Port St Louis

Bobobolinsky

Bobobolinsky

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Thinking of going down the French canal system next year to Port St Louis.
What's it like for liveaboards, is there a good community? Are there any work opportunities. in the area?
 
P st Louis

Have wintered there twice, but not very recently. Nice little town with a good market. Intermarche near the basin. Workshops etc good.
Communications are a problem. When last there, no bus service to Arles, no trains. car really necessary for longish stay.
Very flat country, the mistral here will blow the b******ks off a bull, but at least clears the atmosphere.
 
Our experience of the marina was quite bad, what we could see in two weeks that we were there.

Ordered some spare parts from home which were sent via courier to the marina. We specifically asked from the marina office, if we could order those there and they said yes. Days passed and no spare parts showed up. Finally I called to the courier company and they said, that the marina office refused to accept the delivery, as the package was not to them. Asked this issue from the marina office and they said, that as packages are not for them, they are not going to accept them. Nobody bothered to notify us, that the courier is now in the office, please come and pick-up your package (which is exactly how things work here in Barcelona).

Second issue was the marina key card, which functioned when it wanted and no staff present during evening, which resulted one of us standing behind the gates for sometime, until the person left in the boat understood to come looking that howcome shower is taking nearly an hour...

Also any help regarding printing papers, using fax or copy machine was according to them: "Highly unusual" (direct quote).

Would not stay there for any extended period of time judging from our two week experience.
 
Kimmo, I guess you are not talking about P.Napoleon or Navy Service here! There are 3 Marinas. Totally separate ownership.

Bobolinsky. We are in Port Napoleon. If you need any info please PM.
Work opportunities, I'd have to say highly unlikely/no.
Liveaboards, there are a few, not many Brits. Unless you frequent the bars, liveaboard community not really. There are regular buses to Arles. Normally there are people around who would offer lifts.
 
Kimmo said:
Our experience of the marina was quite bad, what we could see in two weeks that we were there.

Ordered some spare parts from home which were sent via courier to the marina. We specifically asked from the marina office, if we could order those there and they said yes. Days passed and no spare parts showed up. Finally I called to the courier company and they said, that the marina office refused to accept the delivery, as the package was not to them. Asked this issue from the marina office and they said, that as packages are not for them, they are not going to accept them. Nobody bothered to notify us, that the courier is now in the office, please come and pick-up your package (which is exactly how things work here in Barcelona).

Second issue was the marina key card, which functioned when it wanted and no staff present during evening, which resulted one of us standing behind the gates for sometime, until the person left in the boat understood to come looking that howcome shower is taking nearly an hour...

Also any help regarding printing papers, using fax or copy machine was according to them: "Highly unusual" (direct quote).

Would not stay there for any extended period of time judging from our two week experience.
Click to expand...

There are 3 possible sites, your experience was of Port Napoleon. Expensive, isolated and windswept.

Apart from that there is Navy Service - cheap, do-it-yourself, frequent sandstorms, isolated, at the beginning of the canal to:-

Port St Louis, which is quite pleasant, nil security and a reasonably inexpensive basin
In the summer the whole area is a mosquito hell-hole, worse than Scotland, Italy, Greece, Finland or India.
 
Charles far be it from me to take you to task. However, P.Nap is no more windswept or isolated than any other.
The mosquitoes are much less of a problem since the regular spraying which has been ongoing for the past 2 years.
Back to Kimmo's comments re the key card. This would definitely point to Port Saint Louis as P.Nap & Navy Services only have key cards for the main gate.
The delivery of post & parcels by courier or normal post is no issue whatsoever in P.Nap or Navy Services. Therefore I conclude that Kimmo is talking about Port Saint Louis.

As to expense, yes I'd agree P.Nap is the more expensive, however it is a much more pleasant alternative to Navy Services. As you say P.St Louis has no security IF you are on the visitors quay however if in the marina proper it is controlled by security gates for which you need a key. You would need to exit the pontoon to go to the shower hence Kimmo's comment.

Of course the other main differences between these three options. Port Saint Louis - in town - normally space available during the winter months. No hard standing at all.
Navy Services - hard standing - no in water berths at all - normally full for the winter although they have just 'reclaimed' some more space but no idea when it will be ready. Not as cheap as it used to be. Security is an issue.
P.Nap limited in water space but normally okay for the winter months. Lots of hard standing. Efficient boat lifting and storage. Clean & tidy marina.
P.Nap & Navy are both equidistant from Port St Louis & it's either a long walk or bike ride. You pay your money & takes your choice. Recommend taking the time to visit all three before making your mind up.
 
