Today's crops - wheat and windmills.

Saturday 4^th June

Today we left Honfleur and the area of the D Day landings and headed towards the Somme. We had no real plans for stops along the way so we had some nice surprises in store.

We have seen windmills all along our travels especially coming across the northern coast. Don't know why we don't have them all over Australia.

We first stopped in a little village on the coast called Veules-les-Roses. We knew nothing about this town but figured it was a nice distance to travel before morning tea. Arriving in the sleepy village we followed a man along the middle of the road with his 2 kids on pushbikes - memories. It turned out we weren’t the only tourists in town - there were 2 tour buses. This was an artisans village though there didn’t appear to be much open this morning. The 2 tour buses and 2 RVs did create a small traffic jam at the main junction in town.

Obviously usually a very quiet country town.

There were quite a number of lovely house signs in the village.

And some lovely houses

The traffic jam - these 2 RVs and 2 tour buses behind us.

Next place along the coast was Dieppe. We had a drive through the main city and then found a church on the hill overlooking the town and from where we could get some good photos. We were trying to stay off the main highways so that we could actually see some of the countryside and it makes for a much more pleasant and less pressure drive.

A castle above the town of Dieppe. Dieppe is one of the major ferry ports to the UK.

These cliffs fell right to the beach in Dieppe.

The entrance gate to Dieppe.

From the church on the hill above Dieppe you can see the RV parking - I think this was actually where they free camped.

The yacht harbour at Dieppe.

The sun came out - just for a brief show.

This was the church perched high above Dieppe and is dedicated to the mariners.

Mosaic on a wall near the church...

...and this sculpture nearby caught my eye.

Lunch stop was in the town of Abbeville. Again we knew nothing about this town so it was again a bit of a surprise. We arrived in town about 1.30 in search of lunch and the town seemed to be dead. Not many shops open and virtually no one in the streets. We found a bakery where we had a lovely lunch – quiche and Rob had a savoury ham, mushroom and béchamel crepe. We also had a couple of mini savoury bites – and a Paris Brest and coffee. Finishing lunch after 2, and leaving the bakery we found that the streets had come alive – everything had been shut for lunch.

This town had 2 lovely churches. The first, St Vulfran’s, originally dated back to the 10^th century but has had a couple of rebuilds. It was bombed in 1940 and was burned and almost completely collapsed, but has since been rebuilt. The second, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, originally dated back to the 11^th century, but the church now standing was built in the 15^th century. This church has 30 stained glass windows which were commissioned in 1980s and created by Alfred Manessier.

St Vulfran’s church in the main street of Abbeville.

This is one of the commissioned works in Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

And this is a picture of the 7 pieces that make up a work titled ' the happiness of Easter'.

Our drive onwards towards Amiens loosely followed the Somme which was full to the brim and flowing fast.  We are now in Glisy (near Amiens) and have returned to the Quick(ie) Palace.

 

We found this old windmill not far out of Abbeviille - don't remember what year, but behind the windmill was a long line of new windmills.

We have been seeing a lot of poppies in the past week - this was a beautiful looking grouping.

No Dora - overruled. Keep left at fork she said and this was the track. We might have given it a go if it didn't run right alongside the river Somme which was full to overflowing.

This old canal boat appeared to be abandoned on the river.