Thursday 28th June 2018 Damery to Condé 23.7kms 5 locks (A total of 1,235.7kms and 400 locks)

Irate swan below Cumières lock

13.6ºC Hot and sunny, white clouds later in the afternoon. Cold gusty wind (kept us cool). Péniche Tchiki-Boum, now loaded, went past heading upriver at 8.55am. Mike chatted with the lady who drives hotel boat’s van – taking the tourists on days out and getting their supplies of food and wine. Mike asked her about the hotel boat listing so badly, she said it had one fuel tank which had been built into its port side and causes it to list as the tank empties and she agreed with Mike that it’s enough to put their

Extension slider (in case of flood water)
for floating pontoon in lock 1

guests off. It is a new boat and it will have to be sorted when it docks next winter. They winded and set off again downriver at 9am as the cruiser in front of us, Dolfyn, also set off but going in the same direction as us. We set off at 9.30am, slowly, knowing that we had a loaded boat and a cruiser in front. 2.5kms to the first lock. We hadn’t gone far when a cruiser went past heading downstream. A man and two small children in a rowing boat paused under trees as we went past. Fishing? No, just out for a trip on the river. Beautiful day for it! The kids waved and wished us bon voyage. Lock 1 Cumières has sloping sides and a pontoon to tie to. The resident keeper came out to have the zapper back – another VNF operative constantly on the phone. Up 1m and after a short canal section we were back on the river and another cruiser went past going downriver. The last river reach is navigable up into Epernay, but we’re not going there today. Through the road bridge and yet another downhill cruiser. We waited below lock 15 Dizy after turning the hanging pole (not easy with the wind and the flow from the river weir). A

Above Cumières lock - note height of antenna

Norwegian yacht came out of the lock and we went up 2.5m after Mike lifted the blue rod (I couldn’t get it to move) and I attached a side rope to the pole in the wall. A crew of three VNF operatives, one woman and two men, were hedge cutting at the lock house. Hotel boat Panache was moored above the lock. On the Canal Latèral à la Marne now, the now un-navigable river flows alongside the canal. Yet another cruiser went past, this one edging a bit too far towards the reedy bank for my liking, it’s not deep along the edges! The mooring quay in Dizy was

Paddlewheel trip boat in Cumières

completely full, a large DB with fading red paint turning pink,  a small yacht, a small cruiser and a lived on DB, no more room. On the following long straight we could see cruiser Dolfyn just leaving the next lock 2kms away. A short wait while lock 14 Ay emptied. It had been fenced off to keep the children and vandals (do they really have them here?) away from the lock. There were handlebar height hoops and fences on the towpath/cycle-path. Mike had to lift the rod again, I couldn’t shift it. The wind was blowing the boat off the wall so we rose ropeless another 1.8m.

Vineyards around Cumières

Midday and 4.5kms to the next. Two spaniel dogs were swimming in the canal and trying every now and again to get out, but couldn’t as it was too deep at the piled edges, so we stopped and I got off with a rope to hang on to the boat while Mike went back with a boat shaft to get them out. First thing they did was shake themselves and get him soaked. Then they both squatted for a pee before taking off along the towpath then into a field. Both had collars, we hope they found their way home safely. Mareuil-sur-Ay, like Ay,

Riverside decor in Cumières

was crammed out with moored boats. Two resident péniche houseboats had the prime position, two small cruisers were tied on the sloping edge of the layby, the finger moorings were filled with yachts and cruisers (including Dolfyn) and DBs took up the rest of the quay except for a péniche length with bollards at the end. The campervan places were full too. Beyond the moorings there was a lovely chateau facing the canal, Lock 13 Mareuil was full, I turned the pole and we waited while it

Hoop and swinging gate
 to force cyclists to get off and walk by the lock

emptied then went up 1.8m. Again Mike did the honours with the blue rod. The work vans were lined up outside the VNF workshop above the lock, including the hedge cutters’ van (recognisable by its smashed back window) having lunch. 5.1kms to Tours. First we had the swing bridge at Bisseuil to contend with. It worked just like the locks, twist the hanging pole then the bridge worked automatically. Lock 12 Tours was also fenced off from the public. This time I actually managed to lift the blue rod and set the lock working. A feed

