Corbie (harrowing but no tractor)

Male & female common blues by the Australian national memorial

We fancied having a few days staying put so decided to remain in Corbie for the weekend.  As we were on moorings supplied by the département it meant we could stay a maximum of three days which would take us to Monday afternoon.  If we found we wanted to stay longer then we would drop down the lock in town and tie up below, where there was a handy 20-metre mooring with four bollards.

Saturday morning at Corbie 

As the weather has returned to hot rather than warm we had our long walk in the morning.  We wanted to see the Australian national memorial which is in a commonwealth war cemetery at the top of a hill between Fouilloy and Villers-Bretonneux.  It was only four kilometres away so not a strenuous walk. 

 

Passing the mairie at Fouilloy on our way up the hill

The Australian national memorial

The memorial commemorates the 10,719 Australian soldiers who died in WWI but have no known grave.  It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and opened by King George VI in 1938.  Below ground, under the memorial, is the General Sir John Monash centre providing the history of the Australian involvement in the war; Monash was an Australian military commander during WWI.  The story is told from the perspective of the service personnel from their letters, diaries and service records.

Only one household was allowed up the memorial tower at a time but as it’s so quiet this year there was no one else there and the three of us were able to go straight up.  Because of its strategic position at the crest of a hill the tower was used by the French as a look out post during WWII.  Consequently, it was damaged by attacking German gunfire and the scars can still be seen today. These were the views from the top:

Running clockwise from top left

West: the graves of 2,100 commonwealth soldiers
South: the town of Villers-Bretonneux
North: the town of Corbie with its abbey standing proud
East: the Monash centre immediately below and more of the Somme beyond

We were glad we’d visited the site but did wonder if we'd have found it so moving and poignant if it’d been packed with visitors. Quite a large area around the cemetery was left to wildflowers and walking around it we saw dozens of butterflies.  Most abundant were freshly emerged common blues. I took the picture of the male at the top of this entry and Karen the female.

In the afternoon we had a quick trip to a supermarket and also popped into the tourist office in Corbie to see if they had any other interesting walks.  What we saw of the town was quite inviting but as it was getting rather warm we thought we'd leave the sightseeing until the morning and spend the rest of the day back at the boat.

Corbie abbey from the supermarket car park  (the only picture we took in town on Saturday)

Other than walking tours around the town itself, the tourist office could only suggest one trail to follow out of town.  As it was a nine-kilometre circular walk we thought it would be perfect for a morning walk on Sunday and we'd do the town trail another time.  I took the leaflet and was pleased to see there were quite a few numbered stopping points and accompanying text but didn’t pay too much attention to it.

Before we started the walk, I emptied our two jerry cans of diesel into the fuel tank.  We then popped to a local fuel station to refill them.  At €1.15 a litre it was the cheapest we’ve seen this year; last year it was between €1.40 and €1.50 a litre.  When we got back I filled the tank to the brim with one and a half cans worth but didn’t refill them again as we wanted to have our walk before the heat of the day.

The walk took us through woods between some lakes and then through the village of Hamelet before branching out across the fields towards a second village, Vaire-sous-Corbie.  It wasn’t until we reached the first numbered point on the leaflet that we realised that the French texts accompanying the numbers were the directions to follow and not points of interest as we’d expected.

Following a track towards Vaire-sous-Corbie

In the corner of a field of mangelwurzels was a patch of a plant we’d never seen before.  When Karen investigated it later, she found it was jimson weed, an invasive and hallucinogenic plant native to the southern United States.  Apparently, it’s very popular with the youth of today over there but can have bad side effects.

Modern day peyote, the mescalin providing cactus?

We did find our first dropped walnuts of the season, albeit only three.  We have both been carrying a plastic bag in a pocket ready for the occasion, but it hardly seemed worth it for today’s harvest

The last few kilometres were back along the towpath where we did pass a couple of points of interest that we found for ourselves.  First, we saw a large house by the side of one lake and later found that the lake and property belonged to the abbey in Corbie.  Staff lived in the house and their main job was to breed and catch fish in the lake in order to feed the inhabitants of the abbey.  The second point of interest (for us) was a kilometre stone, only the third we’ve seen on this canal.

73km from the original eastern end of the canal at St Simon

I know you could argue that our points of interest are not much better than having none at all but at least it taught us to read the information contained in a guide before setting out.

Well, that’s two days we’ve not moved but we have to tomorrow otherwise we’ll be in breach of the three-day mooring limit.  We’ve still got to pop into Corbie to do the town trail but will probably move on before lunch.