It was a chilly and wet start to that Wednesday.  We went down to get a budget breakfast in the hotel restaurant - a couple of pastries, a juice and a coffee, which was very nice, and then we walked back up the street to the cathedral, this time to have a look inside.  It was pretty impressive, though after seeing Reims Cathedral we weren’t quite as awed as we might have been.  It was huge though, and had some amazing sculptures and tombs and things.  We had a look around for quite a while. In the souvenir shop outside, there was a giant chocolate model of the cathedral which was pretty amazing.  The rain cleared up in time for us to have a bit of a wander around the central streets of Amiens before needing to check out of the hotel.  We didn’t go far, but got a bit of an idea of the place.  Then we went back and packed up and checked out.  It was a bit of fun finding our car, because when we parked in the underground car park the night before, the exit we took from the car park was an exit only, no entry.  The entry turned out to be in this back street way along where we didn’t expect it, and we hunted around for a bit before we found it.  Anyway we got out of there and began to make our way to the Crecy battlefield site.  It was lunch time when we got to the town of Crecy, and we kept our eye out for somewhere to have a bite to eat, but there wasn’t anything like a patisserie or anything like that. We checked out the battle site.  It was quite well set up really.  I thought there might be nothing but the sign I had seen in pictures online, but they had a wooden observation tower with a roof and all.  It showed illustrations on plaques along the railing, indicating where each army came from, the disposition of the troops and the positions of each of the main commanders, Edward III and Philip IV. We most likely had a similar view of the landscape as did Edward, because the tower was built on or near the site of the old windmill that was there at the time of the battle, and from which Edward directed his troops.

Then it was off to our accommodation for the next two nights, Chateau de Behen. We decided to go check it out and then see if there were any restaurants nearby where we could get dinner that night.  We’d booked dinner at the chateau the second night for our 15 year anniversary. We got there about 4ish and had a look around the village.  It seemed deserted.  There were just lots of farm buildings. No shops at all, let alone restaurants or cafes or hotels. We didn’t see a soul on our first drive through, so we decided to head for the nearest small town, Abbeville, but it proved too far to go for a restaurant in the evening so we decided to get some goodies for a picnic to have at the chateau that night. We went into this Aldi-style supermarket in search of fine cheeses and pâtés, with the option of a bottle of France’s finest.  We got some after having a bit of trouble deciding, and trundled back to the chateau, by which time it was getting pretty late in the afternoon.  No one was there at first.  We wandered around a bit, and presently a farmerish-looking chap came round the side. It was Hubert, the brother of Norbert, whom we’d booked with.  He was very jovial and insisted on carrying both our bags up to our room ‘for balance’.  He made Jen guffaw and go a bit red with a bit of good-natured flirty cajoling about going horse-riding.

Soon he left us to our own devices, and after getting settled we went for a bit of a walk around the property. The chateau had been commandeered by the Germans during the war and was used for a couple of years as quarters for about 40 officers attached to a V1 facility nearby.  The enlisted men had a couple of the big barns. They’d launch the cruise missiles from ramps not far off to fly over and explode in London. Our room was the best or equal best in the building, and would probably have been used by the commandant. Spooky. We had a whole separate living room in our suite overlooking the front of the property and fields beyond, which was a very nice backdrop for our picnic in our room, watching dusk slowly descend on the countryside.  It was amazingly quiet and peaceful.  We were the only ones in the place, apart from Hubert somewhere.  It was a really nice evening and soft rain only added to the atmosphere. It was the second of our two picnic dinners.  We also had two Indian dinners, two Thai dinners and two pizza dinners - just worked out that way.  The rest were a variety of pub dinners, dinners in town-square restaurants and dinners in our hotel restaurants, plus one French restaurant and a fish and chips!

Amiens Cathedral   Crecy Battlefield