Along the Oise side canal, a few steps from the Longueil-Annel lock, beats the heart of the inland waterway industry. La Cité des Bateliers offers to bring to life and relive the life of these river sailors who, on their Freycinet barge, have been transporting all kinds of goods for centuries. To introduce visitors to this special world, the museum has just invested in a pilot cabin, called a wheelhouse. It was installed last week and will be open to the public this summer.
It all started with a proposal from a boatman moored just opposite. “He was going to change it and offered it to us,” says Rémy Delmet, the museum director. We visited it in December 2022 and the CC2V (community of communes of the 2 Vallées) bought it for 15,000 euros. An imposing metal structure, which cost approximately the same price, was designed and installed as an extension of our roof terrace, on the first floor. We still have some work to do. We still have to find a radar, a sonar, because the boatman collected them, but everything will be ready by July. We can overlook the water from the wheelhouse. »
Longueil-Annel. This wheelhouse from the 2000s was placed last week on a “metal chair” weighing more than 6.5 tonnes. It should welcome its first visitors this summer.
This cabin dates from the 2000s and will complete the story of the evolution of inland waterways offered at the museum. “We already have a Freycinet barge from 1936 that the public can visit, accompanied by former boatmen who talk about their profession. This wheelhouse allows us to show how this world is modernizing. Now, we no longer have a wheel to steer but joysticks,” continues the owner.
“We must constantly renew ourselves”
A larger project is already underway. The objective is to transform it into a 3D navigation simulator for next year. “We are going to apply for a grant from the Region. She had already helped us finance our boat, the Escapade, which offers cruises on the Oise, says Rémy Delmet. We are thinking about three scenarios to offer visitors: navigation on the canal, in the old way, one on the future Seine-Nord canal - we are also trying to recover images of the route - and a last one on the Seine, at Paris. Each would last between 3 and 4 minutes. »
The Cité des Bateliers welcomes between 8,000 and 9,000 visitors each year, mainly families, groups of retirees and even water classes. “Lunch cruises, coupled with visits, work well. For groups, we are already full until October. Schools also like this theme, we bring in a facilitator from the Fishing Federation... We always try to have projects, there we are setting up a green theater in our garden. For a small museum to continue to live, we must constantly renew ourselves. »