POKÉMON GO

It's very popular and it does get people out into the late summer air. The sheer number of people 'running' along the quayside looking solely at their mobile screen is staggering. It happens most days especially in the evening.

Run, stop, analyse, catch and off to the next location.

BEER

I realise that this subject will be a surprise to everyone that knows us. We have been known to find the odd pub/bar. Close to our mooring and in La Villette basin is a good find the 'Paname Brewing Company', (Paname is apparently slang for Paris!). It's a brasserie perched on the edge of the canal bassin and is a brasserie in the true sense of the word, ie. it's a brewery. Inside the bar area is a state of the art micro brewery, the products travelling a full 10 metres before consumption.

The micro brewery.

I had to try a couple. The beer I was drawn to was aptly named 'Barge du Canal' now my favourite beer! Only joking, come back Fischer. 

My newest favourite beer.

Moving forward on this beer sampling journey we stepped into a Péniche bar and sampled Northmaen and H Beer, 2 more good finds.

Couldn't resist this poster in one of the péniches.

ANOTHER QUAYSIDE ANOTHER FESTIVAL

In Paris at La Villette, it's festival time again. Not totally sure if this festival has a reason or direction but it's great fun. Lots of music, theatre, karaoke, stalls full of information about other events in Paris and archery??

Les Illumineurs performing.

La Cie K were great fun leaping inbetween the audience and producing a totally improptu rhythm from anything they could hit. Somehow their rhythm and sound was very infectious. Or as they were described in a flyer...'Les Illumineurs. Déambulation de masques et polyrythmies de cloches'. All good.

One of the many groups amongst the mass of cultural information.

SCOOTING AROUND PARIS

Scoots is off and loving the cut and thrust of weaving through the Paris traffic, wing mirrors almost touching. Well I am. To be honest it's very exciting and nail biting at the same time, especially if you are on the back like Margaret. More pure fear for her! You really haven't experienced life until you've taken on the totally unstructured chaos going around the Arc de Triomphe, the confluence of 12 roads with no traffic lights or lane delineation, on a scooter with cars, taxis, buses, lorries, motorbikes and scooters coming at you from all directions at speed. Great! 

Returning from a few laps around the Arc de Triomphe.

Other times it's squeezing inbetween cars queued up at traffic lights.

Weaving to be the first off at the lights.

We have had a few scary moments and the speed is quite phonetic. Margaret always pleased when we stop the engine next to Soraya.

Back at Soraya. A rare photo of the two of us on Scoots.

CONCERTS

Just as we have to do galleries, we have to do concerts too. We are moored within a few hundred metres of the Philharmonie de Paris in the Parc de la Villette. It's an amazing building.

Part of the building of the Philharmonie de Paris

You can even walk all over the roof and get a great view of the Paris skyline.

Geoff on the roof of the Philharmonie de Paris

We looked at the concert programme and decided straight away to book for the following night. 

The Concert Hall

It was a piano concert with three pianists and a cellist who were all prizewinners at the international Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and wow they were superb!! The speed of their hands and the quality of the music was astounding. During the interval the piano had to be tuned as it had been played so hard. I've never seen that happen before. The performance was stunning!!

MUSÉE DE QUAI BRANLY

A museum we have never been to before which is quite new and built as a legacy to Jacques Chirac. It attempts to fill a void in the world of grand museums and concentrates on cultures of the non western world. Amazing artifacts with a distinct bias towards representations of the human form with a further emphasis towards genetalia and breasts. You enter the museum up a long spiral ramp that flows like a river with constantly moving words from the various cultures. As an art installation it certainly beats a lot of the works in the Centre Georges Pompidou!

Margaret standing amongst constant moving flow of vocabulary.

Of the hundreds of figures these 3 metre tall carving are some of the less scary or macabre. 

A few offerings from Oceania (Polynesia).

In addition to the permanent collection there are temporary exhibitions. A current one is 'Persona', various items from around the world illustrate how throughout time, different cultures have incorporated humanity into inanimate objects. Astounding!

