Tournai

Wednesday 7 October 2015.

NOTE: The free mooring with metered electricity and water is fine but the waterway is very busy and the pontoon is at a very wide part of the canal where there is a ‘robot/traffic light’ for the heavies going through to the big lock downstream. More than occasionally, these commercials, steaming flat out to catch a green light or, coming the other way, trying to make up time after a lock delay, cause a lot of turbulence and we were tossed around significantly enough to have been quite uncomfortable and in one instance having glasses fall over in the cupboard, something which has never happened before. It really would be nice if an 8kmph limit could be imposed on this short stretch of waterway. Next time we will arrange to arrive on a Saturday afternoon and leave on a Monday morning, early.

Taking it slowly

Tournai is a really intriguing city to visit despite the very extensive renovations being undertaken which will last for another five years and which, inter alia, prevented us from seeing the famous cathedral with its origins way back in the 9th Century, in anything near its glory

nor having access to the equally famous belfry due to re-paving the pavement surrounds – we didn’t mind at as our inconvenience was all in a good long term cause. But the citizenry really must make more of an effort in the pooper-scooper stakes; Great Dane steaming piles right on the newly laid pavements around the historical centre is just not conducive to great tourist ratings.

After collecting the necessary from the very impressive  Tourist Centre

Interior of the Tourist Centre

and having paid a visit to the tapestry museum

we made our way back toward the inner city and as the rain started to fall again we found a cosy restaurant off the main square,

the L’Empratrice, to have lunch, Lynn having mussels in white wine, (very thick) cream and garlic, and moi enjoying the very tasty boeuf bourguignon with a demi of rose and rouge respectively. On the way back to Elle we passed the Irish pub O’Malleys who confirmed that they would be showing the South Africa vs USA game later that evening, so that’s what we did after Lynn had spent the rest of the afternoon in the laundry. Fairly satisfied with the 62 – 0 performance, we were back on board for another early night.