Bells..

We're now back in Bergues, in rather better weather than we had here a fortnight ago. We walked around the ramparts of this fortified town - there's a path which goes almost all the way around at the top of the wall, only dropping down to ground level in a few places. I took various shots of the ivy-covered walls, towers & adjacent canal but the one I was most pleased with was of the famous belfry, seen across the roofs from the raised path. I've tried it from ground level, with the adjacent buildings, in the past but have always been too close to it & haven't quite managed to remedy the slight distortion when processing.

There's been a belfry on the site since the 12th century but it's been rebuilt at least twice since then. The most recent reconstruction was in 1961, after the tower was destroyed in WW2. There's a carillon of 50 bells, some of which were from the earlier version, salvaged from the debris. The bells sound automatically every 15 minutes but can be played manually; the pictures show it as similar to organ playing.