BEER AND BARS

Still searching for a good pint.  For those in the know it's still Fischer at No. 1 however in bars it's Grimbergen Blond, (Fischer not available in bars). What are these rouge beers for, alcopops for adults?

Look what happened to me after a couple of red beers!

Come on guy's you take wine seriously so why red beers and Desperados, and why the silly glasses:

I rest my case! (www.cuveedestrolls.com if you are interested)

Mind you I came across a café/bar in Bethune that was serving beer in various sizes 250ml - rubbish, 500ml - good, 1lt - better and 2.5lt excellent, sounds like Thursday night in The Star.

Tip for the future don't even try to get any service during a Paris Saint-Germain v Reims match. All bar staff 100% riveted to the TV, no service at all. To be fair it happens in UK and the charcuterie with the beer would not have been as good (unless pork scratchings are charcuterie?).

LOCKS AND PONT-LEVÉS

There are locks and locks then there are the grands garçons of the world!! Welcome to Ecluse de Fontinette, not for the faint hearted.  Mark 1 which was a lift retired in 1967, which I think could have been even more scary than Mark 2 which is 14 metres deep!!

Mark 1

Mark 2

We went through it yesterday!!  Under the gate to get in, it was like a guillotine!! It was huge and dark and a bit foreboding, but with floating bollards, once the rope is on you can sit back with a cup of coffee for 20 mins until gradually it's daylight again. 

Then there are the locks where the lock-keeper is really busy. At another lock one late afternoon he asked me where we were going to moor, I said after the next bridge. Suddenly as the lock gates opened for us to leave, he raced off in his van at great speed with gravel flying everywhere. I thought he was desperate to get home and we were holding him up.  I hadn't realised the next bridge was a pont-levé and he had to raise it for us, stopping all the traffic.  There were 4 of these within 10km on our way to and from Calais.....huge traffic jams and drivers waiting in their cars while barriers were lowered, sirens sounded, bridges went up and we went by.  I gave them all a smile and wave, so hopefully they weren't going to get too cross with us!

Speaking about locks when leaving Dunkerque Port with the tail winds of a massive storm and the wind pushing Soraya into the lock Geoff nudged the lock side. Waiting for the automated lock to close and lower we had a request on the VHF to stay in the lock while port officials/inspectors came on board.  We thought they've got us trapped in the lock so it's documentation and boat inspection time. Eventually they arrived they inspected the lock gates and asked if we had anything 'cassé' we said no. After a lot of huffing they left. They were the lock police and thought we had damaged their lock. They had been watching us on CCTV. They drove away, the lock gates opened and we were off. Still no documents inspected.

PASSING IN THE NIGHT

We all thought Soraya was big in UK but here we have seen massive barges, never seen anything like them, over 100 metres long and 9 metres wide makes ours seem very petite.  Often travelling late at night in the dark when we're moored up at the side.  We feel the pull of them with our ropes straining and know they're approaching, each one seems more massive than the last, some fully laden low in the water, their drafts must be huge others empty and way up in the air.  It's fascinating to watch them go by, sometimes with two cars and a boat on board and radar to see in front of their bows.  Last night one went past replacing 78 camions on the road!!

A working barge

CHARCUTERIE, VEGETABLES, FISH and BEER

Amazing food. The best fish shop - La Halle in Dunkerque.

Fish - Lots

And the best vegetable shop Le Jardin d'Eden in Dunkerque, potimarrons for €1. Great soup.

OK what are they and what do you do with them?

Best for last and overall winner so far the Boucherie Charcuterie in Les Attaques - Fabrice Matringhem.  Les Attaques nothing to write home about and I wonder why we stopped. We did and found the charcuterie with an abundance of award winning terrines, hams and a long....... queue. We bought Terrine de foie de lapin aux pruneaux (rabbit liver, smoked ham and prune pate). Doesn't come any better and their smoked jambon was exquisite.

Beer, the most important. Being near Belgium lots of Trapiste beers, getting into Grimbergen Blond and for Margaret - Belzeebuth, a little devil of a beer.

And for those of you with a special place for cheese, Père Joseph.

FRAAC, LAAC and BA

Contemporary Art in Nord-Pas-de-Calais is surprisingly bouyant especially with the arrival of FRAAC (Fonds régional d’art contemporain Nord - Pas de Calais). It will be interesting to see if it takes over from LAAC (Lieu d'Art et d'Action Contemporaine), both great. BA (Beaux-Arts) excellent in Calais with the permanent exhibition of Rodin's works and an insight into how his famous bronze of Six Burghers, (located outside the Calais Hotel de Ville) evolved. Don't bother with the Jean Roulland retrospective. Art bit done next time food.

My newest favourite chair. (Elephant Chair at LAAC)

FLAT, FERTILE and FLANDERS

Featureless, well very few. 

Hard left at the next pub!

LA MANCHE

Crossing the Channel was great and less rolling than we had anticipated, up at 5.00 AM and off into the dark following coordinates on the GPS and buoy to buoy to buoy.

