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| 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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| Old wheelhouse of houseboat peniche R Seine |
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| Lock 9 Ablon -Loaded pusher pair Kim-Anh/Ja-Dy |
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| Rubbish collecting. Villeneuve |
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| Wreck near the junction Seine/Marne |
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| Chinagora at the junction Seine/Marne |
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| Chinagora at the junction Seine/Marne |
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| Container boat leaving 1st lock on River Marne |
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| Second lock on the Marne lock 18 St Maur, following the cruiser |
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| Below lock 16 Neuilly R Marne |
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| Moored above lock 15 Vaires |
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