A week with Guests

This week, starting on Wednesday, October 17, we have our third group of guests. It is quite convenient for me as I hate doing locks and there are a lot of locks on this canal. We are on a canal that goes parallel to the Marne. In this section of the Marne it is too uncontrollable so we are on a man made canal. Actually, today I think we did our last few locks for a while and left the canal and entered the Soane. Probably tomorrow I will post a picture of Georgia, mom and I in our cabin. Right now it is late and mom wants us to go to bed.

EMILY

Champagne Country



Typical village where we first enter Champagne

We hadn't planned on travelling along the Marne, but are now very glad that we have come this way.   Although the days tend to start off quite overcast, it has always cleared up at some point, and we have had beautiful views of grape country in the sunshine. 

At first, the countryside consisted of low hills covered in vines, intersected by a strip of village at the middle.  As we floated further along, the hillsides became taller and steeper, usually with the towns situated at the bottom, along the canal. 


The vineyards rise above the village

It is currently picking season, and the hillsides are busy with activity.  When we stopped in the town of Cumiers, we climbed the hillside to get a better look at the grape vines. 



Village atop a hill in Champagne

One of the things we noticed on the hillside was the plastic covering the seats in the vans used to cart plastic cases of grapes down to the village from the hillside.  Even the seats on the bus were covered.  I guess grape picking season is a fairly messy time!  According to our nautical chart, the town of Cumiers is home to 40 different champagne producers.  We haven't stumbled across an opportunity for a tour yet, but hopefully we will before we leave the region.

The Canadian flag on the bow of our boat alerted a passer by as to our nationality and he stopped for a chat, indicating that he was a British Columbian here to pick grapes.  For him, the 150 dollars a day in exchange for hard work, lots of scratches, and impressive grape stains is an okay wage but his Spanish girlfriend said that it was a very good wage compared to what she would make at home.  



Grapes on the vine at Cumiers 



Grape picking art along the canal at Cumiers





View down the hill at Cumiers



September



What boatbuilders build when aluminum is in short supply

On September 5 we decided it was time to leave the safety of our shelter at Chatham and head toward France.  The Chatham Maritime Marina had been the perfect place to stay while sorting out Emily’s medical issues, providing excellent washrooms and laundry in addition to the most helpful and friendly marina staff we have encountered.  We also had fun learning a bit about Charles Dickens and his time in the area and hanging out at the Historic Dockyard.  However, we had by now arranged to meet Tom’s friends in Paris mid-September and we needed to get moving.

Boats behind us after the fog had cleared

We started with a one hour motor to Queenborough where the moorings are set out from the shore on the tidal river.  It makes for a lovely, peaceful night, rising and falling with the tide and the movement of the water and without the creak of lines or bumping of boats against the dock.  In the morning, however, we awoke to the proverbial pea soup fog.  We couldn’t even see the river more than about five feet away from the boat let alone spot shore or any other vessels.  Fortunately, the fog burned off by 11, giving us plenty of time to get to Ramsgate on the east coast by the end of the day.


We spent a couple of days in Ramsgate, taking advantage of our last days of Englishness by stocking up on familiar groceries and dry goods for which we were able to read the ingredient list (Emily’s initial diagnostic work-up included screening for celiac which came back positive, requiring us to go gluten free, at least until she is able to undergo a more diagnostic biopsy back in Canada).  Tom got a haircut and bought a few boaty things and we all had one last trip to the used book shops.

Fabulous weather for channel crossing

On September 8 we crossed the channel uneventfully, in waves that were choppier than expected but just below the seasickness threshold.  As we had heard that the lock into the canal at Calais was out of order, we entered France instead at Gravelines, a little north of Calais, a little south of Dunkerque.  What we did not realize is that to enter the canals here required 48 hours notice to the lock keeper.  As we had entered on a Sunday, we would not actually get into the canals until Wednesday.  In the meantime, we, along with all the other boats at the marina, floated up as the tide flowed in and sunk into the mud when the tide went out.

