Sunday 29th July 2007
Day's Progress: 15 kms : 1 very large lock (Total 461 kms : 208 locks)
Setting off this morning for Montereau which really is the final leg of our journey. We will be on the River Seine until we reach Montereau which is the northern most point of our circular route and we will then take a right and head south towards Migennes.
We have planned to see Pierre Jorre de St Jorre this evening in Montereau – he is my daughters’ great uncle.
Just outside Moret, at the small town called St Mamme, we turned right into the Seinne River and were on our way to Montereau. I was amazed at the size of this river – it is huge, very wide and the scary thing was that there was no one else on the river – we were bobbing along in our little boat as if we were the last people on earth! We hardly saw another river craft until we got to Montereau, 11kms away. At St Mamme we saw a commercial barge filling up with diesel – it was called Sud Africa and had a SA flag on it – so we all had a good wave at each other and we set off on this gigantic river. Just before we neared Montereau the river split with a large weir on the right and we went
into a smaller channel on the left hand side and into a lock. The lock was monstrous – I was horrified it was so big and thundering up behind was Sud Africa. This was the first time we had seen it. The light turned green to go into the lock and after the large barge signalled to us that it was OK, we followed him in. The lock could probably have taken 4 of these commercial barges easily, maybe even 6. And I had to scamper up the ladder to secure the boat – which I fortunately managed to do on my second attempt – quite scary. Surprisingly it didn’t take all that long to fill the lock. And then we were off again behind the Sud Africa. We proceeded up the river to where the Sienne and Yonne split and we were to take the Yonne.
We moored in Montereau, just after the bridge and across the river from the cathedral. On top of the bridge is a pretty huge statue of Napoleon on his horse. The town is old, a bit dilapidated but they are doing lots of renovations and rehabilitating a number of the old buildings. There a lots of statues scattered around the town. The cathedral is very
impressive.
When we moored we were visited by lots of friendly swans and they ate heaps of bread.
It has been a day with lots of wind, dark cloud, cold and soft rain which has made sailing quite difficult – especially the wind. We managed to dart into a Moroccan type restaurant during a downpour and had a latish lunch – avoided getting drenched by the skin of our teeth. It was a grim looking place – the bar in the front of the shop and restaurant at the back. We sat in the bar before eating and the men standing their grind their cigarettes out on the floor – no ones seems to mind – even thought there were ashtrays on the counter. The food was not too bad – I had a kebab thing which was quite tasty.
We met up with Pierre at 6.30ish at the cathedral and went back to his sweet little house for champagne and foie gras. Pierre has a wicked sense of humour. He is the “president” of a committee who are working towards restoring the 18th c organ in the cathedral – he says it will be look and sound just like the original and have 38 stops. We went back to the same restaurant for dinner with Pierre – he didn’t even know it was there hahaha…. The Moroccan guy suggested we have cous cous and it was great – it was served with 3 meats and a platter of dry cous cous and nice gravy.
Saw dear Pierre back to his house and we went off to the boat for the night. It was an excellent evening – and there was quite a bit of rain.
Setting off this morning for Montereau which really is the final leg of our journey. We will be on the River Seine until we reach Montereau which is the northern most point of our circular route and we will then take a right and head south towards Migennes.
We have planned to see Pierre Jorre de St Jorre this evening in Montereau – he is my daughters’ great uncle.
Just outside Moret, at the small town called St Mamme, we turned right into the Seinne River and were on our way to Montereau. I was amazed at the size of this river – it is huge, very wide and the scary thing was that there was no one else on the river – we were bobbing along in our little boat as if we were the last people on earth! We hardly saw another river craft until we got to Montereau, 11kms away. At St Mamme we saw a commercial barge filling up with diesel – it was called Sud Africa and had a SA flag on it – so we all had a good wave at each other and we set off on this gigantic river. Just before we neared Montereau the river split with a large weir on the right and we went
into a smaller channel on the left hand side and into a lock. The lock was monstrous – I was horrified it was so big and thundering up behind was Sud Africa. This was the first time we had seen it. The light turned green to go into the lock and after the large barge signalled to us that it was OK, we followed him in. The lock could probably have taken 4 of these commercial barges easily, maybe even 6. And I had to scamper up the ladder to secure the boat – which I fortunately managed to do on my second attempt – quite scary. Surprisingly it didn’t take all that long to fill the lock. And then we were off again behind the Sud Africa. We proceeded up the river to where the Sienne and Yonne split and we were to take the Yonne.
We moored in Montereau, just after the bridge and across the river from the cathedral. On top of the bridge is a pretty huge statue of Napoleon on his horse. The town is old, a bit dilapidated but they are doing lots of renovations and rehabilitating a number of the old buildings. There a lots of statues scattered around the town. The cathedral is very
impressive.When we moored we were visited by lots of friendly swans and they ate heaps of bread.
It has been a day with lots of wind, dark cloud, cold and soft rain which has made sailing quite difficult – especially the wind. We managed to dart into a Moroccan type restaurant during a downpour and had a latish lunch – avoided getting drenched by the skin of our teeth. It was a grim looking place – the bar in the front of the shop and restaurant at the back. We sat in the bar before eating and the men standing their grind their cigarettes out on the floor – no ones seems to mind – even thought there were ashtrays on the counter. The food was not too bad – I had a kebab thing which was quite tasty.
We met up with Pierre at 6.30ish at the cathedral and went back to his sweet little house for champagne and foie gras. Pierre has a wicked sense of humour. He is the “president” of a committee who are working towards restoring the 18th c organ in the cathedral – he says it will be look and sound just like the original and have 38 stops. We went back to the same restaurant for dinner with Pierre – he didn’t even know it was there hahaha…. The Moroccan guy suggested we have cous cous and it was great – it was served with 3 meats and a platter of dry cous cous and nice gravy.
Saw dear Pierre back to his house and we went off to the boat for the night. It was an excellent evening – and there was quite a bit of rain.
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