2019 Tour of Brittany (France) Part 1 - Calais to Cappy

Monday 1st July 2019  🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞
Mileage 256 from Butterley Bank near Ripley to Dover Road Park and Ride Aire near Canterbury
Parking Co-ordinates 51.26154, 1.09988

Early on in our journey we clocked this and as
there was room for 2 we thought we might
cadge a lift if he was going our way😂😂

Today was the start of our 3 month tour which originally was going to include a trip anti clockwise around most of France.  However, after a good bit of deliberation we've decided to slow right down and just concentrate on doing a good job of exploring Normandy and Brittany,  and that should ensure we've got plenty of time for chilling as well!!

But to do that we needed to get there, and that required us to undertake one of John's favourite drives (NOT😨😡😤), anti clockwise around the M25!  And to start with on that bit of motorway we did really well and managed to zoom along at around 50mph, but the same couldn't be said for the traffic travelling parked on the opposite carriageway, and we shouldn't have counted our chickens either because we hadn't gone far when 'it happened'!!  What happened you many ask 😕, and the answer to that would be 'what always happens when you travel on the M25'!!  The traffic became more and more congested and our speed was reduced to crawl mode😠😠!  Luckily this only lasted for about half an hour so our journey wasn't too prolonged, and as our final destination was a very familiar one (The Dover Road Motorhome Aire near Canterbury) it didn't take us long to get settled for the night once we arrived.


Tuesday 2nd July 2019  🌞🌞🌞🌞🔥😂
Mileage 87 From Calais to Le Crotoy

This morning we were up quite early for us (7.15ish) and that was so that we were in good time for our 10.15 ferry from Dover to Calais, and I'm glad to say our hour and a half crossing was completely uneventful!  Then, once we'd disembarked we set Mrs Snoopy for Le Crotoy and she quickly guided us to the water front Aire there for our first night of this tour on French Soil.

We've been here several times before so we knew there were 3 Aires in and around the town but the one we choose for this stay is in our opinion by far the best because it's situated right on the magnificent Somme estuary, has fantastic views and has space for over 100 vans, and all for the princely sum of €7.  There's no electric but who needs that when the bright light in the sky is on main beam, and right from the van door we had the choice of walking across a causeway that crosses the muddy sand flats, or into the town itself.  In the end we did both and in so doing we witnessed the emptying of a sea water basin via sluice gates!

But we couldn't work out why this was happening because all the info was in French, but as usual, good old Google helped.  It seems that this interesting and clever feature was designed to prevent the Somme Bay from silting or sanding up.  The bay is constantly filled with sand due to the action of the tides but to help cope with this the basin was formed and as the tide rises it fills, and once full the sluice gates are closed.  Then, 5 hours later or around the time of low tide the gates are opened again and the water flushes out violently, thus the power and speed of the water washes the sand back out to sea!

We also  browsed around the marina and colourful shops, and while we were on the sea front  we watched people walking across the sand and mud flats from Le Crotoy to Saint Valery sur Somme - but we weren't tempted to join them because we hadn't got our wellies and we weren't sure of the tide times - apparently the water races in so fast it would be very easy to get caught out.

The Marina with the Aire in the background.

The Sand Flats that you can cross to Saint Valery sur Somme   

Out to Dry!

The Somme Bay is officially listed as 'A Grand Site de France' and is said to be one of the most beautiful bays in the world alongside San Francisco and Ha Long in Northeast Vietnam (the former we've been to but not the latter)!  And it's also a place where thousands of migratory birds take refuge and additionally, it has the largest colony of harbour seals in France - maybe next time we're in the area we'll have to do even more exploring!


Wednesday 3rd July 2019 🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🔥
Mileage 66 from Le Crotoy to Crappy Cappy 😂
Parking Co-ordinates 49.92826, 2.74012

This morning we left Le Crotoy for a very easy drive inland so that we could explore more of the Somme Valley, and even in this almost peak holiday period France's long straight roads, which were bordered by huge swathes of agricultural land,were almost deserted.    On our way we passed by several War Grave Cemeteries - it seems there are 400 of them in this area that provide a final resting place for the 1.2 million victims who lost their lives in the battles that once raged in this now tranquil place.

