GAGGING FOR A GUINGUETTE

La guinguette used to be common sight at most ports, however, they seem to be fewer and fewer. It's at times like this, a beautiful summers evening that you're just gagging for a guinguette to quench that thirst with a drink or two. We are mooring at a lovely little port plaisance called Pont l'Évêque on the Canal Latéral à l'Oise close to Noyon. Very pretty but why no guingettes, restaurants or bars. In other places of similar ilk it would be crawling with Chelsea tractors with their loud India's and Giles's. Well that's not a bad thing I agree but nothing apart from a post office, a pharmacie and a very small boulangerie? There really is a demand for evening substanance and refreshment or even a bit of music, hence the guinguettes.

Port plaisance Pont l'Évêque, not a bar in sight

DARKNESS

11.20 pm. It's all darker from tomorrow!!!

Canal de Saint Quentin

BRICKS AND DOGS

At a cheese stall in Les Halles in Saint Quentin recently and we came across a cheese we had to buy as it sold by the catchy name of Brique du Nord (Brick of the North). It's hard to imagine what inspired the ad agency or the manufacturer to come up with this name. Perhaps they wanted to express the solid nature of the cheese and its dependency with its great lingering taste. Come on let's have more real solid names like this rather than these silly made up names like Pantysgawn (a Welsh soft goat cheese).

No it's not Pantysgawn it's Brique du Nord.

And dogs. Found a new friend in town, isn't he (well it could be she but doesn't look very feminine) cute! Not sure why the proprietors feel it is a good idea to have this adorable creature outside a designer women's clothes shop.

Red. Good name for the dog? or Brick of the North.

FISHERMEN

We see lots of fishermen everyday. Yes, fishermen, not fisher women. They sit there for hours, not catching anything, or if they do, it's so small that they throw it back in.  It must be very boring but maybe more interesting than being at home! However today we saw one catch a big fish.  It must have been at least 2 feet long.  They were very excited, put it in a bag and banged it on the head......dinner!!

And.....a couple of things.....why do they have to fish on a bend, in a narrow area, off a pontoon when you want to moor, in an awkward navigation area, all of these necessitating them to move their lines or get in the way when you approach?? The second thing......why do they have to go for a pee just as we're approaching on Soraya. They don't look for a bush (no...I mean the herbaceous type) or go behind a fence or car. They're not discreet at all. It happens so often and it's not just the fishermen! No I don't have any photos but I might start taking some!!

This one won't cause the same problems!

LACE CURTAINS AND TATTOOS

Bateliers and Batelières (Bargees, male and female) are quite a direct bunch. Here to do a job and make a profit and as such do not suffer fools lightly or to rephrase do not suffer plaisance (pleasure craft) who might be blocking/slowing their passage lightly. Actually they do have a legal right of way and first in at a lock even if they are last to arrive. They are a great and interesting crew with kids, family, dogs, cars, boats etc. all on board. Obviously they do a physical job with demanding hours going from sun up to sun down and with this physical lifestyle tattoos and certain physique are de rigueur, for both sexes. Fine. But what's with the lace curtains! Hard and demanding lifestyle, I can understand the tattoos, goes with the hard image, but lace curtains, no. Just don't see you can be the hard man/women and go back to the lace curtains/blinds. Virtually 100% of commercial barges have lace curtains/blinds/nets. This applies to the older 38+ metre tradition barges and to new 100 metre + barges, even the high tech fuel barges. It's all a bit strange. And that's not even mentioning the wife beaters.

Batelier we ran into, not literally

Batelière we had a few! glasses of red with

Traditional 38+ metre barge - laced up!

Modern 100 metre barge with gantry, crushed Audi A7 and lace curtains. Yes it is the one which had an accident in a previous post.