A Visit to Gordon and Kate’s ‘Farm’

Five years ago Gordon & Kate, some friends that we have known for many years, retired and moved to France with their two horses. Previously they had owned a lovely cottage in Kent and stabled their horses locally. They had decided to take early retirement and needed to accommodate both themselves and their horses. The cost of doing so in Kent was prohibitive but, near Laval in France, they found exactly what they required. Over the past few years they have done an enormous amount of work on the property. It is now both a beautiful home and has well cared for fields for their horses (now three and also retired) to graze in their retirement.

The day started with our first ever journey on the French TGV railways. Gordon picked us up from the station and we enjoyed a pleasant look at the local market. This was like a step back in time with everything from clothes to hens being available for you to buy. I managed to talk Ann out of buying a crate of ducklings and she eventually settled for a bunch of beautiful garden flowers.

After an excellent vegetarian lunch (being a vegetarian is not easy in France) we had a walk around the farm, with their two dogs and a cat, and admired the excellent range of vegetables being grown by Kate. All too soon we had to head back to the train and swap the twitter and rustle for the hustle and bustle of Paris.

Rodin

There was still time for one last bit of culture before we leave Paris on Friday. Tomorrow we travel to Laval, by TGV train, to see Gordon and Kate. But today Ann wanted to see some of the famous Rodin sculptures in the English Garden at the Musée Rodin.

You enter the garden under the gaze of what is probably Rodin’s most famous statue, The Thinker, set up high amongst the roses with a view of the Eiffel Tower in the background. Unfortunately, I found a number of his other famous statues somewhat repulsive e.g. The Burghers of Calais and Balzac. However, many of the others showed his incredible skill at producing such anatomically precise bronzes e.g. The Thinker and The Shade. Which is no doubt why he is recognised as one of the greatest sculptors of all time?

Leaving Paris

The first part of the journey, when we leave Paris on Friday, will take us further up the river Seine. This will mean that we will go past the junction with the Marne and through the industrial suburbs of Paris. After that, the surroundings should become more countrified with the Forest of Senart on the right bank and then Fontainbleu’s forest on the other. When we reach St. Mammes we will turn off the Seine onto the Canal de Loing. This is mostly man-made, it was opened in 1723, and runs for most of its length alongside the Loing river. There are a number of holiday boat hire companies on this route so, hopefully, there will be more places for pleasure boats to moor than we have experienced on the Seine.

We will be entering a region where vines are grown so we are hoping for good food and wine along this route.

Where to next?

I have been asked, now that we have reached Paris, where are we going next? From Paris we would like to head south towards the Mediterranean. Probably not all of the way this year but at least as far as the river Saone, which leads down to the river Rhone and the Mediterranean. We have been told that there is a good marina, called H2O, at a place named of Saint-Jean-de-Losne which is just south of Dijon. To get there we have a choice of three routes:

Bourgogne: The most direct route but with 61 more locks than the Bourbonnais route and a long tunnel.

Bourbonnais: The most westerly route and the one we intend to take.

Marne: The most easterly route which has been less developed for pleasure use and many miles of countryside with few signs of civilisation.

For some boats it would be possible to go via Auxerre and the Canal de Nivernais. A beautiful route but, with only 2.5m of head room, it is too low for us.

I am sorry that the map is so small but I will show sections of it as we progress.

Place des Vosges

If you head north west from the marina you come to the Marais area. The highlight of the Marais is the Place des Vosges. This is the oldest square in Paris, and its name is in honour of the first French department to pay its taxes to the new Republic. The red brick arcades give it a singular appeal and fashion boutiques, Restaurants, tea rooms and some interesting shops line the square. The centre of the square is taken up by a lovely park that is popular with young children and the inevitable jogger.

At the far corner of the square, at No 6, is Victor Hugo’s House, which is open to the public. Hugo, the author of a mammoth body of work including Les Misérables, was also an expert carpenter, and some of the furniture on display was crafted by his own hands.

