Sens (halfway to the Seine)

Another shady mooring – Sunday at Armeau

When I took Buddy out for his Sunday morning constitutional, I came across a purple emperor butterfly flitting around a bramble bush.  These are beautiful butterflies that are also found in the UK and the males have a glorious purple sheen.  It is one butterfly that I have never managed to get a decent shot of, and Sunday was no exception ☹

We were heading to Armeau for the day and, as we wanted to avoid travelling in the afternoon, we set off at nine.  We turned up at the first lock at the allotted time of 10am and the gates were opening as we arrived. It was our first sloping sided lock since the end of March, and we were glad we were the only boat going down.  The reason for that was that there were a couple of sliding pontoons that we could just fit on otherwise we would have to tie up and keep ourselves away from the sloping sides by using boat poles at each end.

Going down on the floating pontoons

There are some more sloping sided locks further downstream and these don’t all have floating pontoons so we will have to use the boat pole option.

Looking back at the sloping sided lock

It was another very hot day but there was a welcome breeze on the water.  We are in an area of arable land and many fields are already golden and we saw combine harvesters bringing in the harvest.

Golden fields on our cruise

There are quite a few butterflies, dragonflies and other insects visiting our flowers as we cruise along and today, we saw our first white admiral of the year.  This is one of my favourite butterflies and I particularly love the way they glide through woodland glades.

White admiral taken a couple of years ago near Stratford upon Avon

We passed many groups of swimmers in the river but also several people in wet suits using surf boards who were getting quite a pace on using just their feet.

One of the prostrate surf boarders

We arrived at Armeau before noon and found the mooring was free and it was just long enough for our boat.  It gave us a pleasant view of the village and was also in partial shade from some trees.

We spent nearly all afternoon sitting in our picnic chairs under some shady plane trees near the boat. 

One of the things we did was to review our plan of getting to Paris where we have booked moorings below the bastille for three nights from 8^th July.  We soon realised we were on a bit of a mission and have to cruise for about four hours a day to make it.  This is after saying we must have a trip where we are not on a mission and can spend time staying at places and taking in some sightseeing.  Oh well, we’ll have to have a different approach to planning after we’ve done the Paris trip.  With the weather this week we wouldn’t be able to do any sightseeing anyway, so it hasn’t really mattered so much.

While we were sitting outside, we saw a summer brood map butterfly flying around.  This butterfly doesn’t occur in the UK and is unusual in being the only European butterfly that has completely different forms between the spring and summer broods.  The summer brood looks a bit like a small version of the white admiral.

Our summer brood map

Later in the afternoon we had a slow walk around the village, making sure that Buddy could walk in the shade and not on the baking tarmac so as to protect his paws.

Armeau – no one around and no cars on the main road other than a tractor

We didn’t find a lavoir and the church was locked so we couldn’t get inside and cool down.

The modernish church built about 150 years ago

What we did notice were quite a few boundary walls had small doors that didn’t reach the ground and they were too low to be windows.  They were all shuttered up, as were most houses to keep them cool, so we couldn’t work out what they were.

The strange window doors

Although we saw hardly any movement all day it was lovely in the evening as it seemed every family in the village came out for a walk along the river as the heat died down.

During Sunday we cruised 13 kilometres down two locks.

At about three in the morning it sounded like we were being pelted with bricks and we suddenly realised a thunderstorm had started.  We had forgotten the hatches and doors were open until my feet started getting wet, so it was a quick run around the boat closing everything up.  The lightning was continuous and quite spectacular across the water, but the storm only lasted about half an hour but at least it felt like things had freshened up on Monday morning.  In fact, temperatures are forecast to be down to around 30 for the next week so that should be a lot better 😊

The locks on the Yonne don’t open until 9.15 in the morning so we had arranged for the lock at Armeau to be ready at that time on Monday morning.  The gates were opening as we arrived five minutes early and we were off for a 22-kilometre cruise to Sens.

Leaving our Sunday night mooring and heading for our first lock of the day at Armeau

It was a far more human-friendly day weather-wise and we enjoyed our cruise with a good breeze and half cloud cover.  We were expecting to moor up for the éclusier lunch hour just before the last lock of the day and once again we saw no other boats on the move all morning.

Going through Villeneuve-sur-Yonne

Karen looking happy that it was a cooler day

As expected, it transpired we wouldn’t arrive at the last lock of the day until just gone noon so we decided to head for it and see if we could find a temporary mooring outside.  Many of the locks on this river do have a short length at the heads and tails where small boats can tie up, so we kept our fingers crossed.  As we approached, Karen used the binoculars to see if there was such an area and suddenly realised, she could see the top of a boat which was coming up the lock. 

I slowed to a halt someway from the lock as it was quite exposed and didn’t want to get into any difficulty negotiating a boat at the entrance.  It was just as well I did as it was an 85-metre commercial, about the largest to be seen on this river, although nothing like the ones we’ll meet on the Seine.

Waiting for a commercial to come out of a lock

After a cheery exchange of waves with the driver we headed into the lock and tied up on the one and only floating pontoon, expecting to have lunch while we waited until 1.00pm.  Karen was getting lunch ready and I was on the lockside with Buddy when the éclusier came up and said he would let us down.  I thanked him profusely as it meant we would get to Sens before the sun came out fully during the afternoon.

There was only one spot available on the longish quay when we arrived at Sens.  We were quite surprised as all other places have been empty or practically empty and with so few pleasure boats on the move, we expected the same.  To be fair, part of our plan is to move before lunch so that we have more chance of finding mooring spots which, apparently, get harder and harder to find as we get nearer Paris.

Moored opposite St Maurice church in Sens

While mooring up we noticed that there were quite a few speed type boats being driven up and down the river.  They were hired out from a base about ½ kilometre away and the families aboard were having great fun.  What amazed us (and had forgotten from some UK rivers) was the amount of wash they created and how our boat was rocked around. 

Another commercial came past soon after we moored up and its wake hardly affected us compared with the speedy type boats.   

Very little wake as he passed

The afternoon became quite hot again and we took advantage of the tree lined promenade which runs around the old town by taking a slow walk around it.

Good old plane trees providing maximum shade

The promenade follows the line of the old city walls of which there are very few remnants left other than the occasional tower.

Part of the old city wall

Halfway around we took a detour into the old town to have a quick gander.

The covered market

The ornate city hall

Beautiful Burgundian roof on the cathedral

When we got back, a widebeam was setting off and as they had a better spot, we decided to take it.  They were a couple we had met in St Florentin and had just been to Paris and were now heading south.  

Our mooring at Sens with what look like ‘git’ gaps as we call them in the UK

As you can see above there were very few bollards so the number of boats that could moor up were limited; if a few more had been added or even mooring rings then more boats could be accommodated.  In case you don’t know, git gaps are where people selfishly moor bang in the middle of a spot that two boats could moor in, thus reducing the number of boats that could potentially moor on visitor moorings in a town.

On Monday we cruised 22 kilometres down five locks