Kortrijk to Wambrechies

Friday 2 October 2015

Having spent Thursday doing all the laundry and rearranging Elle’s interior back to non-visitor mode, Friday morning dawned on a peach of a day. Farewells were said of our havenmeester as well as Australians Sue and Gary Fellows aboard their pretty cruiser Tramp moored astern of us and with whom we had shared sundowners. With mast and bimini down to fit under the bridge we did a 180 degree turn out of the mooring and re-entered the big, commercial Leie canal again, destination - the French town of Wambrechies where we were planning to stay for one night before moving down to the Roubaix canal to an oft mentioned restaurant in Leers-Noord, just inside the Belgian border again, which offered free mooring, water and electricity. And then to have Sunday lunch at said Maison du Canal.

A really glorious days cruising!

Halluin left, Menin right.

Miss Mop.

The cathedral at Comines (I think)

Deulemont marina

Quesnoy marina - almost deserted

 On arrival at the rather oddly laid out Wambrechies marina we were greeted by the very friendly captaine Alaine, who explained that

-          The mooring was €14 per night including the use of the toilets and showers in the Captainerie. As we subsequently discovered, these facilities can only be used if Alain was there to open the building, something he hardly ever was!

-          No water was available – together with the above this was now an expensive mooring.

-          After checking with the relevant persons, there would be no lockkeeper service along the Roubaix canal until Monday morning so it was Wambrechies for the weekend, and

-          There was to be a big children’s festival on Saturday evening to celebrate the end of the harvest with the theme being “From Trees to Paper”.

With little option we settled in to enjoy Wambrechies and surrounds.

 The festival was lots of fun,

Lynn with the festival organiser.

 the supermarche stocked Lynn’s ‘Grand Sud Merlot’ pink wine at €2 cheaper than we had paid in Belgium and the marina was abustle with two small restaurants, a boulangerie and a ‘Bar Ship’ all within 100 meters, and a very pretty chateau, Chateau De Robersart, 

just across the parking square. A very enjoyable town indeed with the only downside being the wash from commercials bouncing us around a bit 

Our mooring.

Wambrechies: Mooring at southern entrance where wall angles, cathedral to east, chateau to SSE.

but that was a small distraction and a great time was had.