French canals - somewhere to leave our boat en route?

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hurkur

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A question please to all those who have experience of the French Canals. We are taking our yacht in April, down the Seine, Yonne, Bourgogne, Saone, and Rhone and eventually to Port St Louis where we hope to lay her up for the winter. We aim to take our time and would like to leave her somewhere about half way, preferably during July & August. Are there any Port de Plaisances/marinas along the way that are likely to let us leave the boat for about 8 weeks (and secure too!) or perhaps we would have to book well ahead. On that subject any information on Port St Louis would also be much appreciated.
 
You will leave the Burgogne and join the Saone at St Jean de Losne. This is a big marina with many of the usual facilities at hand and usually has plenty of space. Alternatively, a little down river is the pleasant port of Seurre which usually has a few spaces. Further downriver still is Chalons sur Saone but it would probably be more difficult to arrange to leave it for any length of time.
 
came through the canals last year from Gravelines in our 9mtr catamaran down into Paris then spent 6mths winter in ST Jean de Losne took a year & enjoyed every day you could consider Paris Arsenal ( book up both places) or as suggested go on down to St Jean de Losne. having done the trip would not recommend any other places, feel free to pm me if you want any further info
best of luck n enjoy take your time it's great
 
[ QUOTE ]
having done the trip would not recommend any other places,

[/ QUOTE ] Can you say why please? Security issues, lack of facilities or what? We were hoping to spent quite a lot of time on the French inland waterways which would entail finding somewhere to over-winter it there whilst we went somewhere warmer.
 
None of the places mentioned is particularly secure in the sense that there are no access codes required to get onto the pontoons. Just the usual notice saying access is for boat owners only and a bit of chain strung across the entrance to the pontoons. However, I don't think you need worry about security - I've never found it a problem.

Paris Arsenal is a great place to leave the boat if there is room to bag a finger pontoon. However very expensive. Last time I was there it was about £100 per week for a 10m boat in the summer, dropping to about £40 per week during the winter.
 
On the way out from Port St Louis, Navy-Services are experts at re-planting your mast.Navy-Services is just the name of the outfit, a port-a -sec with just a few waiting spaces,make an appointment a day before or so.There is also Port Napoleon a very large marina and dry standing. Bring an all over mosquito net. these ports with the exception of Port St louis are remote from shops. Martigues port -a -sec is well run, and secure, and near a good cheap supermarket.Two chandlers as well. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Well before Paris there is port l'Ilon a bit in the sticks,safe and secure. Mantes-le -Jolie is nearest town about 4km.60km to useful Beauvais Airport.
 
I would suppport the recommendation of St Jean de Losne - it's probably more than half way in terms of time, if not distance, and is fairly good for public transport, with a train to Dijon, from which there are TGV links to Paris. Saskia is in fact based at the h2o marina there - http://www.h2ofrance.com/ - and I have not had any security problems over the past eight years. The website gives their contact details and prices. Enjoy your cruise!

Nick
 
having passed through none of the other places apear secure
just our impression Blanquarts at St Jean de Lonse is behind closed pontoon gates. did not consider Paris costly a 9mtr cat in summer cost us e20 pr night dont know about long term, has good security. Could try Beaucaire on peti rohne bit of a way off the track but nice n secure IF you can get in good access to transport pm if you more info
 
I kept my boat in Paris for eight months and by UK standards it's reasonable but there aren't concessionary rates for a six week stay. So, your 20 euros a day becomes 840 euros for six weeks. Contrast that with other marinas like H2O at St Jean de Losne - where a similar stay would cost you 270 euros.

Seurre - just down the river from St Jean de Losne is cheaper still.

I've left my boat all over the place in France for months at a time and the only thing I had pinched was a fender at Digoin on the Canal du Centre.
 
Cannot speak from personal knowledge but friends speak highly of St.Jean de Losne.Have you plans re overwintering somewhere?
 
Concur with many of the thoughts here.

Paris is a good place and surprisingly secure for such an inner city, stones-throw-from-Notre-Dame, location.
St Jean de Losne is the obvious place - there are two operators, H2O and Blanquart, of which H2O is the biggest and Blanquart the quietest. Rail connections are good, to Dijon then Paris.
As noted, Seurre is a nice place, nice village and probably quiet enough to be secure and well looked after by the capitainerie. Also near St Jean is Saint-Symphorien which has a small out of the way basin. Although I've walked there, I haven't stayed there so don't know the details.

I probably wouldn't leave my boat alone for a longish while at Chalons, although again it's a great place for a stay.

Further along down the Rhone, Valence has a good port de plaisance and has been recommended to us by those who've stayed there a longish while (we only stayed a night).

Further info and photographs on the website (link below).

Security - many people go through, and stay in, France without any trouble whatsoever. We've had one bike stolen and one bike's tyres slashed. Low level petty crime is the same everywhere I'm afraid. We know two people who've had their boats broken into and their computers stolen. So be at least a little bit 'street-wise' and careful - especially with left-open or left-ajar hatches in the summer when there are more tourists and more little thieves.
 
Thanks for all the information, this forum and all the contributors are so helpful - St Jean de Losne looks a good place and about half way. Checked out the H2O website and that was good - they have wireless broadband there too which would be a bonus.
In answer to 'Somerset' we are planning to over-winter in Port Napoleon (probably) as they seem to have a large capacity for dry storage. The plan is then the following year to make our way along the French and Italian coast.
Roll on April!
 
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