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Published: June 20th 2017
We had a wonderful send off from Paris by our friends, Sally & Al with Nancy and Brad waving us off as well. The first order of business is to go through a lock from the marina to reach the Seine. Once we got through the lock we turned upstream for a short distance and then turned onto the River Marne to start our journey toward the Med.
This short portion of the Seine was more industrialized with places for barges to be loaded and we had quite a few more bridges to go under. It still seems somewhat strange to go under these bridges which is now possible without our mast. We had gone through the locks in the Erie Canal when we first left upstate NY back in 2010, but we are very glad we do not have to deal with a 60 foot mast on a 40 foot boat for this trip – things will be much easier without it.
On the River Marne the pace is much slower due to the fact that there are numerous locks to go through. The River narrow with plenty of curves so you have to get as far over
as possible when barges go by, but not so far to go aground. Fortunately we haven’t had that happen yet, but from what we hear we shouldn’t be surprised if we go aground sometime on this trip as we are close to the limits on depth with our keel. We will keep our fingers crossed that it doesn’t become a problem.
We left the marina in Paris at 8AM and 5 locks and 1 tunnel later we were in Lagny-sur-Marne by 2:20PM which was only a distance of a little over 19 miles. It was the first time going through a tunnel with the boat – another first, but as we know it won’t be the last on this trip. We had made one stop on the way in Nogent-sur-Marne to take on diesel as it was an easy place to get to the pumps and we wanted to top up for our motoring trip through France. For those of you wondering we paid the equivalent of $6.18 per gallon. As we made it to Lagny-sur-Marne early in the day we had time to wander around the town. The tourist brochure provided some information on the history of this
town showing that in the Middle Ages it had been protected by a fortified wall and had a number of tanneries working animal skins into leather. In the 19
th C. the tanneries were still in existence, but there were also lime kilns and shipbuilding that helped develop this area.
The Chapel in Lagny-sur-Marne is dedicated to the Virgin Mary with two events marking its history. In 1126 there was a terrible outbreak of fungi that affected the eyes. The population came to the church to pray and their eye problems cleared. Then in 1430 Joan of Arc came to Lagny-sur-Marne. She prayed with young girls and a child that had been given up as dead for 3 days, but came back to life and was baptized. This is one of the miracles which caused Joan of Arc to be canonized; therefore the Church has quite a connection with Joan of Arc.
We would have traveled farther, but we are learning very quickly from what we have read, you need to plan your stops as many places are not conducive to stopping. We had heard from many that the town of Meaux was worth visiting for a few days,
so that was our goal for the next day. To accomplish this we only had to travel through 3 locks for a distance of 10 miles. This got us to Meaux by noon providing us plenty of time to get oriented to the town and determine what we wanted to see. The funny thing was that shortly after tying up Tsamaya we looked up and saw a boat coming that seemed familiar. It was Sharon and John who were on the boat right next to us in Paris all winter. They had left the marina quite a few weeks before us, but they were doing a circular route for part of the season due to having guest and going back to the US. You never know when you will run into the same people again.
You need to go to the tourist information office to check in and pay for the night at the dock. We were pleasantly surprised to find that it cost 4.85 euro ($5.40) per night and that includes water and electricity. We will definitely enjoy these prices if this continues this summer as we move through the canals. It not only is inexpensive, but the
docks are in very good shape and they are in a convenient location with a great view of the Cathedral.
After going to see what was here we decided there was enough for us to stay a few days. We arrived on a Wednesday and stayed through Sunday morning. The first day we still had time to see some of the town. The Tourist Information was located close to the Saint-Etienne Cathedral so wandered in. With it taking over 350 years to complete from the beginning of the 12
th C. to the mid-16
th C. it had a combination of architectural styles, however, most that remains is of the Gothic style with its high arches. Much of the damage to the sculptures, especially on the outside was from the religious wars of the 1500’s. The heads were removed from all of the Saints in 1562 and they have never been replaced as a reminder to all that come to see this Church. In reading the church brochure we found that the “characters” that we saw on a few of the pillars are actually dragons that were installed by Bishop Jean du Drac as he was having a difficult time in
Our First Tunnel Was a Short One
as you could see light at the other end when going ingetting the Church completed after the Hundred Year’s War (1337-1453). Guess he wanted to make it known for all future generations!
We also took a lovely stroll through the Bishop’s Garden. It was originally designed by Andre Le Notre, the gardener at the Palace of Versailles. It has a wonderful avenue lined with lime trees and four flowerbeds with each edged with box. We saw many relaxing in the park and enjoying when we wandered through.
