We fled Lille on the Saturday when the rugby came to town, inflating our hotel price from €180 per night to €700. Our boat was still not ready so we stayed a few days a hotel in Diksmuide until she could return to the water. It is now time to tally up our European adventure… Read more

In Brussels we farewelled Margaret, who took the train from Brussels Midi to Charles de Gaulle airport and the long flight home. Our last visitor for the season, and soon it will be time for us to leave our summer home. The harbour master at the Brussels Royal Yacht Club recommended a boat engineer to… Read more

The canal de Sensee was a project developed under Napoleon to link the river Scarpe to the Escault (which in Belgium becomes the Schelde), specifically for the transportation of coal. This commercial canal is 15kms in length, with no suitable moorings. Once we exited the canal we were on the Escault, with another 22kms to… Read more

The Canal de Nord is 95 kms long from Pont l’Eveque to Arlex. There are 19 locks and 2 tunnels and even though we were on a tight schedule it still took us 4 days to reach the turn off to the Canal Sensee. The construction of the canal commenced in 1908 in response to… Read more

At this stage I am sad to report not only we’re we still having generator problems, but our house batteries had also died. We could have stayed our course on the Lateral a l’Oise to the St. Quentin canal, but the faster route back north was to motor up the Canal du Nord. It was… Read more

The river has its source in Belgium and flows in a southerly direction before it joins the Seine at Conflans Sainte Honorine. It has always been regarded as an important transport link between the northern countries and France, although the river was not canalised until 1835. From Longueil Annel the Oise becomes the Lateral a… Read more

Peter was hoping to leave the port at Arsenal around 8am, in order to avoid the tourist traffic travelling through Paris on the Seine. But as I mentioned in an earlier blog Paris is in full swing preparing for next years Olympics. As the river is going to be a centre piece it is closed… Read more

The port in Paris is located on the right bank, close to place Bastille, with two metro stations, the shops of the Maria’s and a huge market on Sundays all within walking distance. We were initially concerned about the port environs and safety, after a number of negative reports from fellow bargees. In 2022 the… Read more

We could have taken the Nivenais canal and continued our trip south, but our schedule includes a booking for the boat pulled out on the 2nd October, to have the bottom repainted at Diksmuide in Belgium.It had taken almost 3 months to make out way to Auxerre so we turned around and retraced our steps,… Read more