Arriving at the 'Pardon' we found a decent gathering of 37 boats moored around the chapel barge and the chateaux. We tied up to a 39m retired commercial barge, according to the mooring plan that had been emailed to us, and went for a stroll to see what was going on. There were preparations for the Brocante (like a car boot sale), a beer tent and stalls with information on sea cadets and scouts etc. Two years ago they had had 70 boats for the gathering and the organiser told us that 37 boats and crews was a much more manageable number.
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The brocante covered the whole street next to the moored barges and seemed to be very popular. Charleroi was a big coal mining area and had a lot of immigrants from Turkey to work in the mines so there is a large muslim population there. The mines mostly shut down in the 1980's so now the area is a bit run down. The mines fed the steel industry so we still see lots of scrap steel arriving and new steel leaving by train and barge. |
Friday evening we got to meet the other boaters in the chapel barge for a briefing and a glass of beer. They outlined the weekend's parade and other events in French and Dutch, speaking so fast we had no chance to keep up. We both realised afterwards that we understood more of the Dutch than the French because it was so fast (we don't speak Dutch though).
The boat parades would have one boat from each visiting club but Waterdog was considered to be a bit big to take part (turning was awkward) so we were invited to go on a visiting boat from Brussels. The first parade started at 1400 so we were with our new friends Theo and Marie-Therèse by 13:30 ready for the off.
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