The Somme

The Old Church in Cappy

Our camping spot for the next 2 nights was to be a Park Night Aire just outside the very sleepy village of Cappy, and for today we just satisfied ourselves with taking a lazy walk into the village, and then out for a short distance along a canal from which the River Somme gets it's name.





We probably only walked about a mile before turning back and heading for a bench we'd spotted earlier that was situated right on the River edge, and from there we watched the bird life messing about on the river!

A family of Swans but unusually one of the cygnets was pure white - maybe it was an ugly duckling!!!

And a dragon fly laying her eggs

Thursday 4th July 2019  🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🔥🇺🇸
38 🚴🚴miles
Parking co-ordinates as yesterday

Today was another boiling one 😅 but despite the heat our aim was to explore some of the Somme Valley Cycle Route and also to visit a couple of the war cemeteries and the Australian National Memorial.

So with picnic packed we set of along a trail that sometimes ran beside the Somme canal and sometimes beside the river itself.  Additionally, in some places the waters  seemed to converge and in others the banks opened up to form lakes, and quite often we found ourselves cycling along a causeway between both.

The river is on the left and the canal on the right.

A legend here tells of a giant that lived in the cliffs above the ponds who was as big as a fir tree and
covered with linden bark.  He could smash rocks with his voice, roll stones with his breath and
animals answered to the call of his horn.  He made children happy with the beautiful nature around them,
but as they grew the children became wicked and made the giant weep.  He wept so much that everyone perished
in the tear flooded plain and then the giant fell asleep leaving the fantastic landscape above behind!

The vistas that opened up before us as we cycled along the river were really beautiful and that along with the tranquillity and bird life resulted in us agreeing that the Somme trail rivalled any river or canal paths that we've travelled along before (and that is many), so if you ever get the chance this area is really worth adding to your itinerary.

After about 10 miles we left the river at a place called Cerisy and this was where we found our first cemetery

The Cerisy National Cemetery holds the remains of soldiers who died during the Battle of the Somme offensive in 1916 and it was created during the battles close to the temporary hospital.  Later in  1923 it was redeveloped in order to bring together the bodies of other soldiers exhumed from other military plots.  It holds the bodies of 990 Frenchmen but only a few yards away there is another British cemetery where the bodies of 745 Commonwealth soldiers rest. 

After a quiet time there we pottered on along deserted country roads towards the Memorial Site above the town of Le Hamel.

The site info boards explained how the Battle of Hamel (which took place on the 4th July 1918 - exactly 101 years ago today) was orchestrated by General Monash and fought by Australian and US troops with  support from British tanks.

Apparently General Monash likened it an orchestra.  He said .... 'A perfected modern battle plan is like nothing so much as a score for an orchestral  composition where the various armies and units are the instruments, and the tasks they perform are their respective musical phrases.  Every individual unit must make it's entry precisely at the proper  moment, and play it's phrase in the general harmony.  The whole programme is controlled by an exact timetable, to which every infantry man, every heavy or light gun, every mortar and machine gun, every tank and aeroplane must respond with punctuality; otherwise there will be discords which will impair the success of the operation!'

The mission was an exceptional success!  It destroyed and pushed back German positions, and in the end, only took 3 minutes more than planned - therefore it seems that on that day the 'orchestra'  played in complete harmony. 

The Australian Commonwealth Military Forces Memorial

The now peaceful village of Hamel

Our final visit today was to the Australian National Memorial and Cemetery at Villers-Bretonneux.

The wall of the memorial is engraved with 10,773 names of those who fell in France and have no known grave!   It is also the resting place of more than 2,100 Commonwealth Servicemen from the First World War of whom more than 600 remain unidentified.

The whole place was beautifully manicured and the graves in front of the memorial were all bedecked with flowers - it's just such a tragedy that so many lost their lives at war and so far away from home and their loved ones.

The final part of our ride took us back towards and along the River Somme but by now we were peddling in the highest heat of the day (about 27 degrees), and although our surroundings remained stunning, with still about 14 miles to go, our main concern was getting home to a cool drink and a bit of shade!

It was quite a relief when Cappy Church loomed into sight. 

Tomorrow we'll move on but you'll have to read our next post to find out where.

Bye for now 😗😗

Click here to see our French camping spots