Moored boats at Mareuil

paddle was permanently open, so the lock started filling before the rest of the gate paddles opened. Up another 2.1m in the last lock for this trip. There was a crowd of people walking the towpath – it looked like a guided tour. It was getting hotter and hotter, 33ºC outside. 4kms to go. I made us some cold drinks. We could see loaded péniche Tchiki-Boum about to go up lock 11 Vraux, as we turned left by the silos at Condé. The pontoon was vacant, but so was the place by the piling, so we left the pontoon for the passing boats and tied up at 3.20pm by the old gantry. 

Wednesday 27th June 2018 Courcelles to Damery

Sloping sided lock, tied to a pontoon
lock 3 Vanieres

10.2ºC Sunny hot and breezy. We set off at 9.30am 12.75kms to the first lock. I left the reflectors in the cabin windows on the sunny side as it promised to be very hot again. The river wandered gently, no more big sweeping bends, just little ones, so we were travelling generally in an easterly direction. Vines covered the hillsides up to the tree line. Two fishermen were paddling around in Dormans, one in a little boat, the other in an inflatable fisherman’s chair. There was a DB, a tjalk, moored next to a stone wall and a cruiser on the pontoon. A ski zone started as we left the town and they had built a ski jump in the river. The vines came right down to the edge of the towpath. A

Below lock 3 Vanieres

large fish jumped out – after flies. There were caravans on the right, a gypsy encampment, polite kids waved and shouted bon voyage as we passed. Several cyclists went past on the towpath and there were more fishermen out than of late. The view opened up on our right with wooded hills and cornfields. A short wait while lock 3 Vanieres emptied then we went in and tied to the floating pontoon in the old sloping-sided lock. The rod to lift was also on the pontoon. Mike took photos from the bridge above the lock as we rose 1.7m. Beyond the lock the VNF were putting dead trees through a shredder which was spitting the

Shredding trees above lock 3

resultant sawdust into a lorry container – why not by boat! On upriver at midday, 9.5kms to the next lock. Past the statue on the hillside in Châtillon-sur-Marne of Urbaine II (Pope from 1088 to 1099). The statue was erected in 1887 as his name was Eudes de Châtillon. He was the Pope that instigated the first crusade to Palestine. On the other side of the river was a fine church at Mareuil-le-Port. Into Port-à-Binson, passing to the right of an island where a houseboat was

Pope Urbain II at Chatillon

moored with a cruiser alongside it. On the right there was an empty pontoon (no facilities) and another ski zone as we left the town with several moored power boats. Caravans were parked at the top of the bank and a few campervans. Under a road bridge past a silo. An empty péniche, called T’chiki-Boum went past heading downriver just before the next lock at Venteuil KP9, hooray commercial traffic at last! Strange lock 2 Damery was full and we had a short wait while it emptied, must have been set to refill to be ready for any

Empty peniche Tchiki-Boum

downstream traffic. Another sloping sided chamber with a floating pontoon to attach to. Lifted the blue rod and we rose a further 2.1m. A short canal section of 1.5kms, then we were back on the river. The VNF péniche Heracles was moored in the weirstream.  On into Damery and moored on the pontoon at 2.15pm. Just enough room for us behind a cruiser called Dolfyn (French-flagged) which had moored by us in Charly. Had to move one of the cleats to tie to. A

Damery

large group of young teenage girls arrived after we’d moored and started jumping in the river off the pontoon between our bows and the stern of the cruiser. It’s school half day Wednesday. They were noisy, screeching and running up and down the pontoon. With any luck they‘ll go home at 6pm like the fishermen. I got on with the log, etc and Mike played trains. Absolutely nothing on TV but rubbish and terrestrial French TV didn’t work (as it has done since we started trying it coming up the Marne)  The imitation Mississippi paddle

Moored on the pontoon at Damery

boat (a trip boat) from Cumières went past with the running commentary going, it must turn round  a bit further downriver as it was back not long after. Hotel boat Pivoine winded and moored behind us just off the pontoon. It had quite a list to starboard which made us think it was aground on rocks (Explanation tomorrow).