Sitting in the mud at Gravelines



Our first industrial sized lock - beyond intimidating

On Wednesday, we made it into the canal system and got started toward Paris.  This initial stretch of travel exposed us to new experiences such as locks we could not see the top of and tunnels through hills that we needed to be pulled through by electric barge.  We were lucky enough to meet up with another pleasure boat on our second lock and picked up a few locking tips from the much more experienced boaters.  We were also lucky that when the lingering odour of burning acid turned out to be the defunct battery under our salon bench seat rather than the pervasive scent of French countryside, we were only a few hundred meters away from a lock that had extensive waste disposal.  Tom unhooked the battery and disposed of it, all good, but sadly, we lost our cruising companions.

Entering a 5 kilometer tunnel behind a commercial barge

After several days of motoring and mooring at the quiet marinas that are built in small pockets of water off the canals, Tom rented a car at the town of Compeigne and we drove in to Charles deGaulle in Paris to pick up Rob and Jane from Kenora.  Their boating experience started the next day with an extremely short cruise down the river to the boat mechanic's where we dropped a full month’s budget on three new batteries for the boat and another handful on the nautical charts needed to see us through France.  Never mind though, because with the new batteries we can brew a pot of coffee in the morning and still have power enough left over to make toast.

After Compeigne we landed at the edge of the canal in a town called Creil, the highlight of which was a rowdy evening at the pub for Tom, Rob and Jane, and a visit the next morning to a barge in the process of being converted to a home, courtesy of Phillipe, a charming Frenchman met the previous night in the aforementioned pub.   Note that while a barge conversion makes for an excellent residential space, I have had no trouble resisting the urge to get out my squared paper and start designing.

 

After Creil we landed at Cergy, following the margin notes in the “Paris by Boat” book given to us by an English couple we met way back in the Netherlands.  As promised, this turned out to be a truly great place to stay.  In fact, if it were located a few hundred miles south, where January might be expected to be a few degrees warmer, we would have gladly tied up for the winter and stayed put.  In addition to a lovely marina surrounded by restaurants and all the basic services within easy cobblestone walk (butcher, baker, grocer, pharmacist), the town had a great looking school and train service to Paris.  It also had easy access, just across the river, to a huge recreational park encompassing a few small lakes and fit out with all kinds of boat rental (kayak, canoe, sailing, paddle boats, stand up paddlers, and white water rafts), waterski pulled along an electric trolley line, adventure courses (plank climbers, zip lines, rope net tunnels, etc.), a playground, small midway, biking and hiking trails, and a series of really neat exercise machines.  Very cool.

Alas, Cergy is a bit too cool in January so after a few days, we set out for Paris.  Our first views of the city were as we have come to expect, very industrial.  In fact, our first night was spent on the outskirts at a marina that does not have a high regard for visiting boats.  We made it into the city proper the next day, however, and managed to squeeze the boat between barges right under the Eiffel tour.  This was clearly a temporary parking spot, and having surveyed the neighborhood and noted the fellow surveying our boat, Rob opted to stay with the boat while the rest of us went for a quick explore.  We walked up to the Arc de Triomphe and down a block of the Champs Elysees before heading back to the boat to relieve Rob of his security duties. 

Unfortunately, we had learned a couple of days earlier, that the lock entry to the marina in Paris was broken, making it impossible for boats to go in or out from the Seine.  Had we known this much earlier, we might have taken a different canal around the top of Paris that would allow entry to the marina from the north.  Having taken the route that we did, we would now be looking at an extra day of motoring to get in, and as our guests were not particularly interested in the big city, we decided to carry on our way. 

Along with a British boat carrying similarly frustrated travelers, we landed at Port Cerise.  We explored and did the mandatory grocery shopping, but when Rob and Jane left on the train the next day, we departed in search of cleaner bathrooms.  A further wrinkle in the plan at this point was that the locks were out of commission a ways upstream on the Seine.  The closures had been planned up to September 29, which would have left us waiting for about a week, but, in fact, had been extended to mid-October, which would have left us waiting for three weeks.  The alternative to waiting was to plan a different route, taking the river Marne instead of the Seine, and a long, circuitous route to the south.  Alas, this is the route we have taken.

