Under rainy skies we set off, or kind of set off, from the pontoon in Meaux. In Meaux, the pontoons are diagonal to the direction of the current. This makes it easy to dock on the upstream side when one arrives: Just stop parallel to the pontoon and let the water push the boat to the dock. But when leaving this advantage becomes a disadvantage, as the water pushes the boat back to the pontoon. No matter how hard I have tried, it has proven to be impossible to get Wanderlust cleanly off Meaux’s dock. In 2021 it was as it always has been and Wanderlust rubbed her way along the plastic side of the aluminum deck on the way out. Maybe someday I’ll figure this out. Nonetheless, it may not look good but it doesn’t matter much in practice. At worst we just left behind a small amount of the easily replaceable hull paint behind in Meaux.
This day ended up at the long plaisancer pontoon in Lagny-sur-Marne. I didn’t wander off the boat to see the town. Lagny might well have warrant exploration, but the momentum when we have reached this point on the Marne has always been to keep on moving towards the Seine. Lagny has been, for me, an unexplored functional stop, a place left to discover in the future.
The next leg of our season’s journey would take us to Paris and the formal end of Wanderlust’s cruising season. Like an old rental horse heading back to the barn, we were fixated on reaching the end goal.
The following morning, we pushed off of the pontoon in Lagny and started on what would be the last leg of our journey. When we left Auxonne in June, the uncertainties around COVID left us apprehensive about our ability to reach Paris. Now it was clear that short of a biblical disaster we were going to make it. Nothing could stop Wanderlust now.
As the Marne nears Paris the urban feel increases. Lagny is just 35 kilometers by car from the center of Paris. Within commuter range, there is a suburban feel. On the banks of the river are roads, apartment complexes, industry, and city parks. The rural vineyards, forests, and farms of the Champagne-producing region upriver seem like part of an entirely different waterway.
About a kilometer past the lowest lock on the Marne is the river’s confluence with the Seine. The joining of the two rivers is unmissably landmarked by the Chinagora, a building complex constructed in the style of the Forbidden City. It’s now inexplicably owned by the Chinese Province of Hunan. Chinagora serves as a combination of a hotel and large Chinese restaurant. There’s no obvious economic reason why such a massive compound was built at this particular location in France but there it stands, a monument to someone’s dream. Personally I’m not sure what to think of Chinagora so I’ll go with the author Nolwenn le Blevennec’s description, which seems to sum it up well. Le Blevennec writes that the cluster of buildings at the confluence of the rivers is a “bâtiment-pagode mégalomaniaque (…) guetté par la faillite…”, which translates roughly from French as “a megalomaniacal pagoda building…on the lookout for bankruptcy…”.
As we moved onto the Seine the heavy commercial barge traffic increased by tonnage if not by the number of boats. The Seine is a wide river and the number and size of the commercials was neither surprising nor a particular concern. What was less expected was the number of active barge loading and unloading facilities on the banks of Seine River downstream of the confluence and well within the boundaries of Paris. The rough dusty buildings of Paris’s water facing industrial infrastructure are juxtaposed against the new ultra-modern buildings that are constantly springing up on the fringes of the banks of the Seine. For now, it seems that the old industry thrives next to the new non-industrial buildings. But with the rising price of prime riverfront real estate in Paris, it’s hard to see the river industry maintaining its foothold in this location in the long run.
According to the Parisian tourist office there are 37 bridges over the Seine in the City of Lights. The fact that the tourist office would mention this is an indication that the bridges are to be counted amongst Paris’s numerous tourist attractions.
From the confluence to the Port de Paris-Arsenal, Wanderlust passed under eight of these bridges. At first the bridges closest to Marne-Seine junction are more ordinary modern structures much like you might see anywhere. But as we neared our destination, the bridges became increasingly distinctive, interesting, historical, and tourist office worthy.
The last bridge over the Seine that we’d cross under this day was one of the more interesting. This span, the Pont d’Austerlitz, was constructed in 1805. Like many of Paris’s bridges, it is a structure with a bit of a back-story.
Pont d’Austerlitz’s name celebrates Napoleon’s victory over the Russians and Austrians in a battle fought near town of Austerlitz in Moravia, now part of the Czech Republic. Honoring a Napoleonic conquest inevitably is open to controversy. Indeed, in 1814 the name of the bridge was changed to “Pont du Jardin-du-Roi” so as not to upset the Prussians and Russians, who recently moved from being enemies to being allies. The desire to appease the Prussians and Russians did not last long; after the July Revolution the name of the bridge was returned to Austerlitz.
The structure of Pont d’Austerlitz has also undergone significant changes. By the mid-19th Century, it was realized that the original iron bridge was not sound. Thus, a replacement bridge constructed of stone was commissioned. By the time the new bridge was completed in 1855, France was again at war with Russia. With no need to appease the Russians, the bridge was decorated to celebrate the French victory in Austerlitz.
Not far past Pont d’Austerlitz is the lock that separates the Seine from the Canal Saint-Martin. Just on the other side is the Port de Plaisance Paris-Arsenal, our destination. The lock would be the last navigation hurdle of our season’s journey.
Over the VHF radio, Arsenal’s lockkeeper informed us that there’d be a short wait before the lock was prepared. Thus, we turned Wanderlust back towards Pont d’Austerlitz and into the Seine’s flow. Here we loitered facing into the current for a few minutes. When the lock gate opened and the signal light turned green, we entered.
Inside the lock we looped a spring line over a floating bollard, turned the screw on, and waited for Wanderlust to move over to the side of the chamber. Soon the incoming water lifted us to the level of the still water in the port. After the lock finished filling the gates opened and Wanderlust glided out. Guided by directions over the VHF radio from Port de Plaisance Paris-Arsenal’s capitainerie we moved over to Wanderlust’s mooring spot for the winter. The spot was not hard to find: It was at the quay immediately to the right of the lock.
Once we had Wanderlust secured to the mooring rings at the quay, we had a chance to look and enjoy a sight we would see for a good part of the winter: The view up the port towards the Bastille Monument, or more correctly le Colonne de Juillet. After seven years of trying to get to Paris, Wanderlust had finally made it. With all the complications, particularly those caused by COVID, it felt like a major victory.
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Log:
From Meaux to Lagny-sur-Marne Wanderlust cruised 20 kilometers. There are 3 locks and one tunnel on the way. Her engine ran for 4.2 hours.
Continuing on from Lagny-sur-Marne to the Port de Plaisance Paris-Arsenal, Wanderlust traveled 31 kilometers. There are 5 locks and one tunnel on this leg. Wanderlust’s engine ran for 5.8 hours.
Click here for a map of Wanderlust’s route from Meaux to Port Arsenal in Paris.
Overall, to get from Auxonne to Paris, Wanderlust’s engine ran for 161 hours. Canalplan.co.uk says that the route is roughly 720 kilometers in length, though Wanderlust’s keeper of the logbook will dispute the accuracy of this figure. In the process, Wanderlust transited 18 aqueducts of various sizes, passed through 264 locks, and went underground in 6 different tunnels. Canalplan predicted that the engine would run for 209 hours, which turned out to be a little on the high side for this journey.
A map of the route that Wanderlust took to get to Paris from Auxonne can be brought up with this link.
Wanderlust 