Burgundy Farmhouse for sale

Our oldest and dearest French friend is selling her home in Saint-Symphorien-sur-Saône, a small village in the Côte-d'Or département of the Burgundy region of France.

Saint Symphorien is 10 minutes by car from Saint Jean de Losne, a small town that has become an international boating center because of its location at the junction of the Saône river and the Canal de Bourgogne.

This charming farmhouse is 30 minute from Beaune and Dijon, two of the best cities in the Burgundy region. It is also just 30 minutes from Dole, a beautiful city in the western Jura department of the Franche-Comté region.

The house is located on a large peaceful property (3,200 m2), has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, central heating, a fireplace, beamed ceilings, parquet floors, a swimming pool, cave, a large attic that could be converted to living space and a separate studio apartment. Asking price - 240,000 euros


Click here to contact the real estate agent in Saint Jean de Losne for more information

Deux Chevaux

Cruising out of Paris, we are back in the slow lane. We have been floating along on the Marne, visiting Champagne villages and getting together with old friends, a real vacation.

In the small Champagne village of Reuil, we took a leisurely ride on an original "deux chevaux".

A day at the beach - Parisienne Style

You have to love a city that closes one of it major roads during the summer just for fun. Bertrand Delanoë, the mayor of Paris, created Paris Plage back in 2002. We always lived near the beach in San Francisco, and now, thanks to the mayor, we live, at least during July and August, near the beach in Paris.

Every year more and more beaches are popping up all over Paris, and the idea has spread other cites, even our old home port of Roanne.

18 meter Arsenal barge for sale

Our French neighbors are selling their barge, and it may be your chance to have a Pied-à-terre à Paris.


Luxemotor Hollandais 18 m x 4 m, construction acier de 1925. Fond neuf (Octobre 2005). Moteur Volvo Penda 100 CV (500 h). Permis de navigation. Très bonne habitabilité, confort, luminosité exceptionnelle, belle terrasse arrière. Vis. Paris.

SOLD

July 14th - Dinner with friends in Paris

Oh la la, how many ways can you say it! Oh la la, what an evening!

Bal des pompiers - Paris 4ème

Ireland - County Clare and County Galway, our summer vacation

Hopping around Paris

The last few days we have noticed some very tall people in our neighborhood.

Power Strider is the name of this new way of hopping, running and jumping around Paris.

It turns out that you can practice power striding free on Sundays at the Nomades Roller Shop at 37 Boulevard Bourdon at the Bastille. We decided just to watch, because if we are going to fall down and break something, we would rather do it roller blading, that is, if we could roller blade.

The worlds biggest Sunday Skate will be on the 15th of June at 14h30 starting and finishing at the Bastille. They will skate 22.9 kilometers around Paris, and they hope to make the Guinness Book of Records.

Sunday in the Park

Life doesn't change too much. As San Franciscans, we went to Golden Gate Park on Sundays. Living in Paris, we still go to the park on Sundays, but now we go to le Jardin du Luxembourg.

Canal Saint-Martin Barge Picnic

Our port is on the canal Saint-Martin with a lock on the Seine and a tunnel heading up to the 10th arrondissement at the Bastille end of the port. La Villette is at the other end of the canal in the 19th arrondissement. The trip along the canal to La Villette is only about 5 kilometers long, but because you have to pass through 4 double locks and two swing bridges,the trip takes at least two hours each way.

When our friends Jerry and Suzanne, whose barge "La Lavande" is just across the port, invited us to cruise along with them and their friends for a picnic at La Villette, we didn't hesitate for one second before saying, "We'd love to!". We have made this same trip on our barge, but this time we would be the guests instead of captain and crew.

Camera in hand, we had time to make a little movie of our fabulous day cruising through the streets of Paris.

Lady Lorne

Our winter next boat neighbor Bob cruised away the other day.









It took a long time to leave port because he had to wave goodbye to all of the friends that he had made during the winter.

Keep a lookout for Lady Lorne, maybe you will be lucky enough to meet Bob along the canals.

Bistro en Seine

With boats moving again, we have been amusing ourselves by listening to the VHF chatter between the boats and La Capitainerie. Passenger boats or private, everyone communicates by VHF to enter or leave the port by a lock at one end and a controled tunnel at the other. When our VHF is on, we know all of the comings and goings of the port. It is a bit like being a nosy neighbor, but we tell ourselves that it is good for our French.

Canauxrama is a passenger boat company who works out of our port. Their boats are moored across from us, and we are used to them cruising by a couple of times a day. Recently we noticed that they have started evening cruises, and one night when the VHF was still turned on, we heard the Captain's office ask them, as they always do, "How many passengers and crew?" The answer made the guys in the office chuckle, as they had a crew of 4 for with only 2 passengers. There were jokes made back and forth about the new luxury cruise, and it caught our attention.

