STICKLEBACKS AND GENDARMES

You may ask is there a connection between the two. Well when you're on a péniche there is.

They both turn up unannounced on the boat!

Upon returning from UK I noticed what looked like leaves on the salon deck. On closer investigation they were Sticklebacks (L'épinoche). There were about 16 dead fish all over the decks! As the decks are about 2 metres above water level, how did they get there? Mini tornado (raining cats and dogs)? Jumping fish? No conclusion just a bit weird. An old guy said they often jump out of the water! Never heard of jumping sticklebacks.

A few of the unlucky ones

Yes and Gendarmes. We were in an écluse in a roundabout between 2 pont levés, lock gates closed and the bridges down when we was approached by a gendarme who asked for our papers. At first I thought he wanted to see our vignette (licence to be on the canals in France, similar to vehicle licence disk in UK). No he wanted everything. Half an hour later he had gone through all our papers to check who we were, our qualifications and if Soraya had all the inspections, certification etc. that is required for a boat of our size. All a bit stressful. Whilst I have been fastidious about documentation it has been very difficult to find out with 100% accuracy what is required in both France and Europe, all countries are subtly different.  The good news is that after reading throughly all the documents including the TRIWV European Certification (14 pages) and inspecting the fire extinguishers etc it was all smiles and shaking hands. Phew!!! Now it's all over I am pleased we have been thoroughly inspected, passed with flying colours and the inspection recorded.

The Inspection

LA LYS

We've just had a weeks trip along La Lys. It's a beautiful windy river, very calm with hardly any boats in sight. It reminded us of part of the Thames (apart from the lack of boats) with trees hanging over the river which sometimes got in the way! 

We had our own éclusier (lock keeper) for the week. He would ask us when we wanted the next lock/lifting bridge preparing and would then race off ahead of us to get it ready.

We found some lovely moorings, superb weather and had most of our meals on the back deck al fresco! We even got the gang plank out which we don't often use.

It wasn't the most happening area, but we found some bars which were 'ok'. 

A great week!

SPRING

Hivernage (winter mooring) has been great in Wambrechies (Lille). Everyone very friendly and inviting, definitely consider coming back again. However we are off on 01 May, after slightly longer in Wambrechies than expected due to family matters.  Getting in and out of the mooring is tricky reversing Soraya between a long line of Tupperwear (plastic boats) then round a very tight right angle before entry into the Deule. Our welcome committee is always on hand to assist if required, so far all has gone without incident. Fingers crossed.

One of our books of the French Fluvial (canals) has a statement similar to 'Hitch Hickers Guide to the Galaxy' which has the entry for the planet Earth as 'Boring'. Our guidebook dismisses Lille as 'Industrial' I really wonder if the writer has ever been to Lille, it's great and so much to do. We've yet to find the industry and our guests have all had a great time, especially in Vieux Lille.

Typical Vieux Lille

The cafe's, bars, restaurants, galleries, opera, (yes we had a night at the opera, I really went for the building!) and yes the retail therapy. All great and not to forget Meert for patisserie. Allegedly Charles de Gaulle used to come from Paris to Lillle just to go to Meert.

Slightly over the top Lille Opera interior

A selection of Meert 'cakes'

Upon leaving Lille for the start of our navigation we are generally going east with a south bias (across the north of France) exploring various canals/rivers and towns. In particular the Lens, the Arras, the Scarpe Superior & Inferior, the Somme, the Grand Gabarit and the Saint Quentin all with no fixed plan or itinary, aiming to find our way to 'Rance' (well that's how you pronounce Riems) and we all know what the town is famous for!

Could be a good place for hivernage, we'll see.