Our first stop on the Marne was at a lovely marina along the edge of the river in a town called Nogent sur Marne.  In the end, it was from here that we explored Paris.  Tom stayed on the boat to do laundry and change the oil, while we three girls took the train to Paris two days in a row and:

• Wandered the streets of Montmartre

• Had the girls’ portraits drawn outside Sacre Coeur

• Walked through Sacre Coeur and climbed the 308 stairs up the dome

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ate lunch overlooking the square filled with artists

 

 

• Wandered an extensive outdoor market (coincidentally located right beside the marina we were unable to get into) where we ate Lebanese food and green apples from Canada

• Admired the gorgeous stained glass windows in Notre Dame cathedral

• Bought a used French version of Harry Potter at a canal side book vendor

• Took a midafternoon break at a bistro on the left bank

• Examined the lovers locks all along the bridge above Notre Dame

• And sat on a bus that took us all over the city

If all goes according to plan, we will return and get ourselves Paris museum passes for a few days before we fly home in November or December. 

 

 

 

Comings and Goings, Highs and Lows

Crazy people on the bridge in Oxford that our boat can't get under

My parents came to visit on July 24 and it was great to see them.  The plan was to motor up to Oxford and start our way back down the Thames during their two week visit.  We managed to get to Oxford, though we didn't see as much of the city as expected, particularly the famous colleges of the University, because we had a significant plumbing malfunction on the boat. 




Tom mucks with the plumbing...

Thankfully, Tom has both the skills, the will, and the internal fortitude in the face of sewage, to solve the problem. 


...while girls and grandparents play cards on land



Walking the Thames Path

We spent just two days in Oxford and then turned the boat around to head down river.  However, just as we started down, Tom got the news that his brother, John, was very sick which turned into the news that he had pancreatic cancer and a very bad prognosis.  Tom needed to fly home and for this we needed to be docked somewhere with power and toilets.  He got the boat to a marina just outside Reading and jumped on a plane.  Sadly, Tom's brother passed away before Tom made it home.  He was able to be there for the funeral and to support John's wife and daughter, though, and he also made it to the island service for Leann's mother who had also succumbed to pancreatic cancer.  Oh those pancreases!!!

 


A coffee break at Nero Café in Reading

Unfortunately, I have been remiss in my duty to learn to drive the boat.  I can manage it fine on the open river, but I have not learned the finer points of manoeuvering on and off docks and in and out of locks.  As a result, during the remainder of my parents' visit we were stationary at the Thames and Kennett marina, a lovely marina but not so well located.  We explored Reading, but even according to the tourist websites, Reading's big draw is good shopping. 


Georgia and Grandma played lots of card games and read together and the girls found an excellent blackberry source with their grandfather.

  


 

The girls picking blackberries on the lane out of the marina








Seven miles of beautiful sand beach at Bournemouth

In search of excitement, we found the beach town of Bournemouth where we had a couple of great days and splashed in the sea with the Brits.

 

 

My parents flew back to Canada on August 8 and Tom made it back to the boat on the 10th.  

After a big grocery load up at the most convenient grocery store ever, we started back down the river. 

 

The highlight of this part of the journey was the River and Rowing Museum at Henley where Georgia rowed a bit and enjoyed the Wind in the Willows exhibit. 

 

Finally, on August 19th our pass for the Thames expired, meaning that we needed to be below the last lock, in the tidal part of the river.  We headed down river with a pretty vague plan and ultimately wound up motoring for 11 hours, out the last lock of the non tidal Thames, through London, and into the mouth of the river.   
 
 
 

 

 

 

During this adventure, Emily, who had been sick with a runny nose and face ache that seemed to be sinusitis, wound up sleeping for four or five hours.  Needless to say, this is unheard of for her.  On August the 20th we made it to the town of Chatham, where we were familiar with the marina, and got Emily to the doctor.  Sadly, we followed the doctor visit with a hospital admission as a urine test showed that Emily's blood sugar was sky high and her blood was full of ketones.  She was suffering from Diabetic Ketoacidosis, brought on by undiagnosed Type I diabetes and a deficit in insulin production.  The pancreas strikes again!!

 

Emily had just one night in the hospital, receiving fluid and insulin by IV before being discharged with a load of information and diabetic paraphernalia.  She's taken it all in stride and instantly determined that she did not want either of her parents on the other side of her daily needles.  In addition to doing all her own blood tests and insulin injections, she's monitoring her own diet very well and monitoring ours at the same time!