A few nights later, we heard that they had 8 passengers, then 11 another night, so we decided to take the cruise before it became as crowded as all of the other Seine cruises. We jumped on board for the 9pm cruise on Friday night, stopped at the bar to order a half bottle of wine, got into a nice conversation with the crew when we told them that we were neighbors, and we didn't need to worry about making sure we found good seats.

Sitting at a table with comfortable chairs and a glass of wine in front of us, we waved to neighbors as we cruised by their boats and entered the lock without a care in the world. For the next two hours we watched Paris glide by, passing under Le Pont des Arts we waved to everyone out enjoying the first warm spring night. People were walking or picnicing along the quais of the Seine, the monuments were lit against the evening sky, and we had front row seats for the best show in town.

Notice in our video how clear and light the sky was at 9:30pm and how many people were out on Le Pont des Arts.

Farewell parties

The weather in Paris is unpredictable. After a very mild winter full of cold sunshine, the weather has become unsettled. You can wake up in the morning to blue skies, eat breakfast during a rain storm and leave the house dressed for the cold and rain, only to find the sun has returned and you are overdressed. Pas de souci, you only have to wait 30 minutes before it rains again.

A few weeks ago, we were riding our bikes and almost got blown over by a violent storm that came and went before we knew what hit us. It snowed the other night just as we were heading off to bed, and a couple of days ago, there was a hailstorm in the middle of an otherwise mild day. It is difficult to know how to dress.

The only way that we know Spring is here is that boats are moving again. "Elisabeth", Henk and Jacqueline's beautiful barge cruised out of port recently. They had a week here without too much rain, so they were able to leave as planned. But that morning, their barge only descended half the normal level in the lock and once they hit the river they disappeared from sight twice as fast as a boat going down river would under normal conditions. Wherever they were planning to go that day, they probably arrived much earlier than expected.

From the day that "Elisabeth" left until yesterday, it has rained cats and dogs. It has done nothing but pour rain, the sky has been gray or black, and it has been cold. This year, April in Paris would not inspire any songs, movies or plays.

Mike and Jane, our charming Australian neighbors on Drumsara, picked up their newly built barge last fall and cruised for six days directly into Paris. They are now ready to start their first cruising season, and we said goodbye to them over dinner a few nights ago, and over a glass of Champagne last night, but so far they have only made it down to the end of the port.

While moored in front of the Captain's office in preparation for an early start this morning, they learned that the Seine is near flood level, so they have to wait to see what tomorrow brings. Maybe it's time for another farewell party.

Marathon de Paris 2008

Pinch us

After taking part in a mini Venetian Carnival on the Île Saint-Louis yesterday, we went along with all of the other participants to a party hosted by the neighborhood merchants.

Between dinner and dessert, someone at one of the tables in the back of the room started singing, in fact, it was Marcel, the waiter from La Cavetière, our neighborhood bistro. He loves to sing, and does do so often.

This was the invitation for others to start singing "their" song. In Europe, people sing more that they do in the States, and everyone seems to have a song that they sing reasonable well. When someone starts singing, everyone else joins in and sings along all the way to the end. They all know the words, and for the most part, everyone carries the tune.

The songs danced in the air, and we felt as though we were in the middle of a French film. Conversations and laughter filled the room and were only silenced by a new round of songs. We knew that we were lucky to be the only foreigners, and we had smiles on our faces thinking that life doesn't get any better than this, when the owners of Bertillon arrived with their world famous sorbet for dessert.

A cheer rang out from the crowd, and everyone got up to form the French version of a line, (something free form, like a glob of mercury), while the couple scooped up double cones for the crowd. The Carnaval Vénetian had been a big success with crowds of people taking photos of the beautiful costumes against the back drop of the Île Saint-Louis and Notre Dame, and as everyone sat back down at their tables enjoying their Bertillon sorbet, we thought that this day was so amazing that we may be dreaming.

Suddenly, someone started singing La Marseillaise, and everyone stood up raising their cones in the air, and sang their national anthem with passion, only stopping occasionally to lick their cones to keep them from dripping. It was spontaneous and pure, and it was the highlight of the party.

When the evening was over, we opened the door to find a warm spring night, and crossing over the Seine we smiled our way home.


Links to Photos taken that day

http://www.onlyphotos.org/article-18602483.html

http://www.pbase.com/patrick06/venitian_carnival_in_paris

http://www.terry-photo.net/carnaval/paris-2008/album/index.html

The neighborhood is changing

This is what happens in the spring in the boating community when everyone starts moving again.

Monday - We had an apéritif dînatoire for 14 people on our boat. This happened a bit by accident. Roger and Kathleen on "Water Lily" were getting ready to leave, and they had not yet met Jerry and Suzanne on "La Lavande". We wanted to get them together, but they both had company. No problem bring them along. Henk and Jacqueline were here to install our kitchen extractor. Then Bob, our neighbor from Cornwall, is too much fun not to invite, and the English couple who were staying on Mike and Jane's barge while they were back in Australia stopped by the day before to ask a question, so we invited them, and the party just kept growing..........

