Saturday, 5th June 2010, Meaux
Eliza B
Ron & Elizabeth HOWARD
Wed 9 Jun 2010 16:20
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Position : 48:
57.409N 02: 52.888E
For our third week in Paris we were joined by
daughter Laura and husband Alex.
 They arrived by Eurostar at 23:30 on Friday night
after Laura had completed a week's management course at Ashridge and Alex had
been busy visiting friends and family. They were hoping for a relaxing
week to 'chill out' and enjoy French cafe culture and gentle
sightseeing.
 We all went for a walk and lunch in the
Tuileries but, unfortunately, they missed the Monet Waterlilies exhibition since
the Orangerie is closed on Tuesday afternoons! However, we did manage to fit in a river trip and they took turns in
handling the boat and through the lock.
  The next day we enjoyed beautiful sunshine
and managed to make another visit to the elevated replanted railway
line.
 In the last blog we mentioned the anti-government
demonstration by the municipal police which was taking place under the watchful
eye of the Gendarmerie Nationale.
While Laura & Alex went out for an
evening, Ron & Elizabeth managed to get two of the very last 'standing
places' for a night at the Opera - Bastille. It is a very impressive new
building and seats about 1000 at the ground floor and probably slightly
less than that in the two balconies. The production was "Les Contes
D'Hoffmann" by J Offenbach. It was beautiflly staged and performed
although neither of us had a clue what the story was about. We looked it
up on Google the next day - and were not much wiser. But there
are a number of familiar pieces of music including the famous Baccarole.
It was well worth 5 Euros each but I'm not sure the sandwiches (at 7.5E each)
were of equal value.
On Friday morning we saw Alex & Laura onto the
Metro at some ungodly hour so they could catch the 08:00 Eurostar to St
Pancras and then fly home to Tokyo.
After waking up properly and having breakfast, we
then left Paris-Arsenal and ventured a little further up the Seine,
past the open-air swimming baths and the light-ship, to find the junction
with the River Marne and a queue of large peniches waiting for the first
lock.
 They squeezed us in behind two barges and it was
quite a challenge keeping Eliza B steady as the barges keep their props
turning in order to control their position but the resulting turbulance in
the lock makes it difficult for smaller boats.
 We then followed one of the barges through the
first tunnel (only 800 metres long) and carried on through a number of locks
until we were in a canal system which reminded us of our canal trips in the UK -
although a little wider - very quiet and beautiful countryside with lots of
wildlife - especially mother ducks and their chicks.
   Unfortunately, we failed to reach the final lock
into Meaux before 18:00 - the time the lock-keepers go home at the weekend so we
tied up and spent a very quiet night in the Canal du Marne.
On Sunday morning we had only 5 kilometres to the
final lock and into the River Marne at Meaux.
 We are currently moored on the town quay, only a
short walk from the old town centre but very peaceful. Our pontoon must be
fairly quiet since a moorhen has built its nest and laid 6 eggs only a few yards
from us.
  As can be observed, Elizabeth's gardening skills
are proving valuable - and decorative - and we have yet to decide what will go
in the bigger pot. Should it be a vine, tomato or another
geranium?
With regard to technology,
we think we have now won most of the battles: Elizabeth has established a French
(SFR) 'buy as you go' phone SIM card so local calls are less expensive.
Elizabeth has also puchased an SFR 'dongle' to enable us to connect to the
internet (the UK one didn't want to work with the French system) and Ron has
abandoned his old internet address to avoid the 100+ per day spam.
However, Ron's computer doesn't like sending emails using Outlook
Express (on the internet) and Elizabeth's laptop doesn't like the SFR
dongle for some reason. But we can each manage one system and so can keep
an eye on the emails.
On Tuesday (tomorrow) morning, we intend moving
from the town quay to a nearby boat yard where we intend to leave the boat for
a week or so and return home via Paris and Eurostar.
News Flash: we have just
noticed that at least one of the eggs have hatched since we have just noticed a
little chick poking its head out from under the sitting hen.
Kind regards, Ron & Elizabeth
Ron & Elizabeth HOWARD
Eliza B, Moody 36
+ 44 7768 816 579
+ 33 (0)6 11 66 79 08
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