July 14 – Marnay-Sur-Marne: Bastille Day
It’s a beautiful day in Marney-sur-Marne. It’s very quiet here with the occasional sound of the train going by and a rooster crowing at the lock-keepers house. Dave is cleaning hydraulic fluid out of the engine room, I have cleaned the galley and am soaking his dirty clothes in the leftover dishwater. In lieu of curtains I have hung a set of antique white linen dish towels, found in a charity shop in England, on the main cabin windows and an assortment of pillowcases, towels, a table cloth, and the bike cover, on the sunny side of the wheel house windows to keep the heat out. It is certainly worthy of a page in the Beverly Hillbillies Yacht Decorating Guide.
Since it is a holiday, the locks are closed so there is no boat traffic going by. My morning’s project is to continue the stenciling in the aft bathroom, then I will go for a bike ride and try to find some dirt to repot my plants. My garden is small but lovely – a bay plant, two types of lavender, sage, rosemary, two basils, a gardenia, two orchids, some flowers, and nasturtiums and nigellas grown from seeds in egg boxes on the galley window sills. They all need to be repotted and I have only two shallow window boxes and no more potting soil.
Dave has been working on removing the damaged part of the aft handrail. This should complete our inclusion into the Clampett family, should they ever leave Beverly Hills and move to the canals of France. I am increasingly reminded of our maiden voyage on the Shenandoah from Hampton to Cookham Dean almost two years ago. I sat in my camp chair on the bow and waived to passing boats, feeling like I was traveling on the Queen Mary, until I looked around and realized I was sitting on a hunk of rusting steel. Some days it really is true that you take two steps forward and one backwards.
As truly sad as it is that Dave’s beautiful boat, and labor of love for the past four years, has had so many problems on the voyage, I see these days in Marnay-sur-Marne as an opportunity to relax, get some much needed work done on the boat, explore, and get some sewing done. Maybe I’ll even get a head start on the quilt for the aft cabin. The only thing anywhere within walking distance is a small hotel not far from here that has a restaurant, so we can take a break from the boat and go for a cocktail now and again. If their prices are anything like the Chalet, where we had lunch two days ago (95E), we won’t be having dinner there. The VNF path runs along side the canal so we can bike with relative ease, as it is flat unlike the surrounding countryside. I’m hoping that the hotel can call a taxi for us and we can go to the town of Nogent which is not too far away.
This canal was built for the metal forges to ship their products to other areas of France. Nogent is known as the “kingdom of cutlery and scissor manufacturing”. They made rare knives and scissors, embroidery scissors, sailor’s knives, hunting knives, and cod sailor knives, with materials such as gold, ivory, mother-of-pearl, and shell. There is a museum there which traces that history with more than 10,000 items locally made.