The Journey -
Moored at the River Lys

GLASS

Glass has been much on my mind of late, having cruised through Arques (France, used to be home of a boat lift - now a piece of mouldering industrial 'heritage' - and is still the home of a massive glass-works, 'Luminarc' being its major trade name).  When I was but a callow youth, I took very little notice of glass, until I met the delightful, witty and vivacious young lady who was to become my wife and, subsequently and sadly, my ex.

She was endowed, amongst other things, with a set of Rosenthal wine glasses which, for some reason, caught my eye.  They had square bases, from the centre of which rose the round stem which supported the flat bottomed, cylindrical bowl.  The square base was smoky grey, though the colouring faded up the glass, until, near the rim, the glass was quite clear.  They were things of great beauty.  Over time, their beauty seemed to intensify, though, practically, I felt that they had a couple of small drawbacks.  Firstly, their bowls were a bit small, which meant that they had to be refilled rather too often.  Secondly, when I became a bit more curious about wine, the smokiness masked the colour, clarity and sparkle of the wine.  However, for a quiet, intimate, candle-lit dinner they were pretty much ideal, and served their purpose well.

Fortunately, when we got married, the wine glasses supplied in our Army married quarter were quite excellent.  The bowls were a bit like a small brandy balloons.  One could hold the stem (to help keep a white wine cool) or let the bowl rest in the palm (to put a little heat into a red wine, and, hence release its bouquet).  I've seen similar glasses for sale, but never in the perfect, military proportions vis a vis the size of bowl and base, and the length of the stem.

I spent some time in Cyprus, where military duties included 'running' range days.  The rifle range happened to be laid out on an unexcavated, archaeological site, with a surface scatter of pottery and (occasionally) glass.  I spent many happy hours strolling up and down the firing point, keeping half an eye on the military proceedings (which were exceedingly well managed by the Company Sergeant Major) and one and a half eyes on the ground looking for fragments of glass.  The pieces were milky and opaque, sparkling with a rainbow effect.

A few years ago, I found some champagne flutes in the John Lewis Partnership which were of clear glass, but incorporated a rainbow effect within the glass.  I think they are of Czech origin.  I have two on Rosy, and although they are rather delicate, they remain unbroken and much loved.

Also from Cyprus, I still have a small tumbler, given free at the Limassol wine festival, for the purpose of tasting the free wines on offer.  From Oman, I have a 'Tanuf' glass - Tanuf being an Omani brand of bottled water - which is still in daily use as a measure of the dry part of the food of Fanny-the-Woof.  Each time I use it, I recall my time in Oman, and the several visits we made to the deserted old village of Tanuf, near where the water is bottled.

On very special occasions I permit myself to use a Gordon's gin tumbler.  The glass is decorated by a small reproduction of the Gordon's label - not the ghastly one used in the UK, but the proper yellow and red one, used on export bottles.  (And, incidentally, copied by nearly every gin maker in the world).

These days, my standard tumbler is from the Maes brewery (Belgian, I think) who were kindly giving them away - one glass with each crate of beer.

MAROONED ON THE LYS

I suppose that there are very many worse places to be marooned.  We are stuck at St Venant on the River Lys.  In places, this river is the border between France and Belgium - the Belgians know it as the River Leie.

(Incidentally, long time followers of Rosy and her voyages may have a feeling of déja vu.  Since leaving Gent, we have been roughly following the route that Rosy and I took on our first European voyage).

We left Aire-sur-Lys (hooray!!) on a beautiful, sunny Thursday, and had a wonderful cruise down to St Venant.  The countryside was flat and almost wholly rural, with grand views across fields.  There were many willows thriving near the water.  Most of the these were being properly 'managed', though some had been left untended for many years, and have produced some massive branches.

The mooring at St Venant is small, but perfectly formed (with free water and electricity) and hence is a bit crowded.  In the pretty village there are several bread shops and a butchers, a post office, a green-grocer, banks with cash machines and a 'Shoppi' (a small supermarket).

I visited the cemetery by the river, which incorporates some British war graves.  These date from both the 1st and 2nd World Wars.  Of particular interest are the many soldiers from India buried there.  The WW1 graves are numerous as there was a Casualty Clearing Station established there.  Heavy fighting took place around St Venant is WW2, as it was part of the defensive outer ring during the Dunkirk evacuation.

