River Cruising Water Cooler

[Canal archive]

What - my beautiful Du Cheveux was my car of choice for many years a cream & maroon Dolly aka Rhubarb & Custard. Eventually my DH (after I’d picked him up from Heathrow one day) decided it was definitely not safe driving and bought me a double cab Toyota Pick up truck - basically from the sublime to the ridiculous, although another fun vehicle to drive.
P. S. The 2CV car salesman explained the gear shifting as ‘tromboning’!

[Coral]

12 hours ago, Ritabob said:

Coral,

If you have time check out 'Les Frenchies' on YouTube. They have numerous videos about what to do or see or eat in Paris like a local.

RB 

Will do this weekend. Thanks 🙂 

[CPT Trips]

We really enjoyed the Musee d’Orsay. Beautiful art in an interesting setting, a converted railroad station. Also Monet’s Water Lilies at Musee de l’Orangerie pairs nicely with Giverney. 
 

[sharkster77]

For a variety of reasons, I've had more than one person tell me that they enjoyed Musee d'Orsay more than the Louvre.

[Canal archive]

The Eiffel Tower is closed! Some kind of upset, the unions consider the operators aren’t doing a good enough job. Most probably making the most of the upcoming Olympics, just a heads up if your on a early Seine cruise.

[Coral]

22 hours ago, CPT Trips said:

We really enjoyed the Musee d’Orsay. Beautiful art in an interesting setting, a converted railroad station. Also Monet’s Water Lilies at Musee de l’Orangerie pairs nicely with Giverney. 
 

I have heard that also. Musee d’Orsay is definitely on my list. I found a Musée Marmottan Monet. I don't know how that compares.

[Coral]

3 hours ago, Canal archive said:

The Eiffel Tower is closed! Some kind of upset, the unions consider the operators aren’t doing a good enough job. Most probably making the most of the upcoming Olympics, just a heads up if your on a early Seine cruise.

I am afraid of heights so I am ok with that. Does it still light up?

[CPT Trips]

We went to the d’Orsay when it opened in the morning, we couldn’t get in and a surprisingly orderly line formed. Then almost an hour late they opened the doors. Despite there being a line, the museum staff set up a pole and tape queue that totally screwed up the order of the line.
That’s where being American (aka monolingual) hurt. Fortunately there was a family near us in line, saw our situation, spoke to people around them and yelled at the guard. Then we were waved up to join them. Turns out this Asian guy told the guard we were his cousins from America. 
And that’s my story of a 55 minute strike. So named because even when employees are less than an hour late they aren’t docked pay. 

[Daisi]

7 hours ago, Canal archive said:

The Eiffel Tower is closed! Some kind of upset, the unions consider the operators aren’t doing a good enough job. Most probably making the most of the upcoming Olympics, just a heads up if your on a early Seine cruise.

 

 

Closed due to one of those familiar problems in France - strike!  This is another thing that is keeping me away from going to France, they tend to enjoy striking. 🙂

 

[Coral]

27 minutes ago, Daisi said:

 

 

Closed due to one of those familiar problems in France - strike!  This is another thing that is keeping me away from going to France, they tend to enjoy striking. 🙂

 

So do Italians! And those in the UK.....

[CPT Trips]

1 hour ago, Coral said:

So do Italians! And those in the UK.....

And German transportation workers . . . 

[Coral]

27 minutes ago, CPT Trips said:

And German transportation workers . . . 

I forgot the Germans! 🙂 

[Canal archive]

The scariest strike I have ever encountered was a lorry drivers one in France, were crawling along on a motorway travelling west and there is no traffic visible in the opposite lane until there appeared 4 lorry’s across the lanes followed by four more and so on for some time travelling extremely slowly. Those lorry’s were just a little scary. 
Most countries strike but the French do seem to be quite good at it their farmers are also striking at the moment.

[Daisi]

Farmers are protesting all over Europe, I've been getting a lot of photos from the Netherlands with the tractors out.  Here, we are so used to them on our roads, we would need to see 20 at a shot to figure out it's not just for heading to the fields!

[notamermaid]

2 hours ago, Daisi said:

Farmers are protesting all over Europe, I've been getting a lot of photos from the Netherlands with the tractors out.  Here, we are so used to them on our roads, we would need to see 20 at a shot to figure out it's not just for heading to the fields!

