge hotel boat cruise up beside me and hoot and hoot, telling me in no uncertain terms that I needed to move so they could take our place. It was a total stand off as there was no way I was going to move by myself but eventually they won and with the help of a female neighbour we towed Sable, all 50 tonnes, along the quay to a floating pontoon. Provided quite a spectacle for the passengers and several French who were sitting in the park. Tony arrived back just as we were tying up and in time to receive a couple of bottles of wine from the hotel boat as a thank you which almost placated him. We had paid the harbour master for that spot only an hour before. We suggested that a telephone call to the port Capitaine ahead of when they are arriving would be not just helpful but courteous to all concerned. They had no rights, just sheer mass. There was other space available on the seawall but they needed access to fresh water. Only a few kilometres downstream from here and we will be out of Champagne. Pinot Meunier is the principal variety of grape grown in this area. Vintners are predicting an early season with picking expected to start first week in September. The weather seems to have exhausted its summer heat with showers almost every day recently.