St Valery sur Somme

On Wednesday afternoon, we cruised in to St Valery and tied up at a free mooring. Electricity and water were available but, at €2 per hour, far too expensive! We hopped on our bikes and went to see what the marina was like. To enter the marina we would have to go through a tidal lock and we wanted to see what the procedure was to get through. Boats of all sizes go through it frequently but it looked pretty intimidating (especially when we saw it first with the river gushing through it). It could only be done once a day - on the high tide - and it was over €20 per day for all services at the marina. Although that would have worked out cheaper than the €48 per day we could have paid to take water and electricity at the “free” mooring (go figure!), we decided we could manage without both, stayed on the free mooring and saved our money. The Office de Tourisme gave us good information and provided free wifi which was a big help.

Our little pontoon mooring was just outside St Valery proper and, as on so much of the Somme, there were very few people around, so it was quite astonishing for us to travel the last kilometre into St Valery to find ourselves almost swamped by the number of tourists and holiday makers. Having come from the deserted back-of-beyond, we couldn't work out where they had all appeared from! St Valery is a seaside resort town and, of course, most of the people there didn't come by boat!

St Valery is on the Baie de la Somme, a tidal estuary on the edge of the English Channel; Le Hourdel is the point at the southern sea edge, and Le Crotoy is tucked into the northern part of the bay.




Our favourite day
On Thursday, with the weather looking more promising than usual, we cycled the 10km to Le Hourdel, all but 100m of it on a dedicated cycle path. (Have we mentioned how much we LOVE cycle paths?!) The way was mostly flat and, although there were a couple of long gentle inclines to challenge us, no-one had to get off and walk. As we cycled along, we noticed there were things to harvest and we decided to do that on the way home. (How many times have we told ourselves to take a plastic bag or two when we go cycling?) When we arrived at Le Hourdel, we locked the bikes and walked out to the beach which is on the open sea. C had to dip her toe into the water so that we would be able to say that we have boated/biked from the eastern border of France to the west. You will notice in the photo that the beach is millions of tonnes of colourful stones, quite a bit bigger than pebbles.



We went to a cafe and had a coffee and flicked through the local paper. What we saw was a full page about the Rugby World Cup complete with basic NZ statistics and the words and actions of the haka. That was a surprise. We lunched on our cold chicken legs stuffed with our boat-made basil pesto, which freed up one plastic bag, and the wet flannel (for cleaning sticky fingers) was in another plastic bag so we had some containers for harvesting after all! On the way back to St Valery, we picked lots of blackberries, some hazelnuts and quite a lot of berries, which C thought were sloes. These we put in a 'box' J made by tearing and folding a map the Office de Tourisme had given us. Pharmacies in France provide a wonderful service and for free will identify plants or fungus that you have gathered, and verify whether or not it is safe to consume (especially important with the mushroom family). Indeed our collection were sloes, “prunelles” in French, so when we got back to the boat, (via the supermarket to buy jam sugar) we made 2 jars of blackberry jelly, 4 blackberry tartlets, and prepared three bottles of sloe gin, which will be ready to drink when we return next season. Perhaps Liz and Brian, who introduced us to sloe gin, might be able to join us to taste our brew? The nuts were added to the ones we'd already gathered, although even from here I can hear some people muttering under their breath that there were enough nuts on our boat already.

Train trip to Le Crotoy
A steam train runs from St Valery to Le Crotoy and back four times a day. €11.50 return per person, (€10 one way) and bikes are free. We decided not to cycle there as the weather was looking iffy. The old train was fun to ride on, even more rattly than the ones on the Hutt line! We took the bikes with the idea that while we were there we could see more of the place than if we were walking and boy, we are glad we did. It was a wee way from the station to the sandy beach and town centre, and the morning market was just closing. It would be a fabulous place on a fine, sunny day but we had only just started to have a bit of a look around when the predicted rain arrived. (Hence no photos of Le Crotoy, but there is a train one!) We found the busiest café and spent the rest of our savings from the marina mooring fees on a three course lunch: (€10.90) shrimps, fish (a ray wing) and chips, cheese or ice cream, all helped down with a carafe of rosé. Very nice it was too! The rain, which had bucketed down while we were having our entree, stopped completely in time for us to cycle back to the station and stay dry.