The Canals of Paris

When people think of water in Paris they think of the River Seine. But, there is a 120 km network of canals, conceived by Napoleon, actually in Paris. The prime purpose of Napoleon’s Ourcq canal system was to provide Paris with drinking water, and a less hazardous means of moving wood, stone, sugar beet and flour into the capital. The Port de Plaisance end of the canal St Martin was enclosed in 1835 for military purposes, to provide the army with free movement in or out of the city, where, five years earlier, uprisings, barricades and revolution was rife. That area is now where the marina is situated.

The canal was abandoned as a source of supply for drinking water in 1832, after an outbreak of cholera, but to this day the Ourcq provides water for the public gardens and for cleaning the streets of Paris. We decided that we would take a guided tour of the canals, from the marina, on one of the tour boats based here. We could have gone by our own boat but the low roof level, in the 2 km tunnel, would have meant that we would need to lower the radar arch. Also the four double locks, that we needed to go through, would raise the boat by 25 m above the level of the Seine. That is more than we were raised, by all of the locks, during our entire journey up the Seine to Paris. We therefore decided to let somebody else take the strain.

Rain Stopped Play

This morning I went for my usual morning walk to buy a baguette and a newspaper. This, unfortunately, had to be extended considerably because so many of the local shops were closed. After a walk of three times the normal length, I returned with the Sunday Times and the Observer as well as an excellent baguette. That meant that I was set for the day, however, Ann decided to go on a guided walk. This was to be in the mainly Jewish area, about one mile from the marina. All went well for the first hour but after that it rained. Ann returned to the boat without completing the walk and, worse still, no photographs to add to the web.

Musée Marmottan & Champs Ēlysées

The day started with yet more culture. A trip to see, what was reputed to be, the best collection of paintings by Claude Monet. The location was the Musée Marmottan, which sits discreetly on the northern side of the Jardins du Ranelagh. To get there we had to catch two Metro trains: a number one and then change to a nine (we are getting better on the Metro). This was followed by a walk through the lovely Ranelagh Park. This is obviously a good area of Paris because there is less graffiti everywhere; there is generally more than in the UK. This park was obviously a popular choice for young children with their parents and ‘Grandmamma’.

The Museum proved to be a good choice with an excellent collection of paintings by Gauguin, Sisley and Renoir and with over 100 Monets in a purpose built basement. There were many of Monet’s renowned Water Lilies but, strangely, no hays stacks.
After several days of culture it was time for some fun. We therefore headed for the Champs Elysees for a look at the Renault showroom, which was full of their racing cars plus driving games and a race wheel change competition. Unfortunately, my bad back prevented me from competing I’m sorry to say. This was followed by indulging in a good helping of Häagen-Dazs ice cream at their local restaurant.

Notre Dame Cathedral & Musée d’Orsay

The day started, as usual, by my early morning trip to the boulangerie for, “Bonjour, deux crouisant et une bagette, sil vue plait”. It is amazing how much school boy French you can remember if you are hungry. However, today I found a real treat: today’s copy of The Times newspaper.

After breakfast we set off walking again. Notre Dame Cathedral was only about 30 minutes walk away and the route took us down Boulevard Henri IV and across the Seine to Īle St Louis and then on to the Īle de la Cité. The whole route was exceptionally interesting, because it took us through the oldest part of Paris, and we therefore took longer than expected. However, we braved the crowds and entered the 12th century Cathedral with the Rose window containing the oldest stained glass in Paris.

Next we took the RER (like a double-decker Metro), for one stop, to the Musée d’Orsay. This was once a railway station, saved from demolition in the 1970s and converted into an art gallery covering the period 1848 to 1914. Here you can savour the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, including Monet, Renoir, Sisley and Manet. Not, in my humble opinion, their best works but I thought the building itself was wonderful.

