Abbeville and St. Valery sur Somme

We weren’t going to take the boat all the way to St. Valery sur Somme, where the Somme meets the sea. The last 15 k to the sea lock is straight and no locks. We didn’t like the idea of getting Oldtimer too close to salt water and we heard that the available mooring on the freshwater side of the sea lock were in short supply (that turned out to be untrue). Another concern is the influence of tides on that end of the canal. The water level can change quite a bit over a day so tying up can be a challenge. We decided we’d do the trip by bicycle from Abbeville. 

We arrived at the Abbeville moorings about noon. They were full but we were able to tie up alongside another boat for an hour or so until a boat left and room became available dockside. Off we went to wander the town.

A massive German bombing raid destroyed most of Abbeville in World War II and the restoration of the town left it rather bland architecturally but there did seem to be lots going on; not another “dying village of France.” Most of the shops were occupied and there were plenty of busy bars, cafes and restaurants. Also several good boulangeries, always a good sign. There was a big supermarket just a couple hundred feet from the moorings, a bonus for those of us without cars.

Tuesday morning we unloaded the bikes and headed for St. Valery. Since it’s along the canal and a well paved bike path, it only took us about 45 minutes to get there. We locked the bikes up at the tourist office and wandered off into town. 

St. Valery is a typical seaside resort town but very old (stop me if you’ve heard that before). One section, called the Medieval Village, still retains some of it’s old defensive walls and the ponds that were water sources then. Up on the hill, there’s a great view across the Baie de Somme.

What used to be a busy fishing port is now mostly a harbor for small yachts.

We also saw the flock of salt marsh sheep, so special they have their own appelation.

After our stroll about town we enjoyed a big lunch at a local hotel/restaurant and then decided to take a train ride.

In 1887 a narrow gauge steam train line was opened around the bay from Noyelles sur Mer to Cayeus sur Mer, passing through Crotoy and St. Valery. It carried tourists to the seaside resorts and also the bay’s local products. In the 1960’s competition from trucks put the line out of business but in 1970 a group of railroad enthusiasts decided to bring it back. Now, the group has 5 coal-fired steam locomotives and a bunch of old restored carriages that carry tourists around the bay. We took the trip from St. Valery to Crotoy and back, about 3 hours total. Oh, the carbon offsets we’re responsible for now!

One engine shifts ends of the train.

Another engine goes by.

Around the bend is the back of the train.

Back on the bikes we headed downwind back to the boat. Wednesday morning we’d begin retracing our steps back toward the Canal du Nord and further south into France.

Long, July 28-30

Thursday morning we set off at the usual time headed for our next stop, the village of Long. Nigel and Margaret (who had preceded us to the river because of our stop in the boatyard and were there)  told us it was a beautiful village and well worth a stop. The only problem was mooring space was very limited and it was a popular spot. We found a nice wild mooring about 5 k from town, parked the boat and unloaded the bicycles for a trip down the towpath into town. Sure enough, along with Me and ‘Er, the Cromptons boat, the moorings were full, but two of the boats were leaving in the morning so there would just be room for us. Perfect!

Friday morning we proceeded very slowly downstream and, sure enough, both boats passed us coming up so when we arrived at 9:30 we were able to secure a coveted spot. Soon enough, the laundry flag was flying.

To the left the city hall, in the center the village church and just below the church, Friday night’s restaurant with it’s great view of the moorings just to the right of the lock gates.

Archeological digs have found evidence of habitation in the area since paleolithic times and a Roman amphora filled with bronze coins showed that Lungam was an important town. Charles the Bald gave the town a charter in 844. The sale of peat, harvested with a long handled spade called a grand louchet, made Long one of the richest village of France in the 19th century.

Early in the 18th century the mayor of the town built a large chateau, The Folie de Buissy, with it’s huge manicured gardens and orangerie.  

Between 1900 and 1903 the town also built a hydroelectric plant on the river, supplying power to the town until 1968, although at 110 volts, not the European standard 220.

Friday night Nigel and Margaret invited us to dinner at the local restaurant. Their son and daughter-in-law and her mother were visiting for a couple of days and we made a very lively table of seven.

We took the day Saturday to do a little bike riding around the area, checking out the lakes and marshes created by the peat mining and the meandering river. Walking on the trails is almost like walking on foam rubber, the ground is very soft and the soil very dark and fertile.

Sunday morning we set of on the final leg of our downstream trip. We would turn around in Abbeville, about 16 k down the river. Although still 15 k from the mouth of the Somme, it was as close to salt water as we wanted to take Oldtimer. We would make the trip to St-Valery-sur-Somme by bicycle.

Amiens “Floating Gardens”, The Hortillonages

 Covering almost 800 acres of small islands and holding 65 kilometers of little canals, the Hortillonages are ancient marshes that were “mined” for their peat (along with textiles, a source of Amiens early wealth) and later turned into market gardens. Now they has been turned into a nature preserve with small houses and gardens surrounded by water.

Central Amiens is to the lower left of this Google Earth shot.

We took a boat trip though the gardens in an electrified version of the small craft that used to ferry the vegetables grown in the gardens to the market in Amiens. The “Friends of the Hortillonages” have a thriving tour operation.

One of the small “chalets”.

Walking back to the boat we were able to see some of the art works that have been scattered around the few islands that are accessible by foot. Others can only be reached by boat but we didn’t have the time for that.

