Tuesday 17 May 2016

Bergues to…Bergues

Sunday 8 May 2016.

Saturday was yet another exceptional day weatherwise. By 09h00 we were pacing the aisles of the huge Le Clerc

Now that's cheap @ E1.60 for two tails!

Stocked up...for a while anyway.
and by 10h00 we were at the front door of the tourist office to collect the key to the utilities box so that we could warm our geyser for showers before bedtime and top up our water supplies before departure today.

The tourist office is beneath the belfry

Politicians!

12h15 we were back at our favourite Bergues restaurant, L’Epicurien (4 Rue De College – 03 28 68 63 71) which, just coincidentally, had confit de canard on the menu. Heaven!


Today we planned to do another long run to either Houlle or Aire-sur-la-Lys, conditions dependent – we are doing long voyages while we cover previously visited waterways and after Arques we will slow down somewhat.

After returning the facilities key to the tourist office we set off down the Canal de Bergues

The new watersports area near the park.

to Dunkerque and the first lock, Ecluse Jeu de Mail. Just short of an hour later we are at the lock but there are no lights showing; not red, not red/green, not green. Nada. PC-Navigo says it should be working. We call on Ch 22 – nothing. Lynn phones the given number – nothing. And the alternative number? Nothing. So I call Dunkerque on the radio, the same channel which elicited assistance us on Friday with the broken automatic lock. A voice says he does not understand why there is no-one there but maybe if we radio Ch 22 again after 14h00 he will have returned. 14h20 we call on Ch 22 – nothing. So we returned to Bergues and cooked chicken Maryland on the Weber before a beautiful rain storm drove the campervan and boating folk indoors for the night.

16 kilometres and we will try again tomorrow.
(Btw, found out much later from the VNF notices that this lock is indeed closed on Sundays until 14 May. Sigh...)

2 comments:

  1. When I showed Lisette the wine photo, she paled visibly!
    We're off to a French café in Melbourne on Friday where the main course menu has six dishes, three of them duck. So, two more visits required.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ;-) Lizette the party animal paled? Non!
      Trust that the duck was good.

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