Paris: A Night at the Opera

Hotel de Paris is very quiet and comfortable, with obliging staff. After 11 mornings on the boat, it was great to have a shower that you don't have to hold and unlimited hot water. We made the most of that, then headed out for breakfast at the nearby boulanger-patissier - same efficient two-door system that many of these have, good food and coffee. Most people just buy and go, but there are a couple of tables you can sit at and two more you can stand at, so we eat in.

From there we head toward the Metro, but find a market on the way so we walk through it enjoying the smells of fish, charcuterie and admiring the fromageries and the fruit and veg stalls. It's a very long market, after we've seen half we continue on to the Metro and go to Cite (on the Ile de la Cite). From there we meander along the river and through Le Marais until we reach our planned destination, Musee Carnavalet. This museum traces the history of Paris from mesolithic times to present day. It's a fascinating museum in a wonderful old building. After an hour or so we take a break for coffee and cool drinks sitting in the courtyard garden, then continue our journey through the ages.

By about 4pm we've reached the French revolution, but we're running out of energy and of time, so we return via Metro to the hotel for a brief rest and to change into opera-going outfits. Then it's back on to the Metro to go just one station past the one where we started our return journey from the museum. Paris Opera has a new building called Opera Bastille which is a minute's walk from the Bastille Metro. We arrive about forty minutes before the start time of 19:30, and decide to go straight in and eat there. We have to wait a few minutes before they let us in to the area where the bars are, but we have plenty of time to eat a focaccia, drink a glass of champagne and buy a program before it's time to go into the auditorium. We have quite good seats, but they get even better when it becomes apparent that the four seats to our left (closer to the centre) are unoccupied (surprising as the whole hall seems fully booked. We are thinking about moving up when the people next to us urge us to, so the entire row moves four seats left. I finish up on the aisle, so have a great view.

It's a great performance, especially by the orchestra under conductor Speranza Scappucci. An interesting production, with a bare stage and using very stylised Japanese movement. I'm not sure it will work, but it does, made one concentrate more on the music itself. I cry all the way through the second act. What a bastard Pinkerton is. 

Speranza Scappucci

When all the curtain calls are done, it's back into the Metro and return to the hotel, where we're finishing the cheese and doing some packing, ready for our flight back to Oz tomorrow.

Paris

It's a clear night, so very chilly and it takes a lot of willpower to get out of a warm bed when the alarm goes off at 7am. We are on French summer time here, but Brittany is so far in the west of France that it should be on the same time zone as the UK. Redon is further west than Bournemouth. Which means that at 7am, the sun has not yet risen. But we get ourselves out of bed, shower, dress, breakfast on croissants and jam, complete our packing and clean the boat ready for checkout at 9:30. Our pre-booked taxi arrives to take us to the station, the driver helps to take the bags from the boat to the taxi and waits patiently as we do our final settling up. We have already had our security deposit returned, but we think we have to pay an hourly rate for engine usage. But I had forgotten that I'd prepaid for a package that gave us that and insurance, so there's nothing owing. 

When the taxi drops us at the station we have an hour to wait for the train, but the station is very pleasant, has a cafe and bookshop that sells a wide range of books, magazines, newspapers, much more than you'd find in a country railway station in Oz. Redon has a population of around 10,000 people - it's not a big place. We have a coffee - why can you get a really good coffee even in a railway station in France, but awful coffee in a lot of the UK? I started drinking lattes in the UK because a weak latte isn't as bad as a weak long black, but in Thurso I got one where the heated milk had a skin on it. Bleah! In France I drink straight cafe, not even an allongé, which is edging toward an Americano, a bit weak for me.

The train is five minutes late in Redon, but there is another long delay when the train just stops for ages somewhere between Redon and Rennes, so we arrive in Paris at 2pm, about 45 minutes behind schedule. Which doesn't matter at all as we have no particular plans and we can't check into our hotel until 3pm anyway. It's a very long walk down the platform at Gare Montparnasse, but when we finally find the Sortie and come out into the open, the hotel I've booked is just across the road. We drop off our bags, go for a walk, find a local cafe that looks good and have a late lunch of roast duck.

