To Compiègne with CroisiEuroup

Friday and another hot day, no early starts this holiday and breakfast was 8 until 9am.
We set sail at 9am backwards. These boats travel as well backwards as they do forwards as we had been moored for the night on the Canal Du Nord and we had to join the river, bit of a delay at the junction as a commercial boat went by.

It wasn’t long before we passed this pair, when the locks were lengthened it became uneconomical to operate the smaller boats so some owners bought a second boat, modified it so they fitted together and pushed it, doubling their carrying capacity.

Its good to see that loading shoots are still in use and it wasn’t long before we passed under this new bridge at Pimprez built along side a new loading wharf.  

We were soon passing through Ecluses De Bellerive with the old lock cottage now standing well back from the modern lock.

We would soon be meeting more commercial traffic and or course you always meet one in a bridge hole.

Then on through Ecluses De Janville  before passing an old barge that is now a floating museum, I have a feeling I may have visited it at some point, then following

the right hand fork in the river, the left looks to be used for moorings, to find our mooring for the night at Compiegne .

After another four course meal with wine we were off on another coach excursion, Firstly to the centre of Compiègne where we walked around the town and visited the church, Eglise St Jacques.

The reason for the wooden panelling around the columns is because the marble started to breakdown, so they covered it with wood. We continued our walk around the town passing many fine buildings and this stained glass window in a plain wall at the side of a shop.

We then went inside the Musée et Domaine Nationaux de Compiègne which was the residence of the king and queen, not only did we see the furnishings, lovely wooden flooring but also the vacuum cleaner of the day.

Following this it was a short coach ride to the Memorial de l'Armistice  where peace was declared following WW1 where there is now a museum and reconstructed railway carriage with some armaments outside. Taxis were used to good effect carrying troops for a surprise attack. There is also a first class scale model of the railway carriage. 

This rounded up the excursions for the day and we headed back to the boat for our late afternoon cocktails and a three course dinner, with of course more wine.

 

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A Day in Paris and off to CroisiEurope

Checkout was 10am so breakfast was about 8-30, we left our cases with the hotel and went exploring with a nice view of the tower down the road. The first thing we did was work out where the coach would be picking us up in the afternoon. Then we checked out the two local Metro stations for when we went home, as we would be very tight on time to catch the train back to London, of course we stopping for a glass of beer on the way.  

 

 

Since the Olympic games swimming in the River Seine has become the thing and we saw a couple of places where official bathing stations with lifeguards, pontoons and deckchairs have been installed along with changing rooms and showers.

The day was hot again so we spent sometime walking along the riverside until we reached the tower and then up through the gardens  before finding somewhere for lunch, collecting our bags and heading back to the river to await the coach to take us to the boat. Thankfully the driver turned up half an hour early and it was good to get out of the hot sun into the air-conditioned coach. There were 4 other passengers waiting nearby who soon came over when they saw us board. the other 12 were waiting a short way up the quay.

 

 

 It was about an hour and a quarter to where MS. Deborah was moored at  Pont-l'Évêque. This is the one near Noyon not Le Havre.  The crew were there to greet us, yet again Kevin was our Capitan and Baptiste our seaman just like our last cruise, in addition to this Jonathan the chef and Michelle our waitress, both who we have cruised with before, so it was like meeting old friends. We were  allocated cabin number 101, all cabins are below deck and this one is right at the stern of the ship, so no one walking passed our door. Being on the lower deck the windows, no portholes are only centimetres above the water line when stationary, when you get the wash from a passing boat that changes a bit.

   After checking the cabin we headed off ashore to explore where we found a working boatyard with drydock, floating drydock, slipway etc.

Pont-l'Évêque is a really pretty little town with is canal arm and houses and I wish we had got the train here earlier rather than staying in Paris.

One place that was very interesting was the Builders Merchant,   The old name on the brickwork is still visible along with a modern notice, so its been in the same ownership for a long time, but inside the building is the first two floors of a house, Probably to show off their wares.

Then back to the boat for dinner and introductions to the rest of our fellow travellers, it turned out we were the only English couple there, the rest were French apart from one English lady married to a Frenchman, unfortunately she was having major memory problems and was quite confused at times. This meant on all excursions the guides had to do both a French and English commentary, but they all made us very welcome and its probably the most laughs I have had on a cruise.
After dinner was our first excursion to visit a church at Noyon in the dark, using torches and a laser pointer so no reasonable photos.

 

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