Langy 1st July then Meaux

We escaped Paris and diverted onto a new river – the Marne, more locks now but they are smaller – but still daunting. We also had our first tunnel - plus a lock at either end - of course.

We arrived at Langy which is a pretty town, the mooring was on a good pontoon although no electricity or water becuase the system had broken down Its still hot. A couple of local people

stopped by to chat and later we had a walk around the town, buying a baguette and ice cream before moving on the next day.

Meaux 2nd July to 5th July

We arrived at Meaux just after lunch having passed a couple of large motorboats just leaving, which was extremely lucky for us as that meant there was space for us on the town pontoons (with free electricity and water).

The area the pontoons are situated in is beutiful with a fantastic show of floweres.Once we were settled we went for a walk/bike ride into the town across the old market bridge and to the tourist office, it's still very hot, but the Aussies keep the beers coming!!

>As usual most of the other boats sharing the facilities were Dutch, Belgium or German, luckily most of the owners speak English and everyone is always ready for a chat, finding out where each are going too and coming from and generally sharing boating experiences. Interestingly many motorboat owners have been sailing boat owners who have now decided sailing is too much but still want to be on the water; its really interesting talking to them. The bikes are proving very useful and oddly a tourist attraction. The local French are facinated with the petit velos and we have had several offers to buy them - Alison sees a new job.

Throughtout July and August Meaux holds a historique spectacle on Saturday nights and some Fridays,so we booked to go on the Saturday then we had a wander round the old town and the ramparts. Its was a really hot day again so we decided to go into the cathedral which was not only magnificent but lovely and cool.

On Saturday Meaux has a big market for food products, clothes and house wares; there is a great variety of stalls so after getting our provisions and stowing them on board we wandered back into the town to look round the shops. As we arrived back at the boat the Cygnet with Kerry and Sue were arriving, luckily they too managed to get a mooring and after tying up Sue and Nerelle hurried up to the tourist office to also get some tickets for the show that evening.

About 10pm ish the Cygnet's crew and us walked up to the grounds of the cathedral where the show was to be preformed. It was obviously very popular because it was sold out. Anyway we took our seats not knowing what to expect but by the end of the show we were had been very thoroughly entertained and although all in French and having a little knowledge of the town's history it was easily understandable. Also as the show as set against old building including the cathedral it was very atmospheric. It was well worth the 16 euros each.

On Sunday the town had a Braderie and Brocante. It was the largest we'd ever seen and lasted 8 hours. We bought a fishing net for re-capturing those small items that seem to fall overboard now and again - usually Alison's hat!!

We decided to move on from Meaux and head towards Epernay, we weren't sure where we would stay the night on this part of the trip, although we thought we would try Chateau Thierry. Cygnet were also going too but they had to provision first so left later than us. We had a reasonable trip upstream although the locks are often a couple of metres high so tying up is becoming an art form.