Time to Catch Up

Jomima is now settled in at the Paris Arsenal marina and we are very tired after a lot of walking yesterday. So, it is time to catch up with some jobs. For Ann that means finding two empty washing machines, that actually work, in the marina launderette. We had accumulated rather a lot of washing, since we last had the use of some machines, so Ann needed some help from me to carry it all. After setting the machines in motion, that firstly required doing battle with the French instructions, I decided that it was time to give Jomima a good check over. I regularly check the cooling water filters and, when at sea, rarely find anything in them. However, despite having only checked them the previous day, the filters had accumulated a great deal of weed and litter after the journey through Paris. The Perkins engines use very little oil and water and their 2 x associated starter batteries require little maintenance. However, as usual, the domestic batteries (4 x 6v @ 175ah) used nearly 2 litres of water since we left Brixham. The domestic batteries work hard because they are being constantly discharged by the fridge, lighting etc and then topped up again by the engines and battery charger - when we can find an electricity supply to plug into.

In the afternoon we explored the interesting side streets that surround the marina and we were able to top up the food and wine supplies from the excellent range of shops nearby.

Eiffel Tower & Musée de l’Orangerie

Ann and I have been to Paris several times before but have still not actually been up the Eiffel Tower. So, having been warned about the long queue, we set off early. The first part of the journey involved getting to grips with the Paris Metro and, after buying a 5 day pass, we arrived at the Eiffel Tower. After a 20 minute wait, followed by two lifts and a few minutes spent talking Ann into actually going up to the top, we arrived to enjoy the view from 276m up. It is hard to believe that when Gustave Eiffel’s iconic tower was built in 1889, it was criticised as ‘useless and monstrous’. The critics were silenced when two million visitors ascended the tower in the first year and over 200 million have now made the pilgrimage.

In the back streets, between the Eiffel Tower and Les Invalids we found a wonderful selection of shops selling fresh cheese and fine wine. The sight of all this food was too much for me to bear so we stopped for an excellent lunch at one of the pavement cafes. From there we walked to the Musée de l’Orangerie, which is strangely not mentioned in all good guide books. It is situated on the east side of the Place de la Concorde and is the place that houses some of Claude Monet’s last paintings. The collection highlight is Monet’s astonishing Water Lilies – eight huge panels conceived for the oval basement rooms of this former Tuileries greenhouse

Port de Paris-Arsenal

Once past the Notre Dame Cathedral, the waiting pontoon for the Port de Plaisance de Paris-Arsenal was clearly visible on the right bank. We contacted the Capitainerie staff, who could see us on their closed circuit TV, and they prepared the lock so that we could enter the marina. I am writing this as we are moored safely in the marina and still find it amazing that, for 36 Euros per night, we are able to moor in the centre of Paris alongside the Bastille Monument. Try getting a hotel room in Paris for that price!

Arrival in Paris

After a difficult five days of travel up the River Seine, we were looking forward to finally arriving in Paris and we were not disappointed. We had spent Sunday night at Rueil-Malmaison, which is 45 kms from the centre of Paris by boat and a lot closer by road because of the very windy route taken by the river. We quickly passed through the industrial areas, with docks and a Renault factory that was being demolished, and reached the city itself. The striking buildings of La Defense, on the left bank, are a remarkable sight. We then past through the last of the Seine locks and the river was lined with houseboats and restaurants. We then caught our first sight of the Eiffel Tower and knew that we had finally arrived in Paris. A journey I had promised, six years ago, that we would make when I finally retired.

This last part of the journey was challenging simply because of the shear volume of information we had to digest as we progressed under the many bridges, all of which had their own particular instructions for passage under their many arches. Mix this information with the hordes of large Bateaux Mouches and tourist trip boats weaving their way at speed through the bridges. This left little time for the distractions of the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Palace and Musee d’Orsay; all of which we sailed past in fairly quick succession.

