La Bassée to Aire-sur-la-Lys

37 kms 1 lock, 4.5 hours

The supermarket only opened at 9.00 so we delayed our departure until we could buy a last minute supply of wine.  It’s a problem being faced with such a large choice and not knowing anything about any of the wines on offer!  Sometimes you get it right and buy a wine you like, and sometimes you get it so wrong that you have to go back and buy something more palatable.  I bought a dreadful rosé on Tuesday, found a really rather nice one yesterday (Roche Mazet Cinsault Grenache) and so we went back for more this morning – you never know when you’ll see it again.

We left the pontoon at 9.45.  It was decidedly cooler today and pretty breezy too.  As the day wore on the clouds got thicker and darker and as we entered the one and only lock it rained.  This is one of Murphy's Laws:  if it is going to rain just once during the day, it will rain when you are out on deck in a lock.  Another one of Murphy's Laws is: if you get all kitted out with boots and foul weather gear it won’t rain.  But that doesn’t work when you are in a lock.

Canal d’Aire, part of the Grand Gabarit from Dunkirk to the Belgium border on the River Escaut, is very wide but pretty with lots of greenery, not a lot of industry, some big barges, the occasional cute riverside cottage, vast fields of farm produce – we have left the coal mining area behind us – and even some cows and sheep which we haven’t see for weeks.

This huge barge was being loaded with something black, rape seeds perhaps?

A huge barn full of wheat, so full the doors won't close, so the digger is trying to push it all in!

Passing the “halte nautique” at Guarbecque we saw a boat we recognised:  it was Agricola from our club, Ijzervaarders, in Diksmuide, so we stopped to say hello to Marc and his wife (and I am afraid to say we don’t know her name).

At 2.30 we turned off the main canal into a narrow offshoot into the town of Aire-sur-la-Lys.  

The entrance to the moorings in Aire-sur-la-Lys

There is a small pontoon right beside a rather noisy factory but we pressed further in (it does get quite shallow) and tied up beside a big house with an attractive garden.  

The town centre is about a 7 or 8 minute walk and I was keen to take a look at the Grand Place, which is supposed to be quite attractive, and the church but my arthritis was not good today (colder weather?) so no walking this afternoon, unfortunately.  Maybe tomorrow.