Progress into a more peaceful quiet waterway...

Dear all,

After travelling through the industrial areas we are now in the real French country side ,parked in a village called Frise on the Somme river. (Click here to view map of where Frise is.) We arrived here at about 11.30 on sunday ,just in time to go to the local restaurant for a sunday lunch .We arrived at 12.15 & left 3 hours later. 4 very good courses with the menu,& lots of house wine.I am writing this at 8.30 pm the sun is shining & it is so quiet.!!

On Wed we left Armentiers in the afternoon travelling for about 3 hours . The next day (thurs) we intended to have a big day, but it was so windy, so decided to give it up when we reached the junction of the river Lys & the grande garabit (Click here for info). Parked there for the night,we got a bit of a wash from the passing barges, but not too bad.

Fri morning ,no wind !!! left at 6.15 am , intending to stop in Douai for the night ,not very nice stopping places ,so carried on to the junction of the canal du nord  at 5.15  A long 11 hour day 78 km & 4 big locks & lots of commercial traffic, who were very good, nearly all gave us a wave.Sat we travelled up the canal du nord 38 km & 7 locks ,all 93 m long, made to take 2 barges & a pusher. Went through an interesting tunnel. It was 4.3 km long ,but had a passing bay (1km long) in the middle, so we had 2 barges & 2 pleasure boats passing underground.  click here for more info on tunnel then scroll down... Ruyaulcourt Tunnel 4.354km with 1km passing bay.

 

photo by john smethurst.

Had another peaceful night near a lock. Left this morning at 8.00 am & had a dream run through the 5 downhill locks ,as barges were coming up, & all the locks were open for us. Turned onto the Somme, what a difference !! narrow, quiet, no traffic . Our type of waterway. click here for info on the somme

B&M.

the grande gabarit

Wed 25th May
We didn't get very far with our intended walk this morning as an official told us the park was closed !!!!!!! 
It appeared to be open later. I can't understand why strolling in a park at 9am can be a problem.

It has been a beautiful day. We stopped at 3pm as we had to arrange the next part of our journey down the Lys R. yesterday & will be accompanied by a lock keeper as far as the next waterway The Grande Gabarit, where we should arrive tomorrow.  The Grande Gabarit    also known as Canal_Dunkerque-Escaut

 

Itinéraire à Grand Gabarit is a water and road route that has been created in order to allow the transport of the outsize structural sections of the Airbus A380 airliner from their point of manufacture to Toulouse for final assembly. The route was largely created by modifying existing waterways and public roads, with the addition of some new road sections. Specially constructed ships, barges and road vehicles carry the aircraft parts on the route.

This afternoon Barry completed the installation of the new inverter. There is no power here tonight so the computer is running on it. We are tied to a floating pontoon, with no steps or attatchments to it, so we are unable to go ashore. That is not a problem. I spent some time on the roof in my bathing suit sunbathing.

 

M&B

Ghent to Kortrijk

Tue 24th May
Hi all,

After Ghent we went to Kortrijk which is a pleasant city. I visited a Flax Museum called VLAS Museum Kortrijk, which was so interesting & explained the process of growing the flax(linseed) seeds right though to the harvesting of the seed, making the oil etc & linen from the shafts left behind & the methods of doing this from the earliest days until modern times was all explained extremely well. It was a very important industry for the area.  / www.kortrijk.be/vlasmusem

http://www.kortrijk.be/flaxmuseum (english text)

We have had a rather busy , enjoyable & sociable time since arriving at Armentieres on Sun. 22nd May.

On Mon morning we cycled 5 km to Nieppe to the Pont D'Achelles Military Cemetary where Grandfather Charles Taylor was Buried in 1917.

It is difficult to explain how one feels when visiting these places where so many young lives were lost. Also to read about the numbers etc. I don't really want to dwell on it  but it is very moving when one learns more about what went on during the wars.

Mon afternoon we spent ages getting our French telephone & computer working on the boat. An English couple Sandy & Trevor have their boat next to ours. They had been shopping at a big supermarket where they had bought a special of french bubbly. 3 bottles for 5 Euro (Thats 3 bottles for $8.75 NZ dollar). & invited us at 6pm to sample it. 4 hours later we were having our dinner.

This morning Barry went with Trevor in their car with diesel containers to top up our tank with fuel which was great  & saved pulling our trolley along the footpaths. They made 2 trips. Then this afternoon they took us to the supermarket to stock up on groceries. We have been really spoilt. We had them over for predinner drinks. Another long session. Have learned much more about travelling down the Rhone plus visiting other places. It is now 1/4 to 11. We have just finished doing the dishes.

The marina here is set in a very large park. Tomorrow we will walk 5 km around the lake before departing. It is peaceful & quiet at night compared with the cities, with no traffic & people noise.

I had hoped to write earlier but our evenings have been longer than I had anticipated!!!.

M&B

Have made it back to France

back in french waters now!

Brugge in Belgium

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruges

http://www.brugge.be/internet/en/index.htm

Cezanne in 2007

over view map

Click on the map to make it larger.

Waterways map

Above is a map of the waterways of Belgium so you can see were we plan to go.Plans of course are made to change It has been very hot & dry for a couple of months, a little cooler today with some rain last night, the farmers are of course needing rain.The last few days have been in the mid to high 20s

Cezanne came through the winter very well , no sign of water inside, just a little mildew under one of the seats

On Sunday we had a visit from our Antwerp friends   Patrick & Agnes, it was mothers day so they brought a mothers day cake.

We are leaving Diksmuide tomorrow (wed.)    the  plans are to travel down the Ijzer as far as the Newport lock, then on the canals, Passendale- Newport,&Gent- Ostend ,to Brugge. Probably stay a couple of days,& then onto Gent.Our favourite Belgium city. We will travel up the Leie,which becomes the Lys in France.It is very close to this river at Neippe near Amentières that Margaret's grandfather is buried, so might visit him.

From there we will make our way to the river Somme, which everyone tells us that it is worth quite a long stay. It was on the Somme that a lot of NZers were killed during ww1     

Love to you all

M& B     

First stop, Keukenhof gardens

may 4th 2011
Movingboat soon to another birth. then train to Antwerp. to Holland with dutch friends.

then back to Antwerp to visit friends there. Will write in detail when we have more time .

may 7th 2011

We are now recovered from our visit to the Keukenhof gardens. We trained to Antwerp where Irene & Kees met us & drove to a B&B on the ourskirts of Ghent, in the countryside with animals wondering around the premises. A typical oldish Dutch home. The Keukenhof gardens were beautiful but unfortuneately with all the very hot sunny weather which there had been the previous 2 weeks the tulip fields were finished.

We drove from up on the E. side & back along the coast, back to Antwerp to have an evening meal with Andre & Monique, then caught the train back to the boat so it was a very late night.

Our trip over went well. Each year we say we will bring less with us to save hassles with luggage but always seem to end up with lots which makes travelling a bit more difficult!, especially changing trains etc. We had a good nights sleep on the 2nd part of the journey & arrived feeling quite refreshed. The food was good also.

Have been spending our spare time cleaning the boat etc. Had to move again yesterday as a machine is dredging around the port. Barry is busy water blasting the exterior of the boat at present. There is lots of green on it.

Yesterday we bought a small vacuum cleaner which has great suction & is making life easier for me, getting dust etc off beds & sitting areas.

M & B

Links to Keukenhof websites and images

http://www.keukenhof.nl/

http://www.google.co.nz/search?q=Keukenhof+gardens&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=l0D&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=mOzFTfKuB4SyvgOm4KWpAQ&ved=0CDsQsAQ&biw=1296&bih=617 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keukenhof