Sunday, October 19th, I took a boat ride from the Port of Paris Arsenal at the Place Bastille up (or down?) the Marne River toward Bry-sur-Marne and Le Perreux-sur-Marne.  The trip is eight hours, with two of them being a stop for lunch in a riverside guinguette--a riverside restaurant where people can (and do) dance in the open air.

 No, not on this boat--though it was tempting . . .

but on this boat.

It was outstanding weather for a trip on the river, 75+ degrees and very sunny.  I saw some folks sunbathing in bathing suits or in very few pieces of clothing, but I am not publishing  pictures in the blog--for all of our sakes!  Instead, It was beautiful wooded scenes showing the beginning of autumn colors.  It was hard to believe how close to Paris we were!

 We saw lots of people out rowing--there must be a number of crew clubs around here.

And swans.  A symphony of swans!

 And more swans!

The guinguette,  Chez Gégène where we stopped for lunch.  The guinguette gets it's name because le petit blanc, a lively light from a region of Paris which they used to serve, made people giguet (ready to dance a jig!)

Okay--plenty of eating and drinking going on, but no dancing.  So I chose to go for a walk along the river instead where I encountered beautiful scenery, bikers, hikers, skaters and wildlife.

There are some beautiful homes along the river bank.

 And there are some surprising ones.

A lovely pathway . . . 

from which you can see

dogs (her name is Iris)

cats (she wouldn't share her name)

and . . . more swans!

Now if a group of swans is a "symphony," then perhaps a group of bikers is a "brace?"

a hug of hikers?

And a group of skaters is a "scale"

or perhaps, a "hope?"

A "puddle" of paddle boarders

 and a "raft" of ducks

 a "waltz" of walkers."

Now of course I made of the names of these congregations of people and things.  (Except for the ducks, it really is a "raft" of ducks.  i looked it up!)  But as I understand it, these things are named as a result of common usage, so if we ALL start calling them by these names, it will soon appear on the internet as "truth."  In that spirit, here is a "kindness" of pictures from the river bank.

Back on the boat and three hours and three locks later, we were back in the Bastille basin.  A final photo of un petit moulin.  I'm not sure why it's there, (at the Bastille basin) but it is pretty!

Note to regular readers:  No roses!  The search for the last one continues . . .  And groups of swans are a "bevy" or a "game."

 

Au revoir!