10 kkms, no
locks, no bridges
With just a
short hop today we took our time to get going. Ian went for a walk this morning (as he does
every morning to get the limbs and joints in working order) and noticed that
the Carrefour supermarket was open. We
had a few doubts seeing it is still Easter weekend and we had been warned by a
local yesterday that it might not be. That was most fortunate seeing he was
running out of red wine. So off we went
to buy wine, milk and a baguette.
At 10.30 we
set off. We had come into the mooring
via the west side of the island but exited via the east side and had the
pleasure of cruising past the lovely town of La Ferté with the sun behind us so
I got some good pics.
 |
| Leaving the pontoon at La Ferté |
 |
| La Ferté from the east |
 |
| The geese that attacked me yesterday, looking ever so innocent |
 |
| This town is famous for producing millstones. Seems they used the rejects when building the commercial quay. |
 |
| This intrigues us. Seemingly a really good marina but the cleats and the services boxes have been removed so you are not encouraged to stop there. I wonder what happened. |
Not much
after an hour later we approached the pontoon at St Jean les Deux Jumeaux (St
Jean the Two Twins, interesting name, I did a quick search but could not find
the origin).
It is a
really good pontoon with free water and electricity (not that we need either)
and the boulangerie is just 50m away.
There is also a small grocery store but I did not go into it.
 |
| The boulangerie, with a queue into the street |
 |
| A close up of the tile work outside the boulangerie |
I got back
to find Ian scrubbing the swim platform.
Not long
after that a cruising boat approached the pontoon and Ian went to help them
with their lines. It is a French boat
and they have a brief 5 day holiday. Ian
invited then to have a drink on our boat and what lovely people they are. Ludo and Juliette live aboard their boat at
Nogent, near Paris. Ludo is a scene
constructor for major big screen movies (he has just finished working with Wes
Anderson, of The Grand Budapest Hotel) and Juliette is a graphic artist for TV documentaries. Lovely couple. They gave us lots of information about the
marinas close to Paris and Juliette even offered to drive me to Orly airport if
we could be at their marina at Nogent on Friday morning. So kind.
But that is not a good place for Ian to sit out 5 days where he wants to
do lots of work on the boat. It was a very enjoyable evening. And it was
enhanced by our shared experiences of the boat that arrived in La Ferte yesterday. Even
though Ian took their lines and we moved our boat so they would have more room
on the pontoon they were really unfriendly.
Turns out Ludo and Juliette were in Meaux with them and were taken aback
at how cold and unfriendly they were. They
are British; we admitted our boat is registered in the UK but we now fly the
Azorean flag (our place of residence) because we are too embarrassed to fly the
British flag.
It was
another hot day (27o for the third day in a row). My tiny air-conditioner (fan that blows a
mist) has been doing some overtime.
No comments:
Post a Comment