Monday 25th June 2018 Charly to Courcelles 35.9kms 3 locks

Boats moored in Chateau Thierry

10.2ºC Sunny but still with a sharp cold wind. Set off at 9.10am, washing machine on on the 10.5kms reach. Mike had put the sunshade up but the wind was giving it a good rattling, the front left edge kept dipping, making it difficult to see to steer, so he wedged it with a mop against the handrail. The river wound round big sweeping bends and above the trees there were more and more vineyards on the sloping hillsides. Up lock 6 Azy 2.10m with a VNF man in a van watching from the road. 13.7kms and we motored on up the valley

Statue in Chateau Thierry

into Chateau Thierry, passing the site of the Crown Blueline hire base – still painted on their former premises on the riverside. A fisherman had got his BBQ going as the church bells pealed midday. Hotel péniche Panache was moored on a quay next to a fun fair with a dead ex-hire boat behind him, a newish 50m pontoon with all facilities just upstream was completely empty. A small cruiser set off in front of us. Next to the road bridge there were two DBs and a big steel cruiser, all of which looked as if they’d been there a long time. Mike took pictures of the statues by the bridge, looking up and downriver. On upriver past some silos and back into the countryside. We soon caught up with the cruiser, an old Eau Claire former hireboat, and overtook it (astounded, that is so rare for us to overtake another boat). How the three men on board live with such a noisy engine beats me. It seemed to be running hard, but not smoking. Strange. Just half an hour to the next lock. As we got nearer to the lock there were three swans together swimming upriver sedately and on the other side of the river there was one on its own paddling upstream like mad, which it did for the next kilometre or more, heaven knows what it did that for, it kept going under overhanging trees but didn’t stop. We zapped the lock (5, Mont St Père) once the cruiser was closer and then went into the chamber to wait for it. Two VNF men 

Above lock 5 Mont St Père

came to work on the needle weir alongside the lock, using an electrically powered winch on the lockside one ran a wire cable with a hook on it on to the weir to move some of the new metal “needles” (the old ones were made of wood and the weir keepers then used to flip and roll them in and out of position by hand, quite a skilled job) The little cruiser took a time to get into the lock and the force of the water from the weir shoved it hard over towards the bank. Mike lifted the rod and I put a side rope from the bows around a vertical tube and we rose 1.8m. Another hotel boat had been moored above the lock but it moved off upriver when we emptied the

Chateau above lock 5 Mont St Père

lock. We set off first, the guys on the cruiser told Mike they were only going up three more locks. 12kms to the next. Still lots of long meandering bends. At Jaulgonne someone had got a good graffiti artist to compose a real work of art around the name of their little town under the road bridge. By the time we’d seen it the view was obscured by trees, shame, no photo was possible. A bit further upriver we spotted another Eau Claire which was moored, this one had the hire base name as Navig’ France – there must be a hire

Below lock 4 Courcelles

base on this river somewhere. The railway track alongside the river had been quiet all day then suddenly a very long goods train carrying hundreds of new cars when whizzing past. Mike calculated that if the cars were worth on average 10k€ each, then the trainload would cost two million euros! There were two old red and white marker posts to keep boats to the left, away from shallows. On top of the upstream one there was a pair of terns who sat and watched us go by and didn’t fly away when Mike pointed the camera at them. Under the Passy to Sauvigny roadbridge,

Terns on a post near Courcelles

then we were 1.5kms from the lock (4 Courcelles). No signs of the cruiser, so we didn’t wait for them. We zapped, the lock emptied and we went up 2.30m. A lady from the lock house came to ask if we wanted to buy some cherries. Nice of her to offer but no thanks. We moored at the upstream end of the waiting quay above the lock. It was 4pm. Around half an hour later the cruiser came up the lock and moored behind us and they

Moored above lock 5 Courcelles

immediately started fishing! Later they did a BBQ. Mike decided it was too late to do a car move, he’d do it in the morning.

