Spring 2010 Picardy

Fri 2010-04-30 {20472}

Spent 2h looking for my part 2 DL which I was sure I had put into the holiday documents folder. By thinking what I might have done had I been absent-minded, I traced it to the leather wallet in which I keep my passport and foreign money.

Sat 2010-05-01 {20473}

(|) Up at 6h and away ~7h15, arr tunnel ~9h30; offered the 10h09 but because of long delays thro' passport control got the 10h20. Bought petrol (actually 95 E10 which is 10% ethanol) just after tunnel, awkward as then had to use minor roads to get back onto the A16; there is a services 10km after the tunnel. We stopped at the services shortly before our exit 22, a couple of hours ahead of schedule. Lunch here, then on to find cottage, which was exactly where I'd guessed from Google maps. Idle away another 1.5h in a lay-by a little way past, and then meet M Pruvrel as arranged at 16h. He spoke no English, so a quick handover, and he took 250E deposit. Excellent place, just like the photos, with a long drive and a view over a private lake and beyond to the River Somme. Not quite clear where the property ends on the NW side as there is no fence, but there is woodland that can be used as well as the extensive lawn around the lake. Other side of the river is a popular public path, at least on this holiday weekend. Some sort of fete with PA system on the next property to the SE, which is fenced. Everything is upstairs except the shower and the bog. There's even a little room with a basin off the bedroom, but no bog. Ground floor has garage too. Long gravel drive to gates but just wire fence from road apart from gate. Tonight drank the complimentary Normandy cidre doux with pasta. Odo at tunnel was 36074mi. Dull and cool mostly, tho' a few rays were caught on arrival, out by the lake. Geko has cottage as 50.0489N 1.9269E, from Google I got 50.0486N 1.9277E. Toll 7.7E.

Sun 2010-05-02 {20474}

(|) Lots of rain in the night, early morning and at times during the day. Did a short tour of the area by car, locating the Hyper-U by Abbeville, which was a concrete monster with a multi-storey car park, and a Carrefour near Airaines which looked much friendlier and was open today (9..12h) unlike most. Saw the local villages and walked from Cocquerel along the Somme to opposite the cottage. Lunch back at cottage. More rain aft, but got a decent amount of sun on the balcony in the gaps between. Walked the grounds again aft, cunningly laid out so there is almost nowhere that is not visible from the river path, the road, or the occupied house to the W; it will have to be after dark. The water is not mains, the notices say "private drinking water", presumably a well; it's very cloudy after boiling. Sticking to the beer and bottled water for now. Having the shower and bog downstairs is a little odd and the subject of negative comments in the visitors' book. There is a bed in the shower room, which is even more odd. An address on one of the maps suggests that the owner M Mortreux lives in Amiens; his name is on the gate, alongside "Attention au chien". We have seen one small cruiser on the river, so it is navigable, tho' apart from that one we have seen only small dinghies.

Mon 2010-05-03 {20475}

(!) Bank holiday in UK. Up around 3h and out for a walk around outside, just trainers and specs, nothing else, too risky to try barefoot in the dark. Enough light to see the river and lake, so no danger of falling in, but not to tell long grass from short. Didn't try the paths thro' the wooded bit as couldn't see anything and a lot of boggy bits to the side of the paths; need moonlight. Nothing on the road; one flashing light away in the distance. Was cold but still and very pleasant for the 10 or 15 minutes it took. Day dawns cold and dull, with BBC forecast for showers and <10degC. To the Carrefour to stock up, inc Pelforth Brune, back to cottage to unload it, then out to Picquigny where it looked from the map that there might be a lock. Indeed there was, this river is a proper navigation, just rather devoid of boats. Drove back thro' more towns and villages, in which most things seemed to be closed. Had a walk around Pont-Remy, where we found another lock, with a turf-sided and timer-framed flood lock. The town itself was a little seedy. Lunch at cottage. Aft \phi walked up the farm track / footpath behind the cottage up to ~100m whence can see into the next valley, but hazy and mostly overcast; photos not good. Brighter by eve; after pizzas for a stroll in the grounds. After dark went for another walk, 25..30 mins this time. Got some way down the river path, but was finding it hard to keep on the mown part. Came back and did the woodland paths as well, working as much by feel of the ground as by the vague impression of trees and patches of water. Came back in when it got just too cold, tho' there was almost no air movement, just enough to make the tops of the poplars make a sound like fine rain. No sound of any animals about. It does give an elemental feeling of just you and nature, no torch, no phone, no clothes; pity about the shoes. Sky was mostly clear and stars visible. Brought the right 4-way block with the euro connector this time, not the Danish, but then realised that it wasn't a proper Schuko connector, it didn't have the French earth; a new re-wireable plug got from Carrefour and now it's proper multi-euro.

