Yesterday, Thursday April 26th, began in Eperlecques at the site of a Nazi blockhouse. We were first greeted by two of the box cars that once would have been crammed with people and nailed shut while the people were transported to detention camps. There was no fresh air or sanitation so many didn't make it to their destination. Some of these chosen people ended up being forced to build the blockhouse below.

This mass of concrete is probably the ugliest thing I have ever seen. It is massive but, like an iceberg, there is even more underground. It was built to protect and launch the V2 rocket, an unstoppable bomb that would cause earthquake-type damage, at England. We saw smaller blockhouses in farmers fields as we drove through the countryside, but none as huge as this. The backside has more damage. Once England realized the danger this represented, it became a target and there's a bomb hole that can be seen on the other side.  

Apparently a train track ran into the blockhouse as well and, yup, that's a car on the upper level. War is a lousy business and hate doesn't even make the victors happy...

Serge, Joscelyn, and their daughter Celine had joined us to tour the blockhouse and after this we headed to a restaurant in Salperwick. I agreed to eat the local specialty, Potch Weltch, which is cild meat in a gelatin. (I'll skip it the next time I'm in this neck of the woods.) But the restaurant was impor- tant because it was as far as a car could go.

This area is a huge marsh. People have created canals through the marsh. In fact, they traveled to Holland to find out how to control the water level so they would be able to build homes and live in the marsh. Children travel by boat to reach the edge of the marsh in order to go to school in the village.

There is only one mailman in all of France who travels his route by boat and he's the fellow who delivers the mail to those who live in this marsh.There are no roads and no vehicles other than boats.

At 3 PM we got to see a portion of the marsh in a tour boat. The guide explained that willow trees were very important. They cut off the branches so more branches grow. The people use the straight ones as posts to hold smaller branches that in turn are holding up the banks. In this next picture you can see the willow stump as well as how it is being used. Some people wove the smaller branches in and out around the willow posts which made a much prettier edge to the bank, but I missed that picture. When a canal is dredged it is 3 meters deep, but after 20-30 years the canals fill in and have to be dredged again. (There are 160 kilometers of canals. I don't know how many miles that would be.) The original canal boats were oak. 

We saw several blue herons. They fish in the canals, but they live in the nearby forest. Swans aren't really welcome because somehow they cause damage to the canals. The people don't kill the swans...they just steal some of their eggs to keep the population under control. Apparently the marsh is neither overly humid, nor overly buggy and the mosquitoes that live there seldom bite people.

Our tour boat passed one home where a small dog lived. Just like dogs who live in regular towns, he thought he should chase us away...only he wasn't about to jump into the canal so we were perfectly safe, and so was he.



People raise livestock like these geese...

...and these sheep.

And then the tour was over and we were back at the restaurant. Now it is aat least 5 PM, but since it doesn't get dark until after 9, there is still plenty of time to see more sights!







Joscelyn knew of a monastery nearby...

On the left are some of the monastery buildings.






 Further up the hill (see the picture below)was the convent...seemed to me the nuns had a more beautiful church, a more beautiful location, and an interesting sideline...

On the convent grounds is a delightful house where anyone who wants a quiet place can come and stay. Celine had been there a few weeks ago studying for school entrance exams. We met a gal from Hong Kong who spoke perfect English. My French families heard her speaking and assumed she was American until I asked where she was from.

 The view from the front of this house shows the typical roof tops and a field of yellow colza (rape seed). There was no coal in this area known as Flanders. It is far more lush than the coal area.

Flanders has 3 mountains which Vermonters would call bumps. Cassel is one of the "bumps." I was busy taking pictures of the tulips and the way they were working to create espaliered trees (the picture below the tulips) when my camera said the battery was exhausted (its very words!) and closed. When I bought the camera at Sears, the clerk talked me out of buying a second battery. He obviously has never traveled much.

There was also a gracious statue and a beautiful windmill along with other gardens, though many of the tulip petals were being blown away by the wind. It was a great place to view most of Flanders.

After leaving Cassel we traveled up Mont des Cats to see the abbey I couldn't take any pictures of...and then on to Mont Noir. This "bump" is so close to the Belgium border that it is a tax free area which entices people from both countries to shop there. Traveling home through Flanders we spotted a number of windmills. There are also small military cemeteries, each dedicated to a different country so that the men who died in the wars could be buried with their own countrymen. Sad that such a beautiful area should have witnessed such devastation.