A recent artifact, a 3D projection of a 'Pleasure Machine'.

ART AND YET MORE 'ART'

Paris. Well you have to do a few galleries, well we do. We set out to do a couple. It was Monday and after careful research we set off.  Both were closed!

Margaret and Geoff when we found the second closed gallery.

We thought Tuesday was the day off but not in Paris. So we sojourned across to the Centre Georges Pompidou mainly for the view from the restaurant on the 6th floor. Even though the coffee is a rip off the views are spectacular, worth going. Haven't been around the gallery for a long time so it was fun to see some 'Modern' art. However, I really felt that Ilya Kabakov could have put in a bit more effort...

Qui a planté ce clou? Je ne sais pas. By Ilya Kabakov.

A nail in a piece of wood. Still we all have our favourites. Margaret liked the domino castle. I think she liked the mathematical symetry. 

Mausolée en os. By Yuri Avvakumov. 

My current favourite was a few lockers that have as a result of the 'artist' seen better days.

Untitled (Locker Sculpture #01). By Matias Faldbakken.

Really there are too many to comment on but I was amused by this one..

Fire Equipment. By fire safety consultant.

CANAL SAINT DENIS

Even Paris has its navigation moments. Fortunately we have a new navigation system on board. Legal requirement this year. It's called AIS (Automatic Identification System) and shows in real time information about other boats. Similarly they are able to 'see' us. If used properly it's great, giving information about the boat name, speed, size, cargo, destination etc. Going round a blind corner it's good to know that a 1000+ tons 110x10m monster is bearing down on you.

Geoff and John looking very concerned about our entrance to the 'very' small écluse at the entrance to the Saint Denis canal.

Once in the Saint Denis canal it's lock after lock and not the the best part of Paris. The final lock before our mooring is the 9.94m Pont de Flandre écluse. It's very challenging as there are only small hooks in the wall which had to be changed 5 times during the assent. The water fills the lock from below which pushes any boat all over the lock.

John and Margaret looking relaxed before they knew how difficult it was going to be.

All turned out well and we have a good mooring in La Villette opposite the park.

PARIS

We finally made it, and it was a great run through the centre of Paris. You have to do some serious planning as you are only allowed to proceed round the islands, Île St-Louis and Île de la Cité, in a particular direction during a twenty minute window in the hour. That aside it was fabulous with all the famous sights that Paris can offer. We were lucky to have Margaret's brother to join us and he was happy to take the helm whilst we ran around taking photographs.

Passing by the Île de la Cité and Notre-Dame.

Good friends were on a bridge of the Seine taking photographs of our progress.

Tour Eiffel, Soraya and Geoff.

One of the problems of arriving in Paris by boat is there are few, if any, moorings for visiting boats on the Seine in central Paris so we progressed faster than planned. This had the benefit that we arrived a day early via the Canal St Denis to our mooring booked with the Mairie de Paris in the Bassin de la Villette which is great. Lots of bars and restaurants within a stone throw of Soraya. Yes we have sampled a few.

La Défense.

Now it's time for a few guests and some interesting exploring in Paris on foot and with Scoots.

BACK TO SORAYA

Had a great trip back to Montereau-sur-Yonne via various trains in UK and France which concluded in an amusing incident at Momtereau. As the station is a couple of kilometres from Soraya and our cases were very heavy, all the usual stuff plus a few spare parts, we decided to get a taxi. Came out of the station to the taxi rank and surprise surprise there were no taxis. This is quite normal in a small town France where you have to pre book a taxi. We hadn't. At the taxi rank was a small list of telephone numbers. Margaret phoned the top number which was in a much larger type face. Then we both burst into laughter........

Margaret and the taxi box.

The number Margaret had phoned rang a telephone in a locked box we were standing next to!!! Let's just try to sort out the logic here, well perhaps not. We couldn't. So the phone rang and the light on top of the box flashed until Margaret stopped the call. Surprisingly we did not speak to anyone or get a taxi. Fortunately about 15 minutes later a bus appeared and all was good.