Respire
Towpath on the "Canal du Centre"
Posted by Soph (Enghien, Belgium) on 29 July 2007 in Landscape & Rural and Portfolio.
Another landscape that I like very much in Belgium. The towpath. I know it exists in a lot of other countries.
A little bit of History of Belgium, for this Sunday... We are in 1946, just after the Second War. Belgium needs workmen for the coal mines and for the metallurgic industry.. and Italy needs coal. So, Italian guys are engaged to work in Belgium. In Houdeng-Goegnies, we still find "La Cantine des Italiens" (The Italians' Canteen), it's a place where workmen ate and slept at that period.
There, we still can eat the best spaghetti bolognese and the best tiramisu of Belgium. We can also find an exposition of the past with wonderful black and white photos.
Just behind the "Cantine", there is the towpath that you can see on this photo. Towpath were hard roads along the river, to track the barges with horses. Now, it's a wonderful walk that you can have by feet of by bike.
In fact, that river is a canal. It's built in a area of hard declivity and engineers had to find a way to managed all that declivity. So, they did elevators. All along the canal, we find 4 elevators following the Brittanic engineer Edwin Clack's invention. It's possible to visit the 1st elevator...
I don't know if you like to learn a little about the landscapes I show you. Personnaly, I really appreciate to read the stories you have to tell about the cultures and the landscapes of your countries. I don't travel and so you give me the way to take holidays through your photos! A big thank you!
I wish you a marvellous Sunday!
Nikon D50
1/160 second
F/6.3
ISO 200
45 mm (35mm equiv.)