Nogent sur Marne, the Festival de l'Oh! June 26-28

The next night found us on the city pontoon in Lagny, famous (or in) as the closest mooring to EuroDisney. It was only 7 k away from the river but we failed to make the trip.
From there it was just a short trip to our next planned stop, either Nogent sur Marne or Joinville le Pont. Way back last year we had thought we might stay in Paris for a month, take some french lessons and really settle in, then we had a look at how much it cost to stay in the Paris marina. After we caught our breath, we thought we might stay just a little way outside the city; the public transit system is very good and it's really easy to get around. But our plan now is to stay a couple of days outside the city, spend three days or so in the Paris marina, then head up the Seine.


A view down the Marne.
There is a small marina in Nogent sur Marne but we didn't like the looks of it much and with the Festival de l' Oh! being centered there, we thought things might be a little loud. Luckily, just up the river was a nice bankside mooring in the trees. There is no power or water but It's been pretty warm the last few days and a little shade seemed like a good idea.

The festival was all about the water and featured several interesting events. Several took place on the deck of converted working barges that moved from place to place over the weekend, stopping for a few minutes at each festival site for the performers to do their thing. One was a satire on reality tv, a soap opera on the water, but with our limited french we weren't sure what the connection was with the river. There was also some great modern dance featured on one barge.



There was also plenty of music at a marina stage and the local government subsidized boat rides on three big river boats so everybody could have a few inexpensive minutes on the river. We spent the afternoons providing waving services from the back deck of our boat.

These suburbs of Paris are nothing like you saw on the news last year with burning, overturned police cars. These are the green, leafy, upscale suburbs along the Marne River ... very pleasant. There's a very nice bike path along the river so we had a ride to admire some of the great deco architecture and get some ideas for the house in Ventura.





Monday morning Paris called. It was time to leave the Marne River and join the mighty Seine!