Paris to Andrésy

73 kms, 3 locks, 9.5 hours (including an hour of waiting)

Time to say goodbye to Paris and to the Cullens. We have enjoyed our time so much but all good things must come to an end.  We wanted to leave early because we had a long day ahead and, yesterday when I paid our bill at the Capitainerie, they told me we could leave at 8.00 or after 9.00, the lock was already booked for 8.30.  We chose 8.00.  There were 3 other boats leaving at the same time and it was rather a tight squeeze in the lock, well some boat owners seem to think they need more room than anyone else.

Once through the lock and onto the Seine River we had to wait our turn for the alternating traffic through the city.  At each end there is a set of traffic lights and you are supposed to wait until the light turns green before proceeding.  This is for all river traffic – except our 2 selfish neighbours in the lock, who obviously think there is one rule for everyone else but not for them.

The cruise through the city under the spectacular bridges and past the magnificent buildings on both banks was a great experience.  Lots of photos:

 The outskirst of Paris are not particularly inspiring, just highrise apartment and office blocks, but after about 15kms we left them behind and we were surprised at how pretty they mighty Seine can be.
By the time we reached the first lock, some 18 kms after leaving the Arsenal marina, a group of 4 boats, which left 30 mins after us, caught up to us and we shared the lock with 2 commercial boats and a trip boat full of passengers.  Leaving the lock they, the pleasure curisers from the Arsenal, roared off into the distance and we caught up them at the next lock where we all waited half an hour for a group of boats to go down and another lot to come up.  These locks are really busy. 

We didn’t really know where we were going to stop tonight.  There are not many options on a big busy river.  When we got to the pontoon we thought would be suitable we discovered that it is now a private mooring, so we moved on.  Eventually we stopped in a quiet little backwater behind an island in the Seine at the town of Andrésy.  This is about 500m past the turn off to the Oise River, so we will need to backtrack a little tomorrow.