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A short hop from La Frette Sur Seine, we covered the 20 km’s to the Halte Nautique at Bourgival in just 2 1/2 hours.

The Bourgival lock is a double one, with a larger commercial lock and a smaller lock more suited to our use, our customary drill was followed and without incident we were through in quick fast time. 

Situated under the first bridge into Bourgival and 1km beyond the Bourgival lock is the Halte Nautique, nothing there except a rubbish bin, we claimed our free place for the night.

Bourgival is a quiet suburb of Paris and being August much of the facilities were closed so food and facilities were minimal but the Boulanger was a welcome facility and the bread tasted fantastic.

First thing Friday morning we were up and ready to go, a quick walk up to the Boulanger for more of their fantastic bread and off we went.

This area of the Seine is described as “surprising” however we found it rather bland and industrial.

Traffic along the canal was light until we arrived at the outer approaches to Paris itself.

We had our first sighting of Paris when we approached the first of many bridges which span the Seine, Pont de Birhakeim, The Eifel Tower stood before us like a beacon welcoming us to Paris.

Progress along the Seine was swift as we passed barge after barge moored at each side of the river, many of these had been converted into superb homes with picturesque windows looking out onto the sights of the Seine, some were commercial offices and others restaurants where the fashionable Parisians eat their dejeuner.

At a fork in the river we went right as La Defense appeared on the horizon, La Defense is the commercial heart OF Paris with splendid modern buildings cluttering the skyline.

Commercial and residential areas became inner city Paris where the leisure day trip barges filled to the gunnels’ with sightseers burst on to the panorama opening before us, then the clutter of it all hit us as many of the craft converged onto the bridges which span City Centre Paris, all very confusing.

In the midst of it all we passed a sunken barge in the middle of the river, a camera crew stretched and posed from an adjacent barge, it must be a film set I declared.

Just after the sunken boat a police rib with dark clothed police officers looked towards us, one held up a  VHF radio and shouted in French something which we did not understand, one held 10 fingers up and we responded by showing them our handheld duly set on 10. By this time the stern of Fandango was parallel with them.

One officer appeared to look at our red ensign and with a resigned shrug, waved us on.

The river splits just before Notre Dam, in this area ornate bridges span the river, the colourful Pont Neuf and Notre Dam Bridges seemed to be from another age with ornate colourful finishes. By now we were in the heart of tourist Paris lots to see and lots of people gazing down on us; I’m not sure what they would be thinking.

As we motored out towards the Bastille, the narrow entrance of the St Martin’s canal appeared the bridge above it the tight entrance and traffic light system indicating entry lock into the Arsenal Marina. A holding pontoon outside the entrance was already taken up by a large steel canal boat, but as we approached the boat moved off towards the canal entrance so we made towards it, the wake of the canal boat made getting onto the pontoon difficult but on our third attempt we were secured against the pontoon.

The Captainierre approved our entrance in 15 minutes and duly on time we entered the lock and tied up.

This lock is actually under a railway bridge, as we waited in the lock trains were passing over our heads, quite a weird experience, looking ahead the marina opened up before us and we could see holding pontoons over to the right.

The lock filled and we exited and we tied up to the pontoon, the arsenal is a long basin with locks at either end, leisure trip barges moor in front of a cafe and the area is open to public access. A large number of the craft are panache’s, large converted barges used as residences, with telephone lines and clutter it is obvious that these are permanent fixtures.  

We were allocated pontoon “O” which is an alongside pontoon, our position was in between two residential barges, Fandango looks so small and is totally overpowered by the size of our neighbours.

The marina is centrally located and has easy access to the Bastille and good local but expensive shopping; Metro lines are close by as are a selection of bars and restaurant too expensive for us to eat in.

We are booked into the marina for 5 nights, and at 37 euro’s per night it is an expensive extravagance but an opportunity not to be missed.

It seems strange in the opulence of such a big city marina that there is no fuel available on site, in fact fuel is difficult to acquire and only available via a fuelling barge in the river or by can after a long walk to a commercial fuel station some 2 kilometres away. We have arranged to meet the barge on our departure on Wednesday; failure to secure fuel will have its consequences on our future journey so it is imperative that we get fuel.  

A de ja vous moment occurred when we passed a Westerley Fulmar recently arrived in the marina, a second look confirmed our first impression, that it was a boat which is familiar to us, “Wonderwest of Wessex”registered in Poole she was for many years in Porthmadog owned by Dave Hemmings We have not yet managed to speak to her owner but hope to do so before we leave tomorrow.