Sid plotting our course

Sunrise in the middle of the ocean

Full engine revs and making 7 - 8 knots against the tide, calm at first then an area of long low swell on the starboard beam - hold on!!  After dodging the container ships in the shipping lanes we could smell the tar of the petrochemical plants on the way into Dunkerque. Through Trystram lock and into the vastness of Dunkerque port. Darse 1 here we come. It all turned out less stressful than we anticipated, mind you Sid did find us our two day window of calm weather.

Margaret and Sid in Trystram lock

Good news it's the way to arrive in a country. Not one official seen or talked to. So no requests for any personal documentation or any aspect about Soraya.  Time for the bar................ (Grimbergen or 3) Both quite exhausted as this has been a long time in the making. 

DOWN THE THAMES ESTUARY

Yes it's time I did a post.  Off at 6am with Sid the Pilot.  Out of London in the dark with Canary Wharf and all the Bank Buildings blazing lights.  Who's there at 6 in the morning??  I steered through the Thames Barrier which was an awesome sight.  We radioed through to London VTS to get permission to go through. It was lucky we did as they closed it just after for 3 hours as a surge due to the spring tide came up the Thames.

The Thames Barrier

Dawn broke under the Emirates Cable Car and the M25. Out into the wider Thames, we went under Sid's guidance from red buoy to red buoy to red buoy ....... on an ebbing tide, taking turns to helm, doing 9.5 to 10 knots. Later the sun shone, I sat out on deck, it was fantastic! Then it was my turn to helm again.  No problem until a massive container ship decided to overtake me on the wrong side (starboard) and then he cut across my bow!  When we hit its wake, it threw Soraya from side to side and knocked us all across the wheelhouse - what a plonker!!

The b..... ship

We recovered and carried on into the calm again.  Once we turned south round the corner of Kent into the Channel it got rougher and lumpy into Ramsgate. Sid said we would be there by 4.00pm, after 10 hours of full revs we were 7 minutes late!  New pilot? No Sid was great.

MORE LONDON

We're still here, as someone said you must have made the big man in the sky very angry. We have a succession of lows coming across the Atlantic which translates into 45mph winds in the Channel and huge rollers, so it's no go!  On the good side this means more time in London, cinemas, shows, street markets, exhibitions, museums, bars, restaurants and of course retail therapy.

Margaret and I getting angsty about the weather and when we will go.

(The Snack Bar by Edward Burra)

Come on Sid find a 2 day weather window!!!!

Well he did, phone call early Wednesday morning 06 Nov. And it's all go tomorrow. Ramsgate here we come.

LONDON

No more introduction, yes it's BLOG time......

London, great. Shard and Sex (more of that later) and the Thames.

What a trip. Gentle drift down the Thames, I didn't know there were so many bungalows! and then it all changes at Teddington, it goes tidal.  Had to gain authority to proceed from Teddington to Richmond and beyond.  Got to Richmond just in time to leave on the last of the outgoing tide. So much so we were given a PLA escorted to Chiswick, through the shallows of the river. The next day was the best. We + Martyn and friends went through the centre of London to down stream of Tower Bridge. Absolutely amazing. Everyone one agreed it was quite special.

Going under Tower Bridge.

Great cocktail bar up the Shard (Aqua Shard) views to die for and prices that.....well !!!!

My two best mates wondering when I'm going to buy the next round in Aqua Shard.

And sex, it was more phallic really, Sarah Lucas (Whitechapel) and Shanga - Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art (British Museum). Obviously as well as other exhibitions, Pop Art (Barbican), 500 years of British Art (Tate Britain)....... the list goes on! There was however a sexual undercurrent. Fortunately reality was saved by Margaret when we went to the best coffee stop in London, the coffee bar on level 6 at the top of Tate Modern. After a few galleries we sat looking at the view of the city with the light fading and when I asked her of all the exhibits we had seen recently whether she liked in particular the Lucas's penises or the white picture frame in a white picture frame, she replied, 'Well that's bollocks too!!'

Next time the Channel!

ps Beer drinkers....great real ale pub in Borough 'The Rake' best range of beers I've seen in years, especially good 'Asylum'.

PREAMBLE

It's been a while in coming and even then it didn't go as planned! Or perhaps it did. The largest storm in years hit the UK so our crossing was cancelled and we were advised to leave the Channel crossing until the weather cleared, whenever. No problem with Soraya making the crossing the problem is with us and the bumpy ride. The good news is Soraya is ready with European Certification (TRIWV) and all the equipment for Europe, don't even mention ATIS VHF radios, red and white fuel! and we will be off soon. We bought the péniche on the Thames and have had a great time exploring the Thames and living in various places whilst various works have been carried out to prepare Soraya for Europe and European legal requirements. She belongs in Europe and will be better suited to the dimensions of the continental inland waterways. (See 'Photographs and Specifications' page for more information on the boat, if you're interested. Coming soon.)

So weather willing it's a few more days in London then round the corner to Ramsgate and a dash through the shipping lanes to Dunkerque with Sid the pilot. We are not complaining about being in London we've got a great mooring, Hermitage Community Moorings in Wapping, just next to Tower Bridge with views of the City, Tower Bridge and the Shard. (Below).

View from our moorings