Travels with Forty Roses: September 2017

Sunday, 24 September 2017

Arriving Paris

To wake up in Paris is a fine thing and to wake up in a boat moored at Port Arsenault is an even finer thing. We arrived in the City of Lights yesterday after an exciting trip up the Seine. This is a trip that John and I have talked about for years and it was the culmination of all our plans and the learning curve of a sometimes painful building project.

So for something different this week I have posted two time lapse videos we took as we made our way upstream to Paris. Forgive my novice attempts, but Tyler suggested we do this 2 days ago and therefore I've struggled to learn the techy stuff to get these up and running. They are a bit of silly fun and next week we will be back to regular posting!

This Video is a time-lapse of entering the suburbs of Paris up the Seine on September 23, 2017

Just click on the links below

Toward Paris up the Seine

A second time-lapse video takes place after the lock at Suresnes and entering the lock to Port Arsenal Marina on the same day.

Entering Paris up the Seine

Starting out Early from Bougival

A Quiet River just 40KM from Paris

Flower Boxes even on the Big Bridges

La Seine Musicale designed by architect Shigeru Ban. On Île Sequin the site of the former Renault car factory.

The smaller replica of Lady Liberty on Île au Cygnes

Calm and Happy Captain. The Crew was more nervous..a very busy river.

Everywhere a Beautiful Bridge

The Iconic Eiffel Tower

Getting through the Lock at Port Arsenault

Sunday, 17 September 2017

Compiègne

In school, we all learned that Joan of Arc, a peasant girl living in medieval France, believed that God had chosen her to lead France to victory in its long-running war with England. With no military training, Joan convinced the embattled crown prince Charles of Valois to allow her to lead a French army to the besieged city of Orléans, where it achieved a momentous victory over the English and their French allies, the Burgundians. She was present when prince Charles was crowned in Reims as King Charles VII in 1429. The Siege of Compiègne (1430) was Joan of Arc's final military action. Her career as a leader ended with her capture by the Burgundians during a skirmish outside the town on 23 May 1430. The Anglo-Burgundian forces, tried her for witchcraft and heresy and burned her at the stake in 1431, at the age of 19.

We have been staying in Compiègne for the last couple of days. What a historic town it is. From Joan of Arc being captured here in the 1400’s to earlier history of Saint Wilfred of York in 655 being consecrated as a Bishop in Compiègne as he did not want to be anointed by the Anglo-Saxon bishops. In 888 Odo, count of Paris and king of the Franks was crowned here. Intervening years brought the 100 Year’s War with Joan of Arc being captured by the Burgundians and sold to the British; Marie de’ Medici’s attempts to displace Richelieu led her to escape to Compiègne; on November 11, 1918, the Armistice with Germany was signed at Le Francport just outside Compiègne, in a railway car in the Compiègne Forest which ended the fighting in World War I. In June 1940, when Germany began the French Occupation, Hitler chose this same location to have the French sign their defeat as a retaliation for the Armistice of 1918. Additionally, during the second World War and the German Occupation an internment camp was established and a memorial of the camp along the railway tracks commemorates the tragedy. Our Dutch lawyer, on finding we were heading to Compiègne, told us it was a location every European school child knew of, as it is a most significant site. The surrounding National Forest of Compiègne has been a royal hunting ground since the 7^th century. Today it covers 14, 400 hectares and is beloved as a nature reserve, with walking trails and bicycle paths. Some of these trails still have beautiful vintage signposts that include a small red mark showing the direction of the resplendent Chateau de Compiègne, relics of an imperial order given during the Second French Empire after Empress Eugénie lost her way in the thick woods.

The following are some pictures from our escapades this week. We should note that we now plan to take photos of boulangeries that create amazing loaves. We failed to take pictures of the Olivier Vandromme in Wambrechies, and one that John cycled to in San Quentin that produced the best croissants we have had since our return, but we fail to recall the name. Compiègne had Mèline…such a good little bakery. So, after this we shall simply take a picture so if any of you decide to visit some of these wonderful French towns you will have a bakery starting point.

Oh yes, we have included pictures from the Souterrain de Riqueval Tunnel an experience of a lifetime and an amazing little museum just full of handmade figurines

Getting Ready to be Towed Through the Souterrain de Riqueval Tunnel

Electric Tow Boat, followed by the heaviest, a Commercial Grain Barge, then Forty Roses III

The Entrance

The Tunnel is 6 KM Long....Yes!!! You Must Be Towed Through

It is a Once in a Lifetime Experience. It takes Two Hours.

There is Light at the End of the Tunnel?

This Section Carved out of Limestone

Almost at the Exit

Out in the Air and Sky...A Relief!

