Tuesday, June 27, 2023
June 20 - Auxerre
June 20 - A day to visit Auxerre
Today was our day to explore the beautiful city of Auxerre with our guests, Joan's sister Julie and her boyfriend Bill. They'd already been introduced to a number of the people we'd met at the marina, now it was time to see the city.
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| Saint-Étienne d'Auxerre Cathedral A little later in the day |
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| Auxerre clock tower first built in 1483 |
Next came the clock tower built in the 15th century on the basis of a tower from the old Gallo-Roman fortified city. First used as a prison, it was turned into a clock and belfry in 1483. When we were here last year the entire tower was wrapped up for re-construction. Seeing it this year we could see why it is one of the must see sights in this historic town.
All that walking left us thirsty and hungry, nothing like a good Italian pizza and salad to get us back on our feet.
Our final site for the day was the Abbaye St. Germain. The Abbaye was taken from the church during the revolution and now is used for cultural displays and events.
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| The Abbaye St. Germain |
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| Part of the current art display. Wooden carvings of people |
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| Joan, Bill and Julie as we finish our walk through the old city |
June 16-19 Auxerre
Friday June 16 Evening
We took an evening train from Paris to Auxerre, arriving in time to make a quick grocery run and make the bed. Before we had opened the door on Juniper Bill and Sandy (Anahita), from Australia, were introducing themselves and giving us the keys to the boat. The marina had handed the keys off to them in case we didn't have a set when we arrived. Before we finished talking with them, Rob was down introducing himself - we had met on the Dutch Barge Association website as we're both hoping to transit Le Canal de Bourgogne this season.
After getting our gear aboard, we had time to pick up coffee and cream for breakfast (to be accompanied by croissants to be purchased fresh in the morning) and then grab a hamburger from the food truck in the marina parking lot.
At last it was time to sit on the upper deck and enjoy watching the evening progress while enjoying a G&T. We spent quite a bit of time learning to use our phone cameras shooting in low light conditions as darkness fell.
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| One of the many photos we took of St Etienne Cathedral |
Saturday June 17th
Time to finish moving aboard as we have guests arriving on Monday. Went to turn on the water in the galley and the faucet handle broke into several pieces. No problem, we'll run to the local Mr Brico store and buy a new one. Oooops our faucets predate the EU and are on an English built boat. Maybe you could bring in the faucet and we'll rebuild it with a valve stem that has the new European standard. Bike back to Juniper and crawl under the sink to remove the faucet (several colorful words were heard coming from beneath the sink). Got it out and rode back to Mr Brico. The valve was so corroded together there was no way to get it apart. Time for a new faucet. After a couple more trips back and forth, we finally had all the parts and the system back together and no leaks.
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| The old |
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| And the new |
June 12-16 Paris
We started this year's trip with a stay in Paris with Joan's sister Julie and her boyfriend Bill. We rented an Air B&B in the Belleville area of Paris and attempted to see as many of the sights as we could. We certainly were able to get a feel for what it would be like to live in this city. We got around on the Metro (Paris subway system) and RER rail. We shopped in the neighborhood store for a few of our meals and were able to experience a bit of the Belleville Market, that went on for many blocks.
This was the first time Joan and I had been to Paris during high tourist season, and will certainly be our last. The sights were still amazing, but for us, the crowds were too much.
In our five days we were able to see a few of the major attractions.
Monday - The Louvre. Probably not the best time to go. We had just moved into our Air B&B and were fully jet lagged. Amazing architecture and displays, would like to give it another try in the off season.
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| The entrance to the courtyard of our Air B&B |
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| Capital on one of the columns in what used to be an indoor riding arena |
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| Crowd working its way to the lineup to see the Mona Lisa. I think there were some pictures on the walls. |
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| The Mona Lisa Shot over the heads of those in front of us |
Tuesday - A bus tour of Paris to get an overview of what there was to see. The Arc de Triomphe, a little bit of a concert put on by a brass band and dinner at the restaurant we were supposed to have been at for our anniversary the year covid hit.
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| The Arc de Triomphe |
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| It's a long climb to the top. |
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| View from the top |
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| Walking around the neighborhood where Google thought our dinner reservation was located we came across a free brass band concert. Too bad we couldn't stay for the entire performance, but we'd waited 3 years for this dinner. |
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| Dinner at A la Biche au Bois. Recommended to us by our niece-in-law. The food and service were fantastic, the location is top secret. Not even Google Maps knows where it is. |
Wednesday - Eiffel Tower, Napolean's tomb and les Invalids Military Museum
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| We are really here, and we're really going to the top on a spectacular, beautiful day. |
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| A glass of champagne at the top. |
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| The view from the top |
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| The view from the bottom |
Thursday - Versailles, then dinner with Julie, Bill and our boat partners Karen and Bill near the Notre Dame.
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| A portion of the palace |
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| The famous hall of mirrors |
Friday - Rodin's sculpture garden and a walk along the Seine before catching an evening train to Auxerre to move aboard Juniper for our two month stay.
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| The Musée Rodin |
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| The Thinker |
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| Michael had been fantasizing about a cafe au lait in the garden from reading novels that talked about how restorative the setting could be. It lived up to the expectations. |
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| Back in Auxerre aboard Juniper. We're tied up on the right bank of the Yonne River looking across at Saint Etienne Cathedral and Saint Germain Abbey. A very peaceful beginning of this season's cruising. |