We awoke to a beautiful sunrise on Sunday at our mooring at Le Grand Marais but were soon disturbed by the sound of shooting. The hunting season, or la chasse, has started in France and we learnt this year that the start dates are staggered, being determined by each département. Here, in the Somme, it started today at 9.00am so we were somewhat surprised to hear them at well before that hour.
Le Grand Marais is a couple of kilometres from the village
of Long which was once one of the most prosperous villages in France. Its wealth was created by the excellent quality of the local peat
that the villagers dug for fuel both for trading and for their own consumption. It
is peat digging that has created the strange looking countryside along the valley
of the River Somme.
As the sound of shooting seemed to have stopped and there were
signs of other activity like fishing, cycling and walking we felt it safe to go
out for a walk. France is one of the few countries
that allows shooting on Sundays although there is a strong campaign against it
as that is the day most accidental deaths occur. We had a good long walk around
the marais and the village of Long before returning home along the river.
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| The village of Long in the distance |
The marshes were dotted with shooting and fishing huts together with the occasional bird watching hide. Some of the huts, especially those with vehicular access, were on the scale of weekend retreats and many were in wonderful locations built out over the water’s edge.
After a few miles we reached Long itself and one of the
first things we came across was the lock in the centre.
A mooring was provided above the lock and it had good views of the
mairie and church, both of which were oversized for such a small place though apparently,
it’s befitting of a prosperous village.
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| Town mooring opposite the mairie |
The village of Long is also famous for building a hydroelectric generating station at the end of the 1800s. The village was self-sufficient for electricity until 1968 when generation of the 120-volt power ceased as the village was connected to the national grid and householders received electricity bills for the first time. The generating station remained in use until 1974 as water continued to be pumped for village consumption using the hydroelectric power. The generating station has been kept in working order and is now a museum.
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| The hydroelectric generating station opened in 1902 |
Walking back along the riverside we passed the Château de Long which was built in the mid-1700s. It is currently in private hands and was restored in 1964 with the extensive glasshouses restored in 2002 although half their length is currently unglazed.
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| Château de Long and its amazing glasshouses |
A surprising find was a private lavoir in the rear of the château grounds at the side of the lock cut. Admittedly it was out of view from the house itself as I expect the owners wouldn’t have wanted to see their laundry being processed.
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| The château lavoir |
We spent the rest of the day back at the boat alternating between sitting outside in the sun and getting depressed watching our team, Southampton, getting trounced after a good first half. I was reminded of Aileen’s blogs from when she and Mike (a York supporter) were living on their boat. Every Sunday during the season she would report how Mike would be glued to the radio on the Saturday even though he knew he would end up miserable for the rest of the day because his team had suffered yet another defeat.
We awoke to a very misty morning on Monday:
By 9.30 it started to clear:
By 10 it was completely clear:
As soon as it lifted, we called for an éclusier as we had a
fair way to travel during the day. Karen
and Buddy walked down to the lock in Long while I cruised along next to
them. Due to the flow I found it difficult
not to keep getting ahead of them even on tick over. Because the flow has now increased as we’ve
got closer to the estuary, we cruised at over tick or just over for most
of the day, making a tranquil cruise even more peaceful.
In order to help keep marsh growth under control, Camargue
horses were brought into the Somme a century or so ago. We hadn’t see any since we’ve been here but
passed four soon after setting off.
Passing the hydroelectric generating station on the way to the lock in Long…
…and the Château de Long
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| Au revoir Long |
As we left the lock, we passed a sign that, in retrospect, made us smile.
The other day, when the
boat was violently rocked by a strong cross current there hadn’t been any
warning signs (other than the knowledge that the river would be re-joining). Because this time there was a warning sign we were even
more vigilant but strangely we found no sign of a current at all.
We were heading to Pont Remy for lunch and planned on filling
up with water before continuing onto Abbeville later in the afternoon. As we’re beginning to almost expect, the
mooring was empty although there was a permanent barge a little further on which had its own water and power supply. It was just as well the mooring was empty as we’d almost run the tank dry so
needed to take on water.
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| Moored for lunch and water at Pont Remy |
We hadn’t filled up since our last day on the Canal du Nord which was a fortnight ago. With plenty of water points on the Somme, Karen, as the boat water officer had decided to run an experiment. Rather than filling up whenever we came across a tap, which is what we usually do due to the scarcity of water points, she wanted to run the tank almost dry. Using our trusty birch stick, she was taking and logging measurements every day so can now better judge at any point in time how much water we have left. If you think this is odd, then bear in mind that our water tank is of an irregular shape so water usage can’t easily be extrapolated.
This was the first time we’ve used a borne on the Somme and
they take €2 coins which provide electricity and water for four hours. We didn’t bother hooking up for electricity
as it was a lovely sunny day and also, we were cruising. The water pressure was really high, and it
took no time at all to fill up. In fact,
it was so high that it wasn’t easy keeping the hose in the tank as I hadn’t
bothered attaching our regulating nozzle so I ended up having a bit of a
calamity. I wasn’t watching what was
going on and hadn’t realised the hose had come out until I heard Karen
shouting. The hose had spun around and
was directing the water directly through the open doors into our bedroom!
After tidying up and putting the hose away we had lunch
whilst studying the remains of a château on an island opposite.
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| Ruined château opposite our lunchtime mooring |
After lunch we continued on down to Abbeville.
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| Passing through the centre of Pont Remy |
It was still hot when we arrived in the town, so we didn’t bother going for a look around, thinking we’ll leave it until Tuesday or on the way back. The moorings weren’t the most attractive but that wasn’t too surprising as we were in a town.
A boat called Margaret Wroughton was also on the mooring and it was a boat Karen had been looking out for. She had noticed that the most recent updates on the Somme mooring sites had been made by the English couple on board, Gavin & Georgie. As they were all dated in September Karen had assumed we were following them and, after chatting with them we found out that indeed, they had just started their return journey the previous day.
We plan on getting down as far as the sea lock in Saint-Valery-sur-Somme on Tuesday but need to have a conversation with the control centre first as they decide the best time to go down to the port based on the tides and the flow of the river.
On Monday we cruised 11 miles down two locks.
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