Petite Seine & Yonne. 26 July 2023 Paris

So today was the second change of plan and this morning the boat stayed put and we visited the village of Barbizon known as the painters village home of the Barbizon School. We visited Auberge Ganne which was once the Inn where most of the visiting painters stayed. For some reason they had a habit of drawing on the walls and painting the furniture. The building is now a museum and several of their wall drawings are still visible.

In the village itself lots of the paintings have been reproduced as mosaic tiles mounted on the walls of buildings

It was a pleasant little village, at some point they had converted a large barn into a church with  a shrine outside by the road but hidden away from the traffic.

After we had had a good wander round we stopped for coffee at a pavement café in the shade,I am not sure where you would pay for any flowers you bought from this barrow just left on the pavement, maybe if you pick something up Madam would come rushing out. Our coach was parked up opposite this statue of a pole dancer, not sure why its there.

Then it was back to the ship for cocktails, yes we got a different one every day and then a late lunch. The boat was away as soon as we were onboard as they wanted to catch the lock before the éclusier was off for lunch. From here we cruised to our final destination in Paris passing some very well known land marks, but first there waere still some rural parts to pass through then the outskirts of Paris past a cement works,

where the aggregate is delivered by water. We then had to wait while this pusher tug left the lock and crossed out bows, I am not sure how well the skipper could see. This was another large lock with a similar one on the other river bank and a bridge across. You can see our loungers on the top deck and the Captains wheel house.

Looking back you can now see how wide the river is with the weir between the two locks

Now for our the trip through Paris, passed the Chinese quarter and then on to all major landmarks.

 

      

This is the entrance to the Arsenal, the canal Saint-Martin

This is the entrance to our final mooring of the trip past the statue of Liberty

Once moored up it was time to get ready for the gala dinner, this is not on the grand scale of the cruise ships but the dinner is a bit more extravagant with a couple of extra courses, The crew wear their best uniforms and some of the dishes are served by the Captain and sailor so it goes on a bit longer than normal and of course, desert is Baked Alaska even if you couldn’t actually see the flames.

This ended our cruise, time to pack the bags, fill in the questionnaire and sort out the tip for the crew, then off to bed for the night.

 

The very last day