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LATE
ARRIVALS
If you are going to be arriving at the base after 6 pm, you will need to inform
the base directly. They will give you the name of the boat and the keys. You
will spend the first night on board. The base staff will do the full
briefing the following morning at 9. (It's generally possible, but sometimes
difficult on Sunday morning).
BASE
OPENING HOURS
Opening hours: 2pm to 6pm.
BOARDING
From 3 pm to 6 pm (according to preparing the
boats)
HIGHLIGHTS
Capy and Saint Valery
Very soon after leaving
Cappy, past the first lock and lifting bridge, the Canal de la Somme reveals
its pristine nature, its silence only interrupted by the sound of birds on
the banks and in the many ponds nearby. On then to Amiens and its "hortillonages",
delightful riverside smallholdings, first established by the Romans to
provide well-watered gardens.
Amiens
with its superb cathedral is one of France's oldest towns. In 54BC
Julius Caesar set up his winter camp of Samarobriva there, now the site of
Samara Park with a display on the history of mankind from prehistory up to
the Gallo-Roman period. From the Middle Ages, the town has been closely
linked with its river, and Louis XI called it "the little Venice of the
North". The scene in the maze of ancient streets, typical colour washed
houses, shops, restaurants, cafes and pubs is truly picturesque. Here every
Saturday morning is held a colourful floating market where the smallholders
come to sell their produce.
At Abbeville the
church of Saint-Vulfran is a masterpiece of flamboyant gothic art.
Saint Valery, a town full of art and history, was founded by an Irish monk
who came over to convert the pagan Picardians. This was the port from which
William the Conqueror launched his invasion of England. The charm of the
place lies in its old town, with its fortified walls, and all the activity
centred on the channel up to the port with all its stalls and restaurants.
Take advantage of a
halt here and moor up. Further south, wilderness takes over and the vast
landscapes of the Somme estuary make a walk here truly memorable.
In the opposite
direction from Cappy, another cruise lets you discover St Quentin, where
Picardy shows Flemish influences, with its tall and narrow town houses, Ham
with its lovely church of Notre Dame, and Noyon, the town which saw the
anointing of Charlemagne and of Hugues Capet. Picardy is the cradle of
Gothic art and boasts superb abbeys and cathedrals as well as other
significant medieval remains, its towns having rivalled one another ever
since the 12th century in building the finest religious monuments.
Amiens and its
cathedral:
Sheer perfection, and the ambitious scale it
was designed to makes it the largest cathedral in France. Listed as an
UNESCO World Heritage monument, with its superb sculptures it bedazzles the
senses, particularly on a summer evening when a magical Son et Lumiere show
recreates its now-vanished rich medieval paintwork.
Before memories
fade:
Somme was the backdrop to some of the most
terrible fighting in the First World War. There are many spots which honour
the memory of those who died, and in particular, close to the Somme canal,
Peronne with its museum of the Great War, Froissy, Le Hamel and
Villers-Bretonneux.
Samara:
This archaeological theme park, covering some
30 hectares, shows you how men have lived and worked over the last 6000
years. Its walking trails are a good introduction to the natural environment
of the Valley of the Somme.
The hortillonage:
Don't
on any account miss this unique aspect of Picardy’s capital, a patchwork of
some 300 hectares of island vegetable and flower gardens alongside the Canal
de la Somme just outside Amiens. These gardens, surrounded by reeds,
bulrushes and waterlilies in a labyrinth of little canals or “rieux” can be
visited aboard a traditional working boat.
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