Tue 2010-05-04 {20476}

(|) Dawned clear and sunny, and stayed so just long enough for a few minutes outside drying off after shower. Then it clouded over and for the rest of the day was intermittently sunny with a biting wind. French number plates are changing, mostly newer cars have the new sort, which seem to be AA-NNN-AA with the département number on a blue flash on the right, mirroring the F and EU on the left; older ones have the département number as the last 2 digits of the number (80 around here). Many towns and villages have central 30km/h zones. Petrol is about the same price as UK; diesel a little bit cheaper. To St Valery sur Somme, a seaside town on the Somme estuary. There were other tourists there, mostly French, despite the bitter weather. Saw a convoy of three ancient British cars. Steam railway to le Crotoy on the other side of the estuary, 6 old coaches pulled by a 2-6-0T, seemed to be quite popular. Went to and from by different indirect D-roads. Lunch at Le Drakkar restaurant, where \theta had a big pile of moules and curry and \phi a steak. Petrol at a Carrefour cards-only station near Valery. There are many wind generators here (éoliennes), we stopped to listen to one and could just hear a once-per-blade whoomph above the noise of the wind itself. Saw an ancient 2CV with yellow bulbs in the headlamps. Amy came out of hospital on Sunday. Alongside an automatic loo was an open urinal in the street, and the restaurant had a urinal with US saloon part-doors next to the WC and handbasin for both sexes. Cold today, lit the wood fire and kept it going for a few hours, toasty, experienced nude of course. We have a dead bat on the balcony, which arrived sometime today.

Wed 2010-05-05 {20477}

(|) Again clear blue sky from dawn until 09h, then mostly thick grey cloud with the odd minute or two of sunshine. Got a few minutes in sun after shower but colder than yest, or felt it. To chuck recyclables at Cocquerel but no kitchen waste disposal there. Back to cottage again as I forgot the road atlas and to put back the rubbish and ash. Then to Montreuil, an ancient walled town that used to be by the sea but is now >10km inland. Park by market place and wander the streets before paying for the citadel at 4E each. Lots of history, from very early times to use as British comms centre during WW1, this in a series of connected underground caverns. Not much explanation, we didn't take the audio tour and there appeared to be a tour circuit that we failed to spot after the first "sens de visite". After this to a restaurant Le Caveau which had some of the atmosphere and furnishings of an English pub. I had a "mixed grill" (which was pronounced in French) which was pork, bacon, sausage, chicken leg, steak and vegetables on a skewer with Bearnaise sauce and ratatouille, with chips; very good; \theta had an omelet. After lunch on to the naturist beach at Berck, N of the town, about as far as the road goes (the guide said look for Bellevue but we saw no signs for that, just "plage nature"). Car park at 50.4238n 1.5685e; the beach starts about 50.4282n 1.5664e. Back of beach strewn with old concrete fortifications, mostly at crazy angles in the sand. We headed for the leeward side of one just as short burst of sun came by, enough to strip off out of the wind for a few souvenir photos, quite pleasant for that few minutes, but then too cold. Frustrating as there was solid blue sky out over the sea, but it just wouldn't come closer in the N wind. Walked out a long way to the sea so \theta could paddle. Crossed a small wet bit on the way not realising that this was the sea coming in behind us; even after only a few minutes the sand we were on was an island and we had to paddle quite deep water to get back. Trainers and jeans soaked. Home then. Eat in eve, then light the fire. Toll 2*4E.