Tuesday - We invited nearby neighbors over to help us finished all of the food that we had left over from the night before. We always err on the side of having too much food for any given party.

Wednesday - Dinner with Henk and Jacqueline at one of our favorite local places, Chez Janou, and even though it rained most of the day, it was a beautiful evening. After dinner, we walked through the neighborhood, stopped at an outdoor café for a nightcap, and headed home through Place des Vosge, where we could admire the art galleries. It was a perfect evening with good food, good conversation and great friends.

Thursday - First Yacht Club Paris Bastille barbecue after the new board of directors was elected. There was a huge turnout, and it was a great evening that almost ended at about 11pm when people started going home...that was until Henk invited everyone onto his boat.

Alain, the president of the yacht club presented Henk with an Arsenal burgee, wine corks popped and then the music started. There's a piano on "Elizabeth" and soon guitars and harmonicas appeared and the music began.

Friday - We took a day off, before our busy weekend with the carnival and the marathon.

Yacht Club Paris Bastille

The yacht club had elections recently and one of us was voted onto the board of directors to be in charge of international relations, with the knowledge that both of us would be doing the jobs that will be assigned to us. We are feeling rather proud to be the first foreign members on the board.

The first meeting of the board was held before the barbecue on April 3rd, and all went well. No problems understanding the rapid fire French, and the newly elected board is full of enthusiasm and plans to improve the port.

April in Paris

April is here and the sun just came out. Of course, it went away before I could finish writing this sentence, as the weather has been nothing but bad news lately.

The good news is that our kitchen, which Eddy, le gendre of our port neighbors, started remodeling for us in October, is finally finished.

The delay wasn't Eddy's fault. He put in a new hardwood floor and installed new cabinets and counter tops just as he promised, and we have been enjoying our new kitchen for months. But it was still an unfinished project because, after Eddy finish his work, we decided that we needed a hood over the stove. Having an extractor installed sounded simple, but this is one of the things that make living on a boat so "interesting". With our low ceilings, most extractor fans made for houses just wouldn't work, and we needed to find a solution.

Shopping for something unusual like une hotte in Paris, means that you discover new neighborhoods, and learn new French words at the same time. We spent several days wandering in an out of shops, asking questions and looking at options. We were losing hope, when one day, while we were out doing another errand, we stopped in at Cap Bastille, a kitchen store on rue Lacuée, just across from the port. There we met François, who immediately took an interest in our project. Whereas everyone else that we questioned in other kitchen stores was polite, no one jumped right on the problem like François did; he was bound and determined to find a solution for us.

He walked back to the boat with us to take measurements in the kitchen, and he climbed up on the front deck to look at the kitchen roof to see how the exhaust pipe should be placed to protect our air draft. He took lots of notes, and then shook our hands with a promise to call us as soon as he had found something for us.

He called a week or so later to say that he had found just the right product, and he came by the boat with the man who would be doing the installation. They had a plan that would guard our air draft and make la hotte flush with the ceiling. Just one small problem. La hotte itself only cost a bit over 200 euros, but with the installation, le devis came to over 3000 euros. After we recovered from the shock and explained how many dollars that would be for us right now, François said that he could sell us la hotte, and that we would just need to find someone else who could figure out how to do the job in a way that would be less expensive. We needed someone who understood boats.

We looked at each other with knowing smiles, and reading each others minds, we knew that the solution to our problem was to call on Super Henk.

Henk Hÿdra is Dutch, has built 35 barges himself, and even though he may look mild mannered in this photo, he is an action hero. When barge owners have a problem that they just can't solve, they call on Henk.

Henk has been trying to retire for the last five years, but boaters keep finding jobs that only he can do. He sold his shipyard, and he and his wife Jacqueline, who is an artist, live on the last barge that he built, a 22 meter masterpiece that other boaters have labeled a "one meter" barge. (That means that Henk's barge is so perfect that even when you are standing just one meter away, you don't see any flaws.) Henk's reputation proceeds him wherever he travels, and in the floating village of barge owners, that means that he is often called on to solve an unsolvable problem. Because Henk and Jacqueline are as nice as they are talented, they made a detour to come to the Paris-Arsenal on their trip from Roanne to Amsterdam, just to help us.

The Seine was flowing so fast with all of the recent rain, that even though Henk and Jacqueline said that they would arrive at 11 on Sunday, they called us at 9am to say that they were already in the Arsenal lock. It must have been a wild ride to get them from St. Mammes to Paris so quickly, but we weren't too surprised because, superheros know how to fly.

When Henk works for you, he shows up for work at 9 sharp dressed in his special blue jump suit, takes a half hour for lunch, and finishes at 4pm. Like other superheros, he attacks the job to be done forcefully. He moves at the speed of light, bends steel, and with his amazing skills, he creates something out of nothing. People who watch Henk in action can only stand there bouche bée.

Now that Henk has come to our rescue, we no longer have to open the doors and windows everytime we want to grill something on the stove. Thank you Super Henk.