Watten to Bergues

1 June 2015

Watten to Bergues - 35 kilometres.

(Last night the phones and tablets started pinging and ringing – the internet was back all by itself! Hooray!).

In perfect weather we set off at 08h00 for the 35 kilometer cruise down to Bergues; the first lock was open for us and the one just before Dunkerque I think we woke up the lockkeeper – with the Watten lock now closed, there is not much commercial traffic happening on this stretch of water. In fact we didn’t see a single other vessel.

Who can tell us what this sign means?

On arrival at Bergues at midday the pontoon was empty save for the barge which has taken about 20% of the space and has made it its own as the owners are living aboard and have their two small cars parked against the city wall. A short walk into the town centre to collect the water and electricity key from the tourist office saw us at the front door at 12h30 – not quite in their opening range of 10h00 to 12h00 and 14h00 to 18h00…

So we took a leisurely walk around the square and by one o’ clock had seen all there was to see so it was up a small side street where a neon sign offered beer. The brasserie, L’ Epicurien, has a very interesting menu so we decided to have a glass of wine and an entrée; soupe de poissons for Madame and a bruschetta covered in mushrooms and escargots and smothered in a parsley and garlic butter dressing. Manifique both! When we arrived back at Elle we Googled the restaurant and found that Trip Advisor rates it as the best of 16 restaurants in the area. We had planned to have lunch at one we spotted along the canal, the ‘Fluer de Sel’,

The restaurant we will not be trying

tomorrow but a look on the internet indicated that it was a real restaurant i.e. expensive so rather than slogging it out in the wind and rain expected tomorrow,

Tomorrow's weather forecast - gusting 38 knots!

we will be back at L’ Epicurien to try the confit de canard with pomme de terre sarladaise (pan fried duck served with potatoes fried in duck fat – cholesterol heaven!). Unfortunately we did not take the camera with us…

Back at the boat we connected up the electricity, filled the water tanks, finally fixed the bridge windscreen wiper, and gave the stern ladder steps a penultimate coat of varnish. Then it was sundowner time, a Lynn special pasta concoction, a chat to Ian and Sian on Skype (we will now definitely see them again before they go back on the 8^th), and off to the Land of Zed.

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