River Marne
We turned into the River Marne going towards the champagne country. We are now looking for a port to leave the boat safely for the winter until we return in 2008.
Meaux
We spent a few days in Meaux, about 80 k by river, 45k by road and only 15 euros train fare from Paris. We considered leaving the boat here in the boatyard but it was very expensive and we still wanted to do more travelling this year. We stayed here for a few days and met up with Oliver again. The Meaux Port de Plaisance provided by the city has moorings on floating pontoons supplied with water and electricity and are free of charge.
As usual in France this time of the year the flowers are lovely and the street outside the town hall was colourful.
We visited the Meaux Cathederal which is unusual as all of the statues around the doorways have been beheaded. This was done in the 1500's during the religious wars in retaliation for the beheading of people when one side was in power.
We also met Chantal and Claude, a lovely French couple who spoke very little English so we had a fun having French and English lessons. They had a TV and we watched the finish of the Tour de France with them.We look forward to some more french lessons when we meet again next year.
The only problem this year on the boat was with the fridge. The thermocouple in the gas part of the fridge has broken and we spent most of one day traipsing around trying to find a place to get a new one. This is when it is really frustrating not knowing the language properly or knowing where to get one. In the end we gave up and Kevin will organise a new one to take back.
Our 2007 foray into French cuisine was experienced in Meaux when we found Cheval on the meat counter in the supermarket. Kevin liked the taste and texture and ate half of mine, I thought I could take it or leave it.
As we leave Meaux we pulled in to see the beach which is set up for the summer along the river. Sand is trucked in to make a beach for a swimming area along with cute striped beach change rooms, a water playground and rows of beach lounges.
Chateau Thiery
We are now in the start of Champagne country with vines covering the hills above the Marne.
While here we rode our bikes about 20k up the hills to the American monument and cemetery for men lost in the Battle of the Marne in the 1st World War. A very impressive monument which we could see from the river as we came along. My knee is doing well as in the picture you can see how steep the climb was. Of course the electric motor works as well, but I am really pleased I can ride to see these things as it maked the trip more interesting.
It was also market day which was set up in the town square, I managed to get photos as well as buy fruit and vegetables.
The moorings here are either on a small pontoon which has power and water or on the wall with no facilities. The tourist bureau have one key for the facilities for 24 hours which they hand out for 5 euro when you hand over your boat papers. Fortunately the day before Oliver had managed to get on the town pontoon along with Charlie from Boston on his barge. We arrived in the afternoon and managed to tie up alongside Oliver and about 8 other boats were on the wall. Later in the day with a bit of shuffling when Charlie left we moored on the pontoon with another barge coming in behind. After a trip to the tourist bureau Oliver handed in the key and we presented our boat papers paid the 5 euro and got the key.
This was a lucky move for us both as in the morning all of the other boats were sitting on the bottom of the river side as overnight a barrage on the river had broken and the river dropped 45 centimetres. We handed the key back and were one of the lucky ones moving on the river that day.
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