10 October Menen to Armentieres

We spent 3 days in France with no internet connection, hence the long silence.

26 km,3 locks

We intended to leave at sparrow’s this morning, as soon as it was fully light (about 8.00) but Ian developed a streaming cold during the night and didn’t sleep much between bouts of coughing/sneezing/snuffling/nose blowing, and was in no mood to get up before daylight so we left at 9.30.

It was such a treat to be on the move again after 6 days in the same spot.  The first lock, Menen Lock, is enormous – 195m long by 12.5m wide. And we were the only boat in it!  As we cleared that lock a big barge pulled out from a dock ahead of us but beetled off into the distance, we couldn’t keep up with him.  As we approached the next lock at Comines we could see that it was open, the green lights were on and the huge barge was waiting inside.  I called the lock master in my best French, flicking the switch in the brain from Nederlands to French! - and didn’t understand much of what he replied, but I did get “continuez”.  The barge captain must have been really annoyed!

The River Leie got more and more attractive: narrower and with lots more vegetation.

A swan family with "ugly ducklings".

A tight squeeze!

We turned off into the old narrow windy (as in curvy) Leie just before Deulemont and arrived at the Armentieres lock at 13.00.  It is not serviced in the lunch hour from 12.30 to 13.30 so we tied up and had lunch, intending to call for service just after 13.30.   At 13.25 we heard the lock gates opening and the lights went green!  How’s that for service.  The lock keeper came out to speak to us, asking if we were intending to go all the way up the Leie, in which case we would need a telecommande to open the locks.  Ah hah, obviously they have finished all the dredging work at Merville and the whole river is passable again.  What a pity we don’t have the time to do it now.  But it is such a lovely river that we will definitely pass this way again.

We have tied up at a small wooden pontoon between the lock and the turn-off to the marina.

An hour after we arrived the heavens opened and down came the rain – didn’t we time the deck painting well!  It is a good 20 minutes’ walk into the centre of town but I had to go and check out the historic bits

The pontoon is just 2 blocks from a huge Carrefour supermarket in one direction and a Lidl in the other direction, where we can stock up on all our favourite French specialities! 

Menen - still here

Done!  The deck is painted, the fenders have been cleaned, the hull side against the dock has been cleaned, the barbie has been cleaned, and some hand laundry too. It was a beautiful hot, sunny day today – good for curing paint - and we are  ready to go!

We have enjoyed watching the geese gathering, each day there seem to be more. They hang out here during the day then take off as it gets dark, goodness knows where they spend the night.

Meanwhile, after all that noise on Friday night, yesterday I asked Mr Google what it was all about and he told me it is a 3 day music festival!  And furthermore he told me that it is called the N.A.M.E. festival, an annual event described as “a pulsing electronic scene that hits you hard with wicked beats, funky rhythms and flashing lights that invented epilepsy.”!! Oh dear, oh dear. So we had more pulsing electronics that made the glassware rattle and the hull vibrate till 6 this morning, and I got up at 6.15 to watch the Japanese F1 grand  prix.  The music started again at 13.00 today but not nearly so noisy, I guess they’ll turn up the volume tonight.

Still in Menen

We have been here 3 days now and got the third coat of paint on the deck.  It takes less than an hour to apply the paint and we spend the next 23 watching it dry!    We fill in the time going for rides on the bike and taking longish walks.  I am getting to know the town quite well!  The weather has been bright and crisp, i.e sunny and cold.  Yesterday morning it was 2C when we got up, and not a cloud in the sky.  This morning it was cloudy and almost balmy at 7C!  It warms during the day to max 14C but as long as the sun comes out, and so far it has, the steel deck gets up to 20C, for an hour or two, long enough for the paint to dry,   but not cure hard.  We will have to spend an extra day here so that it gets hard enough to work on with ropes, etc, when going through locks.

Two days ago a magnificent Tjalk barge moored up in front of us.  It was built in 1899 and the owner told us the hull is still totally original.  Compare that to what is built today!

Two huge marquees have been erected alongside the old Leie River offshoot about 1 from our mooring. 

The old Leie River meandered across the flat plain and in the 1960’s it was widened and canalised with straight sections cutting across the curves.   Many of these offshoots are now recreational areas. Yesterday they were doing lighting and sound checks – a warning of what was to come! -  and bringing in hundreds of barrels of beer. 

Stacks of beer barrels

The cacophony started at 10.00 and went on till about 5.00 in the morning.  It was so loud that it made the boat rattle!  Didn’t sleep a wink.

In my ramblings I discovered that some remnants of the old ramparts

The ramparts date from the 17th century,the crumbling wall from about 1820.

and a casement that has been restored with a big sign saying “Free entrance”, but is was locked.  

Another interesting statue close by

I also discovered that the old lock on the old Leie River offshoot was destroyed at the instructions of the Allied High Command by a handful of resistance workers and 2 parachutists on 28th April 1944.  

The old disused lock

Plaque at the old lock

Menen

We have decided to stay here until the deck is finished.  The next few days – long enough to get the deck finished – are forecast to be dry and sunny.  We have memories of trying to get this work done last autumn when we took the boat out of the water at Buitenbeentje but then it was too cold and damp.  If we leave it any longer this year we are going to run into the same problem, so make hay while the sun shine - or paint deck while the sun shines.