When we returned to the marina we went back to John and Sharon’s boat as they offered to have us over for a glass of champagne – as they were just returning from the Champagne region of France we took them up on the generous offer. It was definitely a great ending to a wonderful day.
The next day was a rainy one as they predicted so Bob took the opportunity to get the sewing machine out as we needed to make a new cover for one of our bicycles. I had bills to pay and blogs to work on so having a day with nothing else on the schedule worked out well for me as well. The day entered with
a thunderstorm, but with us both accomplishing some things we wanted to get done, so another good day.
Friday we took a bus out to the Musee de la Grande Guerre (WWI Museum) as we had heard from others that it was well done. We had been to numerous places that dealt with WWII, but this would be the first that concentrated on WWI. The reason for this is obvious for those that are WWI history buffs when you know that the museum is located where the Battle of the Marne took place. The museum was opened in 2011 and is only 3 km from the center of the town. They did an excellent job of explaining what led to the hostilities, the entry of various countries into the fighting and how it was finally won. They have wonderful displays with very clear descriptions in both French and English. One of the stories that we heard about was the role of the Paris taxicabs that brought troops to the battlefields in the Marne. They even have one of the taxicabs on display. If interested do a search on the taxicabs of the Marne to learn more about this historic
symbol of solidarity in France. We would definitely recommend anyone in the area to take the time to visit this museum. The only down side we saw was the fact that they advertised having a café so figured we could have lunch there, but when we tried to do so they took us to a vending machine for coffee and another one that had snacks (i.e. – candy, chips). Needless to say not what we were looking for and as the museum is not close to anything else we made due with a vending machine coffee and shared a candy bar. Not the best, but it held us over until we came back into town later that day for a nice meal.
Saturday in Meaux is there big market day and it was located close to where we were staying with the boat. They have a covered area for part of the market while the rest of it is on the street. They even close the bridge to road traffic so vendors can set up their stalls. This market had all the traditional items of fruits and vegetables, clothes, sunglasses and of course included their wonderful local Brie cheese.
A Very Pleasant Place to Tie Up In Lagny-sur-Marne
No electricity or water, but it was free & convenient We didn’t need too much, but it is always an enjoyable way to start a Saturday morning.
We didn’t do too much in the afternoon as we knew we were going to be out that evening. First on the agenda was attending a wonderful big band jazz concert that I had seen advertised when at the Tourist Information center. We had mentioned it to Sharon & John and they wanted to go as well. We were all very impressed with the concert – we found out that many of the members of the band were actually professors at the local School of Music here in Meaux. What a performance they gave! An excellent way to start the evening’s entertainment. We had been told that May 21
st was Monument Day in Europe which means that various historic locations and museums would be open for free in the evening. They also told us that there would be a lighting of candles in the Bishop’s Garden around 11PM so figured we would go to see what was happening.
The Brie Museum was first on our list which is located above the Tourist Information office. They have displays that show the process
of making brie and fortunately for us even provided a tasting of the brie made locally. It was the creamiest we have ever had – a nice treat! We were somewhat disappointed by the museum as there wasn’t any information in English, but you could get the gist of it from the displays and information we already knew about making cheese. The irony was that later when we mentioned that we would have enjoyed knowing more from the write-ups, we were told they had a brochure in English so did get a chance to read that later. We know it is our problem that we are not fluent in English, but we have fortunately found that many of the places that cater to tourist do have some English explanations for foreigners.
As the Brie Museum didn’t take long to go through we headed over to the Bossuet Museum which is an art gallery held in the former Episcopal Palace (Bishop’s Palace). After viewing the artwork we wandered upstairs and found that they had musical presentations in various rooms which were an added bonus to the artwork on display. While listening to some of the group’s play we noticed that
it was getting darker outside so had a “ring side” view out the window at the lighting of the candles in the Bishop’s Garden. We finished the evening about 11PM with a walk through the town down to the marina – another great day in Meaux.
We were undecided as to if we should stay in Meaux another day or to start moving again. We looked at the weather and as it appeared it would be nice and most things in towns are closed on Sunday’s, so decided to push off with Sharon & John waving us good-bye as they will be heading in the other direction.
It has been less than a week since leaving the marina in Paris, but we feel a world away and enjoying our slow travels through the countryside and exploring the towns we visit. For those that like the details we have now traveled about 30 miles from Paris, gone through 8 locks and have gone up about 53’ from the level of the Seine. A long way to go, but it is a beginning!
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