Poor Karen only had time to change out of her running shoes
when she got back, and we all, including Buddy, went straight down for our tour. Didier is one of those people whose speech
speeds up when he gets excited and I was constantly asking him to slow down,
especially as he knew no English. Of
course, we were fuelling his excitement by showing a keen interest in
everything too.
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| Largest waterwheel we've seen (Buddy's head for scale) |
Water is pumped 12 metres up from the River Marne to the
Canal de l’Ourcq at the spot we were moored at.
The waterwheel and associated four hydraulic pumps started operation in
1869 and can lift 27,000 cubic metres of water a day. The wheel is 11 metres in
diameter and six metres wide.
Nowadays
there are four electric pumps that perform the operation, but the waterwheel
and hydraulic pumps are kept in working order and shown off on each of the four open
days a year.
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| Two of the four hydraulic pumps driven by the waterwheel |
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| Date stamp on one of the pumps |
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| The electric pumps (the large diesel engine at the rear is no longer used) |
We were amazed at the beauty, size and intricacy of the many
working models on display. These must be
ideal for school visits and demonstrate things like lock operation, weed
cutting and swing bridge operation.
There was also a working model of the Pont de Crimée lifting bridge we
went under when we left the centre of Paris.
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| The model |
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| Going under the real thing last Thursday |
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| One of the display cases |
Didier also took us into the modern control room with its
computer displays monitoring the electric pumps and their flow rate.
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| Operation pump room |
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| Monitors displaying the flow rate of each pump and a test (?) pump |
Pumps BB1, BB2 and B4 were in operation and adding up the
figures we could see they were pumping at a combined rate of 24,000 cubic
metres per day.
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| The River Marne where the water is extracted |
The opposite bank in the picture above is actually an island
and we will be travelling along the far side next week. Navigation is not allowed this side for
obvious reasons.
The last thing we were shown was an Ourcq flute; this was
the name given to the narrow 28-metre-long barges especially built for this
canal. Their main cargo being timber for
heating Parisian houses, and they could carry 80 tons.
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| Flûte d’Ourcq |
As we left Didier, he took us to his car as he wanted to
show us the instrument they use to measure the water depth.
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| Didier’s pride and joy |
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| Water flowing in from the River Marne in front of our mooring |
The water flowing into the canal makes such a peaceful sound
and we both love going to sleep listening to it. We’re quite lucky really as the previous
night we had also gone to sleep listening to water leaking through the gates in the
lock we were moored in.
Over lunch Karen showed me her butterfly pictures she took
when on her cool down walk at the end of her run. She had managed to capture our first picture of a scarce swallowtail albeit with one tail
missing.
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| Karen’s scarce-tailed scarce swallowtail |
After lunch we walked down to the Marne to give Buddy a cool
down. The temperature was in the high
twenties and with the forecast indicating we were going back to the 30s over
the next couple of weeks then we’re going to have to keep an eye on him. On the
way we passed the château that, apparently, Napolean III stayed at when he
visited the pumping station. His uncle,
Napolean Bonaparte had ordered the building of the Canal de l’Ourcq in 1802,
hence his interest.
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| The château at Trilbardou |
We also agreed that we will cruise, on average, every other
day thus giving us more time for sightseeing.
Saying that, we haven’t seen a lavoir for a few weeks so maybe clothes cleanliness
wasn’t so important in the Île de Paris region as it was in Burgundy when we were seeing one most days 😉
Tuesday was moving day and we were off to Claye-Souilly so
we could do a food shop for the week and get diesel for the boat. It was one of those days where there was hazy
cloud cover all day making it feel muggy as well as hot, but we didn’t have far
to go.
Going through Fresnes-sur-Marne, Karen spotted a post office
beside the canal, so we stopped as we had a letter to post.
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| Pretty La Poste |
I stayed and held the boat on a mooring bollard with a centre
line whilst Karen posted the letter. I
also did a search for a local Rue de Lavoir and struck lucky: there was an
Impasse de Lavoir in the village.
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| For those interested in cruising this canal, note the oversupply of mooring posts |
We didn’t really fancy locking the boat up and hence getting
it all hot inside, so Buddy and I went off to find the lavoir on our own.
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| I found the dead-end street so knew we were in the right place |
Try as I might I couldn’t find a lavoir or even the remains. There was a small building by a stream across
a field so I assumed it may have been that.
Trouble was that I couldn’t see a way into the field, let alone a right
of way across it. On top of that it was
full of sheep and so not the best place to be taking a dog uninvited, so I gave
up.
We were soon at Claye-Souilly and moored up in the basin
under some tall trees that would give us afternoon and evening shade which in
turn makes it more comfortable on the boat at night.
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| Tuesday night mooring in the shade at Claye-Souilly |
After lunch Karen went off to find the Carrefour which,
according to Google maps was a four-minute walk along the canal. She couldn’t find it and when she asked for directions,
she was told it was a couple of kilometres or so out of town. While she was away I got the trolley out and
two empty jerry cans ready for visiting the fuel station.
Soon after Karen returned I popped down as well and also
drew a blank. We found this strange as
there was meant to be a fuel station there too.
Looking at the satellite view, Carrefour was clearly marked but in the
middle of woods and no buildings. Maybe
they own the land but haven’t built the place yet.
That meant that twice in three days I had got the trolley
off the roof and the jerry cans out of the engine bay to no avail. In the end we went into town for a look
around and got a few supplies as we knew we could stop and get a proper food shop
and fuel at a Leclerc next to the canal at Villeparisis on our way back into
Paris in a couple of days.
Nosing at the estate agents we noticed the house prices were
more like UK ones compared to those we had looked at while cruising around
Burgundy. We then realised that the town is in easy commuting distance of Paris
so that explained the hike in prices.
A stream runs through the middle of the town, so we were
hopeful of finding a lavoir but the closest we got were these small streamside
gardens:
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We found another insectivorium and this one was shaped like
a butterfly:
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We also had a, not so fresh, red admiral posing for us in
front of the insectivorium:
After getting back we stayed on the boat for the rest of the
day enjoying the shade, although Karen insisted on popping back into town briefly as she had run out of almonds
for a cake she was baking.
On Tuesday we cruised ten kilometres down one lock.
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