Ferte-sous-Jouarre to Paris

Saturday 12 August. 

We arrived quite late in the evening and stopped one night at the Municipal Halte in Lagny.  Mike had to change the plug on our electric cord to get electricity, again – he’s quite a dab hand at that now and we have three different connections.

I had been carefully planning the last legs of this trip into Paris as we had been told how awful the big barges are – they travel very fast, creating a nasty wash and are not interested in moving over for small private boats.  A fair portion of the trip included narrow canals and as a sailing boat with deep draught, we were worried about this.  We’d been told the barges don’t operate on weekends, so we cleverly planned to do the busiest patch on Saturday and Sunday.  It was perfect - we never met one commercial barge, though we saw lots parked off on the sides of the river. 

On that leg we passed through another tunnel, only a short one of 286m, and five locks – all manned.  We are real fundis with the locks now and can adapt quickly to whatever new locking arrangement gets presented – and the variations seem endless!

Sunday 14 August.  The next day, we had our last four Marne locks and a 2 kilometre tunnel,

before turning off the Marne and into the Seine.  On our way in we passed through the beautiful leafy outskirts filled with luxurious homes.....

......and the homeless....

At the weekends, the lockkeepers close between 12.30 and 13.30 for lunch, so we managed (just) to get through our fourth lock by 12.30.  There is one last (fifth) lock to get into the Arsenal marina which we assumed (wrongly) would also be closed for lunch, so we took a slow and very pleasant cruise up the Seine to arrive at 2pm.  The waiting quay looked horribly rickety and had a small dinghy hanging off it so we were glad we hadn’t relied on that.  I called the marina on VHF 9 and no one answered but a few minutes later the green light came on beside the red light to indicate that the lock was preparing and we only had a few minutes to wait, sharing the river with various Bateau Mouches.  The view outside the marina is of the Isle St Louis and Notre Dame.  Pont Sully, in the foreground, is covered in awnings and obviously being renovated.

I can’t believe we are finally in Paris.

We arrived at the marina and checked in – a horrifying €38.50 per night, including water and electricity, showers, washing machines and driers (paid for separately) and a comfortable air conditioned lounge with large TV and dvd player, and free wifi.  In view of the cost, our planned four nights has been reduced to three, but never mind, I am so very happy to be here.  And to be fair, for two people to stay in the comfort of their own home slam bam in the centre of Paris, it really is good value.