Last night we were moored under a bridge and when we got up this morning a couple of fishermen had set up at our bow, between us and the three Peter Nichols barges moored further down the quay, one even had his line over our mooring line.
As you can see the river is like a mill pond and another hot day in the offering.We had chatted to two of the barge owners last night, both Brits, one lives aboard and the other only comes over for 6 months a year. They were heading off to a gathering at Auxerre. A bit like when we are boating at home, they were away before we were. We had our bows right under this bridge overnight
We were on the move a little after 9 am. heading down stream getting closer to Paris and this being a Sunday a little way down stream the sailing club was out in force, our speed was now dead slow with the yachts weaving about ready to start a race. I think they would have been happy with a little bit more wind,I don’t think they could have got out of our way if they had wanted to, they are going to be long races.
With the weather being so nice Diana and I spent a bit of time on the loungers on the top deck, ideal for lying on but not the best thing to look around from and you soon get a kink in the neck. As we lay there we were visited by some Dragonflies looking for somewhere nice to land so they picked on us.
Again we were going through locks with sloping sides, a bit like the old turf locks in the UK but these are hard edged. This one had posts to moor against to keep you from grounding as the water level fell, but even so there were a few scrape marks on the off side
On our way down stream we passed a few rather desirable properties with well kept gardens running right down to the river bank, bit like the Thames, but with sunshine.
We moored before lunch at Evry and after lunch had a change of plan, we would be visiting Vaux-le-Vicomte another Château and doing the village of Barbizon in the morning.
It turned out to be a very good day to visit the Château as there was a special event on and lots of people were dressed in period clothes. Clothes could be hired at the Château and there were people doing the makeup as well, as the temperature was well into the 30s they must have been boiling. We found the building very interesting with a guided tour of the first floor with the larger rooms
and then our own thing on the second floor where the rooms are smaller.
We invested an extra €5 each, last of the big spenders to climb up inside the dome which has a balcony at the top. You can just see some people up there.
The timber work inside the dome is something else and the staircase in the upper section is not spiral but winds to the right and then to the left.
The views from the top are also very impressive looking down over the gardens.
In the garden there are some ponds with fountains in them, they also have Carp in them and today toy sailing yachts were being hired out to the kids, these were then being followed by the fish and no, I didn’t hire one
The Château also has a large collection of carriages, two of which are quite unusual, a Sedan Chair that is supported by two horses and a waggon designed specifically to move the large pot plants around the estate.
We didn’t photograph all the others but its a large collection in fine condition.
Unfortunately the lighting in the cartridge shed was very poor so these photos don’t show them at their best. 5pm and we headed back to the boat for our evening meal, it was a glorious evening and we were moored just above the double locks. There is a footbridge crossing the tail of the locks and the weir so after dinner we went for bit of a walk, crossing the river and walking along the other side for a bit. The sun just drifted away down the river.
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