We decided to stop for a few days, and I finally finished repainting the starboard side deck, started work on the starboard port-holes.  'Port-holes' have been on the 'To Do' list for several years.  I want to take all six port-holes off, and replace the three that have plain glass in them with star-cut lights.  The bedding material is cracked and discoloured, so I have some replacement acrylic mastic.  I also want to clean the brass ports (so that the brass sparkles) and varnish them - in the hope that the sparkle will not fade.  I took one port off, and found the steel underneath it untreated.  I started cleaning up the brass port when the rain started, so there is now a plastic sheet taped over the hole.  It has rained pretty much ever since (today is Tuesday).  So I have an empty hole that still needs anti-rust treatment, and a polished and varnished port.

We also took half a day off to go by car to recce our next mooring.  There are several moorings shown on the maps.  Some are no longer there.  Those that ARE there are fine, except that the only one with electricity is (we think) a pay mooring at Armentières.

Still, we can put the 'where to moor next' decision off for a bit, as the French weather forecaster is promising us rain for the next day or two.  It almost makes one long for Michael Fish!!  (Note for the forgetful - Fish it was who assured us that rumours of a storm were wholly unfounded.  This was 12 hours before a storm wrecked the south of England and destroyed the Fastnet ocean yacht race).

MOUSICLE TURDICLES

(Readers of a nervous or puritanical disposition may like to skip this section).

Regular readers may recall the mouse infestation that we had on Rosy last summer.  By 'infestation' I mean one mouse definitely, maybe two.  I cured the problem by buying a mouse trap.  Well, two mouse traps actually, as the shop had a 2-for-1 offer on mousetraps.

(As an aside, I would love to have been in on the board room discussions and arguments that resulted in this 2-for-1 offer for mousetraps)

Anyway, I gave one of the traps to 'Temujin', and left the other one (un-baited and un-set) lying around in Rosy.  Luckily, the mouse(s?) took the hint and absconded.

This was most fortunate, as here in France a 'pain de tous les grains' (all the seeds bread) is a favourite of mine.  It is in the habit of shedding some of the seeds that are sprinkled over it, and I am in the habit of picking up and eating seeds that have fallen onto the working surfaces in Rosy's kitchen.  I was munching a particularly small, brown seed, when I realised that it was exactly the same size, shape and colour as a mouse turd.  The sole difference was that the seed is bright and shiny, whilst the mouse turd is matt. 

A FEW DAYS LATER …

The varnished port hole looks a mess.  In some places the varnish looks like suede, and there isn't a constant depth of colour.  I don't have any Rustins lacquer, but I do happen to have the French equivalent, a metal varnish, NOT for outdoors use.  I thought of putting a coat of this on a port-hole, followed by a coat of Owatrol.  I'll report on the results in a month or so, when the port-holes will have been out in the weather for a bit.

We have finally done something with Rosy's flower troughs - they were empty all last year.  My ideal is red pelargonium and white marguerites, set in a bed of trailing blue lobelia.  I achieved this a few years ago, and it looked really handsome, reflecting Rosy's red white and blue colour scheme.  So far, all I have found are some osteospernams (I don't have a clue how to spell it, and neither do any of my dictionaries).  So I've put them in.  At least they are better than nothing, and they should flower throughout the summer.  I've also set them off by adding some lobelia (little blue flowers), sadly not of the trailing variety.

ROUTE PLANNING

I've had several queries about route planning in Europe.  There are plenty of books covering individual countries - France, Belgium, Holland and Germany - but general 'planning' maps are not particularly common.

Voies Navigables de France (aka VNF - the French waterways authority) give away an extremely useful 'planning' map.  It is about A3 size, and shows the waterways, major towns, waterways museums, waterway features (lifts etc) and marinas, though not the locks.  They even produce it in a variety of languages, including English.  Their website is www.vnf.fr, and when last I looked, this, too, had an English version.

In the Netherlands, the ANWB (shops in most towns, sometimes co-located with the tourist information office, and encouraging (and catering) for foot, cycle, car and boat travel) have a free, paper, fold up 'planning' map of the country aimed at boaters, and showing all/most of the navigable waterways.  One that I have is published annually, and shows (amongst other things) the timings of the opening of all the low level railway bridges.

I have a copy of a map that I got from Imrays (of St Ives, Cambridge) that shows the European waterways - UK, France, Belgium, Holland Germany, Poland going East, and going south, northern Italy and Bosnia Hercegovina.  It doesn't show the locks.  It's a wonderful map to contemplate, plan and dream over.

I recently had a quick glimpse of a newly(?) published map that shows France, Belgium, Holland and Germany.  I includes not only the waterways, but also all the locks.  I think it is published in either Holland or Germany.  I'm on the lookout for a copy!!

Toodle pip!!

Bill