 

We need to stay here under excellent British follow-up care until Emily's blood sugar is stable in the healthy range.  This will mean regular visits to the nearby Historic Dockyard where an admission ticket is good for a whole year.  We went yesterday for a bit and Georgia took her turn at making rope in the ropery.

 

 

 

 

England

It is as Emily said.  After 5 days waiting in Dunkerque, France, we crossed the English channel and survived. 



Crossing the shipping lanes in the English Channel - not as frantic as we'd expected

We then waited 5 or 6 days at Ramsgate for good enough weather to get up around the corner into the Thames. 



Neat shops are tucked under the road that runs up the cliff

The marina at Ramsgate

While we waited we visited towns such as Broadstairs (where Dickens wrote some of Bleak House), Sandwich (where the Earl invented some kind of convenience meal), and Canterbury (where they make great French fries - oh, and have some kind of old cathedral).

The beach at Broadstairs - A little too cool yet for swimming

Cycling along the white cliffs at Ramsgate
 



Before Dunkerque (I forgot this part), we took a side trip to Iepers (Ypres), a town in France with a significant role in WWI for Canadian troops.  We saw where John McCrea wrote In Flanders Fields, walked through a rebuilt trench system, and stood with lots of visitors for Last Post at the Memorial arch.



 

Rows of headstones at a graveyard in Flanders - no poppies where the grass is mowed

After Ramsgate, we got into the River Medway, stopping first at Chatham where they have a most excellent museum built on the Historic Dockyards.  We got to tour a submarine and warship, make rope the old fashioned way, and learn how wooden ships were built hundreds of years ago. 

After a few days there we headed up the river to the first lock, where you get out of tidal salt water and into non tidal fresh water.  This was exciting on account of the many times we ran aground.  When this happens in tidal water, you simply have to wait 'til the tide comes in and lifts you off the sandbar or rock bed, or wherever you happen to have got stuck.

 



 The Medway was lovely and we left the boat for five days and stayed in an apartment while Tom did a boat show in Southampton.  As Emily mentioned in her post, we watched an inordinate amount of television  - because it was there.  We also visited an excellent exhibit about the Titanic, as Southampton is the city it sailed from on its unfortunate voyage.



After reaching the top of the navigable Medway, we turned around and returned to Chatham, from where we set out for London. 

London was fabulous!  We were not expecting to have such a good time, being not big city people.  But the whole event started with an excellent mooring at St. Katherine's Dock, just below Tower Bridge (which is the nice looking one, not to be confused with London Bridge which fell down and was replaced with something completely nondescript).  Having done no real research ahead of time, we were very pleasantly surprised to find that the Tower of London (really great castle/palace/fortress) was just down the street on the other side of the bridge.  We also found all the usual sights such as Trafalgar Square and Canada House, Buckingham Palace, St. James and Hyde Parks, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and the parliament buildings, etc.  We managed to visit the Science Museum, Maritime Museum in Greenwich, Tower of London, Museum of the Bank of England (who would've guessed that would be interesting!?), the British Museum and the National Gallery. 



After London, we headed up the River Thames, landing at lots of places we've never heard of, and some of great fame. 

For instance, books and spring rolls were acquired in the main street of the town of Staines. 

LEGOLAND was thoroughly enjoyed in the town of Windsor. 

Oh yeah, we popped in at the Queen's place in Windsor, too.  That was actually very cool, and although we didn't see her, the changing of the flags on the central tower of the palace let us know that she showed up while we were wandering through her little abode.

 After Windsor, we moved further up the river and focused on getting the boat ready for our own royal event, the visitation of my parents.  They arrived yesterday evening, and after just one small mishap with the rental car which must be driven on the "wrong" side of the road, Tom obtained them from Heathrow and delivered them to the boat.  So now we are six folk on a boat and have found ourselves moored about 50 feet from a pub in a town called Sandford on Thames which has absolutely nothing else going on so is very pleasant and rural and quiet, and is a short morning's boat ride from Oxford.  We will spend a couple of days in Oxford and then turn around and make our way slowly back down the river. 

That's assuming I can pull Tom away from his new local, the King's Arms.