Barging in France – Paris

Shangri La in 2014 – on the River Amstel

It has been quite a trip:

1274 kilometres, passing through 3 countries.

We negotiated 299 locks, up and down the mountains, and going through 5 tunnels, the longest being 5 km and in the pitch dark.

As for bridges – about 58 lift bridges and numerous fixed bridges, many of which we had to lower everything down to get under.

 

Summary of 2015 from Shangri La logbook

At this stage, we were already thinking about where to go next.

Looking at the maps of France, we have covered such a small percentage (the tiny bit highlighted in orange) of their waterways, that the options are endless.

French waterways

Paris is one option, but doubt whether it will be this year (2016).

But while we were in Paris we visited Port de l’Arsenal, the main harbour or marina there.

The harbour master was most helpful and friendly and gave us loads of information as well as all the costs.

It would be wonderful to stay on our boat in Paris for a while as the marina is very handily placed, near the Bastille.

 

Port de l’Arsenal – Paris

We even found a few vegan restaurants close by!

I couldn’t resist taking a photo of a clothes shop called Shangri La.

Before leaving the boat I had a long session with the H2O about various problems we were having with the boat.

Vegan restaurant in Paris

They agreed to have a look at all these items and let me know what they thought.

Mmm – all expensive thoughts.

The oil problem at the exhaust was found to be the bearings in the turbo charger leaking.

Shop named after our boat – or vice-versa?

The turbo has now been overhauled and the problem apparently fixed, though at a cost as the turbo is quite old and parts not readily available.

The generator was smoking a lot.

Again it is an old model and parts not available, so it will soon have to be replaced.

 

Chilling near the Bastille

The anti fouling is due to be redone completely.

I have done a patch up job the last few years, but there is a lot more cracking in the coating now, so it will be better in the long run to have the hull completely sand-blasted and brand new full coating applied.

 

Love Paris! Dancing by the Seine.

And lastly, the cooling water heat exchanger needs replacing, so this might as well be done now while the boat is out the water.

But all this is worth doing properly as we love Shangri La and want to keep her in good shape for as long as possible.

No body ever said boating was cheap!

 

Another vegan restaurant near Bastille in Paris

So that’s where we are at the moment.

Once I know more about my work schedule for the year, and how long all this work will take,I will start planning this year’s cruising.

I think somehow that we will stay in the Burgundy area and do several short and leisurely trips.

There are plenty of good places to go to, and there are not too many locks, which will make a change from last year’s trip.

In the meantime – happy boating and bon voyage.

For Karen’s perspective, see her blog here