Thu 2010-05-06 {20478}

(|) Throwing caution to the wind, although by experience over the last few days it was actually pretty safe, got up at 8h and went for a jog around the lake and along the river path, naked and barefoot. The grass was damp and cold and the ground uneven but it was fun. As the sun was still there after breakfast, took a few posed photos in the woods, by the river, by the lake and by the house. The sun really was intermittent today, coming and going in odd minutes all day, so that it was quite warm out of the wind. Went to look at the windmill at Eaucourt-sur-Somme, just up the road, which R had spotted as being possible to photograph with modern wind generators in the same frame; it was open for a school party but not to the public. Similarly the château ruins nearby, can get close to see outside, but closed on weekdays. From this spot an interesting walk thro' former flax fields, and then on the river path towards Pont-Rémy, which seems to get or lose its accent in different places. Drove into Abbeville and found a place to park on the street. A big town, but didn't see any restaurant which looked inviting so bought some bread and came back to the cottage. There were boats moored in Abbeville and we saw a second moving boat this morning. Sun was still coming and going then, and became continuous in late aft; the S-facing balcony being good at separating the sun from the N wind. Much warmer eve, didn't need the fire.

Fri 2010-05-07 {20479}

General election has resulted in no overall majority with Tories the largest single party, now Cameron is talking to Clegg with Brown waiting. Cold and dull day, tho' with less wind than lately. Out early to get warmed up in the car, then a walk from Epagnette. Supermarket by Airaines for lunch and petrol, a drive around some villages before a little more walking around Bourdon. Back then for lunch at the cottage, heating on by early afternoon. Took the Geko outside and measured the outline of the site. It's not clear who owns the woodland between the old gate on this site and the next site along, but leaving out this bit the domesticated bit is about 130m deep by 200m wide. The river frontage, assuming it goes all the way to the next site as it's all mown in a piece, is about 420m. So if the woodland's included this site's probably approx 150m * 400m or 6 hectares. The netbook has worked well, allowing back-up of photos, better viewing of photos and direct entry of diary. Would have been better with net access. No wi-fi visible here. Need to investigate GPRS or 3G dongles, tho' they all seem to need to load software onto the PC, an issue with Linux. Why can't they just connect to Ethernet port and be a network with control via HTML and browser, they could link to USB for power only, instead of all being just USB. Still using the P800 for e-mail and news. The big LG LCD TV had a USB port that would play mp3 and display jpg files, which made the pix look even better. Eve cleaning and packing, again not needing the fire.

       UTM co-ordinates in sector 31U (E N (m))
       ===========================================
       423173  5544615   House
       423072  5544573   W corner of garden
       423117  5544554   NW corner of lake
       423162  5544521   S corner of lake
       423261  5544498   Start of riverside path
       423487  5544390   Extreme of riverside path
       423252  5544525   Accessible part of wood
       423301  5544605   Old gate
       423286  5544619   Building (well?)
       423252  5544658   Gate
       423178  5544598   E corner of lake
       423181  5544644   N corner of garden

Sat 2010-05-08 {20480}

(!) Went outside for a last walk in the garden about 5h, when it was just getting light and misty; later the mist burnt off leaving a sunny mild morning. Finished cleaning and packing everything into the car. M Pruvrel arr a bit early ~09h10 just about when we were ready. He came on his little motorbike with a trailer, which he uncoupled and left by the shed. He had a look around, pronounced all well and gave us back 200E (250E less the 35E linen and 15E electricity [or vv]). Cloudy and then rain later that lasted all the way to MK. Odo at tunnel 36528, home 36659mi. Got an earlier train (11h20 (+2)) than booked and home by 13h20 (+1). \theta shopping and \phi unpacking and bath. The water there was very hard, my hair got very lank despite washing every day, kettle got very cloudy when boiled. Quite a change from 6 hectares to 0.2 but nice to have central heating; it was really quite cold at times in the cottage when the electric panels couldn't cope and the open wood fire, tho' very nice, needed constant attention. Sparks would fly out, which wasn't too bad with a stone floor, but one landed on top of the paper pile; and it would go out in a moment unless poked, blown or refueled. Total trip 1152km, 730km in France.

Sun 2010-05-09 {20481}

(|) Collect cats, 135L (10d * 3 cats).

2007-09-20..2007-09-20

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