Sundays

Most of the week the River Seine has been devoid of people – apart from the commercial traffic. However, on Sundays the sullen fishermen appeared attached to their lines. Most people, including the bargees, waved to us as we passed by; but not the fishermen. We also encountered many people rowing and occasionally a relatively small family cruiser out for the day. The numbers of these increased as we drew nearer to the city until finally we reached Maisons-Laffitte, about 60 kilometres from the centre of Paris. Here the entire river was blocked by dozens of small yachts. Everybody knows that power gives way to sail so we could have been there all day.

With a flourish, the commodore drew alongside Jomima and noticed our Red Ensign. He then shouted, “Follow me” and set off at about twice our usual speed towards the fleet of yachts. Like Moses parting the waters, the small boats all moved aside to let us through. There was very little wind for them so they all enjoyed riding our wake as we passed swiftly by. We were probably the highlight of their day and it certainly improved ours.

The Locks

The locks on the river Seine are big by any standards. Commercial barges still ply the river in reasonable numbers; sometimes a barge will be pushing up to three other barges like a train pushing carriages. On other occasions we have been faced by a tug pushing two pairs of barges tied together. The locks have chambers large enough to accommodate a single shunting barge, pushing along two strings of four barges i.e. 180m long by 11.4m wide. We felt very small and vulnerable when moored in a lock and, even though we tried to stop near the back of the lock, the inrush of water made Jomima lurch and pull strongly on her ropes. On one occasion a rope caught on a ladder and I had to whistle loudly (something I can still do fortunately) to attract the attention of the lock keeper high up in his tower. Jomima was leaning over dangerously but I managed to free the rope and this resulted in a violent rocking motion and a bent hand rail.

We were always going up in the Seine locks so our usual procedure was for Ann, firstly, to temporarily tie us to the wet and slimy ladder in the lock wall. Then, secondly, I would climb the ladder with large bowlines (loops), over my shoulder, attached to the ends of two 25m ropes secured fore and aft. I would then put the loop of the front line over a bollard as near as possible to the front of the boat and then hold the second rope around a bollard near the back of the boat. However, because the bollards were designed for the large barges, these bollards were frequently some distance apart. We then had to keep pulling in these two ropes as Jomima rose up the lock as the water rushed in.

We will both be very glad to start the journey south where we will be using the smaller locks of the Canal de Bourgogne.

Vernonette to Paris

The remainder of the journey to Paris was simply hard work, particularly for the crew. Unlike the Thames and other UK rivers, 90% of the traffic was commercial barges. As a result, the majority of moorings were designed for them and totally unusable by small boats like Jomima. The only mooring facilities, for small boats in transit, were badly neglected and without the stated power and usable water. However, I will provide a few details of some of the more interesting things we encountered during the remaining four days of the journey to Paris.

Giverny

Those of you that know me really well will of course, I hope, realise that today is my birthday. By chance (plus a long slog up river the day before) we could have a rest day today so it was time to get the bikes out again. This is because we were moored at Vernonette and only 4km from the village of Giverny. Anyone who is interested in the Impressionist painters should make the pilgrimage to the village where Claude Monet lived from 1883 until his death in 1926. Firstly, the journey there was unexpectedly easy. The Harbour Master had very kindly suggested a cycle route along a disused railway. This took us past the back of some lovely houses and we were able to admire their gardens as we cycled along the relatively flat paved track. The village itself has been devoted to life in the Impressionist period. We were able to look around the house where Monet lived, which was little changed from the day that he died 71 years ago. However, the highlight of the day was visiting the gardens that were made famous by his paintings of the water lilies and the Japanese bridge.

We also visited the Musee Americain – a large American gallery housing the paintings of several expatriate American Impressionist painters that lived and painted in the village during that period. After the effort of cycling there we enjoyed a glorious lunch, at a nearby restaurant, and then wobbled our way back to Jomima on our bikes.

