Armentieres to Merville

Sorry about the blog last night, I forgot to post it!

22km, 1 lock

It was another glorious day, decidedly summery.  

A very old factory, quite picturesque

It was really chilly in the early morning so out came the knee warmers!

We left Armentieres at 9.00 and stopped at Silly-sur-la-Lys an hour and a half later.  There was just one itty bitty lock between them, a small “Freycinette” lock (38.5m x 5m) and with a rise of only 60cm.  We were given a telecommand at Armentieres lock and worked just perfectly.

Apporaching the lock at Bac Saint Maur.  

The pontoon at Sailly-sur-la Lys

While at Sailly I checked the weather for tomorrow and it told me that it is going to be wet and windy.  Not a great day to be travelling and seeing there is not much at Sailly we decided to press on to Merville and spend the day there.  We love the Lys River, it is really rather charming.

Merville is just 22 km from Armentieres, no more locks, and we arrived at 13.00 and thought it was time to do some laundry!  Not my favourite way to spend the afternoon but it has to be done.  I had a bit of a misunderstanding with one of the dryers and it gobbled up €2 without turning on.  Hmmmph!

Today, it was rainy in the morning, and windy in the afternoon, but not both together.  We certainly could have moved in the morning because the rain didn’t last long but we are right before at a lock and you have to book service the day before.  We have now booked for 10.00 tomorrow morning, and guess what, it is going to be cold and rainy!

The pontoon at Merville with the lock in the background

We spent the day shopping!  There is a clothing store here which is having a liquidation sale.  Ian bought 3 pairs of jeans, a warm waterproof jacket and a light waterproof jacket (so in the space of 2 weeks he has acquired 3 new jackets.  Yay, I can throw all the old tatty ones away.)  I bought a fleece and a pair of shorts.  I hate shopping for clothes.

This afternoon I made a new shower curtain.  All I had to do was join 2 shower curtains together and cut the length to fit the rather strangely shaped heads, but it was slippery plastic material and gave me a whole heap of trouble.  It is not perfect but a whole lot better than the pvc sheet we were using before.