Go with (the) Flo

Ouesnoy sur Deûle to Roubaix

12 km

7 locks

2 lift/swing bridges

9 hours (including waiting time)

As we had missed the Armetières turning, the next morning we decided to carry on and take the turn off to Roubaix instead. As expected there were no signage to indicate the route (see photo - to be uploaded) but not wanting to miss it we decided to take a chance and shouted ‘Roubaix’ and pointed in the direction to people on the towpath, as they nodded ‘yes’ we took this to mean we were on the right track.

We approached the first lock and Tracy leapt to the bank to locate the l’eclusier (lock keeper), there was no one to be seen and the telephone number provided proved to be out of service.

Luckily for us, Lionel was just passing our boat, he spoke English as good as any Englishman and came to our aid by dialing the local police who kicked the wheels of rescue into motion.

While we were having a coffee with Lionel, Alexandra and her team (see photo) turned up to get us through the first lock and give us detailed instructions on how to navigate the Roubaix Canal with the aid of a remote control for the automatic locks (a far cry from the back cracking-knuckle rapping locks back home). 

Alexandra and her team to the rescue!  Lionel our saviour back centre. Fab people one and all.

The remote we were dying to try but didn't get the chance.

Apparently, we should have given at least 24 hours notice of our intentions to navigate this canal but Alexandra couldn’t have been more helpful and even when I asked if it would be better for us to reverse and choose a different route she insisted that she would get us safely through.

Alexandra advised us to have lunch and then make our way to the next lock, which as the only one not operated by our remote control, would be opened by another team. After sharing our biscuits and chatting about music (we never did find out if the Chemical Brothers were French or English) and food (French cheese versus English cheese) they gave us a wave and we were off. What a bunch of lovely, helpful, kind and generally cheery people – thanks guys really appreciated you all that day.

After a leisurely lunch we were off.  The canal here is more like what we were used to at home, narrow, slow going, with lots of interesting things to look at and people to ‘bonjour’ to.  A small note, we generally found that, although very friendly, the Belgiums would rarely return a wave or a greeting whereas here in France the people couldn’t have been more enthusiastic.  It was a joy to navigate and we were having a great time.

At the next lock, we met up with Flo and Jeremy.  Again, Flo spoke English and advised us that they were going to take us all the way through to the Belgium border and prised the remote control back off us (very disappointed as we were dying to try it).

We eventually landed at Roubaix and Flo said we would overnight here and they would be back in the morning to take us to the Belgium border.

Our moorings in the forest near Roubaix

Moorings in Roubaix

Cost: Free

Facilities: None, but good staging down steps from the tow path giving good privacy.

Location: Bakery a 2 minute cycle away and a Carrefour supermarket (size of an aircraft hangar) and mall 10 minutes walk away.