When we return to the hotel our bags are already in our fourth floor room - it's surprisingly quiet for a hotel on a busy main road with a railway station opposite. It's time for a bit of a rest until early evening, when we set out to see what Paris is like on a Friday night. We find our way to the nearest Metro and after a bit of a struggle work out how to buy ourselves tickets to go to St-Michel on the edge of the Seine. From there we find our way to an amazing English language bookshop called Shakespeare and Company, have a browse there, then walk across to Ile de la Cité to look at the restoration work being done on Notre Dame, across to the other side of the island to watch boats going up and down the Seine, then gradually work our way back to the Metro and return to Montparnasse.

Biggest crane I've ever seen working on Notre Dame Had to take the photo on an angle to fit it all in

We ate lunch so late that we don't need an evening meal, and all the cafes near the Seine are full of tourists, so not attractive. Back in Montparnasse we find another cafe that seems full of locals, where we indulge in strawberries and cream washed down with rose. The specialty of the house seems to be steak with some sort of mashed potato, possibly with cheese? We watch fascinated as the waiters repeatedly appear with a copper saucepan from which they pour this concoction on to people's plates, from a height of about 40cm. Now back in the hotel and it's time to sleep so that we can explore more of Paris tomorrow and go to the opera in the evening.

Brittany Canal Day 11: last day

Overnight the wind drops and it's absolutely calm. We wake to a nice sunny day and I take pictures around sun up before tucking back into bed - the boat only has heating when it's on shore power and without it, it's pretty cold early in the morning.

Sunrise in the marina at Pont de Cran

After the disappointment of finding the restaurant at Pont de Cran closed, we plan to go back as far as Rieux and lunch there if we can find a place to tie up. We arrive just before midday and find there are three possible places where we can fit and insert Pladic comfortably into the easiest one. After a walk around Rieux, we lunch at Au Bon Porc, which is right on the river, sitting in the sunshine and looking out over all the boats moored there. It's a delicious lunch of salad, grilled mackerel (poissons entire, two each) and baked apple with ice cream and salted caramel sauce. Apart from the splendid lunch at the Good Pig, one of the other things I liked about Rieux is that the local public school is called Ecole Escargot Bleu. I would just love to be able to say "I went to the Blue Snail School".

The wide Vilaine river, a contrast to the canal

The church at Rieux

We then motor on up the Vilaine, into the canal and back to Les Canalous. After a couple of not quite successful attempts to back the boat in (tricky as it's now quite windy) we decide to tie up alongside. But the Les Canalous staff are there and as soon as the boat is within reach one of them jumps aboard, takes over from Peter, and backs it neatly between two other boats, something we wouldn't even attempt. He did all this at full revs, both taking it forward into the river again and in reverse. As I haven't seen him come aboard I think Peter is still in charge and am wondering whether he's gone mad or the throttle is stuck. But in no time we are neatly tied up, connected to power and we can relax for a while, then start doing a bit of tidying up for the handover tomorrow.

At about 5pm we go for a walk and spend a couple of hours exploring Redon, before returning to the cafe where we ate the first night we were here, where we have a relatively light evening meal. 

I'll be really sad to leave the boat, the waterways and rural France tomorrow. It has been the perfect relaxing holiday that I anticipated and I'm not sure I want to return to my home duties and responsibilities. But I will be pleased to see you all again a few days hence.

Brittany Canal Day 10

We make our usual late morning start, but today in bright sunshine. The wind is still chilly, so not quite warm enough to sit out on deck as we continue from St-Martin-sur-Oust toward Redon. We pass through the first lock before lunch, take a break at a jetty at le Pont d'Oust. There's a restaurant there, but not open on a Wednesday, so we make lunch on board before continuing down the canal, through another lock and back into the Oust river. 

The canal, evenly-spaced trees planted along it

We continue via river and canal all the way back to Redon, where we go through the last lock of this holiday. We don't have to hand the boat back for another day, so we decide to explore the waterway south of Redon. Just past the Les Canalous marina the canal enters the Vilaine river, which is much wider than the Oust. It's full of people sculling, singles, pairs and quads. We manage to avoid swamping any of them - one quad cheekily rows past us only about an oar's length away. They progress considerably faster than we do!

Onward with the Vilaine river continuing to widen, with lots of bird life - cormorants, swans, herons, flocks of egrets and some kind of raptor rising on a thermal. We planned to go as far as Rieux, but Google tells us the restaurants there are closed until tomorrow, so we think we'll push on a bit further to Pont de Cran. This decision is confirmed when we reach Rieux, because there are boats everywhere and nowhere for us to moor. Now we are seeing lots of yachts amongst the moored boats.

