Bergues - Ridiculous to Sublime

Tuesday 2 June 2015

Today was all about this...

...and this.

Nuf said!

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.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Watten in the wet

Wednesday 31 May 2015

Rain, rain, rain.

 So it was a day for shelf lining...

...cooking...

...and catching up on the Blog.

And that was about all. Tomorrow we head back to pretty Bergues.

Arques to Watten

Saturday 30 May 2015

Arques mooring - Elle in distance against the trees (behind the white boat).

Having read that there was a morning market in nearby Saint-Omer we tootled the five kilometres into the city guided by the imposing, hilltop belfry landmark of the Notre-Dame cathedral. As we entered the outskirts we were confronted by the amazing ruins of the original 7^th Century Abbey of Saint Bertin.

Photos duly taken, we rode up the cobbled streets into the city centre and parked the bikes while the mandatory stroll and purchases were made; Lynn found winegums and veggies and I found delicious teeny, mini salami’s made from duck.

 Then onto the cathedral with its magnificent 15^th century rose windows in the north and south transepts, fascinating 16^th century astronomical clock and the odd looking, 13^th century ‘Great God of Therouanne’ sculpture – odd because it was originally apparently placed 20 meters above the ground and proportioned appropriately and now, viewed from a much lower perspective, the head looks too big for the body (unfortunately I did not take a picture).

South transept

Astrological clock.

 

 Saint-Omer is a really lovely city and if it had been a bit closer to our mooring we would have stayed a lot longer but the canal which passes close by has fallen into disuse, like many of the minor waterways we are seeing in France. Read some of the history here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Omer

Back onto the bikes and into Arque, the hometown of D’Arc Crystal and Arcorac dinnerware; we need proper whiskey tumblers and the D’Arc factory shop must surely be the place to find some. What a disappointment! The ‘crystal’ is a cheap version of the genuine stuff and the designs are modern interpretations of some real classics which does neither any favours. But Lynn managed to find medium sized Arcorac coffee mugs which are quite fun. Arques is not really a place to dally; apart from a very pretty Hotel de Ville it is quite shabby.

 We somehow did not enjoy the feeling of the Port de Plaisance at Arques so, looking at the waterway guide, we decided to take the short, downstream ride to the Halte Nautique at Watten which was described as having showers, water, electricity, fuel, rubbish bins and a restaurant; the Cruising Association’s ‘Cruising the Inland Waterways of France & Belgium (17^th edition) describes the marina thus: “Enter through small cut on L bank. 2.8m air draught, 1.4m water. Free and safe although run down although rubbish cleared daily. Port reported closed early April 2013”. Well, the waterways guide, despite being the 2015/16 edition was wrong and Brenda Davison’s book was correct (except for the 2.8m air draught – the footbridge gives an air draught of around 4m and we cruised under it with mast up and plenty of clearance so it must be at least 3.6m being our maximum air draught). How sad - all the facilities available in lovely buildings and all closed. The pontoons are rotting, the taps are sealed and the electricity has been disconnected and lies in tangles of wiring – but the lawn was neatly trimmed and tidy and the bins were empty and clean.

Watten mooring

Mobile home park as viewed from our window.

 A visit to the Tourist Centre to pick up a map and inquire about internet (still no signal anywhere), a quick walk through the cemetery and church, a beer at a pavement café and then it was back to Elle for a braai and planning…having turned back downstream we are sadly now on the start of our journey home. Tomorrow, with rain and strong winds predicted (according to the lady in the Tourist office) we will stay put.

Bourbourg to Arques

Friday 29 May 2015

Bourbourg to Arques - 29kms

 Up bright and early as yesterday we had called the number given to us on our arrival by the friendly lockkeeper and had left a message asking for bridge service at 08h00 (normal hours 08h30 onwards); 08h30 arrived with nothing happening and then at a quarter to ten, after a half dozen calls to every number we could find, we saw someone opening the lock behind us, not the Pont de Rouge (although it is painted green) bridge in front of us and our route to the River Aa. So we turned the boat around and on entering the lock were informed that the Pont de Rouge was ‘kaput’ – bit like Africa - meaning that we would have to retrace our steps along the Canal De Bourbourg to the big commercial Canal de la Haut Colme which carries traffic from Dunkerque, inland.

We should have guessed as, on our second morning, the good ‘yacht’ Enterprise had arrived and had spent two hours trying to get someone to open the lock but to no avail. Stephen popped in for a glass of wine and related the experience – in the end they gave up, moored up to the waiting pontoon and retraced their route the following morning.

With a very fresh south-wester blowing we entered the Canal de la Haut Colme and were on our way.

Breezy...

But nothing deters a fisherman.

 At the lock just before Watten the lockkeeper informed us that the big Flandres lock at Arques would be closing on Sunday at 18h30 and only reopening on 24 June which effectively has scuppered our plans to go down the Lys to Saint-Venant before turning back toward Dunkerque; we will not really have the time to enjoy a 230 kilometre trip from Saint-Venant to Kortrijk/Brugge/Nieuwpoort and back to our long term mooring at Diksmuide, all in eleven days. A great pity.

Eventually, in a stiff breeze we reversed into one of the many open berths and tied up to the 7m finger at the Plaisance Arques only to be told a half hour later that we had to move as Elle was too big for that pontoon and with the worsening weather the lady captaine was concerned that we would do structural damage to the marina – we were directed to a identically sized finger but one which was a little more protected from the wind. And there we sat, reading and listening to the wind and rain until the weather cleared and it was time for bed.

A grey day.

Anything looks good in the right light - even ugly factory's.

 And we still cannot connect to the internet.

Bergues to Bourbourg

Tuesday 26 to Thursday 28 May

Bergues to Bourbourg - 25kms

On a gorgeous day, one of the warmest we had had so far, we set sail along the route less travelled: Canal De Bergues back to Dunkerque and then on to the Canal De Bourbourge, firstly the busy, commercial part and then on to the dead quiet but very pretty section,

Approaching Coppenaxfort

through the manual lock,

to the town of Bourbourg. Apart from a pontoon, a push button tap and a bin, there are no other boating facilities at Bourbourg – and it is just on 1.1m deep (if not less as we kicked up quite a bit of mud).

Mooring, Bourbourg

A higgledy piggeldy town, a little on the dreary side but with a certain undeniable charm of its own – and a huge InterMarche, bigger than any other supermarket we had yet seen on this particular trip.

The restored choir in the Chapel of Light in the 12^th century Saint Jean-Baptiste Church has a permanent contemporary display of religious themes around water and the Creation by the British sculptor Sir Anthony Caro which we appreciated despite its vague wackiness – somehow it worked and the handout in English was most helpful to our understanding.

Galapagos

Beside the river

Paradise garden

The baptismal font

The Tower of Morning taken from The Tower of Evening

 Apart from a ride to Graveline which is a real tourist seaside town with its main redeeming feature being the lovely garden within the huge walls of the old city ramparts,

Sculpture in the garden

Girls chatting

Rampart passageway

Part of the gardens

Gravelines pier...

...and beach...

...and nuclear power station, 6th largest in the world and 2nd largest in EU.

Back at Bourbourg we had booked lunch the next day at the restaurant. A fairly good meal but to my mind, overpriced.

I’m not quite sure why we spent three days in Bourbourg. Maybe, despite our internet connection being non-existent, it was the feel-good berth or the sunny weather or just the time to sand and paint and tidy without interference. But we just did.

Steps to swim platform being refurbished.

Home from home.