The Yonne and on to the Seine (Upper) - Sens to Moret-sur-Loing.

Friday 18 May to Tuesday 22 May 2018:
Sens to Moret-sur-Loing - 57 kilometers, 10 locks.

Friday 18 May – Sens to Pont-sur-Yonne. 12 kilometers, 2 locks, 2 hours fifteen minutes.

Bright and early but not so early that we would be caught up with the two commercials who had also been waiting for the three day lock closure to end, we trundled downstream, past someone’s sunken and stripped cruiser, through the first lock, on leaving which we met our first oncoming large commercial (Custos), and one lock later we made a U-turn and pulled into one of the two the neat, unserviced pontoons (with two inconsiderately moored long stayers, one of which appears to be abandoned) outside the quaint town of Pont-sur-Yonne – not much there but an adequate, small supermarket and the usual pubs, baker etc. Nice.

Goodbye Sens

Oops!

Custos coming the other way.

Pont-sur-Yonne

The two visitors pontoons

A typical rural French town.

The time at the mooring was spent sanding re-varnishing handrails and generally chilling in the steadily improving and glorious weather. Not to mention getting our revenge at petanque with a 2 – 0 trouncing of the Carters.

Sunday 20 May - Pont-sur-Yonne to Montereau-Fault-Yonne. 29 kilometers, 6 (sloping) locks, 5 hours 15 minutes.

We passed down river in glorious weather accompanied by sand-loaded barge Mirador with whom we shared all six locks – can’t say I enjoyed the experience of the non-pontooned locks where the lockie makes sure you are tied up. On the first of the three such locks I messed up the holding on/fending off manoeuvre and we became momentarily hung up on one of our skegs – not a nice feeling! After that we used engines to keep away from the wall with the line being mere decoration.

Sharing is caring.

Lace in Mirador's porthole.

The barrages are pumping now.

Horrible European weather.

A riverside restaurant.

Montereau-Fault-Yonne has a lovely church (locked), lovely views across the Yonne, Petite Seine and Seine rivers and a typical French town layout but the population seems definitely more North African/Middle Eastern than French - more dishdasha than pantalon if you get my drift. Not our favourite place.

The view from our mooring - stunning!

A garden exhibition in a square.

The small visitors quay, seventy five percent of which was taken by long stayers, has water and electricity and a nearby small chandlery with a very helpful chandler. I understand that the town adds more pontoons as the season gets busier and to be fair, there are only three visitors at the moment although Njord had to raft up to us. Or, to be not so fair, maybe there are not more visitors because there are not enough pontoons to moor up to?

Looking back to the port - the three boats on the right and the second last on the left are long stayers.

Monday 21 May – Montereau-Fault-Yonne to Moret-sur Loing. 15 kilometers, 1 lock, 2 hours 30 minutes.

Another gorgeous morning and after Sian had returned with baguettes for each boat

Madame Les Baguettes.

we set off again and a couple of minutes later turned into the wide, muddy Seine Amont (Seine Above [Paris] as opposed to Seine Aval or Seine Below [Paris], the Above or Below referring to the direction from whence, in relation to Paris, the river has come). With a strong current on our stern and the lightest of following winds we were soon at the first of the large Seine locks (185 meters long by 12 meters wide but with a drop of only 2.78 meters – still, that’s over six thousand tons of water that empties out for twenty two tons of little boats going down) where, after a twenty or so minute wait, we entered and descended in splendid isolation – what a pleasant re-introduction to the large commercial shipping system.

On the Seine.

All sizes...

A commercial exiting our first Seine lock.

Passing derelict barges, barges being scrapped, barges turned into permanent accommodation, barges attempting to become hotel accommodation, and barges waiting for work, we cruised past the town of Saint-Mammês, turned left into the Loire River and a couple of kilometres later were tied up at the deserted port of Moret-sur-Loing in lovely park-like surrounds.

St Mammes right bank.

Biggies at speed. They are going the same speed but the hull design creates a very different bow wave.

Entering the Loire.

Crowded with long stayers.

A short while later Piper barge Dea Latis arrived and Alan and Marianne took no time at all to invite us for drinks later in the day.

The Captainerie.

The adjacent park.

The view from the other side.

Moret is a pretty, pretty town and on this public holiday (Whit Monday) it was generously populated with tourists, mainly French speaking.

The one-way traffic system.

Former sugar barley factory now a museum.

The cycle path into town.

On the other side of the Loire, Saint-Mammês is more a small port town with quite a pretty barge-lined quay and not much else.

Saint-Mammes.

The quayside main road.

Morning coffee.

A typical road.

This barge's name is familiar...

Blogging Jenal

On my way back to Elle while waiting for Lynn to finish the laundry in Saint-Mammês, I passed a photo shoot in the park opposite the cycle path; stopping to take a photo or two I could not understand why they would set up and then disassemble and all turn to look at me and then reassemble. And then repeat the process. The penny dropped when realization dawned that an electric bike was not an appropriate backdrop to a nineteenth century period piece. So I moved on, blushing inwardly…

Action...

....merde! Please go away!