Before the train trip, we had our only opportunity to watch a boat going through the tidal lock and out to sea. It was great to see how it actually worked. The principal is the same as for river or canal locks but the space between the gates at either end is much, much larger – perhaps 200m, maybe even more. There is no place to tie up but there is plenty of width as well as length, so you just keep the boat in the middle while the level of the water is gently raised or lowered. Instead of having paddles in the gates, as is usually the case, there were separate paddles out the sides. This is what we'd seen the water rushing through at other times. When they were closed off for the locking down process, everything was much, much calmer. It would need to be!

The first photo shows the top of the lock when the paddles are open (i.e. when it is not operating and just letting the water run through); the second shows the bottom of the lock when in action.




On Saturday we left and headed back up the Somme. We are now at Cappy just 13 km from the junction with the Canal du Nord. We will head there today, to Peronne, where we'll take on a few more provisions and perhaps visit the WW1 museum before heading north once again.

Random Vignettes No 3

On our way down the Somme we moored in the lovely village of Long. There were two boats on the quay already and the lock keeper told us another was arriving soon. It was going to be a tight fit! The fourth boat duly arrived and we guided them in, took their ropes until they were ready to tie up. (Everyone has their own way of dealing with their ropes, so we leave them to it.) There needs to be one rope making sure the boat can't go forwards and another one making sure it can't go backwards. You have to do the best you can with the available bollards and if necssary bang in some 'pins' to tie on to. The lock keeper advised us to leave some slack in our ropes as there was a storm predicted and the water would rise. That night there was, indeed, an impressive thunderstorm. Just as it seemed that the storm was moving away, there was an almighty crack of thunder seemingly right above our boat. Both of us completely left the bed with fright. It was difficult to get back to sleep, we read for a while then there were two bumps on our boat. We got up, dressed and, armed with a torch, braved the elements and the dark to see what the problem was. We discovered the boat behind us was not moored securely and was bumping our boat. There was a good steel edge to the quay but the soil behind it was washed away in some places making it potentially quite dangerous. It took a bit of doing but we found a way to secure the stern of the other boat so that it couldn't bump us again. The next morning the people in the boat said they had heard us talking to each other but, incredibly, hadn't felt any bumps. They thanked us for being their guardian angels!

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In relation to the story above: there should have been ample room for four boats to fit on the quay but the Frenchman in the boat in front of us refused the lock keepers' request to move his boat closer to the boat in front of his. To say the lock keepers were gobsmacked would be an understatement. This was the Frenchman's reasoning. “I arrived first, the English boat came in front of me but there was a space between us. I suggested they moved their boat closer to mine to make room for any other boats that might come. They refused.” When someone said, perhaps they don't speak French, he got very excited. “When I go to England, I speak English. When the English come here they expect we will speak English. The diatribe continued for some time in that vein which included a lengthy criticism of the way the Dutch spread their boats out on a quay, refuse to move their boats closer, and then miraculously can make room for a newly arrived Dutch boat! He had therefore decided that he wasn't ever going to move his boat for anyone after ha had tied up. This man must have been the model for the undertaker in 'Allo Allo'. The similarities were amazing.

In this part of France, you can't help but be acutely aware of the cost wars have had on soldiers and their families. Pretty much every country in the Commonwealth sent young men to fight in two world wars and so many of their bodies remain in France. It is reasonable to assume not many of them spoke French. I wonder if this particular gentleman would have required soldiers learn French before they started fighting for France. Add to that the economic importance of tourism to France and its people and one would think a more helpful attitude might be a good idea. Nevertheless it has to be remembered that it is not only the French that have rednecks with firmly entrenched ideas!