Early morning

The marina opposite the free mooring

It is rather chilly in the mornings, just 4C yseterday, so we had to wait till mid-morning before Ian could start work sanding the deck then applying an undercoat of paint.  

Preparing for action

Rust patches filled and primed

Undercoat going on

While waiting for that to dry we went for a ride along the towpath and to a commercial centre with a Gamma (hardware store), Kruidvat, Aldi, etc,etc.  All the stores where you do your normal everyday purchases.  We bought potatoes and onions, a pair of welding gloves for Ian (at a fraction of what they cost in Portugal) and some Christmas presents for friends back home.  In the afternoon I walked into the town centre to look at the Groote Markt and Belfry.

This is not the most architecturally beautiful town we have seen but it does have an interesting history.  It is a border town, and has been for eons.  This territory has been disputed for many hundreds of years between France, the Netherlands, Spain and even the Austrian Hapsburg Empire, and was heavily bombed during WW1 and WW2.

 

Solar panels topping up the batteries

The iBoost antenna held up high on the Robship mooring aid (bought at wast expense and hardly ever used) 

 I was amused by these little statues

Histroy lesson for those who are interested:

There is a panel near this little quay explaining the history of the town.  Fascinating and elucidating.   There has been a settlement here since before Roman times although the earliest records only date back to 1087.  The village was founded in a marshy area on the crossing between the Lille-Bruges road and the Leie River.  In 1351 the town was granted the rights to set up a cloth industry, reliant on the river water, which flourished for over two centuries.  In the 16^th century it became known for the quality of its beer production and between 1520 and 1550 the town had 104 master brewers!   The town was besieged 22 times between 1580 and 1830.  Louis XIV’ military engineer Vauban fortified the town in 1679 but little was left of these fortifications by the middle of the 18^th century.  At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, which redrew the borders of Europe following the Napoleonic wars, the border between France and Belgium was drawn along the ramparts of the old city.  The Dutch, now controlling this area, constructed new fortifications on top of the old ramparts, and these are the remnants that we still see today.  But not much of the historical architecture remains today, unfortunately, after the destruction of the two World Wars.

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!

Deinze to Kortrijk

26 km, 2 locks

Clear skies and sunshine this morning, but a little bit nippy at just 7.5C.  

After 2 days of inactivity we were keen to get moving so, as soon as the supermarket opened at 8.00, I bought some fresh bread and milk and by 8.15 we were ready to roll, just to discover that the Tolpoort bridge in Deinze doesn’t open between 8.00 and 8.30. 

Our route took us up the wide, canalised Leie River – one of the main waterways between France and the big Belgian ports so we saw a lot of big commercial barges.  

Thalassa, an old friend which we have seen 3 times before.

Down in the bow and heeling to port!

100m long and very wide 

We have seen lots of big flocks of geese getting ready to migrate, flying in V formation.  I think these are Canada geese.  

There are 2 big locks: St Baafs-Vijve is 140m long and 16m wide, and Harelbeke is 115m by 12m but it is currently being enlarged.  Last year when we passed this way we used the old lock and could see a new one under construction alongside.  This time we used the new one (also 115m x 12m) and the work on the old one is already well under way.

We shared both locks with a the rather large “Amazone”, and the smaller Harelbeke lock only just fitted us both in.

Very close to the turbulent water rushing into the lock

Amazone right behind us

By lunch time we were tied up in the passantehaven in Kortrijk:  €8 per night including free electricity and water, and in sight of the ancient Broeltoren, remnants of the gates in the old city walls.  

The Broeltoren

A town has existed in this spot since Roman times seeing it was at the crossroads of 2 major Roman roads and the navigable river.  In the 9^th century it was fortified to repel the invading Vikings who came up the river from the North Sea.  In the Middle Ages it became a prosperous centre of the flax industry.

Deinze

We have spent 2 days in Deinze.  Yesterday was laundry day. We were promised some sunshine so I washed a few t-shirts, etc, by hand and left them festooned around the railings to dry then went to the laundry with the sheets, etc.

There was another young lady in there with a 1 month old baby and we got chatting.  Turns out she is from Syria.  She studied in Italy (she teaches ceramics) and her husband is an advocate.  She arrived here with her 2 older children just over a year ago.  She is studying Nederlands because she must speak it reasonably well to get a job as a teacher.  Her husband cannot work here as an advocate but hopes to get work “with computers”.  She didn’t talk about the war in her country much, apart from saying they fled because of the war, her city was bombed and her brother-in-law severely injured.  She even invited us for dinner next week but unfortunately we will be gone by then. Interesting.

On my way back to the boat I heard a cacophony of horns, hooters and sirens and a convoy of over 50 trucks (horse without trailer) drove along the canal and into the main road.  It turned out to be Truck-fun day!  The trucks were gleaming with polish, LED lights and various other decorative bits. Pity I didn’t have my camera.

Today it has rained all day.  We watched the F1 Grand Prix, read books, and went for a very quick walk between showers.