The weather wasn't great as we entered the Somme Canal from the Canal du Nord but it was a relief to get off the busy commercial waterway. We soon realised that we were lucky to have made it here when news started to come through of the floods in Paris and further south. Canal breaches and rivers in flood meant many boats were stranded, friends in our marina at Saint Jean were to be unable to leave for a few weeks so our early start this year had paid off.
We spent the first night moored at Cappy which was a bit disappointing. The hire boat base had closed and with it most of the local businesses. So next morning we moved on to Corbie, a much livelier town with a large supermarket to restock the cupboards and a market on Friday morning. It also had a pretty impressive town hall.
A fair bit of socialising was done at Corbie. We met Aussies Mark and Georgie on bateau Parce Que who were great fun. Terry from Renaissance, with whom we were still travelling, treated us all to one of his special chicken curries served up on the back of our boat and Georgie provided the 'wickedness' (their term for all the little treats they have from the boulangeries!).
After the Friday morning market we moved on to Amiens, the capital of this region. The lock keepers seemed surprised that we were happy to go into the locks with Renaissance as we just about filled them, but by now we had got it down to a fine art and just slotted in together like two pieces of a jigsaw. Only one tense moment when the skipper got distracted by a plaque in the lock commemorating its rebuilding by the Royal Engineers after the British destroyed it in WW1.
The Somme is a very picturesque, winding river, canalised in parts, which flows steadily down to the sea at Saint Valery on the Bay of the Somme. But due to the recent heavy rain the flow was running at more like 6 or 7 km per hour which is nearly our cruising speed so the engine was barely ticking over and we were doing 8 or 9 km an hour. There were also some strong swirling currents and some tight bends to negotiate. Once they got used to it the two skippers quite enjoyed the experience, 'slaloming' round the twists and turns of the river, talking to each other over the VHF radio.
We had to abort our attempt to moor on the town quay in Amiens as the flow was too great to allow us to turn (something we later came to be grateful for). We went for plan B, going through one more lock and moored a bit further out from the city centre. Next morning, Aussies Mark and Georgie came round having seen us steaming past them at the town quay. They had been kept awake until 5am by noisy revellers at the English Pub opposite!
Amiens is lovely city though. It's Cathedral is a Unesco World Heritage site, the largest gothic building in France. The photo does not do it justice, nor does the frontage show it's length of 145 metres. Notre Dame in Paris could fit inside it twice over.
Beautiful by day but even more stunning at night. From mid June to September a sound and light show breathes life once more into the saints, apostles and other figures studding the cathedral, through the projection of high definition digital images. It was magnifique!
Cruising into Amiens we had passed the ''Hortillonages'', floating gardens separated by little canals, cultivated since the Middle Ages. We were lucky enough to be around for the once a year event of recreating the tradition of bringing the produce down by boat to the centre of Amiens and selling it from the quay. It was a great atmosphere on a sunny Sunday morning, the quays were packed with onlookers all clapping as the boats came in. The French do these traditional festivals so well.
We left Amiens, travelled 9 km and 1 lock to Ailly-sur-Somme and 3 weeks later we are still here! We travelled back to the UK for granddaughter Harriet's christening, hoping to move on down to the coast when we got back. But the river levels were still high and fast and it was closed further down until the situation improved. With a family visit due soon we decided to wait it out here until they arrive. It's a nice little town with everything we need a few minutes walk away. We have had plenty of good company. It was great spending time with the two Terry's again, lots of laughs. they have now left us to head for Belgium. James and Linda came to visit us in their camper van and we have just had a great weekend with Roger and Margaret (Phoenix). The Somme cycle path is on our doorstep (handy for working off the delights of the excellent boulangerie), and we have the car to get out and about and visit the surrounding area.
Half an hour from here and we are in the thick of the First World War arena. This Friday, 1st July, marks the centenary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme. People from all over the world are heading here to commemorate. Over twenty nationalities fought at the Somme. The countryside bears constant reminders of the slaughter and sacrifices made, remains of trenches, mine craters and so many cemeteries and memorials. The memory is being kept alive of the terrible waste of life in every corner of the area. On that single day, 1st July 1916, almost 60,000 men were killed, wounded or missing, most of them young, inexperienced volunteers, many of whom still lie under the battlefield. They were told it was safe to go over the top because all enemy opposition would have been destroyed. They were wrong, and men were cut down in their thousands, many on the uncut wire they had been assured would be destroyed.
Nothing prepares you for the scale of this mine crater as you peer over the rim, 91 metres diameter and 21 metres in depth. Several mines were blown just minutes before the men were ordered over the top, the intention to destroy parts of the German front line. This crater is the property of an Englishman who bought it in 1978 and it is the only one open to the public. A third of all the ordinance fired during the battle is still said to be live buried in the ground. Some of the farmers use armour plated tractors!
Wandering around the site at Beaumont-Hamel, the Newfoundland Memorial, is one of the most moving experiences. Although now grassed over, the preserved trenches, shell craters and the steel pickets which held the barbed wire still sticking out of the ground, all evoke images of the battlefield. On the morning of 1st July 660 men from the Newfoundland regiments died in the first 20 minutes after going over the top, leaving just 68 unscathed.
Feels a bit like Cornwall with its narrow streets of pretty fishermens cottages
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