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The day we arrived in Long, we had a curry for lunch. C had been planning it in the morning and wishing she could include some pumpkin in it. Pumpkin works so well in a curry. It is, however, another one of those things that we just can't find in a supermarket in France despite (or maybe because of) the fact that the fabulous vegetable gardens we see everywhere are just full of them. Some greater being must have picked up on C's thoughts because that day – having never seen such a thing before - we saw no fewer than eight pumkins floating in the canal! Tantalisingly close but still no use for our lunch...

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Yesterday, as we were sailing back up the Somme when we rounded a corner and saw what for us was an unusual sight. The French provide a good number of excellent picnic tables and seats in public places, especially along the Somme. On this particular picnic table, which was on the edge of the towpath, a couple were engaged in a very intimate activity. It was a cool morning and only the bare necessities of clothing were removed, both were wearing hoodies and were 'incognito'. Surprisingly the one on top heard the boat motor and looked up. She would have done better to keep her head down! We rounded a corner a few metres further on and saw a couple of cyclists heading the way of the amorous couple. They would have passed within a couple of metres of the table.

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Armistice Clearing, Compiègne forest

We have found it difficult to write an account of our visit. How do you tackle such a complicated and fraught topic without using too few, or too many words or even the wrong words and still show respect? We cycled from the port along the river, Aisne, and through a forest to the clearing. The bare facts around this site are that in 1918 - at the famous 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month - the Germans conceded defeat and in a clearing in the forest, sitting in a railway carriage, the Germans and the Allies signed an Armistice, which concluded the Great War. The French erected a monument to record this moment which is the very graphic 'Fallen Eagle'



In 1940, using the very same carriage, the French and Germans signed another armistice agreement, which had the government of the day collaborating with Hitler. On this occasion, Hitler insisted on reversing the seating arrangements so that he sat in the seat that the French leader, Marechal Foch, had occupied in 1918. The Fallen Eagle Monument was covered up with a huge swastika flag. (We were surprised the Germans hadn't destroyed the monument but perhaps it was because they were wanting French co-operation at the time.) After the signing, Hitler ordered the carriage moved to Berlin to be displayed as a symbol of victory, where it was later accidentally destroyed by fire.

In the clearing now, there is a visitors' centre which has many, many displays most of which are heart-wrenching. A carriage identical to the original one is inside and there are commentaries in French, German and English. There is a lot to see and comprehend. It was an emotional experience and one that will always stay with us.

For us, with today's values and our New World perspective, we were visiting a monument celebrating peace, the end of hostilities. We can't help wondering if that is its intention. It is certainly a recognition of the end of the war, of the hardships, of the lives lost. But was it intended as a symbol of peace or was it built as a symbol of victory? Perhaps the interpretation will always depend on the individual...

The journey so far... and our plans for the near future

We've been a bit haphazard this year in terms of the chronology of our posts, so it wouldn't be surprising if some of you have had trouble following our travels. Here is a summary of where we've been and where we hope to go next:

3 July: Left St Jean de Losne heading down the Saone
4 July: Turned off the Saone onto the Canal du Centre
11 July: Left Digoin; the Canal du Centre turns into the Canal Latéral à la Loire
24 July: Left Briare - Canal Latéral à la Loire becomes the Canal de Briare
28 July: Departed Montargis on what is now the Canal du Loing
01 August: Turned onto the Seine at St Mammès, just after Moret sur Loing
2-5 August: Paris
7 August: Turned off the Seine onto the Oise at Conflans-Ste-Honorine
15 August: Moved onto the Canal Latéral a l'Oise at Janville (just after Compiegne)
16 August: Turned left (north) onto the Canal du Nord at Pont l'Eveque
18 August: Took another left turn onto the Somme / Canal de la Somme

Today, 21 August: Amiens


From here, we'll continue to the end of the Somme at St-Valéry-sur-Somme on the Baie de la Somme, which is on the English Channel and is considered to be one of the most beautiful bays in the world ... and then we'll return to the junction with the Canal du Nord and head north again.

