Harbour

Port Ilon

Maximum length: 131 ft
Maximum draught: 19 ft

River marina on the Seine at Saint-Martin-la-Garenne, between Mantes and Vernon, in the Vexin français.

Guide

Approach and anchoring

Access from the Seine at PK 109, right bank. No tidal constraint, fluvial regime regulated by the Méricourt lock downstream. Entry marked by the usual red and green fluvial marks. The berths lie in a small basin set back from the river, clear of the wash of passing barges. Maximum draught 6 m in the basin, well above any Seine pleasure craft requirement.

Practical

200 berths on pontoons, family run and quiet, around 14 euros a night for a 10 m boat. Fuel pontoon with diesel in front of the office building. Water and electricity on the pontoons, capitainerie, and toilets, showers and laundry at the main office. Dry storage and winter hauling available, and it makes a good place to overwinter. The nearest small shop is about an hour's walk, with fuller shopping at Mantes-la-Jolie 7 km by road or Limay on the opposite bank, both needing transport.

Ashore

Boucles de la Seine Normande regional park surrounds the bend. Towpath walks along the right bank toward Vétheuil 8 km upstream, the village where Monet lived from 1878 to 1881. Collégiale Notre-Dame de Mantes, begun in 1170, sits 6 km east by road.

History

The Seine between Mantes and Vernon inspired a generation of Impressionists. Monet painted the Vétheuil and La Roche-Guyon reaches from the river and its banks throughout the late 1870s and 1880s.