Took the time to look from the log book where we were and it was Port St.Louis (closest to the city) and we were in the marina area (local boats), not in the visitor quay.

But it was just our experience and the only bad experience we've experienced so far. Much of it could also be credited to the fact, that we do not speak French, which of course makes everything much more difficult :)
 
Navy Service is not the greatest spot to be a liveaboard. Is is, as has been stated, a giant hardstanding with minimum facilities but cheap when compared with PN. You get what you pay for. That said, when we were there,the office and yard crew were very helpful and efficient and there were no problems about them accepting goods for us.
Security is an issue. We had stuff nicked off our boat including shackles and a KIM MOB device. You need a bike to reach civilisation and the mosquitos take no prisoners. There is a local repellent spray ( the name escapes me, but it was in a red and black can) and that was the only stuff that worked for us.
PN has most of the bells and whistles and friendly liveaboards (Zigmundo van Dog can give you the full SP), but it is pricey. We found Port ST Louis itself was reluctant to encourage long stayers.

If you want to get home to UK, the TGV from Marseilles is wonderful. Snag is that you need to get to Arles first and public transport was pretty much non existent. A German guy who ran the snack bar and doubled as security man at Navy Service, ran an unofficial taxi service when we were there.
 
samwise said:
Navy Service is not the greatest spot to be a liveaboard. Is is, as has been stated, a giant hardstanding with minimum facilities but cheap when compared with PN. You get what you pay for. That said, when we were there,the office and yard crew were very helpful and efficient and there were no problems about them accepting goods for us.
Security is an issue. We had stuff nicked off our boat including shackles and a KIM MOB device. You need a bike to reach civilisation and the mosquitos take no prisoners. There is a local repellent spray ( the name escapes me, but it was in a red and black can) and that was the only stuff that worked for us.
PN has most of the bells and whistles and friendly liveaboards (Zigmundo van Dog can give you the full SP), but it is pricey. We found Port ST Louis itself was reluctant to encourage long stayers.

If you want to get home to UK, the TGV from Marseilles is wonderful. Snag is that you need to get to Arles first and public transport was pretty much non existent. A German guy who ran the snack bar and doubled as security man at Navy Service, ran an unofficial taxi service when we were there.
Click to expand...

Not sure if Helmut is still there. There is now a brand new restaurant (spring 2011) and the snack had to close.
 
wintering in Les Saintes Maries de la Mer

Hi All,

You might consider Les Saintes Maries de la Mer as another option. It is about 25 miles to the west in the middle of the Camargue coast.

It is a lovely village and the port, Port Gardian, is well protected.

We have spent this winter here and have not regreted it.

Best wishes,

Paul
 
Les Saintes Maries de la Mer

Hi Grehan,

There are at least 4 boats wintering here at the moment, 2 English, 1 French and 1 German.

For my Corvette I am paying E1,284 for the 6 winter months. I have free water, electric and wifi. Diesel was E1.26 per lt when we arrived last year but has now gone up to E1.40. This is still the cheapest we have found.

There are 73 visitors berths and there are plenty of spaces empty now.

I have loads of photos of both the port and the town but no idea how to add them to this post. I could e-mail them to you if I had your address.

Bloc Marine 2011 pg 450 gives all info you would need to arrive here.

Best wishes,

Paul
 
We have been in Port Napoleon for many years and know Les Saints Marie well. I always thought that the marina was very limited as to size. How big is your boat and what size can they take. I have been by car in a very strong SE'ly and remarked that I was very glad not to have the boat there.

Do you live on board during the winter and how is the surge in strong SE'lys. A very interesting post for me as it is always good to have another string to the bow.
 
Hi Digbydog,

We have lived here since September. There have been a couple of nasty SW that does send a swell into the harbour. We are moored next to a large 42ft sailing boat that works as a great wave break. Apart from a lot of creaking ropes we had no problems. My wife had sorted an hotel to move to when/if it got too bad, but we stayed on our boat.

We are on a Corvette 32, there are many 40 ft boats here, and a few larger boats (Sunseekers and the like) visit and usually stay next to the fuel pontoon.

Best wishes,

Paul
 
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