When we get to the end of the Canal du Nord at Arleux, we are faced with more decisions about the route to Antwerp. Our final choice will depend on the time we have remaining and the recommendations of other boaties. At the moment, if all goes well and if we don't change our minds, we think we'll take the Canal de la Deule through Lille and over the Belgian border until it meets the Lys / Leie river (everything has both a French and Flemish name in Belgium!). It will take us through Kortrijk / Courtrai and into Gent /Gand. If we have time, we'll do a there-and-back to Brugges before taking the Schelde river through to Antwerp with the intention of arriving there in the first week of October.

More Random Vignettes

On our way to The Somme, we stopped for a couple of hours at Peronne to do a supermarket shop and have lunch. Our mooring spot was on a wide part of the canal with big barges parked up on one side, mostly unloading sand or gravel and a few pleasure craft, including us on the other. Just as we were finishing lunch, C heard a noise, looked out of the window and said 'Oh my goodness' (or something like that) J went out into the cockpit and saw a very large barge pointing straight at our boat and only 50m away! It was doing a U-turn and we know they can turn on their own axis. It's very impressive, especially at such close range. There was a burly crewman on the bow of the barge; J put her arms up in the air and said, 'I surrender', he just smiled and waved, and indicated there was nothing to worry about. J could see that the pilot of the barge was a young woman. J waved and the pilot waved cheerily back. When the barge had completed its turn, the lady pilot was quite close. We both put our hands in the air and clapped. The very young and slender young lady (such a contrast with the barge) laughed, did a bit of a jig and gave us the thumbs up. It was a lovely moment. Unfortunately, neither of us was quick enough to capture any of it on camera. However, the photo below illustrates the difference between an empty barge and a full one. It was an empty barge that was doing the u-turn by us: very intimidating even though you are pretty sure all is ok.


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We went for a bike ride before a lunch stop at Chipilly, a little village on the Somme. There are two Commonwealth War Cemeteries from the First World War. We cycled to both of them. One on one side of the canal in Chipilly, one on the other in the neighbouring village of Cerisy, only about 2km apart from each other. The first one had many headstones for soldiers from the UK, Australia and Canada. Nearby, there is a wonderful sculpture acknowledging the huge contribution horses made in the First World War.


The second cemetery had a huge number of graves for unknown soldiers, including one from NZ . In the photo you can just read that the headstone is for “ A soldier of the Great War from a New Zealand Regiment”. All very sobering.


The large cross at the entry of the cemetry had a sword as an integral part of the cross. J thought it completely inappropriate that a symbol of war was superimposed onto a symbol of christianity.


Both of these cemeteries had a section for French soldiers and an adjacent section for Commonwealth soldiers. The photo below is of the second cemetery we visited. You might think there are a lot of headstones and yes, there are a few hundred. However we have visited many other similar cemeteries for WW1 soldiers that would make these two seem very small indeed.



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The cathedral at Amiens (yet another Notre Dame) is the largest gothic building in the world – apparently big enough to fit two of its Parisian namesake inside. It is also in the process of restoration and the parts that have been cleaned up are drop-dead beautiful. There are 4000 sculpted figues on the outside of the cathedral and thousands more – in stone and in wood – on the inside. It has the highest nave in the world. The whole building really is quite stunning, as you can see from the photo above taken from the front of the church in daytime.


At night, as in many of the cities in France the square in front of the cathedral is the location for a sound and light show. The one in Amiens uses lights and projectors to show what recent restoration work on the cathedral suggests about how it looked when it was first completed. The transformation is astonishing – both in terms of the cathedral itself and in terms of the quality of the projection. The detail, even at very close range, is astonishing.


We may have to go back and watch it all over again – not just because it was impressive but also because in order to take the photos front on, we ended up beside an audio post, which translated the commentary into Dutch. Not being able to understand Dutch nor to hear the French, which C would understand, we really missed out on all the information. Next time, we'll sit next to the English translation post and not have to worry at all about taking photos.

