Some more 'marina' reports

I put marina in inverted commas as we have mostly been roughing it and some of the so called marinas we've been to haven't really met my expectations of what a marina should be. That sounds pompous. Shall I rephrase? To me a marina involves an office that tells you what's what, a certain basic level of facilities - toilets, showers, maybe washing machines etc. Some of the canal side facilities have some of these things, so here goes.

Nemours

Not a marina, but the quay had water and electricity. Next to the quayside is an area for camping vans to park. Quiet. Next to the lock. A choice of big supermarkets within 2km each way (walking distance if you're as keen as us lol). Not bad at all.

PS just to remind you that the exit (going upstream) of Lock 12 Buttes of the Canal de Loing was badly clogged with waterweed, pressing against the lock gates with the occasional dead animal for good measure.

Montargis

Not a marina, but the quay had water and electricity. Not much space but nobody seems to mind if you stick a few stakes into the ground to secure your boat. Right next to the lock, handy for town, very scenic. Pretty good.

Rogny

In Rogny you moor on the canal bank and there is water and electricity but you have to pay (11-12 euros for our 10.5 metre boat).  For this you get access to electricity.

There are signs (which we didn't initially see) telling you where to pay. At about 8pm there was a knock on the hull, a woman from the capitanerie asking for payment for the night.  They obviously keep an eye on the place.

There are amenities. The mens is closed with a sign saying to use the ladies. The ladies has 2 cubicles, one is a squat type toilet and the other I assume is the shower but there was a charge for using that. There is a laundry, which has what I'd call a normal toilet in it, but the door doesn't lock. Fine if you have nerves of steel and/or can sing loudly.

There are also bins for rubbish/recycling. On the positive side, the toilets were spotless.

Rogny is well worth a visit but I really don't understand how they justify their charges.

Chatillon sur Loire

Finally, what I'd call a marina. Nice pontoons, shore power and water, a proper capitanerie with a helpful harbourmaster, Natacha.  When we arrived she told us that there was a market next day and gave directions. That's what you need!

There is an informal library in the capitanerie. The books are in French and other languages. I think the idea is that you take one and you leave one to take its place.

There is one (unisex) toilet cubicle and a shower, which you have to pay 2 euros for.  The toilet has paper! It was spotless.   Like so many toilets over here there is no seat. Is this a French thing?

There was also a separate room with a row of urinals, the door was always open so presumably it's for the uninhibited guys (they'd have their backs to you).

I didn't manage to get to use the shower as I kept forgetting to ask Natacha.

The laundry has a 15kg washing machine and a 9kg dryer. The cost is 5 euros for the washer and 3 for the dryer. Natacha gave me the key to the laundry room as the capitanerie closes at 7 and I didn't start washing until around 6.30.  

The drying cycle takes a while but everything came out dry and smelling nice (I did 2 drying loads as if you put 15kg of wet washing in a 9kg dryer it just doesn't work). You must remember to lock the laundry door once you leave, Natacha came and knocked on the boat to gently tell me off that I hadn't. In my defence I thought it was one of those doors that locks when you close it but I didn't make the same mistake twice.

Natasha had jet black hair, clear blue eyes and a voice that betrayed a fondness for cigarettes that nobody in England could afford these days and you didn't argue with her!

The marina is very convenient for the town which has the usual shops. The market was small but despite this I nearly managed to bankrupt us buying the most incredible artisan cheeses.

A lovely place, it felt secure and had what you needed.

Saint Satur

The entrance to Saint Satur Port de Plaisance would be easy to miss if you didn't know where to look for it. As you travel upstream on the Canal Lateral de la Loire it is to your left, under a bridge by a basin where the canal opens out. There is a tall industrial building which seems to funnel wind into the basin, making the narrow approach under the bridge even more challenging.

The marina is very busy. We couldn't find a pontoon and didn't want to take our chances next to the wall as you never know how deep it is. In the end we rafted to a disused and neglected looking barge, having checked we wouldn't be obstructing the fairway.

We couldn't find a capitanerie or any facilities though I think they may exist so we didn't pay anything. There again we didn't use anything.

The marina was about a 20 minute walk to a supermarket, Colruyt, which wasn't huge but had a pretty good selection. The marina itself is situated in a disused part of the Canal Lateral that used to lead to the River Loire, so it's worth a quick walk to look at the disused locks and the river but frankly I had no urge to stay longer than overnight.

Marseilles les Aubigny

Another 'proper' though small marina, just past lock 25 (if you're heading south). There were very few spaces and the pontoons were short, but boats were moored to bollards by the wall. We decided to try to moor there. Mistake: there was a pontoon attached to the bank which held the other boats a metre or so away from the wall, but it stopped short of where we wanted to go.

A helpful man from one of these boats came and took, literally helped himself to our aft line and pulled us in. Crash!! We asked him to let go several times but he either didn't understand or didn't agree and looked at us angrily for being so unappreciative. He didn't realise that the sloping wall had hit our rudder so there was no way we could moor there safely. In the end we went back to the short pontoon, taking up two berth spaces as our beam is so broad.

Over the road from the marina is a patisserie which was open until 7pm. Lovely bread and the best quiche I have ever tasted, I honestly didn't realise it could be so good.

There is a Catholic church right by the marina but, while you can go inside (it's worth a look, lovely stained glass, very peaceful and very personal to the area) there are no services as the harbourmaster told us that the roof is dangerous.

The capitanerie is in the building next door to the pontoons, along with the amenities. These were very clean. Shower tokens are 2 euros but the shower lasts a really long time.

The harbourmaster was a nice guy, spoke some English, his favourite word of which was 'shit', repeated over and over every time he realised that something wasn't working properly, which seemed to be quite often. He was very friendly and jolly and only charged us for one shower token as the machine you put it into in the ladies was open so it just fell through and I returned it to him (chorus of shitshitshitshitshit).

Everything was spotless and there was an electric point. You really appreciate being able to dry your hair when you haven't been able to wash it for a week.

All in all an excellent place for an overnight stay.

I'll do another report once we've been to a few more places.