Cruising with the Carters: Menen to Lille

2^nd April 2017

32 kms, 4 locks, 5hrs 15 mins

We really slipped up on our voyage planning. This morning, which was cold again - 5.5C when we left the pontoon, we shook off the mooring lines at 9.00 and within 5 minutes we were at the Menen Lock. I called – no answer. And there were 3 big barges lined up waiting. Ominous. So I checked PC Navigo and the lock only opens at 10.00 on Sundays. I bet those barge captains were having a good laugh! So we tied up and waited, called again at 10.00 and, hey presto, we got a reply. That’ll teach us.

Barges waiting at the lock, this one is almost sinking

It is a very big lock

Yup,a very big lock

Anyway, the lock keeper told us to go straight into the first lock, we would be with an 80m commercial, a whole lot of stuff we didn’t understand, and ended with “Oppas”, which we know means Be careful. We did not want to go all the way to the front of the huge 195m long lock to avoid the surge of the water flooding in as the lock fills, so we waited as the barge, "Barbara J", came in and tied up then headed for a ladder fairly near his bow (the bollards were way too far apart for us). The lady deckhand yelled at us, the lock keeper came out and yelled at us, so we moved to the next ladder which was right at the very front of the lock. Fortunately the water did not rush in too violently and we didn’t bounce around too much. When we exited the lock we let the barge pass us and noticed that it was a fuel carrier, maybe that was what the lock keeper was trying to tell us in the first place.

The lycra lads and ladies were out in full force

Barbara J ahead of us

The very impressive cathedral at Warneton

The old and the new

And again,the old and the new

“Barbara J” disappeared around the bends but just before the next lock we caught up to them and shared that lock with them too.

We turned off the Lys River onto the Deule River. At the third lock we caught up with them again, waiting for another barge to exit the lock. I called the lock keeper (now in French) and I understood most of what he replied to me. Horray! But actually, he didn’t say much, just that we could enter the next lock with BJ - behind them. “Bien sûre”, I replied.

BJ took forever to manoeuvre in, and there definitely was not enough room for us behind him. The lock keeper walked down to us and shouted something wagging his finger – no go, wait for the next lock – the lights turned red and the lock gates closed in front of us.

Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

After we passed the turn off to the Roubaix Canal, which we traversed in October last year, we were in new territory that we have not seen before. Even the houses look different.

The Chateau at Warmbrechies

Oh dear, a rather magnificent factory that seems to have burned down

A park on the outskirst of Lille

Turning into the off-shoot of the canal alongside the Citadel

Our mooring in Lille

Immediately we were accosted by a drunk wanting money who hassled us every time we poked our noses out of the hatch. After he disappeared we went for a walk in the Citadel park.