Vernon (would the last person to leave turn the lights out)

We left Poses mid-morning and decided to head to Vernon. After some calculations it was decided that trying to reach Paris Arsenal for the dates we had booked was going to be too much. Paris Arsenal have been very tolerant of Ramukanji as, in total, I think we changed our dates four times and they were always very agreeable. The only restraint we had was relating to our waste water system.

It is the Olympics this July, and they are hoping to use the Seine for some of their swimming events, thus it has been necessary to clean up the Seine, and thus any boat entering this year must have 'black water' waste system, (this means toilet nasties) and from May 30th also 'grey water' systems, this means all water from showers, sinks etc also is to be collected. It is unable for us to install a grey water system and so we must leave Paris before May 30th.

Vernon was our destination, based on distance and the nice picture I've seen of a boat moored next to an old mill, see below!

The trip was straightforward, we were getting used to the navigation signs and not so worried about the large boats coming at us from in front and behind. The scenery was lovely, with pretty villages and lots of lovely churches. One commercial lock, with floating bollard, so that was easy.

Floating bollards are so great, on entering the lock we place a rope from the mid-ship cleat over the bollard, and the bollard rises as the lock fills, simples!

On approaching Vernon we were careful getting to the mill site, as our guides reported shallows and our depth, being a sailing vessel with a keel , is 1.5m. As there has been so much rain we did not have any problems at all other than squawking French geese being annoyed at us daring to moor on their poo laden pontoon.

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It was a bit of a worry all these geese around as there is a bird obsessed sprocker spaniel on the boat, but they survived, and I think really he was a bit scared of them!

As we were so close to town we though it would be nice to wander in for a bite to eat, at least just a drink.

There were a couple of hotel barges moored downstream as this is close to Monet's famous garden of the lilies fame and one would assume a relatively busy tourist centre.

How strange then that there were very few restaurants or bars, and any we came upon were about to close, also the supermarket in the square.....it was a quarter to nine on a Saturday night! Bizarre, but you know what I say..... this is France :)

Back to the boat, in a very pretty spot, note also the lovely chateau just up on the bank from our mooring. Still a bit chilly to sit outside to eat but cosy inside and grateful for the duvet I brought which does seem to take up a lot of the aft cabin.

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Did we go to the famous gardens?

No... too many hotel barge people going and they were very loud!