Friday 22nd June 2018 St Jean-les-Deux-Jumeaux to Charly 34.1kms 3 locks

Floating fisherman's cabin near La Ferté

6.7ºC Clear blue sky. Sunny, white clouds forming later. Cold wind still blowing hard. Set off upriver at 9am. Paused on the pontoon (now empty) to use their bins to empty our rubbish and Mike put an empty 10 litre petrol can in the car to remind him to get petrol for the bike. 13.5kms to the first lock. Winding  bends on the river, which was bordered with thick belts of trees both sides. At Fay-le-Bac there were huge silos on both banks at KP93. A couple more kilometres and we were going through the large town of La Ferté sous Jouarre. Spotted a fisherman’s floating open-fronted tin shed (not seen one like that since

Landslip and felled trees KP78

Germany). The town had built a new mooring with finger pontoons that was only suitable for much shorter boats than ours. On through the busy town centre with high sloping concrete banks as flood defences. On the outskirts of town there is the most delicate of accesses to a floating pontoon behind a tree-covered island which has an underwater sandbank extending downriver - the channel is marked with several green buoys and a red and white striped post marks the end of the sandbank. Another 3kms brought us to lock 9 Courtaron, which was

Water extraction for the vines  KP68
21 pipes with 21 diesel engines.

automatic and emptied when Mike zapped. Up 2.20m and as we left we spotted the VNF workboat Massabielle was below the lock about to come up. 11.5kms to the next lock. A short distance upstream we came to a four-arched railway bridge, going upriver the arches to use were the one on the right nearest the right bank – we gave that a miss as it was half obscured by trees – and the other was second from the left, we took that one as the easiest to navigate. Further upstream we could just see the houses in Ste Aulde through the trees. On a left hand bend near KP78 there were four trees that had fallen down into the river due to a substantial land slip.

Needle weir at Charly lock 7

Massabielle caught us up just before lock 8 Méry, so we hovered under the bridge before the lock and let him past so he could go up the lock first. He zapped from the bridge and the lock activated and emptied. Once he was in the lock and the gates were closed behind him, Mike zapped and we got an orange light to tell us the lock would prepare for us when the VNF boat left – which it did, perfectly. As we were going into the lock and attaching to one of the vertical recessed bars, a Dutch cruiser called Welldone arrived and came in with us. The lady on

Below lock 7 Charly

the boat asked us to go further forward in the chamber – Mike said no – she looked shocked until Mike explained that there was a notice on the lock telling plaisance boaters not to go further than halfway up the lock chamber – they hadn’t seen that. Probably it would be turbulent at the front of the chamber as the lock only has gate paddles. It was! They moored on the other wall opposite. Up another 2.10m. Mike waved them on in front, then to our amazement they tied up on the quay above the lock, there was just enough space beyond the péniche (Helene) that was moored there. We motored on upriver expecting them to overtake us on the 9kms to our last lock of the day. Above Méry the landscape opened up, with forest covered hills on our left and

Lock 7 Charly and its weirs from the road bridge

at Nanteuil-sur-Marne there were vineyards on the lower slopes – nice to be back on the doorstep of Champagne. At the small village of Crouttes there were four little boys aged about ten who were at the water’s edge and Mike said are you going to dive? No, swim? Maybe – they then threw stones in the water and waved au’voir. At KP68 Mike spotted a naked body of a man on the bank – is he dead? He lifted his head and waved, thank goodness for that. First nudist this year. A group of youngsters watched us lock up through 7

Moored at Charly

Charly, up another 2.20m. They asked the usual questions about the boat. At 4.20pm we moored between a Dutch cruiser and a retired péniche, with a fisherman at our bows (he volunteered to move but we said he was OK, we’d got plenty of room). We left the rest of the quay free in case a péniche turned up once the locks were closed at 6pm (like they did yesterday). Loaded boat Florimonde went past and down the lock as we finished tying up. 

