Balichou

The castle

The map

The unusual locks?

Near the junction of river and canal. Not exactly the old basin

Following reference 1 from a few days ago, another tit-bit from reference 2.

It seems that it was very cold in Charleroi in the winter, the city a little to the south of Waterloo, which had a small role in that campaign, but which was a coal and glass town by the time of our story. Cold enough that the children wrapped up to go to school, wrapping up which include a passe-montagne. Which on investigation turns out to be the woolly headgear that we call a Balaclava helmet. So given that the French seem to have been involved in the battle of Balaclava, why did they not arrive at the same name as us? Was it just a matter of national pride, wanting a true French word, not mixed up with the English?

I look the word up in OED, compiled sometime after the battle in question, where I find that balachong is followed by ballade then balladine. Balachong is described as a Chinese condiment made of putrid shrimps or small fishes, mashed up with salt and spices, then dried. It sounds rather like the stuff known to me as balichou, balichow or barleychow, introduced to me by my brother in law. I even made some once, many years ago now. While ballade is an obsolete spelling of ballad and balladine is a theatrical dancer or a female public dancer. Oddly, no balaclava.

I then move onto Charleroi, to find that it started life as a fortress on the River Sambre (the first snap above), at a time, back in the seventeenth century, when the whole area was being thoroughly fought over by the French, the Dutch and the Spanish. Later on it became the industrial town known to Simenon. But with a large river, a canal running north to Brussels, a high town and a low town. So it seems quite plausible that there was a basin for the barges, although I have failed to turn one up. Nothing on the map from Wikipedia, said to be from 1900, when it ought to have been there, if it ever existed. While the high town can be seen by the roundabout and the low town by the island in the river.

Gmaps reveals the canal joining the Sambre from the north, a little to the west of the old town. A canal said to involve some unusual inclined plane locks. While the locks above, taken from Street View just look unusual. It also reveals a bit of open water just north of the junction - but not exactly the old basin.

In any event, a pity that I did not know about the town when I penned reference 3. It could well be another source of material for the book discussed there.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/05/wry-neck.html.

Reference 2: Le Locataire - Simenon - 1932. Volume 1 of the collected works.

Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/05/dirty-snow-part-1.html.