Before we knew it, 6 weeks
had passed and we were ready
to head south to our new
mooring for the winter outside
of Paris. The roof was to be
completed on Monday the 24th,
or Tuesday the 25th of
September and we would leave
immediately. A few days prior
to our departure, Lisa was
chatting with one of the owners
of a big commercial ship about
wintering in Paris. He casually
asked her what route we were
going to take. Of course we
were taking the most direct
and fastest route from
Charleroi (southern belgium).
He said "Oh, no you're not
unless you're waiting until the
15th of October as there's a
lock at the very beginning of
that route south that closed for
repairs!" He told us that the
only option for us to get to
Paris at this time was to travel
north (and we mean WAY
north to the border of Holland!) from Charleroi in the
south of Belgium, thru Brussels to Antwerp (on the dutch
border), hop on the Maritime waterway, paying strict
attention to the tides and travel to Gent, and from there
travel south thru Lille and Douai and finally on to the top
of the canal du Nord which was part of our original
itinerary. There were days we travelled 12-14 hours,
sometimes having up to 2 hour waits at the locks because
we were the little guys amongst these massive 85 metre
barges, navigating at night, and one time going thru a
massive lock 125mx15m in the pitch black of night.
The professional bargees couldn't have been kinder to the
people on the pretty little flowered barge. They helped us
calculate the tides and when to go through the lock that
would put us on the maritime waterway. Luck was with us
and we were able to take advantage of the tides during
the daylight hours. We saw currents of 6kms and at times
were making 12-14km. We flew and were thrilled to pass
through the Gent lock that evening just as the tide changed
and moor for the night and rest. This detour added 4 full
days journey to our route. The weather continued to be
awful. We wore our waterproof pants and jackets daily.
Once back in France, the canals were wide and fast and
we made really good time. We usually stopped at a lock to
sleep at night and continued on each morning as soon as
the fog cleared.
On the eve of the 8th day of our journey we arrived at our
pontoon which would be our home until May 1, 2008 in
Cergy near Paris! We were exhausted but we made it!