I landed in Paris at 6 am,
came out of the terminal by 7 am, and by 7:30 am was driving a rental Toyota out of the Charles
De Gaulle airport. Unfortunately I screwed up coordinating with Geraldine and
her family, who happen to be in Canada
at this very moment. Since being in Paris alone
is no fun, I had decided to drive a couple of hours north, to Lille , and spend these three days exploring
the region.
As expected I was tired, and felt sweaty and stinky, so I
had to stop half way to Lille
to get a cup of coffee at a gas station by the autoroute. There I found a kiosk
with information about the region and found out that Dunkerque (or Dunkirk ) is less than an hour from Lille ,
and that they have a Maritime
Museum
Dunkerque is a pretty port town, with a magnificent wide
sandy beach, but has the sad distinction of being one of the first French
cities occupied during World War II (June 1940), and one of the last to be
liberated by the Allies (1945), by which time it had been bombed to rubble.
Thus, the city I visited is comparatively new, although the port has been one
of the main ports of France
since the mid 1800’s.
You may remember that I “collect” visits to maritime
museums, so I spent several happy hours going through the displays, which were
very good. I learned that Dunkirque had started as a fishermen port, and that
fishing boats would go from there all the way to Iceland to fish for cod. From there
the port became important for the commerce of wool with England , and
for the contraband of sugar, specialty foods, and wine. Lunch was at a nice
restaurant by the water, and consisted on a huge bucket of steamed mussels and
a tall beer. Maybe it was the ambiance, but I swear those were some of the best
mussels I have ever had. I was seated by the water and was amazed at the
fabulous variety of sea anemones floating in the crystal-clear water;
unfortunately I was also under the rays of a blazing sun, so when I finally
finished my meal I was panting.
After lunch I went back to the museum, to visit a a tall
ship that was rescued from the scarp yard and is now a historical monument, and
a.lighthouse ship. It turns out that this is the place where the Channel of la
Mancha, between France and England ,
is at its narrowest point, so the tidal currents are very strong and have built
a series of sand bars parallel to the coast. Any ship trying to reach Dunkirque
would have to navigate a zig zag course through the bars, and many of them became
stranded. Because the bars change positions, and are under water, there was no
option of building regular lighthouse to indicate their positions. Instead,
lighthouse ships were deployed on the shallowest bars, manned by crews that
were rotated every 15 days. Being for two weeks in a ship that went nowhere
must have been the most boring job in the world!
On the way back I got lost inside Lille ! I blame it to the fact that I had no
map of the town, but just a recollection of the map I had seen in the internet
when I booked my hotel. So I knew roughly where it should be, but European
streets take many turns, tiny neighborhoods spring out of nowhere, and the
freeways have been designed by madmen. So I went round and round, waiting for
my famous sixth sense to kick in, but to no avail. I finally asked a nice lady
who had no idea of what I was looking for, but who identified the road I was
looking for as the A-22 Freeway. “Just follow the signs for A-22”, she said
with confidence. So I did, and found not one but two Hotel Ibis, both of them
in areas I had driven past! The good news is that I have not lost my sense of
orientation; the bad news is that I am becoming hard of hearing to the voice of
said sense of orientation.
No comments:
Post a Comment