Day 9...
We leave Cergy at 9am - with the same difficulty as getting in! At least, this time, Katy is with us and it’s another pair of hands and eyes!
Soon we are back on the Seine, dodging debry again. We keep expecting the river to be busier...
We head through our first lock (of three) for the day - baptism of fire for Katy! All good though and we head onwards.
So many beautiful house boats along the river banks. The scenery changes from countryside to urban and then to the high-rise-city mega-buildings!
We hit the next lock just before entering Paris. This is a horrid lock. We get through, with one other small boat in the lock, and off we go - Paris awaits!
How amazing to be travelling in your little 33ft boat, with three souls onboard, traveling into the centre of Paris, the Eiffel Tower to your right, Notre Dame on your left...so many amazing bridges, buildings and, finally, the last lock into canal Saint Martin and to the Port De L’Arsenal.
This is harder work than you imagine - we have been going 8 hours before this lock (which is a small lock that will hold three/four small boats). We are further back in the queue, so we need to hang back in the busy Seine channel.
This goes on for 30 minutes. There is a boat waiting with us - they have clearly been drinking and have no clue how to manoeuvre their boat (they have already hit the fuel quay!). Eventually we get into the lock and the drunks follow in. We are now ignoring the lock and protecting the boat - just as well!
10 minutes later we have a VHF call to Chilaxin - our slot is 78, just before the iron bridge. We start looking, in a very busy marina, find our slot and the very friendly neighbours help us into our berth - home for the next three nights!
I head off to the Capitanaire to check in and sort all documents. We now have codes for showers and washing machines. Brise, in the office, is very helpful and has excellent English (unlike my French - although it is improving and I can fill out any form with ease now!).
Captain Kev has cooked dinner tonight for us girls, whilst we have sorted everything else out on the boat.
Tomorrow is adventure day around Paris (none of us have been here for many years - 15+).
Day 10...
So we have a day to look around Paris!
We set a plan to go to the Eiffel Tower first as this is going to get busy. We get the metro, which is right at the end of Port de L’Arsenal, just above the tunnel entrance to Canal Saint Martin. So convenient and easy! We purchase 3 tickets for a grand total of €5,70 and 30 minutes later we are in sight of the tower.
We decide to have a coffee before heading over. We stop at a lovely French Cafe which has unspoilt views of the tower and have a L’Express Coffee and Tea and 2 mini pastries for €7 - perfect! Well not quite so perfect...we are now in massive queues to get into the tower!
You go through airport-type security and then we think “great, now we just need to get a ticket and head on up”. If we queue up now, we will start the assent in about 2 hours! We take a couple of photos and plan to come back tonight - to see Paris at night and it all lit up from the top!
It’s now lunchtime. We decide to have panini and chips under the tower (€13 for a meal deal - not as bad as I thought it would be and quite nice!). Whilst devouring our goodies, we plan which attraction to go and see - there are so many to chose from!
We hop back on the Metro and head to the Louvre, then the Grand Palace. It’s 30’ and beautiful sunshine...good excuse for an ice cream from a street vendor - bloody lovely!
Rather than get the bus or another train, we walk along the Seine - a slightly different route to the one we took in the boat (it splits in places with islands in the middle). I’m so glad that we did walk as we saw so much on the banks of the river - people having picnics, cafe’s, buskers, restaurants, cookery schools, purpose built play areas and activity centres for children and families to use.
The side walks are full of people walking, meeting, roller skating and making full use of the open space. It’s a shame that, back in the UK, we seem to have lost all of this community space! Most of the good areas are being built on.
The River Seine itself is quite a dirty river - masses of rubbish and lots of debris like logs, plastic etc. This does not put people off and the banks, where people walk, are really clean and well maintained.
We get back to the marina, really impressed with the Paris culture, and get excited at the thought of heading back out tonight to see more of the city and celebrate Katy’s birthday!
We all have showers in the marina facilities (the shower blocks are built into the side of the marina walls - very nice large showers with small white tiles and all kept very clean. There are toilets, washing machines and tumble dryers all in the same area (no separate ladies/gents).
We dress to impress (can’t be seen looking shabby in Paris!), get an Uber taxi (us girls are in high heels!) and head to the Latin Quarter.
We stop in a bar called Monk - Taverne de Cluny and have cocktails to start us off. It’s happy hour till 9pm. Lovely Jazz bar and some nice tunes playing, sitting and watching the world go by, loving the Parisian night life. We decide to have another drink as it’s a nice place!
Out of the corner of my eye I see movement on the floor. I look down and see a little mouse - he is scuttling around! It’s like something out of Ratatouille with the French Jazz music and him moving to the perfect beat! Had me in stitches!
At this point, we decide to move on and check out a few more bars and must do’s! We head to the Holiday Inn Hotel - that has a roof top terrace and a must to check out. We are left disappointed though, it’s already fully booked for the night! We carry on up the road and find a bar on the corner, with a very friendly waiter from Slovenia, who introduces you to the next table (bit odd but quite funny). He does this to every table as they sit down and we end up having a great chat with an American couple that have been in France for a couple of weeks (and due to go home in a day or two).
Although odd being introduced to other tables, it does mean that you end up chatting to some really nice people - Danish, American, Canadian, French etc. We are all still talking when the bar closes at 1.30am!
We head back to the boat - a little worse for wear, but a fabulous evening! And yes, I know, we never made it back to the Eiffel Tower! That will have to wait til our next visit. We have heard that you need to queue at least an hour before they open to get a chance of not having to get in line for a very long time!
Day 11...
So, this morning, Katy has headed back to the airport and onwards home to Exeter.
The weather today is very muggy and cloudy. We are hoping for Thunder tonight as the air needs to clear as it is getting a little unbearable at night (we have a hatch in the cabin, but, the sun bed on the C330 completely covers it - no good in an emergency I would just like to add!). It’s okay if it’s just the two of us, we can put the sun cushions on the spare bed, but, when in use, there is nowhere to store them!
I take the opportunity to clean the inside of the boat a bit and Kev tops up the water tanks. We get some admin work done as well.
Wifi is Paris is absolutely dire and we are getting through our data credit rapidly. Not a good thing, but we will work it out eventually.
We head out for a bit of a mooch around Bastile, which is where the marina is based. Masses of shops, restaurants and cafes etc.
As we walk to the other end of the marina, we spot some really odd boats. We head over, being totally nosey, and find out that, what we are looking at, is a Seabubble. This is a totally electric, bubble-type, hydrofoil which was designed to be used in Paris as a personal water taxi.
Unfortunately Paris council have not given permission for these to be used on the water ways - which is a great shame as they are totally awesome! They get up on the plain at 7kts and will do a total of 15kts. You would think, in a city where Diesel fuel for boats is not available, that encouraging electric would be a good thing!
If you want to come to Paris in your own boat (which I would highly recommend!) here are a few tips:
There are no height issues coming from Le Havre to Paris (unless you are a yacht with a mast)
Plan your fuel stops carefully if you are in a power boat (call ahead to the marinas to check that they do actually have fuel available)
Book your marinas well in advance (they are busy all year round - winter/spring full of house boats)
There are a few locks. A plank is always helpful to cover your fenders against the walls - not to protect your fenders, but, some of the walls are concertinaed, and your fenders disappear, making your boat a little vulnerable.
Keep your camera at the ready for the amazing places that you are going to see on route!
Watch out for debris!!
Here is our Vlog also about Paris...
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