Wednesday 20th June 2018 Vaires to Meaux 21.9kms 3 locks 1 tunnel

Moorings at Lagny

12ºC Sunny with clear blue skies, white fluffy clouds later and very hot again. 23ºc already when we set off at 9am heading upriver, 10kms to the next lock. A little sports boat went past – a bateau ecole – driving school for boats. A cruiser called Avalon (German from Kiel) which was  moored at Lagny, untied and followed us – it soon overtook us and disappeared into the distance. Bank repairs were being done at Dampmart, maybe putting some moorings in while they were at it. We could see the cruiser had gone into lock 14 Chalifert and

Derelict péniche Antie in Lagny

the gates closed behind it. We trundled on and the keeper reset it for us to go up 3.2m. Round a right bend into Chalifert tunnel (294m long, cutting off another long loop of the Marne) and another sharp right bend to lock 13 Lesches, where a lady keeper pressed the buttons which lifted the boat 3.10m. Another canal section 11.5kms long with a thick belt of trees on either side. We saw our first coot this year. We were passing to the north of Disneyland. The canal water was olive green and had weeds along

Railway bridge at Chalifert

both edges which were ideal for the masses of dragonflies and damselflies to lay their eggs. Under a railway bridge and there was a long quay at Esbly (which looked un-used) and a parked VNF van. Mike called on VHF Marine channel 10 to check we were OK to pass a VNF work boat just before an aqueduct. Someone replied OK and we passed a large group of VNF men working on the bank by their péniche work boat called Massabielle lifting dead tree trunks out from below the aqueduct. Back into the jungle and it was getting

VNF work boat Massabielle

very hot. I made sandwiches for lunch on the move. Called the lock keeper at Meaux and he got the lock ready for us – lock 12 had a lift of only 0.5m, then we turned right on to the river opposite a big boatyard and lots of moored boats and tied next to the piling in front of the Usine des Eaux. Their grassy frontage was being mowed by a family of Canada geese who went and sat under the trees while we tied up. It was 2pm. Mike got the bike off and he went to collect the car from Nemours at 3.30pm after checking with the water works

Moored by the Usine des Eaux in Meaux

office to make sure it was OK to park our car on their car parking area, OK, but it’s not secure. Fine, that worried us a touch – it was OK last time! Two péniches arrived and went down the lock, one at 2.30pm an empty Ste Therese and at 5.15pm loaded Zambesie. 

Tuesday 19th June 2018 Evry to Vaires 47.7kms 7 locks 1 tunnel

Leaving lock 8 Evry R Seine

14.9ºC Overcast start, sunny later. Summer did leave at six, Mike heard his engine start up, but didn’t notice him move off. We set off early again at 8.10am – timed just right as an empty left lock 8 Evry (another keeper taking photos of the boat) and we dropped down 1.2m, setting off on the 11.3kms reach. Traffic was very busy up and down river. Summer was unloading his cargo of soil at a sand berth by the railway bridge in Athis-Mons, near to Orly airport. More terns were diving for fish. A boat

Old wheelhouse of houseboat peniche R Seine

was fast catching us up as we were 1.5kms from lock 9 Ablon. An empty pair of péniches went past, lashed side-by-side. It was followed by a German cruiser. Pusher pair Kim-Anh/Ja-Dy (now loaded with dusty maize) went into the lock and we followed. Down 1.7m and on to an 11ks reach. Plane spotting, as we were under the Orly flightpath for incoming traffic, one a minute – Air France, Easy Jet, Tui, Vueling, Hop!, Open Skies, etc. Upstream of Villeneuve road bridge we passed a square2-deck tug. There were

Lock 9 Ablon -Loaded pusher pair Kim-Anh/Ja-Dy 

weed catching booms on the bend and a specialised boat was gathering the weeds and rubbish. Two empties, 900 tonner 67m Girona and 83m Westphalie, went past heading upriver, followed by 75m Titanic (1,380T) and 80m Trindad (1,205T) the latter was running very slowly upstream. Lots of houseboats and tall blocks of flats in Choisy-le-Roi. An empty called Puebla went past followed by a Dutch cruiser, passing them under a very busy motorway bridge. Just us to go down 3m in lock 10 Port à l’Anglais. An empty called

