Court Short

After our most successful day on the canals, three locks and one tunnel we arrived in Meaux.  We’re tempted to quit while we’re ahead!!   We arrived in time for the colourful Saturday market with fabulous fruit and veg as well mountains of brie de Meaux!  And to round it all off, there was a […]

Locks still not going too well but the trip down the Canal de Chelles was lovely with swans taking off in front of us and our first experience of overtaking a barge in a narrow channel.   Only a short day as we wanted to see Notre Dame des Ardents so we tied alongside a […]

We’ve been miles and miles on our faithful Bromptons with Jeanetta on a bright yellow OFO, the equivalent of a ‘Boris’ bike.   The Louvre, Les Invalides, Norte Dame for Mass on Sunday, Le Marais Quarter (where we had dinner), the length and breadth of the Seine, The Tuilleries, St Eustache, Nelson Mandela’s Memorial Garden […]

In our 4 years of travel under sail we had three sets of people to visit.  We’ve been on this canal boat trip for 4 weeks and have just welcomed our third visitor!!  Edward not only visited but brought James’ long distance glasses and our new credit card!!  Des and Heather were just passing through […]

  Oh my word, adrenalin is rampant on Ocean Rainbow!   Just when we thought we’d got the Seine locks sussed, Murphy strikes!   We were lined up perfectly, all set to drop the line on the antler bollard when .... panic, the antler’s broken!  The wash from the tug in front pushed our bows […]

Though our strap line is ‘never a dull moment’, this canal boat lark is definitely never a dull second! It’s a busy time underway! With no Humphrey Hydrovane to steer, we’re finding ourselves hand steering a lot of the time (rather than using the autopilot) as the channel constantly changes. And when there’s a straight […]

  5 years and 3 months ago (to the day) our friends the Revd’s Ruth and Peter Walker, in Portishead, blessed Ocean Rainbow, before our 4 year Atlantic-crossing sailing adventure. Now, as we set off on our new ‘canal boat’ and Mediterranean adventure we find them on the banks of the Seine at Pont Corneille […]

Cathedral Notre-Dame! What a spectacular cathedral, it quite takes your breathe away.   We’ve enjoyed our brief stay in Rouen, staying at the marina in Bassin St Gervais and biking miles and miles to see the sights, find iPad repair shops (yes, the screen on James’ iPad died and caused great consternation - but now […]

We’ve had a brilliant time in Honfleur with its 15th century fort, cobbled streets, period houses and steep winding alleys (absolute killers on a bike!).    It’s such a picturesque town it’s no wonder that so many poets and artists have made Honfleur central to their work.  We went to Ste Catherine’s  Church (missed the […]