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Often when we arrive in a town and visit the Tourist Information Office, we find that we have just missed (or will miss) some special event or festival that we would have enjoyed being part of. In Amiens, we arived to find that we were here at exactly the right moment for their annual balloon festival. It takes place over the course of the weekend with two flights a day – at 7am and 7pm (weather permitting) – as well as a nightglow. We've been too lazy to take our bikes to the actual take-off zone (not because of the distance we'd need to travel but because the height of the quay here makes it difficult to get the bikes off the boat) but it has been a joy to watch the balloons wafting over the city – about a dozen of them each time.


A little footnote – a balloon of the big, passenger-carrying kind is called a montgolfière in French after the Montgolfière brothers, who are credited with its invention.

Pierrefonds, the castle

Our lovely Belgian friend, Winnie, whom we met on our Mediterranean cruise last year, had let us know she was going to take her granddaughter to the Chateau de Pierrefonds in August. We had never heard of Pierrefonds and just thought that was a nice thing for Winnie and her granddaughter to do. When we arrived in Compiegne, we went to the Tourist Information Office to find out what was of interest to see and do, and lo and behold, Pierrefonds Castle was 15km away! We think we missed them by four days! What a shame – but we probably couldn't have made it to Compiegne in time even if we had known. Thank goodness we will catch up with Winnie and Regnier next month when we leave the boat in Antwerp.!

We decided to cycle to Le Chateau Pierrefonds taking a cycle path through the forest. The weather has continued to be 'iffy' so we went prepared with our rain jackets as well as our sunglasses because we usually need both. There were a couple of kilometres to ride through town first, some of it over the dreaded ancient cobblestones (dire on bicycles), and then 11.8km through the forest. It was flat to gently undulating most of the way and a very enjoyable ride. It is such a treat to be able to ride safely without any motorised traffic to worry about.

Quite suddenly we were out of the forest and there was this very impressive castle of the 'fairytale' variety, absolutely huge and completely OTT but definitely magnificent. There is a TV series called Merlin which uses the castle as its setting. We don't know if this programme is screening in NZ, but it is a perfect choice for that programme.


The lady at the Tourist Information Office more or less told us there was not a lot to see inside, just magnificent rooms but nothing in the way of furniture etc. We decided to walk around the grounds and spend a bit of time in the little shop, which sells all manner of books about the castle and other knick knacks. It is impossible to take a useful photo of such a huge structure so we bought an aerial photo/postcard (see above) but we quite like our own photo too (see below) Just as we were leaving the castle, it started to drizzle so we repaired to a recommended lunch stop and enjoyed very good hot chips (our first chips in months!), salad and steak (J) or duck (C). The steakwas the better choice. Just the right way to sit out a long and at times very heavy shower of rain. We had a pleasant, rain-free ride back to the boat having cycled at least 28km, although our bottoms and girly bits were a bit sore by the time we got back. Our thanks to Winnie for a great day out!

Random Vignettes

1. On our way up the River Oise, we stopped at Auvers sur Oise to have lunch and visit the graves of Vincent and Theo van Gogh and see the church Vincent painted. The town fathers have taken a good deal of care to make information about Vincent and other artists who lived and worked in Auvers easily available. The graves of Vincent and his brother are side by side, and overgrown with ivy. Someone had recently left a small bouquet of flowers on top of the ivy. There were some posters with copies of some of Vincent's paintings with information about the paintings on the sites of the original paintings. I have taken a photo of the church and a photo of the painting just by the church. In a way I can see why Vincent made the church look a little wonky because I think the church for some reason looks a little wonky in my photo. You can tell I am no art critic!