When we reach Pont du Cran we understand why - this is a big bridge with a section that opens at half a dozen scheduled times each day, allowing boats with masts to pass through. From here on the river runs down to its estuary at Azal. We pass easily under the bridge and find a place to tie up in a small marina where most of the boats are yachts. After a bit of a pause, we walk ashore to investigate the restaurant that's open, according to Google. It's only about 150 metres from the marina and we're looking forward to dining there, but when we get there a handwritten note on a slip of paper says "Fermé ce soir". Damn! We retreat to the boat and read until it's time to make our own dinner. At least we've now consumed almost everything that was in our fridge. We hope we'll be able to find a spot to moor in Rieux tomorrow so we can lunch there - if not we'll return to Redon.

Brittany Canal Day 9

Most days begin cloudy, then give way to blue skies and sunshine. Although the forecast was for 21 degrees, the cloud didn't lift until evening and there was a chilly wind, so it felt cold most of the day. We began the day with a last walk in Malestroit, heading into the big main square to patronise the boulanger-patisserie, along with half the rest of Malestroit. The French are so organised. The shop has two doors, with a queue forming in the street outside the IN door. The queue moves past the display cases, so by the time you get to order, you've made up your mind what you want. One person takes the orders, another takes your payment. So efficient. We exit through the OUT door with two croissants, two tartes aux pommes and a healthy campograin loaf. We sit in a micro park in the centre of the square to eat our croissants, do a bit more shopping then stop for a coffee in the mediaeval quarter on our way back to the boat.

Wood carvings - is that a kangaroo playing the bagpipes?

More animal carvings, in stone

We continue our return journey toward Redon. We have time to go through one lock before lunch, accompanied by the boat that we watched trying to reverse into moorings yesterday. It seems they do know how to handle a boat, although they use their bow thruster a lot on entry to the lock. Our bow thruster is me pushing off with a broom.

Once clear of the lock we let them pass us. We plan to stop at mooring place at St-Laurent-sur-Oust, but a boat coming the other way gets there just before we do so we go on, and finish up rafting up next to the boat that went ahead. We can see into their dining area, where a table is laid with a cloth, elegant plates and glasses. The woman organising food is wearing an apron. Meals are a serious business in France, even on a canal boat. We have neither cloth nor apron, but we still have a pleasant lunch of pate, terrine, cheese with our fresh bread.

The lock opens just as I make coffee, and we and the other boat have to stop lunching and go into the lock, because there is a boat waiting to come up. Once through, we let them pass again so we can go at our own comfortably slow speed. We pass through one more lock, on our own this time, and tie up for the night at St-Martin-sur-Oust. We read and catch up with news and emails and then walk down to the cafe Chez Bernard where we ate on the way up the canal, but it only does evening meals at the weekend. So we have a cider, say hello to the cafe cat, return to the boat for an omelette. It's so peaceful here that it is quite disturbing when a low-flying aircraft goes over - military practice? Too low for a commercial flight and too much noise for a small private plane. But since then, silence.

Lock cottages

Brittany Canal Day 8

A cool grey day, so no incentive to get up early. We start late morning, heading north to the next lock at Montertelot. When we pass through the lock keeper tells us that we can't go through the next lock, which was consistent with the story we've been getting for the last couple of days. We expect to see a lot of other boats waiting here, but in fact there is plenty of room to tie up and go ashore for lunch. The village has just one cafe, which operates with a minimum of staff. Entrees and desserts are self service from two fridges, there is a choice of two mains which are cooked and brought to you. We start with herring and potato salad, then I try the local sausage with ratatouille, Peter has chicken with salad and frites. No room for dessert, we just have coffee and then go for a walk around the village. There are a number of new houses as well as old, but although clearly new, they fit with the old.

Church at Montertelot

Chimney sweep at work

Communal oven?

Flowerpot men

Very modern house, but still in character

By the time we've walked to the top of a hill and explored the three or four streets that make up the village, it is lock opening time again. We have to wait for the lock to fill, so we do a 360 and then return to motor gently in. We then retrace our morning route back to le-Roc-St-André, meander down the Oust through two more locks (and I did get a better photo this time).

