L'Avenir - cruising Europe's inland waterways

When we arrived in Paris we booked into Arsenal Port for 5 days - the number of days we spent here on our last visit 3 years ago. I did add a question mark beside the date of leaving though. We are still here 10 days later! There is just so much to see and do and not all of it new to us. I could happily walk along the banks of the Seine every single day (and night is even better) for, well, years probably. Paris is full of tourists. I was going to say at this time of the year but perhaps it always is. I don't know. Tourists + Beautiful Buildings = Queues. Long ones. So, we didn't revisit the interiors of any of the sights we'd seen before. Queues at Sacre Coeur People watching at Montmartre - surely the busiest spot in Paris We've walked, metro-ed, bussed and cruised. We've been part of the crazy Mexican wave of cheering crowds that accompanyed the Tour de France cyclists as they whizzed several times around the Place de la Concorde and up the Cham...

Saint Mammes I have been going to French language classes on a sporadic basis for a few years now. Often I feel I am not making much progress despite spending several months each year in France. Part of the problem is that many of the people we meet on boats are English speaking and when we do speak with French people it is usually in the same daily situations - the supermarket, market, restaurant, bar etc. So whilst we're quite expert at asking for baguettes or beers we don't engage much in philosophical discussions. The past week or so has tested my language capabilities to the limit and, Sylviane, I didn't do too badly at all you'll be pleased to know. I've already written about our wifi woes but that was as nothing compared to today's negotiations. I never expected I'd be able to conduct a conversation in French regarding batteries. By batteries I mean huge 50kg ones not those little'piles' that go in torches (and are incidentally recy...

leaving Montargis and the canal de Briare Last year we shot down the canal du Loing at high speed - well, at all of 6km per hour. The locks were in the process of being automated. The canal was to be closed so the work could be done and we needed to get through to the next waterway before the closure or find our boat marooned for the winter. The canal is a fairly short one and quite pretty but we hadn't time to appreciate it sufficientlyso we were pleased to be able to spend a little more time this year. As it happens the lock update remains in progress. I don't know what the point of closing the canal was. They are now getting on with the work as boats pass through. There are still lock keepers between Montargis and Nemours and then again at Moret. I think we may have been one of the first boats in Nemour to receive a remote controller to operate the locks. A cheery lock keeper came round the mooring to hand them out to all the boats there. We were first through that day ...

Chateau, Nemours Have you ever wondered why mobile phone shops are always busy? To be honest it's not a question I'd given much thought to either - until this week. And perhaps they aren't where you live. Here in France though there is usually a queue winding around the shop and sometimes out of the door. Slow moving queues are not a novelty here as I've mentioned before. A coffee at a Macdonalds Express cafe might take 15 minutes, a train ticket 45, the supermarket checkout....well, just as long as it takes each and everyone in front of you to pack their purchases, find their purse/wallet, sort through their discount coupons, discuss their holidays (or worse, their health issues) and then perhaps decide to write a cheque. You just get used to it and mostly we don't mind. Buying a coffee, or a ticket or food shopping are all fairly straightforward purchases - we know what we want and we understand what it is and how to get it. Step through the automatic doors o...

Over the years we have been to several towns describing themselves as 'the Venice of ____'  (complete as appropriate). I have never actually been to the real Venice (it's on the list) so I admit I am  perhaps not best qualified to comment but I have a suspicion that those coming up with what they obviously thought was a clever, original, marketing slogan hadn't been there either. The two things all these places have in common are, of course, canals and bridges. Other than that they bear little or no resemblance to each other at all. Anyway, as Venices go, Montargis, where we have been moored for a couple of days, is a rather pleasant one. With 131 bridges, a river, a lake, a navigable canal, a network of smaller canals and the remnants of ancient moats you are never far from the water. The town is also a Ville Fleurie so most of the bridges have beautiful floral displays and there are dinghies filled with flowers moored in many of the little waterways running through...

We are always surprised and extremely grateful at the effort put in by the various communes in France to make us welcome. Here in Chatillon Coligny we have a  lovely quay, some pontoons, a tourist info office, toilets, showers, electricity, water, wifi - and all for free! Well, the showers cost 2 euro but who needs a shower? In return we ventured into town to attempt to support the local businesses - a not wholly successful expedition.  The bistro we marked out for an evening meal was closed by the time we returned (7.30). The Chateau was closed to plebs- except on Sundays which today is not. The supermarche was just closed - perhaps forever.We tried really hard to spend some money - even purchasing another copy of the same newspaper we bought a week ago. Admittedly that was a mistake.  We managed to find a bar where we enjoyed a couple of beers and in the process learned that a very small glass is a 'boc'. Finally, we did have a pretty good meal at a nice restaurant ...