Over the hills, under the moon - and off the beaten path

  After several months on hectic Montmartre, the last couple of weeks have been completely relaxing. We're living on a houseboat on the Seine - nestled in between Ile de la Jatte and Boulevard Boudon - in the northwestern part of Paris. The area - Neuilly-sur-Seine - is among the most affluent in all of Paris and some of the houseboats moored along the quai are almost as big as aircraft carriers, but not our little raft. It is petite, but it has everything you need - a small bath room, an even smaller galley and a bunkbed we can rise up with a pulley, when we need the space for sitting down  - and most important:  It has a deck, where we can stay all day,  sketching and reading and watching the scullers g lide by Everything is constructed by our generous host Captain Bob, who leads an exciting life - half the year on a (somewhat grander) houseboat next to ours, the other half in the Rockies, where he has invented a sport he calls 'Ski Frisbee'  (  htt...