What happens in France when you have months of steady rain followed by a week of heavy rain? Ivan and I and a heap of other people on boats found out – a flood. And for us, that meant the Yonne River was closed to all boat traffic and we had to stay put. Luckily, when the river suddenly closed we just happened to be located in a fabulous city called Sens. And this is where we stayed on Laura the boat for three weeks. Oh well! Or, as the French say, tant pis! We certainly made the most of the wonderful town of Sens.
So what’s so good about Sens?
Well let me see now, Sens has history and artefacts dating back 1700 years to Gallo-Roman times, beautiful buildings, a cathedral, a great museum with Napoleon’s hat that he wore at Waterloo, acres of gardens, an excellent market, bars, restaurants, friendly locals and free concerts on just about every night of the week. And boats such as ours could access free electricity and water in the port. What more could anyone ask for! Here’s some photos.
Sens is open on a Monday
Normally, Mondays are a very quiet day in France with not many shops or restaurants open. But not Sens. Mondays are a busy and vibrant day.
The market in Sens is huge and has every type of fresh food that’s in season as well as meat, cheese, fish and all sorts of delicacies. The building is very beautiful and all of the doorways have stained glass pictures of fruit and vegetables.
World Music Day!
Our friends Ross and Kari arrived from Australia ready to cruise the Yonne River with us. They quickly learnt the expression “tant pis” and didn’t mind at all that we couldn’t actually go anywhere. Especially when we discovered the delights of World Music Day.
World Music Day, or Fete de la Musique, is a big event in France that is celebrated on June 21. And Sens put on a great show. We saw at least 10 bands from different parts of the world and had a great time.
The below video is one of my all time favourites. It’s our friend Kari joining in line-dancing, only she didn’t know the steps. I don’t think anyone noticed!
We ended up in some guy’s garage listening to a heavy metal band. We MAY have had just a few too many beers by that stage and not long afterwards we decided to call it a night. But oh my goodness, what a fun time we had. If you get the chance to go to France in June, make sure you’re there for Fete de la Musique on the 21st. It doesn’t matter where you are, you’ll find some great live music.
Ivan’s birthday
Ivan celebrated his birthday while we were in Sens with Ross and Kari. So we decided to head to the nearby town of Joigny on the train for a special lunch. It was delicious. We also visited a town called Villeneuve-sur-Yonne which had incredible architecture and history. We had an awesome time with our friends and missed them when they left. But we’ll catch up with them again in September when we return to Australia.
Concerts, concerts, concerts!
Sens loves live music and every summer the council puts on many free concerts for the locals. I’m talking just about every night there was live entertainment. Lucky for us, many of them were held right at the port so we had front row seats.
One night there were two concerts on opposite sides of the river. We had so much fun in Sens!
You’re probably sick of seeing these concert videos by now but here’s one more and I promise that’s it. Have a look at the guy smoking a cigar on stage. Hmmm.
More friends arrived
Our friends Megan and Dean arrived from Australia to cruise with us. They also didn’t mind at all that we had to stay put and instead just soaked up the awesomeness of Sens. Tant pis! We did a lot of touristy things with them including climbing to the top of the cathedral. The view was amazing.
We also saw lots of bands, had dinners in restaurants and just enjoyed having old friends with us. It was hard to say goodbye.
Making new friends
We made some lovely new friends while we were in the Port of Sens including other people living on boats and some locals as well. One local lady had two adorable dogs that she’d walk in a pram when they got tired. We invited her onto the boat as she’d never been on one before. She loved it and so did the dogs!
We also got to know a lovely French couple called Claude and Marie-Claude who were on the boat behind us. We spent many an enjoyable evening with them either at concerts or on our boats over a couple of glasses of wine. One day their daughter and grand daughters dropped in for a visit so we put on afternoon tea. They had a long journey in front of them so we gave them our last packet of Tim Tams for the trip. That’s how lovely they were, that we could make such a huge sacrifice.
We also met a lovely Canadian couple called Tim and Liz. They are massive football fans so we watched the Euro Cup final with them at a bar.
A very tense election
When French President Emmanuel Macron decided to call a snap election it did not go down well. French people we spoke to were furious that he’d done this, especially when there was still more than two years until the next election was due and right before the Olympics. Whilst it was fascinating for us to be here at this time, we felt very sorry for France and could feel the frustration of the people.
French elections are done a bit differently. They have two rounds of voting held a week apart and both rounds happened while we were in Sens. I wanted to see where it all took place, so I visited the town hall. The building is beautiful and very grand, as you can see from the photos. I got a real sense of the importance of the occasion as I walked up the stone staircase to the voting area, with the words Liberte, Egalite and Fraternite etched into the walls.
Goodbye Sens! It’s been such fun.
Three weeks went by in a flash and it wasn’t long before the river and locks were reopened. We were a bit sad to say goodbye to Sens after such a great time but it was also lovely to be back out on the water again.
After Sens we continued up the Yonne River until Auxerre. And right now we’re on the Burgundy Canal. We’ve only got five weeks left of our break from work on Laura before we head back to Australia in September. But in the meantime, we’re soaking up the experience of life in France.
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