Vernonette

We had been told that Vernonette, on the opposite bank to Vernon, was a good place to stop and this proved to be correct. However, as we approached it the depth gauge was showing zero. I could see another small yacht already moored and most yachts draw more water than Jomima so I put my nose in first. Then, if we touched bottom, the props would hopefully still be in deeper water so that I could get her off. Once we were alongside I learnt that there is about 1.5 m of water and we draw 1.06 m, which is tight but not too bad. The false depth indication was probably caused by weeds growing beneath the surface.

It is a pretty place in a park used for training young people in the use of canoes. They were quite fun to watch and managed to bump into us once or twice. The old mill nearby is quite picturesque and Vernon, just over the bridge, was useful for supplies.

Rouen

It was a long day yesterday so it was agreed that today would be a rest day. However, we needed to shop for food and also buy the VNF licence to enable us to use our boat on the non-tidal waterways of France. The cost for Jomima, which they measured in square metres, was 377.20 Euros (cash only) for the year.

After completing these vital tasks, the next thing that Ann wanted to do was, of course, to explore Rouen. We viewed the cathedral and then visited the tourist information. We rapidly discovered that a large part of the history of Rouen is associated with Sainte Jeanne D’Arc (Joan of Arc) – who the ‘English’ burnt alive at the stake on 30th May 1431 when she was only 19 years old. It would appear that she was leading a small army, by the age of 17, and she went to the rescue of Orleans which was being besieged by the English. There was no way we were going to let her get away with that!

The beautiful modern church of Eglise Sainte Jeanne D’Arc (see photo) was erected, in the Old Market Square, near the spot where she was supposed to have been burnt. Some of the windows were rescued from a nearby church that was bombed during the war.

The Lower Seine

The first part of the River Seine is tidal and you need to set off from Honfleur at Low Water at Le Havre + 2 hours to gain maximum benefit from the 2-3 knots of tide. This involved leaving at 09:15 so that we could catch the 09:30 Honfleur Bridge and lock. The previous day we had met up with David and Louise, who had travelled from London in their Broom boat called Lady Martina. They have been up the Seine before so they headed out first and led the way for the sixty mile journey to Rouen. It is France’s third largest port and many big ships ply between there and the sea. They were usually moving faster than we were so you had to keep looking over your shoulder to see what was about to overtake you. The wash from passing boats along with the current, river ferries and navigating the many river bends, meant that you needed to concentrate for the whole of the eight hour journey. We were therefore quite tired by the time we moored at the marina in Rouen but we tied up very carefully because, even though we were so far from the sea, there was still a strong current and several metres of tide affecting the mooring.

Honfleur

As always, I had read all of the navigation guides and planned our route into the moorings at Honfleur. The first part of the journey went to plan. The sun shone, the water was smooth and we entered the shipping channels of the river Seine about four hours after leaving Caen. When we reached the lock off the river it was high tide so we were able to go straight through into the outer harbour. The time was now 2:00 pm and the town bridge was not due to open until 4:30pm, so we moored temporally against a harbour wall to await the bridge opening.

We got off the boat and were able to check out where we were due to moor for the night. Mooring a boat like Jomima is always a challenge. If you travel too slowly you will be blown by the wind and if you move too quickly you are likely to hit something. With two 265hp diesel engines it is difficult to travel slowly so you have to gently slip it in and out of gear while using an electric bow thruster to try and keep the front of the boat where you want it. The actual visitors’ moorings were right in the middle of a relatively small harbour surrounded on three sides by many cafes with outside tables. It was a sunny Sunday afternoon and every table was full of visitors. The bridge lifted and about 200 people were instantly stopped from crossing the bridge. Needles to say, they now had some think else to entertain them. I passed through the bridge without incident and was pointed to a pontoon berth, right outside the main row of cafes, with a finger pontoon in front of me, four rafted boats behind the intended berth and nobody to take our ropes. Again, all of the diners now had something to entertain them. Imagine trying to reverse a car, into a narrow alongside space, with 500 people watching you do it, and you will now know how I felt. I went in nose first, managed to stop (just) before actually hitting the finger pontoon and, by using the port engine in forward gear and the starboard one in reverse plus a touch of bow thruster, managed to get Jomima to move sideways into a position that allowed Ann to jump off and tie us to the pontoon. We were greatly relieved to have made it without, unusually, actually hitting something or having to make a second attempt.

