CLIFHANGA' S adventures in France, Lille-Arras-Amiens, update no.2, 25-7-06

EVERYTHING GOING ACCORDING TO PLAN????????

Well it’s been an interesting couple of days.

We had intended to travel to St.Valery sur Somme at the coast but everything seem to be against us:

We had heard that the lifting bridge just outside Abbeville, which is half way between Amiens and St. Valery, was broken and they did not know when it would be operational again.  With a height of 2.3 meters when the bridge is down we would definitely be unable to get under it.  However we thought lets go to Abbeville anyway as the area seems to be quite attractive – wrong decision

Enter lock at Picquigny (Page 21 Navicarte 24) – this is a double lock where you go down one level through the gates and wait in the pound to go down further and out the other side – well in we go down one level everything fine and then the lass starts to lower for the last gates – suddenly water just a tad low I mean a few inches under the keel this does not bode well – decision time

We decide (possibly with a tad of pressure on my side) that it is not worth risking the boat and decide to return to Amiens – one slight issue we are now in a lock facing the wrong way and want to go back the way we came – this through a double lock, oh joy life is just one small challenge after the other.  Bless the skipper he does steer a steady ship but I might add neither lock keeper or myself were totally relaxed, remember the water is coming into a deep lock at a fair old force and we are facing the wrong way – oh I’ll just add that in the lower pound of the lock there are sloping walls with nothing to tie onto to – just dandy.

I think by now you are getting the picture

Finally we are on our way back to Amiens and decide there must be another way to get to St. Valery, apart from the scenery and the coastal port there is a steam railway which looks like it runs right around the coast, this is the perfect boy’s toy and cannot be missed (anything to appease the master after I made him turn round)

This is going to be an easy trip – oh yeah?

05.45 Rise

07.30  - Our train delayed by 25 minutes  - Train from Amiens to a place called Noyelles, two hour wait for the steam train but I am sure we will be able to find some breakfast in the town which looks quite big on the map it will be easy to lose ourselves for a couple of hours – well 1 bakery, 1 butchers 1 camp site with thank god a bar where we had a liquid breakfast of two large coffee au lait with cognac (yes it is only 9 am but what the hell I have already been on the go three hours)

11.15 Steam train pulls into Noyelles.  Train is already half full and a motley mix of passengers board

We then spend the next two hours getting on and off various trains and travelling to various points and finally and up in St. Valery for a picnic lunch (and yes we did have wine a very nice Cote du Provence Rose at less than £2 a bottle AA here I come)

Back on another train for a trip further up the hill and around the bay – unfortunately though the train journeys have been very interesting they did not hug the coast as much as we had hoped so we saw quite a lot of fields during the day.

Last steam train on our trip is due to depart at 16.15 from St. Valery to connect with the mainline train back to Amiens from Noyelles at 17.08 and we only had 15 minutes to kill not even time for a coffee – here we go again .  Someone has set fire to the bushes on the side of the track and the train will not depart from St. Valery – what is there about this place, one minute we can’t get to it the next we can’t get away, and on top of this we have only one guaranteed train back to Amiens and we appear to be in the middle of  nowhere

Fortunately the young ladies in the steam train office were very understanding and offered to run us to Noyelles 8K away, after Lou had fought with the child’s seat in the back and the fact that its 38 degrees we made the train by a hairs breath

Summary:

Sometimes we are not supposed to go somewhere and perhaps we should listen to the signs but at least we had an enjoyable experience and a few hilarious moments to add to the records.