Required After a Trip Like That

The most amazing allée of Hornbeams along the canal in Compiègne

St. Jacques, established since 1199 and now a UNESCO site

Fallen Gargoyles

Stain Glass within St. Jacques

Each a different scene

Three Magnificent Windows

When the Sun Shines Through

St. Antoine Flying Buttress

The Town Hall

Alexandre Dumas Finished the Count of Monte Cristo a few doors down from the Town Hall

A longer view of the town hall Square, Bell dates from 1303

Everywhere Flower Containers. These Towns and villages showcase plantings!

Carved from Wood by Jean-Baptiste Clémence. Viewed in the Museum of Figurines.

Battle of Waterloo Depicted in Miniature Figurines Otherwise Known as Lead Soldiers

All the Fgurines are Displayed in Tableaux of Historical Events

World War II the German Invasion of France

World War I Armistice at Compiègne

You Could Almost Believe These are Real. A Group meets Weekly to Learn the Process.

As You Can Tell I was Fascinated. All Collections Donated by Enthusiasts.

Every One Hand Cast and Painted. The Museum Holds over 160,000 Figures

Radish Rainbow for Salad

Very Fresh Fish

Compiègne Market 7AM Saturday Morning

My Sister Margot Grows These Teddy Bear Sunflowers Too

Our Anchorage for Saturday Night

Those Hornbeams Again....just to Close off this week

Sunday, 10 September 2017

L'Escaut et Le Canal de Saint-Quentin

In my last blog, devoted to the Braderie in Lille, John was concerned that I had not mentioned our summer and our arrival back at the boat. Here goes! We had a busy and brief summer it seems. June 10 to August 20 at the lake was simply too short a time to squeeze in all the people we wanted to see and the things we wished to accomplish. However, given the situation with our visas which expire on September 12, we had to be back earlier or so we (I) thought! To make a complicated and long story very short…we only had to be back a few days before the 12^th. Next year we will know better unless the rules shift again. So, we made an extra and early trip to Toulouse where we are registered. But it was good to be back in that lovely city and enjoy a place we know well for a couple of nights.

On Wednesday the 6^th of September, at a very early hour, as we readied the boat for departure from Wambrechies, who should come sauntering along the quay but Monsieur Chiron, our friend and keeper of the boat this summer. He was there to toss the lines off and wave us goodbye as we turned south down the Deûlemont and began our journey toward Auxerre. Earlier that morning we found a note in a plastic bag taped to our window from Philippe, Valerie and Lucien wishing us Bon Voyage. It gave me a lump in my throat to have Bernard there to say goodbye and receive notes from the lovely little French family for which I dared to cook dinner. The one thing I wish I could go back for is a photo of Bernard. How foolish of me not to take one. He is the kindest man and we hope to go back some day to see him.

Tonight, we are tied up at Honnecourt sur-Escaut in preparation for an interesting day tomorrow. We will traverse the Souterrain de Riqueval, a 5670M tunnel. We are to be towed through in a convoy of boats. The convoy will be rather small as we understand there are only two other boats to go with us. This has been a beautiful trip so far with many locks so we have become experts. Well almost. It is a totally mechanized system. At the beginning of the L'Escaut/Saint-Quentin in Cambrai we were given a remote-control device. At each lock, there is a signal. Simply point the remote to have the lock empty and open and once tied up inside click the remote for the gates to close and the lock to fill. When the gates open off we go to the next. And we have seen only 3 other boats which is rather amazing given the beautiful area.

As we bicycled through the town of Cambrai I was most interested to see that François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, more commonly known as François Fénelon (1651-1715) was a French Roman Catholic Archbishop, theologian, poet and writer. As the Archbishop of Cambrai, he served for many years. During the War of the Spanish Succession, which produced many refugees Fénelon opened his palace to those fleeing the ongoing conflict. His belief was that all wars were civil wars. Humanity was a single society and all wars within it the greatest evil, for he argued that one’s obligation to mankind was always greater than what was owed to one’s country. Oh, for more of this thinking today!

Some of you know I was born and raised near Fenelon Falls in the Kawartha Lakes. Our little town was named after François’s half-brother, Father Fénelon. François de Salignac de la Mothe Fénelon (1641-1679) was a Sulpician missionary in New France. He was ten years older than his half-brother François Fénelon, Archbishop of Cambrai. Why they shared the same name is difficult to understand and the reason lost in history. They were of different mothers but they were both born at the Château de Fénelon in Sainte-Mondane, Périgord, Aquitaine, in the Dordogne river valley and both were educated at the Séminaire de Saint – Sulpice in Paris. I do wonder if the little community of Cambray close to Fenelon Falls is somehow a derivative of the French Cambrai where Father Fénelon’s half-brother was the Archbishop. Is it not a small and interesting world?