2. L'Isle Adam - just up the Oise from Auvers - is an enchanting little village. There is a lot of water, islands joined by bridges and a distinct impression of a well-to-do neighbourhood. Our mooring spot was one of the best we have used (a well-maintained pontoon out of the main flow of the river) and was very close to the centre of town. An Italian family moored up next to us and we did our best to communicate with them. Their English was better than our Italian. They had just sailed their brand new Linssen down from Holland and were very pleased with it. (The Linssen is something akin to a Mercedes or a BMW of the waterways – very nice boats indeed!) We did the town on our bikes, rode past the grande ecluse and the petit ecluse (the locks – big and small) and were impressed to find a very well appointed viewing platform from where one could watch boats pass through the locks. As well as a large, covered swimming pool, there is an artificial beach complete with sand. Entry to this cost around NZ $30 per adult and around $17 per child – no wonder so few people were using it! We found the Chinese Pavilion built in the time of Louis 14th by someone who wanted to have something Chinese in their garden because that was the fashion at the time. A feature of this building is that part of the bottom floor is a dam - you can just see that in the photo.


Public buildings are well maintained with beautiful gardens, the local Police Station (below)is a good example. We found a small but exquisite rose garden and enjoyed a French vanilla ice-cream as we admired the view.



3. Jet skis! Some people love them, some people hate them. I do both. They are fun to ride on but a real nuisance when they invade your space! We had had a long day navigating from L'Isle Adam to Ste Maxence and were ready for a bit of quiet time. We had planned to stop much sooner but couldn't find a mooring spot we were comfortable with. We went up the lock at Ste Maxence and joy oh joy there was a good mooring spot well out of the way of river traffic and the main flow of the river (which is doing 1-2 km an hour at the moment so no big deal). A long barge, pushing another long barge moored up across from us. Two testosterone enriched young men used a crane to put a jet ski in the water and spent the next hour hooning up and down the river with the wake rocking our boat. They were showing off big time (yes, there was a girl on board the barge) and we saw one of them bury the nose of the ski deep into the water and fall off. I admit to a little grin at that point. The behaviour of the two as they tried to outdo each other was so predictable! For all the irritation they caused us, they also amused and entertained us. It was a stunning evening and they were enjoying the river.

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These two photos are of the two barges mentioned above. It is really difficult to accurately portray the size of the lock and the length and width of the barges. The barges look like dinky toys but all up must be nearly150m long and 5.5m wide. We’ll leave you to try and work out how big the lock is – and to try and imagine our little boat (11.6m x 3.5m) coming up it all alone. We’d done that just a few hours earlier.

5. Not surprisingly, there are hundreds and hundreds of war memorials in France. They are in public places of every kind and in and around churches. In an earlier posting, we included a memorial that unusually had a statue of a baby boy with an inscription that said they had “sent their babies to war”. It was very poignant. The signing of the 1918 Armistice took place in Compiegne and this photo was taken outside the church there. A simple but very moving piece of sculpture.



6. One morning we woke to a clear blue sky and no wind (an event in and of itself this summer). There were close to 100 vapour trails criss-crossing the sky. After consulting our Atlas, C said there were 4 airports of varying size around our mooring spot. We hope the air traffic control people communicate with each other!

7. Usually we do our grocery shopping by bike as the panniers, baskets and our packs enable us to carry a lot with relative ease. In Compiegne, we were convinced that the bus from the Railway Station was a better option as the supermarkets are a long way out of town and the bus is free. We don’t think it was a quicker option as it did a tour of half the residential areas of the town before dropping us right outside the supermarket but it was certainly easy! It was also fun. Not because of the shopping but because of the conversation we had while we waited for the bus to go home. We were hurrying to get to the bus stop because we knew we didn’t have much spare time and the busses run every 30 minutes. One of three women already at the bus stop made a comment about C making J run around and that not being fair… This led on to more conversation about shopping, the joy of free buses, where we came from and what we were doing in Compiegne. But the conversation really took off when C mentioned that the woman at the Tourist Information Office in town hadn’t really been all that helpful. Well, it seems that people from Compiegne are often that way and each of the women (none of whom knew each other) tried to outdo each other with stories and examples, and then examples of how people were so much warmer, nicer, more helpful, etc. where they came from. It really was very funny. The conversation was soon curtailed by the arrival of the bus – but as each of the three got off the bus they bade us a warm farewell and happy holidays in France.