Rubbish collecting. Villeneuve

Popeye was waiting to go up followed by two cruisers. The twinned lock on the right was in use by a big boat. Soon after we passed a pusher pair called Neptune and Trident, also heading for lock 10. We noted that there were moored trip boats on floating moorings with new tall dolphins for the pontoons to ride up and down with the varying height of the river water. There was also a wrecked boat – a possible victim of the springtime floods that stopped us setting off this way in

Wreck near the junction Seine/Marne

April. We turned sharp right at the China Gora on to the river Marne at midday. Below lock 18 St Maurice - the first lock going upstream on the Marne - it was hectic and noisy as we were effectively down in a claustrophobic hole - surrounded by buildings with several road bridges above us - as we waited for downhill traffic (a container barge with Veolia on the side – maybe rubbish in the containers?) to clear the big lock (125m long) and then we followed loaded péniche Noé into the lock, a cruiser followed us and a tug called Thalie, which

Chinagora at the junction Seine/Marne

was pushing a pan with a crane on it, came in last. Ropes up using a ladder rungs as there were no bollards, we rose 2.4m and it was pretty rough at the front end of the lock, which filled using gate paddles. 2.6kms to the next lock 17 St Maur which was a bit shorter at 100m long. Another container boat went past. We went under two double twinned motorway bridges and it was very noisy. The crane boat had left us, it continued up river to the Port de Bonneuil, the cruiser had overtaken us so it went sharp left into lock 17 to the

Chinagora at the junction Seine/Marne

front of the lock next to Noé in the 4m deep chamber with piled walls. It was quieter at the back of the lock and we had inset bollards to put a rope round as we rose. The péniche stayed in the lock a short while, so the cruiser shot off at a fast pace, we followed it through St Maur tunnel (600m long cutting off a big loop of the river) on to a 9.8kms river reach to the next lock and the péniche followed us and overtook us once we were back on the river. The cruiser was mooching around in the

Container boat leaving 1st lock on River Marne

extensive moorings at Nogent. There was a beautifully painted pristine new replica DB moored there, looked like it had just been dropped into the water by helicopter, not a blemish on it. Also noticed a short narrowboat, cabin in red oxide, moored on one of their pontoons. There was a large group of teenage girls on the bridge by the rowing club a bit further upriver, Mike thought he would give them a hoot – there was an explosion of girly screeches and then waving and yelling hello! As we approached

Second lock on the Marne  lock 18 St Maur,
following the cruiser

lock 16 Neuilly, (the first péniche lock at 45m long) a rowing skiff was veering across the river on collision course with us until Mike used our air horns again – the crew looked startled and immediately changed course! No signs of life at the lock, no lights, no one answering the VHF Marine radio, etc, so we moored at the landing for locking and Mike took a walk up to the lock to find out what was going on. The keeper said he hadn’t heard us and there were workmen doing something with the electrics. It was a deep lock 4.5m but it had a bar in the right place to put a side rope on from the front deck. No wonder the keeper

Below lock 16 Neuilly R Marne

didn’t hear Mike on the radio, he was chatting on his phone when Mike went to the lock and for the whole time it took us to lock through. Nice to be back to “smaller” waterways! A loaded peniche Cerriwen (we’d seen that a couple of days ago) came past as we started on the 8.8kms long canal section. It was starting to get very hot so the sunshade went up and there was a bit of breeze. Trees lined both banks of the canal, separating us from the Parisien suburbs of Noisy-le-Grand, Gournay and Chelles. There was a grebe sitting preening itself on the bank in an old layby. Somewhere beyond the jungle there was a towpath. Next boat was a loaded péniche called Navigo from Dunkerque, which passed us by a bridge to the side of which was a makeshift

Moored above lock 15 Vaires

tent which must be home to some illegal immigrants. The builders yard beyond it had coils of razor wire on top of its fences. A bit further on there were nesting house martins with nests under the edges of the concrete capping on a piled layby – a young man with a camera and a huge lens was taking photos of the birds. We saw another moorhen! Another loaded peniche, De-horn, went past and soon after that another Veolia container boat. Noé was still in sight and we saw it go up 0.24m in lock 15 Vaires. When it cleared the keeper turned the lock round for us. We had a look at the mooring down the river where there were many houseboats by an old weir. Nothing suitable for us, so we tied on the quay above lock 15 at the furthest upstream end in case a péniche or two should arrive after lock closing time. It was 6.15pm and the lock keeper had gone home. Well that’s us out of the main conurbation of Paris, now we can slow down a bit and go back to our usual shorter days. 

