Parroy (fuel what fuel?)

Evening at Parroy

Following a whirlwind two-week break in the UK we’re now relaxing back on the boat in France.  We were fortunate to be able to spend time with most of our children and all five grandchildren, including the two new-borns.  You may remember that we used the ferry for the trip over to Dover, the first time since 1995, from which time we’ve always used the tunnel.  The purpose of trying the ferry was to see how Buddy coped with it now a pet lounge has been opened.  Until this year, pets had to be left in cars which we knew would have freaked him out.  The crossing was fine, and we and Buddy were well looked after in the lounge, but the downside was that using the ferry added a couple of hours to the journey, although if we timed it right it could probably be brought down a little.  With the time difference and a six-hour drive from Calais to the boat we used the tunnel for the return trip to make sure we arrived in the early afternoon, but we may well use the ferry again for future UK-bound crossings.

Safe & sound on our return to Parroy

The refinery and fuel depot workers have been on strike in France for a while, so we made sure we filled up with fuel before getting through the tunnel. On the drive down, many service stations were out of fuel while others had long queues.  We did find one with a short queue so topped up, noticing that the price had been hiked up to be as expensive as that in the UK which may have been the reason the queue was short.  A temporary measure has been put in place that bans the filling of jerry cans at fuel stations so we’re lucky we filled up the boat’s fuel tank recently.  Another temporary measure, a 'fuel crisis' subsidy of 0,30€ a litre, was rumoured to be nearing its end but the government have just decided to keep it going. 

 

We had a quiet and uneventful drive back and even after ten hours in the car, Buddy was happy to continue doing nothing and just lay outside the boat for the afternoon. 

Buddy happy looking across the water

We’re booked into a dry dock at the beginning of November to have the bottom of the boat cleaned and re-covered with bitumen.  It’s now unlikely this will happen as the yard is 200 kilometres away at the far end of a canal that is closed due to lack of water, with alternative routes also closed.  As there’s very little prospect of the canal opening anytime soon, we are currently negotiating delaying the visit until next March or April.  The canal closures also mean that we’re unlikely to be able to reach Condé-sur-Marne, the port we’re booked into to leave the boat over the new year period, so it looks like we’ll have to find an alternative.  As the mooring at Parroy is so quiet and peaceful with no sign of life other than the occasional fisherman we decided to stay put for a few days while we settled back into boat life and did some re-planning, an activity we've had to do several times this year for one reason or another.

It was just as well we stayed at Parroy on the Saturday as it rained on and off all day.  We obviously had to go for walks to avoid going stir crazy and got quite wet attempting to walk around the large canal reservoir at Parroy.  I say attempt as we only got a couple of kilometres in before we decided we were getting too wet and turned around.

Soggy view for much of Saturday

The mooring where we are staying is alongside a campsite and facilities at both are now closed for the winter so there is no water available for us.  Returning from one of our walks, Karen checked the water points allocated to each camping pitch and was surprised to find one that hadn’t been turned off.  After changing into dry clothes, we decided to take advantage and moved the boat closer to the tap so we could top up our tank during a break in the rain.  We still had to link two of our hoses together to reach to the tap, which is not normally a problem, but the pressure was so high that the hose joiner failed, and I got soaked for the second time that day.

Sunday was a much nicer day, still mild but with no threat of rain so we tried the circular walk around the lake again.  The signs at the start referred to the ‘Circuit de l’étang 7km’, so we’d assumed it would be a seven kilometre walk around the lake.  When we tried and failed because of the rain on the previous day, we’d turned around whilst still walking beside the lake.  What we hadn’t realised was that we’d turned around at the point the walk veered away from the lake.  It wasn’t until the Sunday attempt that we found out that only two of the seven kilometres was around the lake, so we felt a bit cheated.  Still, it was a pleasant enough walk taking in some fields and the last part was back alongside the canal where we knew it was safe for Buddy to be off the lead.

Sunday’s view not so soggy

With continuing good weather, we decided to stay in Parroy for a few more days so we could get on with some more painting.  After a good session painting in the morning, we headed off to the mairie at Parroy to arrange leaving the boat for three months from the beginning of December as we've now accepted we won't be getting back to Condé-sur-Marne.  Parroy has a population of 180 so when we arrived at the mairie we couldn’t believe the size of it.  On reflection we weren’t really surprised as we’re so used to mairies seemingly being far too large for the number of villagers they serve.    

Parroy mairie

When we walked in, we were of course immediately recognised as outsiders.  After a quick introduction to the mayor or chef, a lovely girl looked after us.  I’m sure a lot of what we said to each other wasn’t really understood by the other party, but we managed to get authority to leave the boat where we wanted to and will join the other two boats we’re currently moored with.  We got a good deal, but if we’d have been residents of the village, we would have received a further 70% discount.  We rather assumed that the other two boats belong to locals as they’ve been there on the three occasions we’ve cruised through Parroy.

There wasn’t a lot to the village other than the mairie, a church and a couple of wide streets lined with agricultural type housing as is common in Lorraine. 

Church and war memorial

Fuel pumps in the high street

We came across a pile of stones in the centre with an information board explaining about the nearby lost village of Juvicourt.  The village had been abandoned prior to WWI and the two world wars destroyed all that remained, leaving just the shell of a farmhouse standing, which was dismantled at the turn of the century.  The board explained that the pile of cut stones were the only vestiges of Juvicourt.

All that’s left of Juvicourt

Walking back to the boat we headed south out of Parroy and joined the towpath at a road bridge over the canal.  Alongside the bridge was a memorial to an American machinegun battalion, some of whom died defending the bridge in 1940.

Memorial to some machinegunners

I had no excuse but to get on with more painting on Tuesday as it promised to be another lovely and warm day.  When I started, Karen took herself off in the car to a small village a few kilometres away, called Bures.  She’d passed through it during her run on Monday and at the farthest point from the boat she’d found a walnut tree that hadn’t been harvested.  Not only that, the nuts were the largest she’d come across this season.  She couldn’t believe how many nuts were on the ground going unwanted and she couldn’t take any as, understandably, she doesn’t carry bags on a run and also we’ve enough drying out on the boat already.

Karen had woken up thinking about the walnut tree and how it was a shame the nuts were just going to waste so that’s why she took the car up there in the morning.  It wasn’t long before she returned and explained that when she arrived at the tree, she’d been really surprised to see a man collecting the nuts.  He already had two large boxes full and was clearly clearing up, so she was happy the nuts weren’t going to go to waste.

We went for a good walk in the afternoon taking in part of the lake of the previous day and also Karen’s walnut tree as well as some varied countryside.  It really did confirm how remote Parroy is and why we’ve been so happy staying here but we'll probably set sail on Wednesday.

The bottom end of the lake

The German Black Forest mountains can just be seen in the distance

I’ve noticed that all the pictures of the Parroy mooring have been looking downstream so to end this entry here’s one looking upstream.