Kortrijk to Menen

We left Kortrijk at noon in bright sunshine.  Over the past 20 years the city authorities have put  a lot of effort, and money no doubt, into sprucing up the banks of the canalised Leie, widening the canal and raising the bridges.  Now you no longer have to call for permission to pass through the town unless your boat is wider than 9 metres. And they have added some lovely parks with interesting statues.

It is only 12 km from Kortrijk to our stop at Menen.  Seeing we have sunshine forecast for the next week Ian decided the time has come to get stuck into one of the many jobs on his list: painting the deck.  Last year we painted the coachroof and earlier this year he painted the hull, but the deck still remained rather sad, weather-beaten and with patches of rust.  So today, while we ambled up the river, he ground out the rust, treated the spots with a rust inhibiter then painted with primer. Lots more sanding and painting to come!

Menen is in Belgium on one side of the river, and Halluin is in France on the other side of the river.  

France on the left, Belgium on the right

We have stopped at a free mooring in Belgium just a stone’s throw from a rather expensive marina in French territory where we stayed last year.

The "halte nautique" at Menen, looking for a place to stop.

Yesterday, I kept getting a whiff of something not very pleasant in the galley.  It took all day for me to realise it was a camembert cheese that I had left in a locker to mature.  It is now well and truly mature, verging on the geriatric.  I sealed it in a plastic tub,put it in the fridge and looked for a recipe to use it up. Tonight we are having pasta with mushrooms and camembert - and looking forward to it, too!