Thursday 21st June 2018 Meaux to St Jean-les-Deux-Jumeaux 33kms 2 locks.

VNF work boat loading dead trees

12ºC Grey overcast with a cold wind, only 17ºC when we set off at 9.50am. Brighter later, but the wind was still cold. Lots of boats set off in the same direction as us, upriver, before us. Avalon from the port, plus a cruiser, another cruiser came up the lock and a DB called Fijke set off from the boatyard opposite. There were good views of the city and its cathedral as we went further upstream. Noted the water level had gone down about 25cm overnight as there were mud banks all along the edges of the

Old diving platform at Trilport

river. The VNF workboat we saw the day before (Massabielle) was unloading tree trunks on the bank where there used to be a lock at KP128.5. DBs Minoche and Queen, both French-flagged, went past heading downriver just below Trilport. Mike took a photo of the old diving platform in Trilport and the bridges. The wind picked up and was quite chilly – fleeces on. Lots of boats were moored at the back of the island at Poincy. A kingfisher flew in front then disappeared into the herbage. Upstream of the island there were lots of felled trees – more work for the VNF

Loading staithe KP115.5

team. We were under the flightpath to Charles de Gaul airport and planes were passing one a minute. The canal d’Ourcq was on our left but hidden by the trees, it follows the river for quite some distance. A German cruiser from Potsdam overtook us at KP120 and another was catching up fast. As we went around a U-shaped bend there were chalets between the canal and the river and lots of geese. The cruiser overtook at K118 – it was the one we came up the first two Marne locks with (French registered but

Under the flightpath

no name or flag) a woman on board asked where we were going. There were a few houses in the woods at KP116 and one had a treehouse very high up in a tree with a large area of decking supported by posts one of which had sagged sideways. The wind was blowing hard and water from the needle weir was flowing across the face of the lock at 11 Isle-les-Meldeuses which made getting into the lock a bit tricky. Put our centre rope around a vertical bar and the keeper worked the lock from his cabin up on high. There were

Noé, now empty nr Tancrou

 rods for automatic DIY use on the lock edge but they were not active. Barge Fijke was moored on the quay above the lock. On to a 12.5kms reach. More islands with the Ourcq still alongside the river. The trees were further back from the river and there were big fields of barley just before Mary-sur-Marne. Between the two bridges in the town there was a pontoon which was filled by a large DB, washing drying in the cold breeze. There were nice gardens and some smart houses along the waterfront. We passed Noé, now

Moored at St Jean-les-Deux-Jumeaux

empty at the sand quay opposite Tancrou, no signs of life. The rail bridge below our last lock was still in use. Mike called the lock 10 St Jean-les-Deux-Jumeaux several times on the radio and got no response. However, the lock lights changed to red/green and it emptied. A VNF man was on the lockside and he handed Mike a zapper and pulled the rod on the lockside – they’ve extended the automatics, lock 7 Charly was the first automatic last time we were here. He didn’t look a very happy chappie, no idea why. We tied up at the far end of the lock waiting area. It was 5.20pm. The German boat Avalon was moored further upriver on a new pontoon. Gave Mike a hand to get the bike off the roof and he went to get the car from Meaux – only 9kms by road when it had taken us 33kms by water. I got on with the log and photos. At 6pm loaded péniche Forez arrived and moored behind us on the quay. Another arrived fifteen minutes later, T-D from Vitry. Mike parked the car upriver by the pontoon mooring. I gave him a hand to get the bike back on the roof.