A LOCK-IN AND NO FRITES!

Well it had to happen sometime and it did!!  We were on La Scarpe Supérieure heading for Arras. The locks are all automatic, we have a zapper which as we approach the lock sets everything in motion. The gates opened, in we went. The gates closed and we waited.....Nothing! The gates hadn't completely closed therefore the sluice gates hadn't opened. After a while we pulled the emergency handle and waited.....Nothing! Nobody came and there was no one around. I phoned the numbers we'd been given in case of any problems, one just gave a website and on the other I managed to speak to someone but couldn't get him to do anything.  

Geoff trying to 'fix' the lock

Eventually we stopped a passer-by in a white van, explained our problem and got him to talk to the guy on the telephone.  After a long conversation and some hilarity....'les anglais stuck in a lock'.....he said someone would come in 30 minutes! Great!! About an hour later an engineer came opened a locked cupboard and got the sluice gates working and we were on our way again. We moored later on for the night and saw a friterie in the distance....great BBQ steak and chips tonight. Went to buy the frites and the guy said no frites left....I said but its a friterie, how can you run out of frites....c'est incroyable! So it was oven chips from the freezer....not quite the same!