Friday 30th June - Chateau-Thierry to Dormans

We left at 9.30 under a clear blue sky - another warm day promised!  Last night, just before our (late) dinner a couple of American men from the boat in front of us came over to chat.  When asked their next stop, they said it would be Meaux - we were very surprised as it would be probably an eight hour trip for them.....not much of a pleasure in 30c heat!  We wished them ‘Bon voyage’ with a silent ‘good luck’!!
Just an easy cruise with two locks today, so we arrived in Dormans at midday to find a nice empty pontoon with power and water which was adjacent to a camp site.  As soon as we were settled, we walked across the bridge into town for lunch.  This was not as easy as we thought it would be as it was market day and the most likely restaurant was fully booked.  So we walked a bit further and found a cafe which advertised moules et frites.....that’s good enough!  On asking about the moules though we were told that it was out of season for moules, so we decided on steak tartare.  This was a fast, fast food restaurant......the meal came within ten minutes and was not exactly what we had expected!  It turned out to be what the French call ‘Americain’ which I believe was beef but it arrived a strange orange colour and was the texture of baby food.....ah well, the frites were home made at least!!
Skip in the afternoon went up to the impressive war memorial chapel,Chateau and flour mill.

We returned to Aphrodite and whiled away the afternoon - it was too hot to do much. We sat up top till after 10 p.m. again, listening to music and watching the happy campers having a little party.  Some TV and bed.

24 km. 2 locks. 2 1/2 hours