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!

VANISHING CARS

We were moored in a quiet area across from a large fenced warehouse in Lille a while ago. A large commercial barge arrived and quickly moored up. During the mooring a crew member was raising the crane and a section of the deck opened on hydraulics. By the time the barge had come to rest the crane was fully up and a very smart Mercedes arrived on the quayside. Instantly the car was attached to the crane, the car lifted and lowered into the hold.  The mooring rope was detached and the barge moved off whilst the crane was being lowered and the hold hatch closed. The whole process took barely a couple of minutes. Car nicely concealed in small section of a 100 metre plus long barge carrying bulk cargo moving seamlessly across borders in Europe.

The barge in question

Draw your own conclusion to this event. It did seem very strange.

NONNETTES OR NO NONNETTES - THERE IS NO QUESTION

Just come across a new friend for coffee time, Nonnettes. 

La Nonnette is a petit gâteau made from a base of 'pain d'épices, d'orange et de miel' with a gooey centre of marmalade or apricot jam, a speciality of Dijon.

Yum!

La Nonnette

We're staying around Douai slightly longer then planned due to unseasonal high winds. Steering an 80 tonne steel barge in winds gusting up to 60 kph, not a good idea. Unless your into takeing out the Tupperware. The wind strength has been amazing. We were in Douai centre and a huge gust of wind hit us. This was followed by a massive crashing sound we looked round and an 'entire' shop front, plate glass window and all became detached from the building and was standing still on one piece in the middle of the pavement to everyones surprise.

SCOTLAND OR FRANCE

I was really sure we were in France until I saw.....Scotland. A huge commercial barge bearing down on us as we waited for the lock.

Not France?

The lock was busy and took a while. We ended up with two other barges each 80m long and Scotland! When we came out of the lock, our engine sounded fine but we couldn't build up any speed.....had something got caught in the propeller? Very likely in a lock. We decided to moor up for the night. The first two moorings on our charts didn't exist, but the third did.  It was very difficult to moor as the posts were too far apart for Soraya. They were made for larger barges. After lots of back and forth movements, we were moored up properly. But good news! Suddenly the  propeller seemed fine and next morning was back to normal, thank goodness. It could have been a piece of polythene, rags etc......who knows? Fortunately Geoff (not me!) didn't have to put the wetsuit on and dive in.

A post too far!

SAXOPHONES AND ORGANS

Douai is a town well off the tourist route, but! it has some interesting features, great buildings, saxophones and big organs, also it is where the Douay version of the Bible was translated. Oh I nearly forgot helicopters. Yes this is the town were the first helicopter took off from, allegedly. Hardly a maiden flight it only rose 2 feet off the ground! Still you've got to start somewhere.

What more do you need? Well beer and food for a start, it has these, yes and great canals.

Saxaphones

The Organ in Saint-Pierre

ps. Lace Curtains and Tatoos coming soon.

SCOOTS

My trusty Vespa scooter is now French.  Various people said don't bother trying to have it French registered, too much hassle and if you bend the rules you can keep the UK plates. I decided to go for it as we intend to be in Europe for quite a while, so let's get it done. Off we went to the Préfecture and after 4 visits, a visit to the Lille Cité Administrative, an Attestation de Residence from Monsieur le Maire of Wambrechies as to my residency on a péniche in his port, a 6 week delay due a missing line of the address, various telephone calls and having to sell my scooter formally to myself, we received a Carte Grise (registration document). The process was frustrating principally as we did not understand what was required. Now we've done it, it really is quite straight forward, problem is there is no information available or anyone to ask.

Picture of Scoots in his new livery. (Sorry Martyn)

J'AI PROFITÉ

We were required by the Maire to ask the Capitaine to fill Soraya up with water rather than do it ourselves as it involved a tap connection from the other side of the water course (15m). When he agreed to do it he asked how long it would take I said 2 to 3 hours. It takes about an hour per cubic metre from a hose pipe and we take on up to 3.6 cubic metres of water. On hearing it would be at least 2 hours he said 'J'ai profité' and promptly walked into the adjacent bar!

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.