CLIFHANGA' S adventures in France, Amiens-Compiegne, update no.3, 7-8-06

CLIFHANGA French adventure update, No.3, 5-8-06 The next few days after our unexpected return to Amiens and the train trip to the Baie de la Somme, were spent exploring Amiens, which has a lot to offer its visitors. We had been surprised to find a sandy beech in the main square of Arras, but in Amiens nearly every square had been turned into a mini lido with deck chairs, sun loungers, flowers and fountains, they managed to create such a tranquil area in an otherwise bustling city and it was well used by visitors and workers from the offices, what a perfect place to spend a lunch break – mind you I probably wouldn’t go back after. All around the old quarter of the city run small canals and in one of them they have a statue of a man and the students come out during the night by boat and dress him up in different clothes. The last day we were there he was wearing a jacket and trousers round his ankles – not sure what that message was giving, but we all know about French men don’t we girls. Sent Lou out for a loaf of bread on Sunday and lost him for nearly two hours he had found an indoor food market needless to say we visited it again such variety but this was an artisans market so the prices reflected it as well.  The local Saturday market when the produce is bought from the local market gardens and allotments was so fresh and such good prices, John my brother had arrived by then and cooked lunch and dinner (it helps having a good chef in the family) and we spent a couple of hours in the market deciding what to buy and cook – this is what I really enjoy and even better when someone is doing the cooking for me, fresh haricot blanc turned into a fantastic salad nicoise and stuffed globe courgettes and smoked sausage in a smoked paprika and tomato sauce, an absolute  feast. Went for a stroll on Sunday night and we saw all these people sitting on the ground opposite the main entrance to the Cathedral (its huge and can take two Notre Dames inside) thought there must be something happening and being nosey we stopped for a while, mind you we nearly gave up after 25 minutes of nothing happening, trouble was people were still coming there must have been 400 in the square and then there was this fantastic light show when every figure (4000 of them in all) looked as if they had been individually painted in the most vibrant of colours absolutely fantastic so glad we didn’t miss it, its on every night during the summer, once its dark enough. Met an interesting boat called Water Lilly with two young men on it and apparently Simon (who is a chef) bought the boat for a £1, it’s an old wooden fishing trawler with lovely lines.  It was a wreck and he started to rebuild it and Discovery Real-time were following his progress the idea being that he would bring the boat from England sail up to Paris and run it as a restaurant for 1 month by the Eiffel Tower.  He had renovated it and built a kitchen inside and was stuck in Amiens because guess what LOW WATER – where have you heard that before???  Trouble was to get back out to sea and come in at Le Havre they had to cut off the wheel house to get under the broken bridge by St. Valery sur Somme.  They left before us but we are hoping to meet up with them before or in Paris where Simon has invited us on board for a meal – the programme will be coming out sometime in December – fascinating story.Finally got our IT connection sorted with help from John’s good friend Colin who lives in Amiens – don’t know what we would have done without him our only problem now is that all the commands are in French so if anything goes wrong HELP but we are eternally grateful for Colin’s help. Finally we leave Amiens – with the threat of very low water in the last two kilometres before the Canal du Nord by low I mean 1 meter when we need 1.15  oh happy days. Stop off at Cappy and had a very mediocre meal for a hefty price disappointing but that’s life, then guess what, we did a narrow gauge rail trip from Froissy up into the hills - actually this one was quite interesting especially as it was built by the British, and was used during the war to haul heavy ammunitions and bombs and it has been fantastically preserved, but hey, its still only a train and I am all ‘trained’ out after last week. Finally we leave Cappy for the fatal few miles back to Peronne, empty water tanks don’t top up with fuel and Lou says if it gets too shallow I’ll have to get off and walk – not sure how to take that? Give him the benefit of the doubt, now praying that the figures we have been given are wrong.  It’s a shame because this is probably one of the most beautiful stretches of the Somme and I was too up tight to enjoy it.  We travelled at about 2K an hour so as not dig down too far in the water – WHAT WATER – talk about nail biting, but we finally passed through the last lock and hey presto we are in 1.8meters of water can’t understand why they didn’t let some through but these French they have their own reasons – I say never try and fathom out French reasoning you have lost before you start and that’s what I have discovered in the first six weeks, I just hope its not catching – what did you say your reasoning was Lou? Uneventful and pretty boring journey on the Canal du Nord until we reached Pont L’eveque (No, this is not where the cheese comes from) and lovely little village with super moorings right in the centre, from here we travelled through much improved scenery to Compiegne, what a lovely city and guess what, next day was market day, I’m in heaven and this market was the best so far the choices and selections were fantastic. Fantastic Chateau in Compiegne with grounds like Windsor castle, well done Napoleon III! Filled up with fuel and guess what the fuel barge broke down half way through so we had one side full and the other not talk about a list, finally they got it sorted and filled up the other side by which time the connecting pipe between the two tanks and sent some over the other side so it wouldn’t take enough but no more faffing that’s it two hours fuel stop, fuel at 68p/litre, we have got things to do (brilliant chandlery which Lou encouraged me to go in – has he been drinking? Trouble was I couldn’t find anything I wanted to buy I must be slipping). It is also the spot where our British Calor gas has run out, so we bit the bullet and purchased 2 new French cylinders at €24 each plus the usual deposit. For those interested, the screw on regulator for the 4.5kg Calor gas is the same as the French units. Start off for the Seine tomorrow catch up with you all next time. Lou & Terri