Fortunately when we left the following morning it was a Monday, and fairly early in the morning, so the audience had gone home. A lovely place to visit but you need to practise your mooring technique before doing so.

Caen

Today we explored the lovely city of Caen. Much of it was badly damaged following the 6th June 1944 D-Day landings. Caen is situated only 10 miles from the landing beaches but it was the 18th July before it was in Allied hands. Sadly, under orders from Hitler, the Germans were told to defend it to the death. On the 6th July an air-raid on Caen started a fire that raged for eleven days, and on the night of the 8/9th July 2,500 tons of bombs were dropped on the city. Fortunately, many of the churches and fortifications from the time of William the Conqueror survived. We visited a number of these and the photograph is of the cloisters of the Abbaye
Aux Hommes, some of the walls of which still bear the scars of the fighting that raged within its walls.

Pegasus Bridge

The Caen Canal Bridge at Benouville is better known to people in the UK as Pegasus Bridge. This bridge became famous because it was liberated, along with the Orme Bridge, on the night of 5th/6th June 1944 by Major John Howard and his troops. It was the first objective for the Allies on D-Day and the first bridge to be liberated in mainland France.

The eastern, or left, flank of the Allied beaches, Sword, was on the river Orne next to the Caen canal. To the east of this river valley a ridge separates it from the valley of the Dives. The Germans had flooded the Dives and thus, provided the British could secure the ridge and blow the brides over the floods, they could create a moat that would protect the invaders from counter attack from the east. To support their airborne forces, the Allies had to capture the Orne and canal brides undamaged. At 11:00 pm on the 5th June the glider-borne men of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry took off from England to be released one hour later. The leading glider bounced and smashed its way to a halt only 50 yards from the canal bridge with its two companions close behind. These men took the bridge in a swift fight and within minutes D-Days first objective was in British hands.

The original bridge was replaced, by a similar bridge, when the canal was widened. The original is now in an excellent museum, which was well worth a visit, situated close by in the area that the gliders first landed.

St Vaast to Caen

We had enjoyed our stay in St Vaast but this morning we had to move closer to the River Seine and we had chosen to visit Caen. The 48 mile journey by sea to Ouistreham was uneventful; which is just the way we like it. The sea was calm and we were able to maintain a steady 18 knots. However, once we arrived we had to pass through our first lock in France and enter the 8 mile long canal to Caen. When we arrived at the relatively narrow harbour entrance a cross channel sea cat decided to leave its berth and do a U turn. They create a lot of turbulence and I was forced to take avoiding action.

We expected the lock to be large but the one that we were directed to enter was actually the smaller of the two locks available. The other one is used by large sea going freighters which, fortunately, we did not meet during the canal passage. After a stop in Benouville, we transited the three opening bridges in convoy with another boat and tied up in Caen Marina. Unusually, the marina is right in the centre of Caen and surrounded by bars and shops. Needless to say, on a Friday night we got little sleep until the late night revellers had gone home.

M. Gosselin

Prior to our visit to St Vaast, ever body that we spoke to mentioned two things: the oysters and Maison Gosselin. The oysters are available in every restaurant in this area. Ann tried one a couple of nights ago but, judging by the 'what do I do with this now' look on here face will not be repeating this gastronomic treat.

M. Gosselin's Epicerie fine & cave renommee (see web site) is well worth a visit. If you like excellent food and wine, it is well worth a visit. However, allow plenty of time to explore the many rooms and admire both the range of products and how they are displayed. Fortunately, when we reached the till we were able to arrange for them to give both our large box of goodies and ourselves a lift back to the boat.