Another lock cottage

Leaving the lock, with voyeurs

We plan to stop again at Malestroit. As you approach the lock there is a very long mooring jetty with lots of private boats. In the distance we can see a boat which we think is trying to tie up, but we can't be sure. It appears to be going back and forth but not coming to a halt. Eventually it starts coming steadily towards us, so we hang back where there is more room for them to pass. But when they get to the first gap in the moored boats they do about a 9-point 180 degree turn and head back to the lock. We proceed cautiously behind. As we approach the lock we see there is a boat in it coming up. The boat ahead of us props on the left just outside the lock, we hang back hugging the right bank and wait for the boat coming out of the lock to pass us on our left (port to port, for sailors). The boat ahead of us bumps its way into the lock and we follow, also with a bit of bumping because it's windy. We pass through without further incident.

Fortunately there is still plenty of room at the mooring point in Malestroit, so the boat ahead of us which keeps doing its approach to a mooring in reverse (why??!) has room for its peculiar manoeuvres. We tuck ourselves in between two other boats, so that we're a safe distance away. I am getting expert at using a boat hook to catch on to mooring rings that lie almost flat on the jetty, in about a foot from the edge.

After all that excitement we take a break until it's time to go ashore to eat. When we do we find that not much is open on a Monday, but the restaurant where we ate last time is, so after another walk around the town we eat there again. We enjoy chats with the other diners in a mixture of languages, fortunately their English is better than our French. It all starts with saying hello to a brown border collie with the most pleading eyes which is at the adjoining table. On the other side we have a restaurateuse (is that a word?) and husband who are holidaying on their own boat, taking a break from running a restaurant called La Flambée in Sablé-sur-Sarthe. Much discussion of boating on the Mayenne and the Sarthe. Replete with lovely French food again, time to call it a night.

Views of Malestroit

Brittany Canal Day 7

Dimanche - Sunday - in France is very quiet. We had planned to have another walk around Malestroit in the morning to visit the boulanger-patisserie and take more photos, but we decide to move on instead because the bakery probably won't be open, it's a grey day, we have three locks to get through in the next section and rain is forecast in the afternoon. We leave as the church bells are summoning the faithful to mass at about 10:45.

There were a number of other boats at Malestroit, but they are probably earlier risers than we are (not difficult), so we have the canal to ourselves and we are the only boat in each lock as we go through. The locks are narrow, so lining up to motor in without bumping the fenders on the sides is a challenge which Peter has almost mastered. As the steering position is on one side of the boat, you need someone standing in the middle judging when the boat is lined up - that's my job. Once in the lock I go forward and put the bow line on the boat hook dangled by the lock keeper, Peter stops the engine and goes back to do the same with the stern line. That means he does all the chatting with the lock keeper, finding out that there is some kind of issue further up the canal which may prevent us from going all the way to Josslin.

In this direction, all the locks are raising the boat, and most are quite deep - a couple of metres. With only one boat in the lock you tie up at the back of the lock, the lock keeper opens the sluices fully, and the lock fills quite quickly. All the controls are wirelessly operated from a bright yellow remote control about the size of a fat mobile phone. Every lock has a lock cottage, which gradually comes into view as you rise. They are so pretty, but by the time you see them properly the lock is full, gates are opening and it's time to unhook lines and move on. I will try to take more pictures on our return, when we'll be starting with the cottage in view before we descend.

Lock cottage

Exiting a lock

The journey is a mixture of canal and river - the canal sections cut off very bendy bits of the Oust. The river is now wider and there are big fields on either side, lots more sweet corn and cows. All along the side of river and canal is a towpath once used by the horses towing barges, now used by cyclists and joggers, all of whom we wave to as they pass, and they wave back, just as everyone in France greets you in passing when you're on foot.

Contented cows

Because we've been told by the lock keepers that we won't be able to go past Montertelot today, we think there may be a big collection of boats waiting there, so we decide to stop one village earlier, at le-Roc-St-Andre. There is only one smallish pontoon with a biggish boat on it, but we squeeze Pladic on the end and go and explore the village, taking our rain jackets because the forecasts have been pretty accurate. It's only a small village, with a church with a very quaint steeple, and not much activity on the streets.

Church steeple in le-Roc-St-Andre

But the bar-creperie is open, so we have our usual galette lunch. Rain starts as forecast as we leave the restaurant, but we don our coats and walk back to the boat by a different route. Back at the pontoon the bigger boat has gone, we can move up closer to the power outlets and plug into shore power. The rest of the rainy afternoon is spent reading and struggling with a crossword puzzle, then it's soup, biscuits and cheese for dinner as nothing is open on Sunday evenings.