We did see Amiens summer Plage, however.

The summer “beach” in Amiens. 

Thursday morning a little before 9 we set off down the river for our next stop, the village of Long.

Amiens, July 24-27

We left Corbie a little after 9 am and after negotiating three locks with the assistance of the waterways staff, we arrived at Amien about 12:30. There are three moorings in Amiens, the upper, or Amont,

closest to the center of town and the first we came to. Others are above the Amiens lock about 1 k downstream of Amont and below the lock on a pier in front of the engineering school. We preferred the Amont mooring but had been warned that it could be a little raucous. It’s right next to the parking lot that serves the bar and restaurant district and the weekends can be trouble. Luckily, we arrived on Monday and things were very quiet for the three days we were there. The Belgians that were there when we arrived (just behind us in the picture below) said their boat had been “boarded” by a drunkard about 3 am on Saturday.

A wide-beam narrowboat maneuvers to take a spot in front of us at the Port Amont.

An obligatory first stop in the city is the famous Cathedral Notre-Dame. The biggest gothic building in France, the building would hold two of Paris’ cathedral of the same name. Begun in 1220, it was effectively finished in 1269, a great contrast to other large churches that took generation to be completed.

Note the many sculptures surrounding the entrance doors. They are mostly intact, 

unlike many others in France that had their statues destroyed during the Revolution.

One of our guidebooks describes the interior as “a light, calm and unaffected space with works of breathtaking virtuosity… (like) the sculpted panels depicting the life of St. Firmin, Amiens first bishop, on the choir screen.”

Of course nighttime at the cathedral featured a spectacular Son et Lumière, a light show projected on the front of the cathedral with a soundtrack. This particular show finished up with a display painting the statues surrounding the three entrance doors in colored light to show what they would have looked like when new. It was breathtaking!

Just one of the three doors.

We spent Tuesday just walking around the city, admiring the old Saint-Leu quarter, the “little Venice of the North,”, its little houses with colorful facades, criss-crossed by small canals.

Wednesday we would visit one of the cities most unusual features, the Hortillonnages.

The Somme, Cappy and Corbie, July 21, 22

Finally, after what seemed like a herculean struggle, we slipped our lines a little after 9 am and entered the River Somme.

The river itself is not very long, arising in the hills above the city of Saint Quentin about 250 k from the sea. Small craft navigated almost to the headwaters as early as the middle ages but it wasn’t until 1843 that the canal was opened to commercial shipping as far as Saint Quentin. Never very busy, the main products shipped were salt, grain, wood, coal and wine. The canal generally follows the bed of the river and there are many lakes alongside resulting from the digging of peat, used as fuel as late as the early 20th century. Peat was also responsible for the wealth of the region in that era, resulting in small villages with big churches and chateaus.

Of course, the river is also famous as the site of the killing or wounding of over 1.2 million soldiers during the WW I Battle of the Somme in the summer and fall of 1916. The area is scattered with numerous cemeteries and memorials

The upper reaches, from St. Simon to the Canal du Nord have been closed to navigation for a number of years and while there has been some talk of reopening the waterway, so far there’s been no action. In 1991 The Somme Department (generally equivalent to a state in the US) took over operation of the lower portion of the canal from the national VNF and has operated it as a separate navigation since then. They are doing a very fine job.

The first hint that this was not a VNF waterway was at the very first lock. The eclusier was there to assist us, handing us a detailed chart of the river showing the many stopping places, many with water and electricity, and the estimated travel time between each one. She operated the lock for us and then sped off in one of the bright orange cars that we would become very familiar with to be ready to operate the next two locks and two opening bridges we would clear before we reached our first stopping place, the village of Cappy. By lunchtime we were tied up in a very pleasant mooring in Cappy’s city park, near a former hire boat base, now a municipal marina.

We’re all the way down behind that big barge.

The lock just downstream of the village with the church in the background.

There is also a very nice mooring just above this lock, as there were at almost all the locks and bridges.

Cappy is a beautiful village but a little down on it’s luck. With the closure of the hireboat base a few years ago there’s really nothing there. The restaurant we wanted to go to had closed but there was a boulangerie so all was not lost. The whole river is a popular tourist area with lots of summer homes and holiday camps and there were several of both in town.

Saturday morning we set off through the lifting bridge and lock at Cappy, motoring easily downstream to the next major town, Corbie. We passed many beautiful mooring spots along the way, making careful notes as we’d be coming back through in a couple weeks.

The locks and bridges were all a breeze. We’d been provided a phone number for the central control office in Amien. All we had to do when we started out for the day was give them a call and let them know where we were and which way we were headed. A very helpful eclusier would be waiting for us at the lock or bridge and, if they weren’t following us to the next lock, they would telephone ahead to their colleague to let them know we were coming. We never had to wait more than a few minutes for a lock or bridge. Except of course at lunch. Things shut down between 12:30 and 1:30.

We pulled into Corbie a little after lunch. We’d stay the rest of the afternoon and Sunday, heading off for Amien on Monday morning.

The massive 18th century Abbey church of St. Pierre. Who is that not-so-massive person in the blue raincoat?

The church kinda dwarfs the architecture around it.

Corbie’s city hall. It started out as a private chateau built in the 1860’s by the Baron Caix de Saint Aymour, but was bought by the village in 1923.