A welcome few days rest in Paris was spent 'doing the sights' and we ended up with the blisters to prove it! Malcolm, Michelle & Bella arrived on Thursday to join us for a week's leisurely cruising. We managed to fit in the Eiffel Tower, Tuileries garden and open-top sightseeing bus, as well as a visit to the Louvre pyramid and Montmatre.

We left Paris-Arsenal first thing on Saturday, planning to fill up with diesel before heading back downstream. Unfortunately the plaisance fuel barge was firmly closed, and the commercial barge nowhere to be seen. We were only at the beginning of the red on the fuel gauge, and a review of the Navicarte and cruising guides showed a couple of fuel stations at Conflans as well as one at Compeigne so we opted to push on.

We had been threatened with hurricane force winds whilst in Paris, with news pictures of caravans in the south of France severed in two by fallen trees, but we had seen little of the bad weather and it was another baking hot day as we cruised out of the city, struggling to find somewhere on the boat which was out of the sun and in the breeze.

We stopped at the halte fluvial at Rueil, moving on the youngsters who had chosen the best shady spot to hang out. We needed more provisions and the shops are quite a walk from the mooring at Rueil so we rigged up the bike trailer and after a few false starts and design modifications managed to load up with groceries from Franprix in the town centre.

After a relaxing evening dining on the aft deck, the peace was shattered shortly after midnight by the return of the party boat Le Bel Ami, which moored up opposite. A full complement of wedding guests danced the night away until 3.30am to deafening disco music. Eventually we managed to signal our displeasure to the ship's captain - windows and doors were reluctantly closed, lowering the sound level to a dull thud.

Cruising Statistics

Distance: 26 nm

Total to date: 1642 nm

Avg Speed: 5 knots

Duration: 5:30 hours

Diesel: 50 litres (est)

Mooring: Free

Electricity: N/A

Locks

Suresnes

Min headroom: 5.2m at entrance to Paris-Arsenal
(6m on main river)

Min draught: 3m

Charts

Navicarte 1