How different lives and therefore perceptions are! More than two a day is an unusual sight for me, especially in winter. But driving for a bit in the car will of course get me into the countryside where I may see more. I guess I would call 10 a lot.

 

On 2/24/2024 at 7:42 PM, Coral said:

I forgot the Germans! 🙂 

That is what is so unusual, the French are brilliant at striking (I mean that logistically and using opportune times of the year, always know when to use an event, etc. to get attention) and we are good with the transportation strikes. But farmers in Germany? Naaa, normally just busy with their lives and fairly content. Not now... Incidentally, I thought yesterday that I should mention this in the Rhine thread again as the protests are likely to continue into the river cruising season at this point, here meaning probably beyond 10 March. But we will see how it goes. Dutch, French and Germans farmers are certainly united in solidarity with each other.

 

Independently of each other, two people told me about the Carnival parade each one of them saw along the Rhine. In both parades a tractor was displaying a sign with a protest message. Floats in the parades are usually pulled by tractors, that is standard procedure.

 

notamermaid

 

[Coral]

21 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

That is what is so unusual, the French are brilliant at striking (I mean that logistically and using opportune times of the year, always know when to use an event, etc. to get attention) and we are good with the transportation strikes. But farmers in Germany? Naaa, normally just busy with their lives and fairly content. Not now... 

 

Independently of each other, two people told me about the Carnival parade each one of them saw along the Rhine. In both parades a tractor was displaying a sign with a protest message. Floats in the parades are usually pulled by tractors, that is standard procedure.

 

 

I live in a rural state and am pretty close to rural farms. Our farmers never strike. And our small town parades definitely involve tractors as well! 🙂 

[Daisi]

@notamermaid, it's not unusual to see tractors driving through the local "take out" lanes in small towns for coffee here. When I worked for a car dealership, it was also common for them to drive their tractors in to test drive new trucks....you just felt bad for some of the sales guys, as some of them came straight from the barn!  In spring time, we often get 5 - 10 paced out on the road travelling to the fields, it's our local traffic jam. 🙂

 

[Canal archive]

Living in Wiltshire we are very used to tractors but come harvest time add the combine harvesters and the huge grain lorry’s through narrow country lanes it’s chaos.

[notamermaid]

1 hour ago, Coral said:

And our small town parades definitely involve tractors as well! 🙂 

They are so practical for this aren't, they? The modern ones are often massive here now. I love the old ones that are occasionally used, the engine sound is great and you can see some of the mechanical and technical parts exposed. This girl does not understand any of it, but I like the machinery. We have Lanz Bulldog's in the area, but the Krämer ones are also interesting and nice to look at.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

31 minutes ago, Canal archive said:

narrow country lanes

That is one of the scariest things that has happened to me on roads in England. We in the family car went round a corner on a narrow country lane in Kent and this huge, enormous tractor appeared in front of us. It literally filled the whole lane. I sometimes think about that when I see a similar model here in Germany.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

They do come in useful for towing the huge floats in the  8 Westcountry carnivals every November.

[Daisi]

17 hours ago, notamermaid said:

They are so practical for this aren't, they? The modern ones are often massive here now. I love the old ones that are occasionally used, the engine sound is great and you can see some of the mechanical and technical parts exposed. This girl does not understand any of it, but I like the machinery. We have Lanz Bulldog's in the area, but the Krämer ones are also interesting and nice to look at.

 

notamermaid

 

 

We love the older ones as well, and often go to the local plowing matches to see them. One of the highlights for my husband on the Rhine cruise was running into a tour of older tractors at the Black Forest Open Air Museum. Not only old tractors, but he thought it was interesting that they were using them to pull caravans!  

[Canal archive]

Brussels protesting farmers are bombarding the police with rotten eggs and poo slurry. Puts a new slant on term dirty tricks !

[notamermaid]

Love that motorbike, Daisi.

5 hours ago, Daisi said:

Not only old tractors, but he thought it was interesting that they were using them to pull caravans!  

They do here to take the caravans away from camp sites along the rivers that are in danger of being flooded.

 

notamermaid

 

[Daisi]

@notamermaid, these guys were out on a tour I think, and using the caravans for overnighting in .