Return to Paris

or sometimes things work and sometimes they don’t!

We returned to Piedaleau on Thurs 6^th April after my eyes were done and dusted – ie had my cataract operations and then waited to get my new glasses. Really pleased to get this over and done with and to be able to get back on with the important stuff …. aka Boating!

So orf we jolly well set in the early hours of that Thurs morning to make an early tunnel crossing so we could arrive at the boat with time to do stuff. Even stopped at marina near St Omer to buy a book of maps for Belgium. Planning and forethought!

All went well until we reached the boat – sound familiar? – absolutely zilch, nada, rien in the way of any form of life or light on board. To cut a very l – o – n – g story short – it seems that the power from the pontoon was cut at some point during the last 3 months which resulted in our batteries being completely drained of all power, which, as we learnt on our course the other year, batteries do not like. Certainly holds true here today as they are dead, completely defunct. We have 7 batteries so that will be expensive++. It also seems, perhaps as a result, that our inverter is upset and won’t play at all. So it has been taken away so that Victron (manufacturer) can look at it and decide if its repairable. Hope so cos if not that’ll be expensive +++! And then we are planning to install solar panels. So, all in all, EXPENSIVE ++++

We have just found all this out as it has taken a week to get the geezer to come and give his opinion and to take the Victron inverter away.

So we have had to rely on the marina’s facilities – which, thankfully, are good and not too far away from the boat. Another boater has similar problems with his inverter, so between him and Adrian they managed to get it so that we can use the plug system so now we have some lights at night etc. You may remember that last year we had problems with one loo so could only use the rear one? Well this year we have none!!! Just a walk…

No comments thanks Jacky (& how the devil are you all?)

You may also remember that 2 years ago (when we were at Migennes having lots of work done on the boat which seemed to take forever) we had Sue and David come to stay. They had to get up and down a ladder to get to the facilities (which were awful) so Elizabeth had it easy at the weekend when she came to visit – we just have to walk up the pontoon to get to good loos and clean showers with plentiful hot water.

You’ve heard of ‘Glamping’ well perhaps we should should christen this ‘Bamping’. Maybe its more on the ‘Carry on Boating’ or ‘Faulty Fenders’ theme.

Might as well get used to it as the geezer reckons it will be at least a week, & probably longer, to get everything costed (ugh). Never mind organised and actually sorted. The mind (& the chequebook) boggles.

Apart from this little hiccup we have had glorious weather since we arrived. Warm and sunny during the day if a little sharp when walking up to the facilities at night.

It was really great to see Elizabeth and to learn that her divorce has finally come through. We cracked open a bottle to celebrate. Up on deck, no less! We hope to get down to St Jean before we start cruising this year to catch up with other friends.

Luckily we hadn’t intended to set off immediately, wanting to visit Paris while we can, so we sit here doing various jobs and going up into Paris 2 or 3 times a week. I have even ordered some funky french glasses. Always thought the French have a better selection than we do!

We have been back to Sacre Couer, Montmartre,

(where ‘les pompiers’ put on a display for the tourists by backing in a fire truck and running the ladder up to a fourth floor window and breaking in! Never found out why or what the outcome actually was – but I digress!)

Notre Dame & finally managed to get into Sainte Chappelle which is absolutely stunning. Adrian decided to change mobile phone / network provider so today we went and paid for my glasses and then went to the Free centre near La Madeleine.

And we are preparing the boat for the season – Adrian is de-winterizing & replacing the water pump and trying to fix it more securely so as to reduce the noise it makes. Just have to wait and see if it works as we won’t fill up with water until we have the inverter and batteries done. I am re-oiling the wooden rails & doors and have had to redo some of the varnishing in the wheelhouse. And we have been swabbing the decks – never seen them so dirty! Then there was the ‘renaming’ of the fleeces – ie I ordered patches for Piedaleau cos I didn’t want to jettison our comfy Misty Morning fleeces!

Easter was quiet but I saw a ‘brocante’ advertised in the park here. It turned out to be a really low key car boot type sale. Needed to save me dosh for the inverter anyway!

So that’s about it from Port aux Cerises for the time being….. I’ll just pop up the pontoon AGAIN!

Nice view from our stern windows – in November it was Cormorants now its Herons