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“Blue Days”… and a canal is reborn!

The Union site in Roubaix was home to about 30 boats of all kinds, some more than
100 years old, like the Flemish musselboat Jan Korneel left (registered TH 5)
and Waterdog, a former British Waterways barge, right.

More than 30 000 visitors celebrated the return of boats to the Roubaix-Espierres Canal during the week-end of September 19-20. The event planned since July 2008 was a great success : colourful, popular, and at times moving. The public flocked to the Union site and other locations, its curiosity aroused by the revival of the historic waterway. And it wasn’t just a week-end : the canal was open for nearly two weeks for the 30 boats taking part, many of which cruised through to the Belgian border : a huge challenge behind the scenes for the staff of Voies Navigables de France, the Conseil Général of the département Nord and Lille Métropole Communauté Urbaine ! Boaters were unanimous in praising the quality of organisation, the welcoming, helpful staff and the attractiveness of the itinerary from Marquette through to Leers-Nord in Belgium. Blue Days was thus a fitting conclusion to four years of investments and efforts by the partners, on the structures, on the canal itself and in its corridor.

The event also provided the occasion for political recognition of this major restoration project, through the presence of elected representatives of all the riparian communes and Government personalities : in particular Valérie Létard, Secretary of State to the Minister of Ecology and Sustainable Development and Jean-Michel Bérard, Prefect of the Nord-Pas de Calais Region. Reopening of the canal to recreational navigation is planned during the 2010 season, and Lille Métropole Communauté Urbaine will play the leading rôle. The international conference on canals and urban regeneration also fulfilled its promise by opening a lively international debate on the issues of canals in cities. Ministers, mayors and citizens in the canal corridor, boaters from Europe and elsewhere, all are now looking forward to seeing boats using the canal between the Deûle and the Scheldt, and increased activity throughout the cross-border network of inland waterways! Read the last Newsletter of the Blue Links project.

A few moments before the symbolic opening of the Fontenoy swing-bridge at the Union site,
the Blue Links partners await the green light from Stéphanie Coerten, presenter for the
two days. Valérie Létard, Secretary of State for the Environment, then pressed the button
to open the bridge. She is accompanied here by Slimane Tir, vice-president of Lille
Métropole Communauté Urbaine, the prefet of Nord-Pas de Calais region and mayors of the
riparian communes.